How do I get smooth gimbal movement from Litchi?

[JethroXP]

I am new to Litchi, went out yesterday for my first attempt at using Waypoints and Points of Interest. While I'm very excited about the possibilities, and really like their mission hub for offline mission planning, I was disappointed in the jerky gimbal movements, it wasn't smooth at all like I'd gotten used to from the DJI GO app. I'm assuming I did something wrong. I was using curved lines for movement, but maybe the cruise speed was too high? It was 17.9 mph in this example. Can someone take a look and offer some advice?

 

[parkgt]

Slower, more waypoints, set to interpolate all can help.

But you right; cinematic transitions are disappointing with Litchi. After several years with little improvement in this area if seems it is as good as it get with this app. That is why a lot of drone footage use cut scenes to get rid of the ungraceful transitions in gimbal pitch and yaw.

If you come from a 3dr Solo like some of us have it is especially noticed.

Here is an example of how one would hope transitions could be handled.

 

[marklyn]

There is a setting in the DJI Go app that sets how fast the gimbal moves. I set mine so that if I'm flying manually with Litchi the gimbal moves pretty slow and looks better.

 

[drone_video]

I think autopilot from hanger does a better job for waypoints. But it’s very complex and it’s best mode actually calculates and makes the stick movements for you. It’s not using the DJI API for that in one of the modes it has for way points. Also means in that mode you have to stay connected to the aircraft and if you try and repeat the movement it tends to not be as exact as the API DJI provides which is what litchi uses. Autopilot can do both versions of waypoints. I found it too complex so don’t use it anymore.

The tip about slowing down. Gimbal speed is a really good idea. That I think will solve the Jerky movement you are seeing in your video. I have only used litchi regularly on my inspire and it gets pretty smooth gimbal movements but I have tuned that gimbal. I find the mavic pro and air controllers to have a problem when it starts the gimbal movement and gives you that jerky movement you see. Setting the expo and speed for the gimbal movement may help you a great deal. I use 0.2 for the expo but will admit not tried anything complex on the mavic air.

Here is a sample video I have if you want to compare. The litchi part of the video is near the end. At about 01:50 I just watched this again and my movement is considerable Better that What you had experienced. Might be because of my expo setting and the gimbal speed. I assume yours is set at default ? That looks like the default jerky movement before I set my expo to 0.2

 

[JethroXP]

Nice video! Yes, my Drone is very new so all those things are still default. I didn't realize that setting them in the DJI App would carry over to other apps as well. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

 

[drone_video]

Nice video! Yes, my Drone is very new so all those things are still default. I didn't realize that setting them in the DJI App would carry over to other apps as well. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

We have Marklyn to thank for that. I didn’t know that either so I just learned learned that myself.

Thank you for the compliment on the video too! Hopefully the smoothness you are there carries over to your setup also. Litchi is not perfect but I think those settings Marklyn pointed out will help you. Love to hear back how it works out when you get a chance to try it.

 

[Storyline]

I have been very happy at the way Litchi handles the gimbal pitch changes in Interpolate mode. I have my gimbal movements at a much softer setting than default but was not sure if that helped in Litchi as the few missions I have flown have been at very slow speed.

Are we absolutely certain that both gimbal pitch speed and gimbal softness changes made using Go4 are respected by Litchi ? The reason I ask is that I have one video when at the first waypoint I had the gimbal set to Focus POI and it happened that it required the gimbal to move from the initial horizontal position to looking straight down. When I flew the mission it looks to me that it moved faster than I had the speed set at in Go4.

 

[Marshall1981]

There is a setting in the DJI Go app that sets how fast the gimbal moves. I set mine so that if I'm flying manually with Litchi the gimbal moves pretty slow and looks better.

Thx for the info.
Can u show us a video how it looks like? I am also unhappy with the smoothness in Litchi. It looks not realy cinelike.

Slower, more waypoints, set to interpolate all can help...

What is Interpolate doing? Whats the Diferent?

 

[haiiiner]

I have my gimbal movements at a much softer setting than default but was not sure if that helped in Litchi as the few missions I have flown have been at very slow speed.

Are we absolutely certain that both gimbal pitch speed and gimbal softness changes made using Go4 are respected by Litchi ?

The gimbal settings do not have any effect on the waypoint mode of Litchi. I just asked the superb Litchi support that answers within minutes.