Litchi Altitude Settings

[dwallersv]

Tevek,

The previous question from dwallersv was about the climb rate not speed. Any observation on that?

Correct... the reason being designing waypoint density and placement to clear intermediate obstacles like trees. For example, a fixed AGL of 50 feet, with the second WP 100 feet higher than the first. The AC will have to climb 100 feet. Let's say there's a 75' tree on the flight path.

If Litchi flies the AC on a straight line path between the two waypoints, it will hit the tree. If instead it ascends at maximum rate (while maintaining mission groundspeed), it may clear the tree before it gets there. Or, ascends at WP 1 until it reaches WP2 altitude, then flies level there.

All of those methods accomplish the same thing. However, the first would seem the most logical for a cinematic application.

 

[tevek]

Tevek,

The previous question from dwallersv was about the climb rate not speed. Any observation on that?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Well my flight varies about 20 mtrs in height at one part of the mission and the little voice from the app suggests and my quick glances at the app screen seem to confirm that the drone flies at a constant speed. It certainly doesn't speed up or slow down at any of the waypoints ( I use curves so it doesn't stop).

 

[tevek]

Not on Android.

Draw a path, Litchi creates a set of waypoints and displays the batch dialog. The altitude slider is there, but not the reference dropdown. It IS there when you go back and select the points again then edit them with the edit button.

That's a shame, wonder why there would be a difference between platforms. But you can use the manual plot function, batch edit and then hit the new icon and change your WPs to relative to ground. Weird.

 

[TnHwyman]

This was posted Tuesday December 13 on FB by Litchi Beta iOS:
Coming Soon!

Good news! Litchi is going to allow us to set altitude relative to ground. This will allow us to create missions with a specified altitude above ground and will manage changes in elevation and adjust altitude automatically when flying missions. This feature will be based on ground elevation data from Google Earth which is not 100% accurate, but this should make our lives a bit easier. Currently it's on Android beta and will be coming soon to iOS beta. I will post more info as I receive it.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

Jogforfitness, The weather warmed up a bit here today and I charged up the batteries, controller, and my iPad Air. After all the upgrades on iOS and Litchi dark thirty was here and I plan to fly tomorrow. I read in the Litchi upgrade about this relative to ground feature while using the batch waypoint editing tool. Sitting here with p3p turned on and Litchi app engaged in my living room, I have setup a mission to fly up the ridge behind my residence. I got the complete mission set at 250 feet altitude, but I don't see any assurances Litchi is compensating above the initial waypoint 1 down here at base start point. Any pointers you can steer me toward would be appreciated.

 

[tevek]

Jogforfitness, The weather warmed up a bit here today and I charged up the batteries, controller, and my iPad Air. After all the upgrades on iOS and Litchi dark thirty was here and I plan to fly tomorrow. I read in the Litchi upgrade about this relative to ground feature while using the batch waypoint editing tool. Sitting here with p3p turned on and Litchi app engaged in my living room, I have setup a mission to fly up the ridge behind my residence. I got the complete mission set at 250 feet altitude, but I don't see any assurances Litchi is compensating above the initial waypoint 1 down here at base start point. Any pointers you can steer me toward would be appreciated.

Open up your mission.
Go the spanner icon at the top of the app, select the box thing at the bottom.
Hit select all.
Hit edit.
In the altitude at the top, hit home and at the bottom you will have the choice of either Home, Current or Ground.
Hit ground, apply this setting and you should see the relative changes applied in your mission. I compensate with my original WP height given the place where I fly and add another 20 mtrs to make up for any innacuracies with google maps.

 

[TnHwyman]

Open up your mission.
Go the spanner icon at the top of the app, select the box thing at the bottom.
Hit select all.
Hit edit.
In the altitude at the top, hit home and at the bottom you will have the choice of either Home, Current or Ground.
Hit ground, apply this setting and you should see the relative changes applied in your mission. I compensate with my original WP height given the place where I fly and add another 20 mtrs to make up for any innacuracies with google maps.

Many thanksTevek. It felt so go I got it nailed down in media.