FPV Camera versus Litchi?

[BadgerDog]

The wife bought me a Phantom 4 for my 68th birthday ...

I'll be using it on my iPad Air 2...

Being a real life pilot, I'm into advanced flight planning before I actually get into the air. I see there are basically two decent apps regularly talked about here, but I wanted to get some feedback as to the pros and cons of each, before I pick one to exclusively learn and use with my Phantom 4.

Any feedback would be welcome ..

Regards,
Doug

 

[msinger]

It would be a good idea to learn how to use DJI GO first. You'll need to use it either way since none of the third party apps allow you to setup all of the settings and/or do the calibrations.

 

[Ramphex]

Agreed with Mike. After exploring all of its features is when you should try out something new. Make sure you do all the updates and calibrations with DJI GO.

 

[Ibmftw]

Okay, to start, cool wife!

Litchi works different to most other apps in that it is capable of autonomous flight, what this means is that you can plan a mission using Litchi where as your phantom 4 will fly on its own it doesn't matter if your RC loses connection, the phantom
will carry on with its mission where as most other apps will exploit the "RTH" (return to home) feature on radio loss. This means Litchi can fly out of radio reach, whilst recording, and get your phantom to places that would otherwise be impossible using your radio, the phantom will still record video on board even after radio loss that you can then view up on return. I think being a pilot you would really appreciate and enjoy Litchi, also Litchi does not have a steep learning curve it is feature rich but it is has a very intuitive design and you will get to grips with it very quickly. For the price Litchi is a no brainer think of it as a cheap accessory.
Feel free to ask me any questions you have, but clearly I am an advocate for Litchi because of its UNIQUE feature.

 

[band318]

The wife bought me a Phantom 4 for my 68th birthday ...

I'll be using it on my iPad Air 2...

Being a real life pilot, I'm into advanced flight planning before I actually get into the air. I see there are basically two decent apps regularly talked about here, but I wanted to get some feedback as to the pros and cons of each, before I pick one to exclusively learn and use with my Phantom 4.

Any feedback would be welcome ..

Regards,
Doug

Well.. if you are into advanced flight planning then you may consider Autopilot app..

A drawback of autopilot is if signal is lost on a pre-planned flight, then it will RTH. Litchi & FPV have an advantage - they will complete the planned mission..

 

[PVFlyer]

FPV Camera app and the P4

 

[never88winter]

Here some Tips...

Learn the FAA..GOV rules. On sUAS- model unmanned aircrafts.

Apply for certificate and put your FAA# on your drone.

You can be fined if you dont have one.

Look at website your limited to 400 feet in the air... Nice view!

Their raising it to 500 feet on new proposal and will change soon


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rhoffart]

I have both and really like pre-planning on Litchi with mission hub. If I'm out in the field and want to fly a quick route I like the step by step process that FPV camera offers.

I flew this on Saturday night ... Litchi at night

 

[BadgerDog]

Here some Tips...

Learn the FAA..GOV rules. On sUAS- model unmanned aircrafts.

Apply for certificate and put your FAA# on your drone.

You can be fined if you dont have one.

Thanks, but I'm up here in Canada north of Toronto and clear of any Class C airspace.

Regards
Doug

 

[BadgerDog]

Well.. if you are into advanced flight planning then you may consider Autopilot app..

A drawback of autopilot is if signal is lost on a pre-planned flight, then it will RTH. Litchi & FPV have an advantage - they will complete the planned mission..

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that one....

I viewed their video and read their web site.

They don't currently appear to support the Phantom 4 and I have to admit, I kind of like the option for the flight plan to complete autonomously when signal is lost, as opposed to RTH.

I guess the obvious risk is that something doesn't go to flight plan properly on a lost signal and the bird never comes home.

Appreciate your feedback....

Regards
Doug

 

[BadgerDog]

It would be a good idea to learn how to use DJI GO first. You'll need to use it either way since none of the third party apps allow you to setup all of the settings and/or do the calibrations.

Good idea and I'll certainly start my drone career with the basis tools provided....

Regards
Doug

 

[PVFlyer]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that one....

