Flying an extreme Litchi waypoint program.

[cheddarman]

Is there a map site where you can click and get the elevation at that point? It would help in preplanning Litchi missions using the Hub program for an area you are not familiar with.

In Google Earth, if you hover your mouse over a position, at the bottom it gives you the coordinates and the elevation of that point!

 

[cheddarman]

After another couple of Waypoint practice flights yesterday I used up the battery with a Follow Me. I was surprised to find the drone going all over the place but keeping me almost central in the camera. I thought it was supposed to "Follow Me"!

Speeded up video here......

Might make you dizzy!!

 

[The Springs]

I'm interested to know if GE gave you the right elevation .Do you know the correct elevation for the beacon The best I could find off a topo map was 248m above sea level.
I have only tried the follow me function once .It doesn't work like you are towng a water skier .
When you start you have dialed in a fixed position for the drone relative to you (your device) say 20 m high 10m to the left .So it is always trying to maintain this position .If you turn 180 deg it will fly directly the new position (unlike the water skier) We found that it will do it at speed and not always maintain the height. So good for following in one direction but otherwise should be called crash me mode .

 

[cheddarman]

According to OS it is 243.2 mt. (I presume above sea level) but GE says 235 mt. - 8 meter difference - 26feet!!!

? I have no intention of using follow me, just thought I'd try it in a big, open field.

 

[tribar]

First place to look is the Litchi user-guide:

Help - Litchi

Litchi's manual. Find information on how to use Litchi.

flylitchi.com

 

[joeruby]

Just curious, being a newbie to Litchi..........

Where is the waypoint program information stored, in the AC or the RC, for example:

If I program a Litchi Waypoint course and one of the points is outside the control range of the RC, will the AC continue out to that point using just its GPS and then come back again or, when it got outside the RC range, would it just return to home?

Hi Cheddarman,
I have flown hundreds of Litchi missions over several years with my P3P and my Mavic 2 Pro, every one has been successful. I believe that most of the Litchi mission data is stored on the AC like the Lat/Long and altitude above the ground if you choose "above the ground" during programming. However it needs RC connection for camera pitch and POI heading to operate properly. That is why I choose to set the camera pitch angle manually after the start of the mission. It will then hold that pitch angle during RC loss. I think it may need RC contact for camera (AC) heading for POI missions. I would sure like more discussion detail on this topic of what does not work like you would expect during a Litchi mission when RC contact is lost. I am also 83 years old and really enjoying Litchi. I just broke my right hip 7 days ago.

Also use Litchi Mission Hub to program your missions.

However my AC's have always followed my planned mission in both altitude above the ground and in flight path with or without RC contact loss. I always test fly my missions with VLM or Chrome VLM to make sure I am not going to crash into the side of a mountain in advance. If you go up higher on the side of a mountain, still staying within 400 feet of the ground, you need set the AC max height to 500 meters or 1640 feet above take off.
Be sure and check for ground clearance between waypoints too. Use VLM or Chrome ext VLM

I hope this helps.

From the manual:
Waypoint Gimbal Pitch

Litchi can control the gimbal pitch automatically during the mission, as long as the aircraft is within range of the remote controller. To specify how the gimbal pitch should be controlled, each waypoint has a Gimbal Pitch setting which can be one of the following:

 

[The Springs]

The heading will change to face the relevant POI but the pitch of the camera will stay at what it was when you lost contact with the controller .
Try putting a poi right on/under your flight path it have an interesting effect.

 

[joeruby]

The heading will change to face the relevant POI but the pitch of the camera will stay at what it was when you lost contact with the controller .
Try putting a poi right on/under your flight path it have an interesting effect.

Thank you very much Springs. Is camera pitch the only parameter that does not respond as one would expect with loss of RC on a Litchi mission? When I ran into the pitch problem I also had a heading problem, but then later I found that I had a programming error and thus suspected, but never verified that AC heading always worked correctly as programed.

Can you explain why camera pitch doesn't respond as programmed with loss of RC contact to the AC? I guess it would depend where (in the AC or in the RC) the actual in-flight pitch instantaneous calculation is performed. Why does the AC need to be connected to the RC in order to calculate the varying camera pitch angel during flight for a POI?

I did a POI almost directly below the AC path while flying over a cliff edge once. I turned out great! Thanks for that tip too.

 

[tribar]

Gimbal pitch & Flight speed changes need a connection to the controller AND smart device.
Gimbal pitch (interpolate) calculations are performed realtime by the smart device.
As regards to flight speed changes, in my opinion this a shortcoming in the SDK.

 

[joeruby]

Gimbal pitch & Flight speed changes need a connection to the controller AND smart device.
Gimbal pitch (interpolate) calculations are performed realtime by the smart device.
As regards to flight speed changes, in my opinion this a shortcoming in the SDK.

Thanks tribar. That is the answer I was looking for. Yes it is a shortcomings from DJI. Both (gimbal pitch changes and flight speed changes) should have been calculated in the AC. Maybe they didn't have enough processor speed in the P3P, but I was hoping that by the M2P the problem would be solved. Oh well it is a bug we all can work around. Thanks a lot for the information.
Joe
KC7GHT

 

[FLM]

Um, not very helpful, so where would you suggest I look to learn? In my 80+ years I have found that the best way to learn is to try and learn from any mistakes along the way. I have flown several Waypoint missions around some large fields in the area with no problems encountered.
My query was that, even after a couple of years drone flying I'm not sure how it responds to a rising terrain. Does it maintain the set height or does it follow the terrain below it. The built in sensors will not be operational at 300ft so does the GPS maintain height as well as position.

It will stay at the height you programmed it to fly. You will need to add waypoints along the rising hill with higher waypoint heights along the hill until it clears. Otherwise it will stay the programmed path and using the joystick to to make it climb is of no use while in waypoint mode. I know, I crashed a drone that way.