Virtual Litchi Mission

[namirda]

Hi Phantom Pilots,

There is a growing thread on the MavicPilots forum entitled "Virtual Litchi Mission" which you may be interested in.

"Virtual Litchi Mission" or VLM is a (free!) PC utility which reads a csv file exported from Litchi and converts it to a "Virtual Mission" which you can then fly in Google Earth. This "Virtual Mission" includes the heading and gimbal settings from Litchi and so the result is very similar to the real mission which you will eventually get when you fly your drone. You can fly your Litchi Mission without even getting out of your armchair!

VLM is useful to check that there are no erroneous parameters in your Litchi Mission and to check that the camera ‘sees’ what you want it to see at each waypoint. It has saved me several wasted flights with my Mavic.

I originally introduced the utility on the MavicPilots forum because I have a Mavic - but of course it should be equally useful for Phantom pilots.

VLM is a standalone win10 executable which requires no installation - the latest version is attached to this post.

The user guide is reasonably complete and can found under the "Help" tab.

You will find the original MavicPilots thread here - Virtual Litchi Mission

Please give VLM a try and get back to me with problems or compliments...!

 

[With The Birds]

That looks very useful- thank you for sharing.

I do like the mission preview in autopilot which allows you to see the camera triggers and other actions pre flight. It doesn’t help with set elevations and terrain however.

 

[Jayfdee]

Very interesting, works OK, thanks.

 

[darrell2]

why dose it tell me it has a virus

 

[gingerbloke]

I get a virus warning (MSE on Win7)

 

[darrell2]

I’m on win 10

 

[Jayfdee]

I’m on win 10

Works ok for me on win 10, just scanned the exe with malwarebytes, nothing detcted.
It works OK, but I will probably never use it, just tried it for fun.

 

[canislupus]

I would like to say thanks for that, I think it is very good.

 

[matti]

Can't get VLM 1.0.4 to work in Windows 10 (tried also in Windows 8). Installed Google Earth Pro (logged in and set its language to U.S.english, just in case). Logged in to Litchi Mission Hub, opened my own as well as few other missions and exported them as .csv to /Downloads, opened VLM and set it to to watch /Downloads, set it to P3P etc (log file below). Rebooted and tried again.

But the .csv is not deleted and no new entry in Google Earth Pro's Temporary Places. No Diagnostics folder in GE. "Update GE" is also grayed out.

Am I missing something obvious?

7.2.2018 12.09.45 - Units set to Metric
7.2.2018 12.09.45 - Drone type set to DJI Phantom 3
7.2.2018 12.09.45 - Found Google Earth Pro - OK
7.2.2018 12.09.45 - Watch Folder is C:\Users\xxxx\Downloads - OK

 

[matti]

OK, I got VLM 1.0.5 to work. Not sure what did it (I now copied the newer version to the Program Files instead of the Desktop and agreed to a Windows security prompt) but now VLM automatically looks for the .csv, knows about GE and sends info to GE. It also nags if the Windows locale is not correct for the decimal separator (period instead of comma).

Very useful because I'm always unsure how near or how far the mission should go so that buildings and other objects are shown as desired from various altitudes. The simulation seems to be on the same ballpark compared to the real mission although GE can't use exactly the same horizontal and vertical dimensions as the AC. I guess the horizontal view is about the same as in P3P's 16:9 video (with the whole 4:3 sensor the diagonal angle is 94°)?

Currently Litchi does not export "the next waypoint" heading info so the heading must be manually inserted.

The Mavic forum thread mentioned in the OP has more info. Thanks.

 

[elsxxp]

I followed all the steps, but still nothing. VLM Log tells me that the csv file is detected, mission sent to Google Earth, etc. Google Earth opens, I can see the Flight path and Virtual mission and that's it. GE doesn't zoom to the flight path. I have VLM v1.0.0, not sure if this is the latest and/or where to find an update. I am using Win10, Google Chrome.
Hope you help me get it to work.

