Hangar Autopilot User's Forum

[cirrusly]

Is there an active Hangar Autopilot user's forum or group? I have found their Facebook group, but there are very few posts on that group, and almost all of those are from Hangar and not from users exchanging information.

Litchi's Facebook group on the other hand is very active with a number of posts each day from users and I haven't seen anything directly from Litchi posted there.

 

[cirrusly]

Since it's been a full 24 hours since I posted this with no response at all from the most active Mavic's user's group on the Internet I'm going to assume that the answer is no.

That's a real shame.

Just my opinion....

Autopilot is an unbelievably powerful app with a very poor user interface, poor documentation (yes, the videos are good but they're outdated and incomplete) and if they don't get their act together quickly they're going to concede the market completely to Litchi. The total lack of user participation in ANY Autopilot forum is very telling. I sincerely hope that Hangar is committed to the AutoPilot program, but I honestly have my doubts. I really, really hope I'm wrong.

 

[jimapp]

I do hope you are wrong. Glitchy cannot and should not be compared as an equal to AutoPilot in my opinion. I have been using AP and FPV Camera routinely and should you have any questions or discussions on a feature if I can help am happy to do so.

 

[cirrusly]

I do hope you are wrong. Glitchy cannot and should not be compared as an equal to AutoPilot in my opinion. I have been using AP and FPV Camera routinely and should you have any questions or discussions on a feature if I can help am happy to do so.

Believe me, I hope I'm wrong as well!

Thanks!

 

[Hangar]

There is an active Facebook user group here. Alternatively, you can always email support at [email protected] and we will be happy to answer any of your questions.

 

[cirrusly]

There is an active Facebook user group here. Alternatively, you can always email support at [email protected] and we will be happy to answer any of your questions.

Yes, I'm aware that there is a Facebook group and I mentioned it and linked to it in my first post. However, as I said there that's definitely not an "active" group for Autopilot users. The vast majority of the posts are from Autopilot, not users, and the two most current posts are dated May 24th (over 2 weeks old) and April 17th (7 weeks old).

Approximately one post a month with virtually no user participation is not an active user's group. I was hoping to find a group where actual users were sharing ideas and discussing real world experience with Autopilot similar to the Litchi group. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that there is one.

As I said in my original post Autopilot is an extremely powerful app and I truly hope that you keep improving it to the point that it has the active user base that the Litchi app (which doesn't have anywhere near the features) does.

 

[Gimme the copperheads Dom]

I like it too. In fact, I was reluctant to buy it at first after all the UI horror stories I had read but you know what, it's actually quite easy to use. I have no idea why it has such a bad rep in terms of user friendliness. Could it be improved? Sure! But what couldn't? Also, I wouldn't want to use it in the field since mistakes might sneak in. But isn't that the beauty of it, being able to create crazy missions late at night when you can't fly anyway? The only thing is that I'm now scared to use it after the .800 update!

 

[Kenthedragon]

Hey guys, I've been using Autopilot since the end of January 17' and have 55 flights with it. I did my due diligence reading through the documentation and watching the dated video series several times as I explored all it had to offer.

My first issue was when DJI had the firmware update that broke it for a month or so. Engaged a follow mission at about 100 feet and it went crazy. Logs revealed it thrashed around and rolled somewhere in the 70 degree neighborhood, pitched 40, and yawed 20 in under a tenth of a second. When the fix finally happened I gave it a few days before testing it myself and all has been well since.

Second issue came up when I went to try out Airspace over a network connection. Just wouldn't work for me. I scoured the internet and came across a YouTube comment on the topic. The poster stated he had talked with Autopilot folks and this would be fixed with version 4.0. It's been a month and I haven't seen 4.0 come out yet.

Anyone have 4.0 or get Network Airspace to work?

 

[Gimme the copperheads Dom]

Hey guys, I've been using Autopilot since the end of January 17' and have 55 flights with it. I did my due diligence reading through the documentation and watching the dated video series several times as I explored all it had to offer.

My first issue was when DJI had the firmware update that broke it for a month or so. Engaged a follow mission at about 100 feet and it went crazy. Logs revealed it thrashed around and rolled somewhere in the 70 degree neighborhood, pitched 40, and yawed 20 in under a tenth of a second. When the fix finally happened I gave it a few days before testing it myself and all has been well since.

Second issue came up when I went to try out Airspace over a network connection. Just wouldn't work for me. I scoured the internet and came across a YouTube comment on the topic. The poster stated he had talked with Autopilot folks and this would be fixed with version 4.0. It's been a month and I haven't seen 4.0 come out yet.

Anyone have 4.0 or get Network Airspace to work?

I believe they're are about to release 4.1 beta. Apparently they are still testing it.

 

[Kenthedragon]

I believe they're are about to release 4.1 beta. Apparently they are still testing it.

You made me recall signing up for beta test invites so I checked my email and had one from April 25th I must have missed. I put in the code and it allowed to me to download 4.1 (I had been on 3.9). Network airspace seemed to link up to the wife's phone who has the current airspace app installed and I could see data transfer.

