Planning a Mission

[Don Barar]

Hi All,

I am using Litchi and Autopilot to plan missions in advance. One of the issues I am having is understanding what will be in the field of view of the camera for a given altitude and gimbal pitch.

I am developing the impression that advance planning is almost valueless because there is no way know what the camera will actually from 2D maps. Seems to me you have to be onsite, fly the mission, and adjust the mission and camera pitch to get the correct view.

So what are others doing to plan missions in advance and also understanding what will be in field of view of the camera?

Don Barar

 

[gingerbloke]

There is a Google earth profile that displays the correct fov for the various DJI drones. I'll see if I can remember the link.

 

[Don Barar]

Hi Gb,

Thanks so much. Look forward to getting that URL.

Don

 

[gingerbloke]

 

[LarBear360]

There is a Google earth profile that displays the correct fov for the various DJI drones. I'll see if I can remember the link.

I saved this page but never tried it.

Plan your next photo shoot or drone trip with Google Earth

 

[Don Barar]

Gentlemen:

Thank you for these URLs. I am currently working my way though this information to do a better job planning missions. Armed with this information my on location efforts will be much more efficient.

Don Barar

 

[Lefty63]

Awesome! Gonna play around with this. Thanks for posting.

 

[Nightwolf]

A forum member came up with this. It's awesome. Run your mission in real time and make tweaks on the fly:
Check out this thread:
Virtual Litchi Mission

 

[Don Barar]

Hi All:

I have just flown my first full mission created with Google Earth, Litchi, and Virtual Litchi Mission. Everything that Virtual Mission Planning/Google Earth Pro showed would be in the field of view was actually what was in the camera. Works great!!!!!!!!! Thank you Gingerbloke and Nightwolf for your help.

Donald Barar

 

[Don Barar]

Hi All:

I did a quick video comparing the results of Google Earth Pro/Virtual Litchi Mission to actual footage from the Phantom 4 Pro. While not a perfect match, my impression is that GEP/VLM does an excellent job of providing the necessary information to frame your videos in advance. Here is the URL:

Maybe this will provide an incentive for others to try.

Don Barar

 

[Lefty63]

Hi All:

I did a quick video comparing the results of Google Earth Pro/Virtual Litchi Mission to actual footage from the Phantom 4 Pro. While not a perfect match, my impression is that GEP/VLM does an excellent job of providing the necessary information to frame your videos in advance. Here is the URL:

Maybe this will provide an incentive for others to try.

Don Barar

That's impressive. The two seem very well matched. I doubt I could program Litchi alone to do that. My area has a few obstacles that don't show on Google Earth. I'll try a less busy area sometime.

 

[Don Barar]

Hi Lefty:

I got involved with this virtualization process because I wanted to be able to follow a road or a stream and have it always appear in the center of the frame even through a turn. Almost impossible to set-up in Litchi alone in advance because the way points are not where you expect them to be. One has to fly the mission to add the points.

However, when you set-up your mission in Google Earth the way points you add are the aircrafts position/yaw/gimbal pitch to obtain the camera's field of view.

All of this is very impressive work by the Google team and Namirda who developed Virtual Litchi Mission.

Don Barar

 

[Russ43Phantom]

There is an app that many photographers use to plan shots. In the past it gave great info on sun/moon position so that framing and lighting can be assessed. NOW ... the new version has a drone planning feature that will directly address the question you just asked. Check it out. The app is called "PhotoPills".

 

[GVDD scout]

I would suggest looking at Drone Harmony. They have a waypoint planning option that I have used to great success. I have not used Litchi or Google Earth Pro, so I can't comment on their systems. Drone Harmony, Android only, in a nut shell has the ability for you to put the bird in the air, orient it to your liking set as a waypoint, and repeat. These points are then smoothed into a flight plan in the field in a matter of a minute or so. Great for times when the light is just right, and won't last long, so you have to shoot now.