 

[namirda]

I followed all the steps, but still nothing. VLM Log tells me that the csv file is detected, mission sent to Google Earth, etc. Google Earth opens, I can see the Flight path and Virtual mission and that's it. GE doesn't zoom to the flight path. I have VLM v1.0.0, not sure if this is the latest and/or where to find an update. I am using Win10, Google Chrome.
Hope you help me get it to work.

Hi,

You will find version 2.0 in post #138 of this thread in Mavicpilots Virtual Litchi Mission - there are quite a lot of improvements so well worth installing the newer version.

There is a reasonably complete help file provided with the app which should give you all the info you need to get it running.

If you can't get it to work then let me know.

N

 

[elsxxp]

Hi,

You will find version 2.0 in post #138 of this thread in Mavicpilots Virtual Litchi Mission - there are quite a lot of improvements so well worth installing the newer version.

There is a reasonably complete help file provided with the app which should give you all the info you need to get it running.

If you can't get it to work then let me know.

N

Hi Namirda,

Everything works fine now. Thanks for your help!

 

[Timhughes1963]

Love the app. Querry? I'm trying to use the app to make sure I have the settings right to have the Phantom 3 Advanced stop at a waypoint and take a picture. The drone is supposed to stop for 180s, tilt downwards and take a picture. While using the app, the drone doesn't stop for the total of 180s, it's more like 1 sec. then flies to the next waypoint. Obviously, it will not show me if it takes a picture but is it supposed to stay for the full amount of time? I think I have all the other settings correct. I have the drone go to the location, stop, take a picture and come right back. Curves are turned off, just straight lines, both in the settings as well as the waypoint settings.
Thanks in Advance

 

[Sanje]

Namirda, this app is just fantastic. Thanks very much !

 

[namirda]

Love the app. Querry? I'm trying to use the app to make sure I have the settings right to have the Phantom 3 Advanced stop at a waypoint and take a picture. The drone is supposed to stop for 180s, tilt downwards and take a picture. While using the app, the drone doesn't stop for the total of 180s, it's more like 1 sec. then flies to the next waypoint. Obviously, it will not show me if it takes a picture but is it supposed to stay for the full amount of time? I think I have all the other settings correct. I have the drone go to the location, stop, take a picture and come right back. Curves are turned off, just straight lines, both in the settings as well as the waypoint settings.
Thanks in Advance

Sorry Tim - I missed your post.

No, sorry, VLM does not pause at the waypoints - apart from sometimes a small stagger due to compute requirements.

That's something I will try to introduce in the next release.

Thanks

N

 

[namirda]

Namirda, this app is just fantastic. Thanks very much !

Hi Sanje,

You're very welcome. I have the feeling that not many people on PhantomPilots are using VLM so please spread the word if you see a post where someone could possibly benefit from it.

Did you notice that VLM V2.1.0 is available? The download link on the first post of the mavicpilots thread.

Thanks

N

 

[darrell2]

How do you up date when you already have it do you have to delete it and get the new one or what.

 

[Keith Mitchell]

I just heard about this app today while posting on another Litchi thread here in PhantomPilots. Downloaded it, tried it, and love it! This app will be VERY useful for testing headings, heading changes and gimbal pitch (in addition to the altitude check we can do just by exporting to Google Earth) so we can really see what the camera will see before going out to the field and flying a mission. I'm sure it will save me from having to re-fly missions that weren't set up just right. You did a great job, Namirda, and I really appreciate you sharing the app for free.

 

[umanbean]

@namirda

I'd like to add my heartfelt 'Thank you' also!

Months ago, I tried v1.x and it didn't work for me so I forgot about it... but when I saw you had a v2.x out, something just told me it was going to work for me this time.

It did, and it's great! To be able to see heading changes and gimbal angles in advance is a HUGE help! And the Altitude/Elevation graph, and ability to open the Mission Hub directly in VLM is also... wow!

Hope you don't mind if I put this direct link to your dropbox download page for Virtual Litchi Mission v2.1.0...