Help ASAP please! Phantom 3 heading in relation to North (Azimuth reading)

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Hello,

I have a project with FAA, and one of their requirement is to get the azimuth reading of the phantom's heading in-relation to North. Also is it possible to have this display this reading on each pictures I take?

Thank you
 
Thank you T (Sagebrush), I'll look into it. BVC, I don't know the details of the project, but they want me to take pictures at certain coordinates, altitude and a 360 pictures with heading information.
 
Thank you T (Sagebrush), I'll look into it. BVC, I don't know the details of the project, but they want me to take pictures at certain coordinates, altitude and a 360 pictures with heading information.

Woooo... don't thank me yet, Dashcam Video will only do videos. However, you could stop the video in the app and grab a screenshot when it's in the location and heading.

T
 
Hehe, no I have to thank you for this, this software is awesome. I was hoping it would give me degrees information or in numbers in relation to the north (I wonder if this will be on the SRT file?), but this will do for now. :)
 
Now my question is, can I click the photo button to take pictures while the video record button is on?
 
Set the captions on and see if it gets you what you need.
 
Stupid question. Why can't you put the cam in 4K use the app.. Take screen grabs of the 4K video. Should be very good quality.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Stupid question. Why can't you put the cam in 4K use the app.. Take screen grabs of the 4K video. Should be very good quality.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Because 12megapixel picture is a lot better quality than grabing a frame in 4K. Not to mention it has RAW capability.
 
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Keep in mind that the GPS detects the heading, not the direction the aircraft is facing. However, in the Litchi app, you can set the heading and take pictures at preset waypoints. You'll have to correlate the finger-set waypoints on your Letchi's aerial-photo map with coordinates somehow.

T
 
Keep in mind that the GPS detects the heading, not the direction the aircraft is facing. However, in the Litchi app, you can set the heading and take pictures at preset waypoints. You'll have to correlate the finger-set waypoints on your Letchi's aerial-photo map with coordinates somehow.

T
Wow, that's good to know. I hope it's not the case for the dashcam reviewer, because we're just launching at a specific coordinate vertically & just panning 360 degrees. Thanks Sage.
 
Keep in mind that the GPS detects the heading, not the direction the aircraft is facing. However, in the Litchi app, you can set the heading and take pictures at preset waypoints. You'll have to correlate the finger-set waypoints on your Letchi's aerial-photo map with coordinates somehow.

T
Sage you are right, it doesn't know where the front is, whatever direction the quad is going whether it's left right or back it thinks that's the heading. Bummer, this wont work. :-(
 
In my flytrex log, there is a data column called "compass_heading(degrees)" which I believe is supposed to give the direction the craft is pointing in degrees, regardless of the direction it's moving. It works great if I'm pointing North. For example, if I'm heading exactly north and pointing exactly north, heading is around 360. If I go backwards and head south pointing north, heading is around 360. It's very accurate. But for some reason, if I rotate around and I'm pointing south heading south, it tends to show a 30 degree tilt to the right. In other words, it shows around 210 where it should say 180. I haven't figured out why. You might think I have a bad compass calibration, but the triangle on my FPV screen shows my craft is pointing perfectly south - which it is.

The other problem is, I don't think P3's are completely compatible with the flytrex device.
 
Try it with Litchi using a Point of Interest set at the heading you want to photograph (you might have to work out this spot on Google Earth and then extrapolate it to the app).

Let me know how you end up pulling this task off.

T
 
I agree - it seems Litchi is the way to go.

Hello,

I have a project with FAA, and one of their requirement is to get the azimuth reading of the phantom's heading in-relation to North. Also is it possible to have this display this reading on each pictures I take?

Thank you
Thank you T (Sagebrush), I'll look into it. BVC, I don't know the details of the project, but they want me to take pictures at certain coordinates, altitude and a 360 pictures with heading information.

It would be helpful if you knew exactly what they wanted. Do they want four pics going around? Eight? Sixteen? It would be a lot simpler if the info you needed would be displayed on the FPV screen as you shoot, but I don't think a P3 does that. Litch doesn't. Maybe some other drone does? I don't know. Let's say you're forced to use a P3.

Here's an idea. Maybe not a good one.

Make precise waypoints missions in advance using the flylitchi site and download them to your device. The flylitchi site shows the GPS coordinates for your waypoints, so you can fairly easily find the exact spot you need that way.

To get your first photo, you could set three way points at the required altitude in line with one of the required GPS coordinates. Let's say the first photo will be a 360 degree photo showing due North. So the first line would be S-N. As your waypoints increased from 1 to 2 to 3 the first GPS number in the coordinates shown would decrease as it moves north but the second number in the coordinates would stay roughly the same). The middle waypoint would be the exact coordinate that the photo requires. As the aircraft approaches and pauses at the 2nd (exact) coordinate, you plan to snap your photo(s). The aircraft will continue to move a bit, and the directional heading might change a bit as the software pulls the aircraft back, but you know the nose heading is exactly what it was just prior to arriving at the 2nd way point. The nose heading will be perfect.

Repeat for all the other required photos. N-S will give you the 180 photo. E-W will give you the 270 photo. W-E will give you the 90 photo. Etc.

Now go to the field and let it fly. Take your photos.

When you're finally done, look at your Litchi log to get all the info you need and manually overlay it onto each photo. The Litchi log would include GPS coordinates, altitude, and the directional heading info which you will use as the required nose heading.

The process will be a PITA no doubt.
 
Hi guys, thank you for all your ideas and help, I really appreciate it. Sage & Mark, I'll try your ideas if dashware doesn't work. I know DJI has the accurate heading information because the radar on the bottom left is very accurate, and the flight records have all the information as well. After researching last night, I can tell you that it's not on .DAT & not on the .SRT(Used by dashcam) files, but it's on the Flight records .TXT file. I can then use this record to overlay it using the dashware.net. Dashware.net has a lot of gauges that you can use, pretty awesome stuffs. See video below, I'll give more feedback once I install the software on a Windows PC, which I don't have.

How-to
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