Question about using Litchi

[Suhail78]

Question about using Litchi.......sorry it maybe considered a dumb Q by some.

If i'm flying a pre-planned mission, is it possible for me to have manual control over the heading, camera and gimble in flight?

for example, i'd like to plot a course, and then manually rotate the drone and take videos and pictures along the way in any direction while the craft is flying the plotted course?

 

[r62ewa]

I have not used Litchi to do this but I have done it using the Waypoints Intelligent Flight Mode in DJI Go. After you create your mission you can set it to 'Free' which means it travels to the waypoints but you have control over rotations and camera.

 

[Suhail78]

I have not used Litchi to do this but I have done it using the Waypoints Intelligent Flight Mode in DJI Go. After you create your mission you can set it to 'Free' which means it travels to the waypoints but you have control over rotations and camera.

Hey thanks for the response! I did read it was possible using the DJI Go app, so thats why i was wondering if this can also be done with Litchi

 

[r62ewa]

As Litchi seems to more diverse regarding Waypoint missions I'm sure it's possible but I'll have to let someone with Litchi experience chime in, I've only used it for panos a few times.

 

[Suhail78]

As Litchi seems to more diverse regarding Waypoint missions I'm sure it's possible but I'll have to let someone with Litchi experience chime in, I've only used it for panos a few times.

Thanks, appreciate your honesty. BTW, how did your panos come out? does it stitch the photos together for you, or do you have to use some other tool to do that? if so what tools do you use?

 

[r62ewa]

The panos were used to make one of those 'Little Planets', there is a whole thread here on them. You set it in Litchi and it flies up and takes all of the required photos for you.

I than used a free software called Image Composite Editor (ICE) by Microsoft. There are great instructions provided in that forum for creating the Planets but it does a great job for a free software.

 

[nhoover]

Manual yaw works great on Litchi Waypoint missions. It's great for shooting a complex route (using curved turns). Not sure about Go - why would anyone use that for waypoint flying anyway?. For anything serious you need to be able to plan it out in advance, save it, reload it, etc. Go is a toy compared to Litchi for waypoint flying.

 

[With The Birds]

Question about using Litchi.......sorry it maybe considered a dumb Q by some.

If i'm flying a pre-planned mission, is it possible for me to have manual control over the heading, camera and gimble in flight?

for example, i'd like to plot a course, and then manually rotate the drone and take videos and pictures along the way in any direction while the craft is flying the plotted course?

Autopilot from autoflight logic may appeal to you given your intended application. You can do what your proposing in litchi however you have significantly more control in autopilot.

 

[Tenly]

Manual yaw works great on Litchi Waypoint missions. It's great for shooting a complex route (using curved turns). Not sure about Go - why would anyone use that for waypoint flying anyway?. For anything serious you need to be able to plan it out in advance, save it, reload it, etc. Go is a toy compared to Litchi for waypoint flying.

Litchi is to DJI Go the same way that AutoPilot is to Litchi - at least as far as waypoint and follow missions are concerned.

In Autopilot, you set up your waypoints which define the path that the drone will fly. At each waypoint you can define the altitude and the speed and Autopilot automatically interpolates the difference between the 2 waypoints (previous and next) and will gradually ascend/descend and/or accelerate/decelerate so that upon arrival at the next waypoint, you are at the desired altitude and travelling at the desired speed.

The camera control is called a "focus strategy" and there are a plethora of options which can be used throughout the mission. You can place "focus points" anywhere on the map. They represent something that the camera can be aimed at and they can have an "altitude" whereas most other software assumes ground level. This would be useful if you wanted to focus on something like the torch on the Statue of Liberty or the steeple of a church. Each "focus point" comes with a matching "focus trigger" that is placed along your waypoint route and defines the point at which you want the camera to focus on that spot. On the focus trigger you can define whether to change focus abruptly to that spot - or to interpolate it gradually from the previous focus trigger. And that's just one option!

You can also lock the camera to point in a specific direction with a specific angle relative to North OR relative to the direction the drone is currently travelling (i.e. Always look 90 degrees to the left - useful when filming a shoreline), or you can tell it to just point forward to the next waypoint, or you can lock it onto yourself - or to another moving Phantom or to any moving target carrying an iOS device (via Airspaces) - or you can leave the camera in "joystick" mode and control it manually while the drone follows the waypoint mission. I think there's also a "touch" mode where the camera will respond to and focus on any point you touch on the screen and a mode where you can use your iPhone as a pointer and have the camera focused on whatever you point your iPhone at! You can even set up offsets - say for example you are following a boat that is towing a waterskiier. You can give someone in the boat an iPhone running the Airspace app (which sends its location data to the Phantom). You can set your focus strategy to say "keep the camera aimed at a location 20' BEHIND the boat". There are other options - but those are the ones I remember without having to refer to the documentation. The best part is that you don't have to pick just one. You can activate different focus strategies at different points along your waypoint route!

Litchi is a great step up from DJI Go and it's users love it - but when you come across a need which Litchi doesn't address. Look to AutoPilot - the most versatile software available for Phantom drones! (Copying @autoflightlogic in case they want to correct - or expand on anything I said)



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[ussvertigo]

You can set Litchi to manual heading and camera gimbal on manual to point any anything between your wp's. However, if you select custom heading with curve lines, and place poi's where you want camera to point you will get smoother turns, and leave camera gimbal tilt on manual (with gimbal settings needed for optimal smoothness) I plan on checking out AutoPilot after hearing good reviews like above.

 

[Tenly]

You can set Litchi to manual heading and camera gimbal on manual to point any anything between your wp's. However, if you select custom heading with curve lines, and place poi's where you want camera to point you will get smoother turns, and leave camera gimbal tilt on manual (with gimbal settings needed for optimal smoothness) I plan on checking out AutoPilot after hearing good reviews like above.

I think you'll like it - a lot. At first glance, the AutoPilot UI looks complicated - because there are so many options and some unique terminology - but once you jump into it, it starts to make sense very quickly - and they have an integrated "Flight School" within the app which links you to the documentation for the feature/option that you are trying to use - as well as a very useful YouTube tutorial.

If you want to see the interface and capabilities before pulling the trigger on the purchase, search YouTube for "AutoFlightLogic" and watch their first few tutorials. (For the best experience, watch them in the correct order)

If you do buy it and are having trouble figuring something out - post your question here and someone will try to help you out!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots