Hi all,
First post here. Sorry if it's a long one!
I gave Pix4d Capture for iOS a try today. I love the idea of automated mapping, orthomosaics and 3d creation. I also very much appreciate that Pix4d is available FOC, albeit with few(er) export possibilities.
I tested this app with both iPhone 5 and iPad Mini 3. The entire experience was quite a disappointment and I felt that I was using an alpha version... Let me explain how it went!
First, I could not download the maps on either devices when Wifi was turned on and connected to the bird (P2v+ v3). Had to turn Wifi off, download the map, then reconnect the Wifi and the bird. I thought I had already cached the maps for this area so my guess is that the caching also does not work.
I decided to cover an area 100m by 100m with a slow speed of 2m/s for today's missions. Setting this was easy.
Next, while connected to the bird, all parameters on the right side were saying N/A. On the other hand, the connection was not written as unavailable. I guessed this meant the app could see the bird was connected so I went ahead and hit the Start Mission button. App showed the connection. The bird then fired up and quickly ascended to 5m for a short while, before ascending to 50m vertically. Similar, at the end of each mission, the Phantom would return to Homeport at 50m before descending vertically. This is especially important if you have trees in your area... Good move Pix4d: you're more clever than DJI in their own Ground Station on this one!
The bird then went through the mission with no apparent problem when purely looking at where the drone was going. Looking at the app on the other hand showed some recurring issues:
1) Wifi transmitter battery level was always 0, even with a full battery.
2) SD card was fine at the beginning of the missions but quickly showed "not inserted" once the mission was underway. I let the missions run through to completion despite this.
3) At the end of each mission, the app would say "Downloading pictures. This could take a few minutes...". Well, I waited up to 20 minutes for one of the missions and this screen never changed. The progression bar (if it is one indeed) would never move.
4) I could find between 18-20 pictures for each mission on the Phantom, but no .p4d file could be found anywhere (phone or bird). This pretty much renders the photographs useless...
There are 2 reasons why I write about this and whinging isn't one of them. First, I hope this could help Pix4d troubleshoot. Second, I'd like to hear about other users' experiences using this app. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I have indeed seen 3d clouds that other users have produced and was way impressed.
Please let us know how you are getting on with this app for iOS. Do also let us know if this works better with Android.
First post here. Sorry if it's a long one!
I gave Pix4d Capture for iOS a try today. I love the idea of automated mapping, orthomosaics and 3d creation. I also very much appreciate that Pix4d is available FOC, albeit with few(er) export possibilities.
I tested this app with both iPhone 5 and iPad Mini 3. The entire experience was quite a disappointment and I felt that I was using an alpha version... Let me explain how it went!
First, I could not download the maps on either devices when Wifi was turned on and connected to the bird (P2v+ v3). Had to turn Wifi off, download the map, then reconnect the Wifi and the bird. I thought I had already cached the maps for this area so my guess is that the caching also does not work.
I decided to cover an area 100m by 100m with a slow speed of 2m/s for today's missions. Setting this was easy.
Next, while connected to the bird, all parameters on the right side were saying N/A. On the other hand, the connection was not written as unavailable. I guessed this meant the app could see the bird was connected so I went ahead and hit the Start Mission button. App showed the connection. The bird then fired up and quickly ascended to 5m for a short while, before ascending to 50m vertically. Similar, at the end of each mission, the Phantom would return to Homeport at 50m before descending vertically. This is especially important if you have trees in your area... Good move Pix4d: you're more clever than DJI in their own Ground Station on this one!
The bird then went through the mission with no apparent problem when purely looking at where the drone was going. Looking at the app on the other hand showed some recurring issues:
1) Wifi transmitter battery level was always 0, even with a full battery.
2) SD card was fine at the beginning of the missions but quickly showed "not inserted" once the mission was underway. I let the missions run through to completion despite this.
3) At the end of each mission, the app would say "Downloading pictures. This could take a few minutes...". Well, I waited up to 20 minutes for one of the missions and this screen never changed. The progression bar (if it is one indeed) would never move.
4) I could find between 18-20 pictures for each mission on the Phantom, but no .p4d file could be found anywhere (phone or bird). This pretty much renders the photographs useless...
There are 2 reasons why I write about this and whinging isn't one of them. First, I hope this could help Pix4d troubleshoot. Second, I'd like to hear about other users' experiences using this app. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I have indeed seen 3d clouds that other users have produced and was way impressed.
Please let us know how you are getting on with this app for iOS. Do also let us know if this works better with Android.
.
