Actions in Litchi missions

skywalker59 · May 12, 2018

Hi all
I tried to use Litchi missions, and it worked fine, except for the actions I programmed at some waypoints.

First time I planned a "Start recording" at my WP1 and "Stop recording" at my last WP...At the end of the mission, nothing on my SD card.

I then tried to put the first action "Start recording" on my WP2, the second action "stop recording" with no changes at the last WP...No more success, and still nothing on my SD card...

After that I repeated the mission, starting the recording manually when my drone (a Mavic Pro) was still connected to the remote controller...and surprise, at the end of the mission, when arriving at the last WP, it stopped the recording by it self, as programmed...and I had my film on my SD card...

So my question: Is there something special to do so that the action programmed on a specific WP starts? Does anybody already had this strange behaviour (not starting the first action, but when manually started, taking it in account and executing the seconf action if related to the first one)?

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks

Sorry for this quite basic english, but french pilots aren't very good with that...

lisadoc · May 12, 2018

skywalker59 said:
So my question: Is there something special to do so that the action programmed on a specific WP starts? Does anybody already had this strange behaviour (not starting the first action, but when manually started, taking it in account and executing the seconf action if related to the first one)?

It's either one of two things.

1) It sounds like you're out of range of your RC when performing the action. Litchi will not start a recording when out of range of your controller.

or

2) You have it set for curved turns. According to Litchi: "Waypoint actions are ignored when the mission "Path Mode" is "Curved Turns" as the aircraft will not stop at waypoints then."

I'm guessing the first, since you mentioned it did work when you started recording while in range.

laasmooi · May 13, 2018

I do waypoint missions in Litchi quite often.
Starting video at WP1 (with Gimbal Pitch Disabled or Focus POI, it doesn't matter) and the girl in the RC tells me "Recording Started". At the last WP the action is "Stop Recording". The recording stops and the girl again confirms the action.
I always use "Curved Turns" so from WP2 till the last WP it is not possible to add "Actions".
Never a problem and I'm afraid I can't give you any suggestion how to solve your problem.

skywalker59 · May 13, 2018

lisadoc said:
It's either one of two things.

1) It sounds like you're out of range of your RC when performing the action. Litchi will not start a recording when out of range of your controller.

or

2) You have it set for curved turns. According to Litchi: "Waypoint actions are ignored when the mission "Path Mode" is "Curved Turns" as the aircraft will not stop at waypoints then."

I'm guessing the first, since you mentioned it did work when you started recording while in range.

Thanks for your reply...But don't understand some strange behaviours in the Missions...
1) When starting a mission, the datas are sent to the drone (if I understood well what I read on that forum). All the datas for each waypoint are sent to the drone (altitude, speed, coordinates, heading, etc...So why is the action I asked him to execute at the WP is not also sent to the drone befor starting? Even if I loose the connection with the RC, the mission will go on and be executed totally, waypoint after waypoint, with the good parameters, untill the end...So why not the action I asked him to execute at a specific WP...?

2) I noticed that point concerning the "curved turns" and modified my mission so that the "start recording" was placed on a WP on a straight line and not in a curve like it was at the beginning..No change in the result...the recording didn't start anyway...

lisadoc · May 13, 2018

skywalker59 said:
1) When starting a mission, the datas are sent to the drone (if I understood well what I read on that forum). All the datas for each waypoint are sent to the drone (altitude, speed, coordinates, heading, etc...So why is the action I asked him to execute at the WP is not also sent to the drone befor starting? Even if I loose the connection with the RC, the mission will go on and be executed totally, waypoint after waypoint, with the good parameters, untill the end...So why not the action I asked him to execute at a specific WP...?

Litchi doesn't do a number of things when it is out of range. Yes, it does pre-program the waypoints and some other things when it sends the mission to the drone, but DJI prevents (I believe it is an issue with their SDK) other programs from modifying certain functions by 3rd party programs. I'm not sure exactly why this is but I can't believe the Litchi folks wouldn't be willing to allow a number of other features sent to the drone and performed while out of range.