I will do a test flight later to confirm functionality. The DJI inspired flight dashboard looks like a nice improvement (not sure if this was introduced in the 4.0 beta already and I'm late to the party!)

My plan is to throw the wife's phone, if I can convince her, into my Avios Seafury and have the Mavic get some aerial formation shots. Next level will have my brothers Phantom taping my Mavic following the Seafury in a "behind the scenes" shot.

 

[Gimme the copperheads Dom]

Interesting. I had signed up too but other than the confirmation email saying I successfully subscribed, no code yet. Checked spam folder etc.

 

[jimapp]

Yes that seems familiar, wonder why not everyone who opted in can get the beta

 

[Gimme the copperheads Dom]

Is it possible one can't subscribe to the active beta testing stage? Is it some sort of cut off feature? I feel that people that had subscribed a while ago got the download straight away while others who signed up only recently for 4.1 specifically didn't get it. Meaning, as new beta subscribers we might only get a notification for future versions like 4.2 beta and later.

 

[Gimme the copperheads Dom]

So I got my link on Monday morning. Looks like they are reviewing each request and there just wasn't anybody working on the weekend. Seems to connect fine but I haven't taken it out yet.

 

[Kenthedragon]

I had one airspace network connection flight yesterday. I put the wife's phone in my pocket and took a bike ride around the block. Seemed to work well keeping me centered in the frame as it followed.

I set the C1 and C2 in settings to toggle camera/map and RC mode input but it didn't seem to work. I switched one to toggle the framing reticle and that one did work.

 

[Brojon]

Yes, I'm aware that there is a Facebook group and I mentioned it and linked to it in my first post. However, as I said there that's definitely not an "active" group for Autopilot users. The vast majority of the posts are from Autopilot, not users, and the two most current posts are dated May 24th (over 2 weeks old) and April 17th (7 weeks old).

Not to be snarky but maybe it works well enough there's no need for a lot of user chatter. Usually forums are full of questions about ill conceived/implemented or lacking features. It seems the useful posts about how to use a product effectively are now firmly in the domain of the Vbloggers.
I don't have AP but I'm looking at it - Litchi works well enough but has a few things that bug me like a pause at each waypoint - even if you don't go through it in curves mode.
I'm looking for something that can make the flight recording more fluid with automation to help get the results I want.

 

[jimapp]

I believe AP will not dissapoint!

 

[darana]

I love AP. I'm in the "what bad UI?" camp. Is it complex? Yeah, but it is a complex app. I bought Autopilot first and spent some time with it. Most of the forums seemed to talk about Autopilot and Litchi in the same breath, and I wanted to try the FPV mode, so I bought Litchi too. Litchi feels like a child's toy after using Autopilot. I get why Litchi might seem great vs the DJI Go 4 app (in some ways) but I actually think the Litchi UI is way worse than Autopilot!

Now if you're trying to use Autopilot on a phone, that's another story. Even on a phablet like my iPhone 7+ it is less than ideal, although for what it is I think it's a pretty reasonable compromise. But get to ipad mini and larger and it is a perfectly good ui.

Also, yes the video series are a bit dated in some respects. BUT their Flight School manual is one of the most impressive app manuals I've ever seen. It is up to date, comprehensive, and easy to read and parse, even supporting the "basic, intermediate, advanced" mode separation so you can read it multiple times, adding more complexity. Flight School - Hangar Personally I'd far prefer an up to date manual like this than videos, which are always going to be really difficult to keep updated short of a very large organization.

One last thought. I'm a tech power user ... it isn't often I come across an app or a tool that I can't immediately start using at its most complex settings. Even after dozens of flights I'm still putting pieces together and understanding deeper ways to combine the toolsets. AP to me is a real pro grade tool, and I think that this may also contribute to the different way the community might manifest online.

 

[jimapp]

Darana I totally agree. I really screwed up recently, just purchased a P4P + because I thought the screen was awesome; however..did not check the forums before doing so not realizing DJI has it locked down so no 3rd party apps allowed.Never mind that AP is not even available on Android anyways...watching some youtubes I even figured out how to install an app just to try...forcestopped all DJI software..launched the app just to see that the app is shut down and DJI relaunches...grrrr Im going to miss my ios and AP. At least I still have my Mavic...

 

[darana]

Wait, P4P doesn't allow 3rd party software?? That's terrible! Though my wallet thanks you I guess, as I have been drooling over the P4P. I love the Mavic but I want a far better camera for stills. I still drool over a drone to just lift my 5D3 up their.

Ugh, I'm really not liking the trend from DJI of locking things down. DJI Go 4 is fine, I still use it, but it is really quite rudimentary compared to AP once you start to learn it. Not to mention customer service, or lack thereof.

I'm really just waiting impatiently for someone to start competing on these features. It seems really quite shortsighted to be implementing these sort of restrictions ... the industry is SO young and the market exploding so fast that it wouldn't be that difficult for a new vendor to come in and completely knock DJI off their pedestal just as fast as they climbed up it. /soapbox