Litchi Route Confirmed with VLM but Camera Angles Are All Wrong

[starchybananna]

Using Litchi to program a route for my Mavic Pro and cannot figure out why the camera angles are incorrect. The gimble pitch is not low enough so when the drone flies near the target, the camera doesn't aim down far enough to see the target. The drone is flying to the correct waypoints and I've made sure I'm not using curves so that the drone actually makes it to the waypoint. I've enabled gimble pitch with POI emphasis. I've also set the first waypoint at about 1 ft from the ground to get a baseline altitude.

As a latch ditch effort, I used VLM to watch the route and in VLM it works perfectly! In real life, however, the drone flies to the correct waypoints but the camera angle seems to be about 30 degrees high so I miss the shots. I've tried both video and photos and the results are the same. Any ideas on what else to check?

Tks.

 

[sar104]

Without seeing your Litchi mission profile it's difficult to say what might be the problem.

 

[starchybananna]

Without seeing your Litchi mission profile it's difficult to say what might be the problem.

So upload the CSV or KML file? I haven't done this before so I know its a noob question.

 

[Fly Dawg]

So upload the CSV or KML file?

Share the mission from the mission hub. Put a link here to that.

 

[starchybananna]

Share the mission from the mission hub. Put a link here to that.

Mission Hub - Litchi

Does that link work?
Also, it may be worth noting that the target is out of controller range due to trees in the area. According to the Litchi help menu, POI aiming can only be achieved while in range of the controller. Is this true?

 

[Fly Dawg]

POI aiming can only be achieved while in range of the controller. Is this true?

That is correct and you did not make the link sharable.

 

[starchybananna]

OK..let me try something myself before I waste your time. Realizing that i'm out of range will change how I set this up

 

[Fly Dawg]

Realizing that i'm out of range will change how I set this up

For informational purposes, any actions you set up at waypoints will not work when out of controller range.

 

[sar104]

For informational purposes, any actions you set up at waypoints will not work when out of controller range.

Are you sure about that? I haven't used Litchi beyond RC range, but that seems both self-defeating and an unnecessary constraint. All the necessary parameters are uploaded to the aircraft before the mission starts.

 

[Fly Dawg]

Are you sure about that?

I may have overstated, but I know that the gimbal angle parameters in the actions do not function when out of RC range. They either will remain at the last angle before signal loss or return to 0 degrees, depending on if you are using POI's or Interpolate.

 

[starchybananna]

I may have overstated, but I know that the gimbal angle parameters in the actions do not function when out of RC range. They either will remain at the last angle before signal loss or return to 0 degrees, depending on if you are using POI's or Interpolate.

I can confirm that setting up actions like "take a picture" do work out of range but for the life of me, I can't get this gimble to aim at anything. I honestly have tried every setting from POI, Interpolate and incrementally setting angles from 45 to 90 degrees manually (under interpolate) but I keep getting the same photo at the wrong angle. If what you say is true then that answers why I get this thing to aim. But if it is true, why Litchi why???? This seems like a major feature of the program that someone forgot about. What's the point of autonomous flight if it only half works?

 

[sar104]

I may have overstated, but I know that the gimbal angle parameters in the actions do not function when out of RC range. They either will remain at the last angle before signal loss or return to 0 degrees, depending on if you are using POI's or Interpolate.

That makes no sense for autonomous flight. Is that documented somewhere, or just something that hasn't been working for you? The gimbal pitch is computed when the mission is constructed, and uploaded with the waypoint and POI data. It should work just fine without the RC connected.

 

[Fly Dawg]

That makes no sense for autonomous flight

I agree, it makes no sense, but that is the way it works. Here is one thread on the topic, there are more:

Gimbal Pitch When Out Of Range

 

[starchybananna]

Well, I can confirm that I can program photos via the Mission Hub and the photos will be taken at the waypoints even if they are out of range but the gimble will not aim. So the trick is going to be determining and setting the angle of the gimble to match the desired photo before the drone gets out of range.

 

[sar104]

I agree, it makes no sense, but that is the way it works. Here is one thread on the topic, there are more:

Gimbal Pitch When Out Of Range

That seems conclusive. I'm surprised this hasn't been a more widely discussed issue. I guess I should check if my Mavics behave similarly.

 

[Fly Dawg]

I'm surprised this hasn't been a more widely discussed issue.

It has been at times. Personally I don't fly out of RC range with Litchi either, unless it is by pure accident when something blocks the signal, which has happened before.