Two critical options that aren't controlled while out of range are 1) aircraft speed and 2) gimbal angle. This means that once you're out of range, you better hope that your speed is fast enough (it keeps the same as its last speed) to complete the mission and return to in range of the RC (otherwise, it'll just stay on course, going too slow until it runs out of battery and needs to RTH or land). The same goes for camera angle. If you're pointed up at the horizon when you lost signal, and you were hoping to focus on something lower than that, you're out of luck (or vice versa). Frustrating. Took me quite a while to figure that one out.

I'm not exactly sure what prevents Litchi from programming those options in. You can ask them directly if you'd like. It would make their program all the more valuable and as such, I'm sure they aren't leaving those functions out of their own volition.

2) I noticed that point concerning the "curved turns" and modified my mission so that the "start recording" was placed on a WP on a straight line and not in a curve like it was at the beginning..No change in the result...the recording didn't start anyway...

Again, if you're out of range when you want to start recording, it won't do it. I have always solved this by starting the recording as soon as I take off. It's only an electronic file and doesn't take up much more space (then when you arrived at your location), and I can always trim off the unnecessary parts in post-production.

skywalker59 · May 13, 2018

lisadoc said:
Litchi doesn't do a number of things when it is out of range. Yes, it does pre-program the waypoints and some other things when it sends the mission to the drone, but DJI prevents (I believe it is an issue with their SDK) other programs from modifying certain functions by 3rd party programs. I'm not sure exactly why this is but I can't believe the Litchi folks wouldn't be willing to allow a number of other features sent to the drone and performed while out of range.

Two critical options that aren't controlled while out of range are 1) aircraft speed and 2) gimbal angle. This means that once you're out of range, you better hope that your speed is fast enough (it keeps the same as its last speed) to complete the mission and return to in range of the RC (otherwise, it'll just stay on course, going too slow until it runs out of battery and needs to RTH or land). The same goes for camera angle. If you're pointed up at the horizon when you lost signal, and you were hoping to focus on something lower than that, you're out of luck (or vice versa). Frustrating. Took me quite a while to figure that one out.

I'm not exactly sure what prevents Litchi from programming those options in. You can ask them directly if you'd like. It would make their program all the more valuable and as such, I'm sure they aren't leaving those functions out of their own volition.

Again, if you're out of range when you want to start recording, it won't do it. I have always solved this by starting the recording as soon as I take off. It's only an electronic file and doesn't take up much more space (then when you arrived at your location), and I can always trim off the unnecessary parts in post-production.

Thanks for this very complete and usefull answer. Litchi isn't very expansive about those specs (or limitations...depends on the point of view..). Your answer will certainly help me in better "programming" my missions..and also save my Mavic from landing anywhere out of battery..

KelloggKid · May 13, 2018

I'm having a similar issue. Just learning Litchi and set up a simple 4 WP mission with all 4 points being within 150 of home point. At each WP I set an action for the drone to pause there for 10 seconds and then take a picture of a defined POI. When it got to WP1 it did not turn toward the POI nor did it take a picture. At the other three WP's it turned toward the POI as expected but in no case did it ever take any pictures. Never more than 150' from RC and no loss of connectivity.

lisadoc · May 13, 2018

KelloggKid said:
I'm having a similar issue. Just learning Litchi and set up a simple 4 WP mission with all 4 points being within 150 of home point. At each WP I set an action for the drone to pause there for 10 seconds and then take a picture of a defined POI. When it got to WP1 it did not turn toward the POI nor did it take a picture. At the other three WP's it turned toward the POI as expected but in no case did it ever take any pictures. Never more than 150' from RC and no loss of connectivity.

Do you have it set for curved turns?

KelloggKid · May 13, 2018

Nope. All straight lines.

lisadoc · May 14, 2018

Share the link to your mission on the Mission Hub so we can take a look at it.

KelloggKid · May 14, 2018

Mission Hub - Litchi

I figured out why it wasn't taking pictures at the 4 WP's. I had auto record turned on. I thought auto record simply recorded my phones screen and saved the video to the phone. Apparently it actually uses the drones camera and ties it up, thus it wasn't able to take pictures.

All that said, when it gets to waypoint 1 it is not turning toward the POI which I still don't understand. At the other 3 waypoints it focuses on the POI as expected.