Litchi Question: Waypoint Flight Dependability

Goldsaum82 · Jul 21, 2016

Just bought the Litchi App for iOS and absolutely love the interface. However, I did have a question/concern about sending it out on longer Waypoint missions.

Knowing that my P3 4K will lose signal a few minutes after it heads out on a waypoint mission, what happens if the app crashes and/or if for some reason it encounters a mission error? I realize these waypoint flights are executed using GPS coordinates, but am a bit nervous knowing that my bird will be well out of controller range on longer missions. Litchi's website says the RTH feature will not work on the Standard or 4K if this happens.

Have any of you had this happen, or does the app/flight go smoothly on each mission? If so, what did you do (aside from panic)? I'd hate to lose my bird midway through a mission that's 1+ miles away.

Goldsaum82 · Jul 21, 2016

Oops, I think I misread the website. This doesn't seem to apply to waypoint flights, just the other flight features. That said, hopefully all goes smoothly.

cfd701 · Jul 21, 2016

I am very new to this. I just downloaded the litchi app the other day. I have a standard and ran a mission with 11 waypoints. I lost contact with the bird and was a little worried but sure enough about 6 minutes later there she is. You will lose contact. It will come back. I've flow a few missions now and find it very accurate. Just some advice if you think the tallest point (tree/building) is 100 feet set your elevation twice what you think you need. Just in case!!!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Goldsaum82 · Jul 21, 2016

cfd701 said:
I am very new to this. I just downloaded the litchi app the other day. I have a standard and ran a mission with 11 waypoints. I lost contact with the bird and was a little worried but sure enough about 6 minutes later there she is. You will lose contact. It will come back. I've flow a few missions now and find it very accurate. Just some advice if you think the tallest point (tree/building) is 100 feet set your elevation twice what you think you need. Just in case!!!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Thanks, CFD701. I understand that the bird will stay on course (even when the transmitter signal is lost). What I'm wondering is what happens if the application crashes mid-flight/mission? Does the drone automatically continue its flightpath based on previous GPS inputs, or does it just freeze and hover until it gets a new command (either from the transmitter or Litchi)? It seems as if the app is pretty fluent and dependable, so hopefully this is never an issue that I have to worry about.

cfd701 · Jul 21, 2016

From what I understand everything is loaded to the bird. The app is not doing anything once the mission starts. As far as I know.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

lmayes69 · Jul 21, 2016

I can confirm that ay least on my phone litchi has crashed during way point mission nut mission completes this has happened 3 times.. Im actually about to contact support about the app crashing on my note 4 . Runs fine on yhe s4 with marshmallow.. Tried a 1 eay 3 mile run but kept getting error just remember that the distance between 2 way points can't be more than 2km

Sent from my SM-N910P using PhantomPilots mobile app

RDZDroneFlier · Jul 22, 2016

cfd701 said:
From what I understand everything is loaded to the bird. The app is not doing anything once the mission starts. As far as I know.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

My understanding as well

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using PhantomPilots mobile app

CRF319 · Jul 23, 2016

cfd701 said:
From what I understand everything is loaded to the bird. The app is not doing anything once the mission starts. As far as I know.

There are a few WP settings that need RC connection to get info from the app.
Copied from Help - Litchi
Waypoint Settings
Speed: The speed at which the aircraft will travel from this waypoint to the next. By default the aircraft will use the mission's cruising speed setting, but the cruising speed can be overriden for each waypoint using this setting.
Warning -This setting is only in effect when the aircraft is in range of the remote controller. If signal is lost during the mission, the aircraft will continue the mission at the speed it was travelling at when it lost signal.
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.