I viewed their video and read their web site.

They don't currently appear to support the Phantom 4 and I have to admit, I kind of like the option for the flight plan to complete autonomously when signal is lost, as opposed to RTH.

I guess the obvious risk is that something doesn't go to flight plan properly on a lost signal and the bird never comes home.

Appreciate your feedback....

Regards
Doug

In Safety and Usability section of FPV Camera:

• RC Signal Lost: This is a common issue likely due to RF interference, antenna orientation, far distance or signal blocked by obstacle. When RC signal lost or app crashed/quit accidentally during a mission, the mission will continue until reaching the last waypoint. If you set Finish action to RTH in Setup tab, aircraft will RTH and auto-landing. This is usually safer than aircraft RTH upon signal lost. Imagine, when you fly behind an obstacle (such as a tall building) blocking RF signal and the aircraft executing RTH, RTH altitude might not set high enough to avoid hitting the obstacle.

 

[Rob Ford]

The wife bought me a Phantom 4 for my 68th birthday ...

I'll be using it on my iPad Air 2...

Being a real life pilot, I'm into advanced flight planning before I actually get into the air. I see there are basically two decent apps regularly talked about here, but I wanted to get some feedback as to the pros and cons of each, before I pick one to exclusively learn and use with my Phantom 4.

Any feedback would be welcome ..

Regards,
Doug

I think the first line of your message should read....My darling beautiful wife bought me a Phantom 4 for my 68th birthday.
I use Litchi and find it easy to use (I'm 65), just be aware of any hills that you might encounter along your route. Height of waypoints is relative to your first position.

Good Luck

 

[BadgerDog]

Thanks partner.

Appreciate the tips.

 

[PVFlyer]

I think the first line of your message should read....My darling beautiful wife bought me a Phantom 4 for my 68th birthday.
I use Litchi and find it easy to use (I'm 65), just be aware of any hills that you might encounter along your route. Height of waypoints is relative to your first position.

Good Luck

FPV Camera has terrain elevation feature built-in the app. It shows Height (above home point) and AGL (Above Ground Level), as well as ground level elevation. Check this FPV Camera app and the P4

 

[theTastyCat]

Would like to bring this thread back - thinking about buying FPV Camera. I usually fly with DJI GO because I trust it the most for initial calibration and its telemetry (especially the radar) is the most intuitive. I use Litchi for automated missions, DronePan for panos and DroneDeploy/MapsMadeEasy for aerial mapping.

What would FPV Camera bring to the table that I don't already have covered somewhere? Seems like it does a good job of 3d modelling structures/landmarks and the AGL could be *really* handy, for instance next week when I fly off the side of a mountain - would be really great to know my AGL so I can stay under 400 without having to estimate.

What else does FPV Camera do that's cool and different than the others?

 

[Rlisch]

Use FPV Camara in our preventive building and property maintenance program at a large industrial facility (Inspire 1 V2) but also use it for personal use (P4)
Chose this App over others for its robust performance and safety.
In over 130 missions since April we had cero failures or crash-outs.
It is very simple and fast to program a mission and has lots of useful features.
Privatly I do all the P4 flying, including manual flights using FPV Camara as I love the available flight logs which are very complete.
Each new flying day I start up with DJI GO before the first flight just do do calibrations changing afterwards to the App.

 

[theTastyCat]

Thanks Rlisch! Just what I was looking for.

 

[PVFlyer]

New version of FPV Camera comes with an unique 3D Model feature. Read more FPV Camera

 

[erikgraham]

New version of FPV Camera comes with an unique 3D Model feature. Read more FPV Camera

Does FPV Camera have anything along the lines of a Cable Cam?

By that I mean fly to point "A", tilt and yaw to frame your shot, hit a button to record waypoint. Move to point B, frame your shot, click a button and move to C... and so on.

I see FPV Cam has got a waypoint mission planner, but I find Cable Cams to be super useful. The results are always better than planing from a map. After all, the real world looks a lot different than a map. When your up there "sculpting" your mission, you see things and can account for the sun and other conditions that just aren't possible in a standard map based mission planner.