Altitude not repeating on saved hyperlapse waypoint mission - Air 3

[davidarmenb]

This is concerning. I haven’t yet repeated saved Hyperlapse waypoints with my Air 3 but I assume my Air 3 is going to behave the same way because, for some reason, DJI apparently decided to implement Hyperlapse Waypoints in a hugely different way than the regular Waypoints. I, too, had plans of taking Hyperlapses from the same location at different times of day etc.

I guess the one workaround that I can think of off the top of my head is using the regular Waypoints feature on the Mavic 3 Pro/Mini 4 Pro/Air 3 to set up the shot and then instead of recording a video, putting it in photo mode and using the timer feature to take shots at an interval of you choice.

The issue here is if there are pilots who rely on the built-in Hyperlapse video creation feature, this will not give them a video right out of the drone. They will need to make the video themselves.

However, for those pilots who create their Timelapses/Hyperlapses using dedicated software, it will not be an issue at all. For example, I’ve been using Lightroom Classic for raw photo development and a powerful Timelapse creation tool called LRTimelapse Pro, written by the talented German photographer and programmer Gunther Wegner, to create all my Timelapses and Hyperlapses. It works incredibly well and has tons of features, including smoothing out the exposure of all the photos to create a smoother video (deflicker).

 

[KenG]

This is concerning. I haven’t yet repeated saved Hyperlapse waypoints with my Air 3 but I assume my Air 3 is going to behave the same way because, for some reason, DJI apparently decided to implement Hyperlapse Waypoints in a hugely different way than the regular Waypoints. I, too, had plans of taking Hyperlapses from the same location at different times of day etc.

I guess the one workaround that I can think of off the top of my head is using the regular Waypoints feature on the Mavic 3 Pro/Mini 4 Pro/Air 3 to set up the shot and then instead of recording a video, putting it in photo mode and using the timer feature to take shots at an interval of you choice.

The issue here is if there are pilots who rely on the built-in Hyperlapse video creation feature, this will not give them a video right out of the drone. They will need to make the video themselves.

However, for those pilots who create their Timelapses/Hyperlapses using dedicated software, it will not be an issue at all. For example, I’ve been using Lightroom Classic for raw photo development and a powerful Timelapse creation tool called LRTimelapse Pro, written by the talented German photographer and programmer Gunther Wegner, to create all my Timelapses and Hyperlapses. It works incredibly well and has tons of features, including smoothing out the exposure of all the photos to create a smoother video (deflicker).

I encourage you to contact DJI ([email protected]) and share with them your issues concerning altitude not repeating. As more of us contact them about this issue the more likely they will respond with a fix. What is the point of being able to save a mission if the next time you fly the saved mission it flys 150 feet lower and crashes?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Probably the difference between hyperlapse waypoint and a regular waypoint mission, where the altitude is saved.

Do you have some kind of knowledge of this, or was that just a speculative statement?

 

[davidarmenb]

Do you have some kind of knowledge of this, or was that just a speculative statement?

I believe he may be referring to the fact that when creating regular waypoints, the pilot has much more control over the planning of the flight path, including setting the height above take-off point globally and via individual waypoints, whereas with the hyperlapse waypoints tool, it is a much more simplified waypoint creator and does not include an option for setting the altitude (one also cannot create a flight path before the flight, like with the regular waypoint creation tool).
In addition to not being able to select an altitude, users are reporting that after creating the hyperlapse waypoint path by flying around and adding waypoints, the altitude is not consistent in subsequent flights of that same hyperlapse waypint path.
We need more data but these preliminary reports seem to imply that the hyperlapse waypoint creator is indeed programmed differently than the regular waypoint creator and it implements the height in a different way than regular waypoints. Some users are speculating that perhaps it uses the barometric pressure sensor for setting hyperlapse waypoint height instead of using GNSS. This is still up for debate.

 

[KenG]

Continuing this saga, I managed to overcome my difficulties finding screen recordings ond getting them off of the controller.

After I was able to do that and send all of the evidence of altitude woes to them, DJI asked me to send them the aircraft.

Just received email from DJI. Remember they have my Air 3 they requested I return to them after I sent them video and screen recordings of aircraft not repeating altitudes from saved waypoint hyperlapse. Their findings are a new core board module is needed and they are replacing it under warranty to return to me within the next few days. Once I receive it and try a few flights, I will let everyone know.

 

[KenG]

Continuing this saga, I managed to overcome my difficulties finding screen recordings ond getting them off of the controller.

After I was able to do that and send all of the evidence of altitude woes to them, DJI asked me to send them the aircraft.

Just received email from DJI. Remember they have my Air 3 they requested I return to them after I sent them video and screen recordings of aircraft not repeating altitudes from saved waypoint hyperlapse. Their findings are a new core board module is needed and they are replacing it under warranty to return to me within the next few days. Once I receive it and try a few flights, I will let everyone know.

I promised I would get back to everyone on the outcome of this and at the moment this is leaving a very sour taste in my mouth with DJI. You may want to go back and read my original post (# 1) to see where all this started.

The Air 3 I now have with the new core board or the new Air 3 they sent me does the same thing. The first person I spoke with said they replaced the board and that's what the paperwork says but the second person said they sent a new drone. I really don't care. I just want the altitude to repeat when activating a previously saved mission or what good is or what purpose is having a saved mission?

After continuing to wrestle with DJI over the past weeks, I finally got tired of all of the hoops they were asking me to jump through to recalibrate and change this and change that and asked to speak with a senior engineer or manager about the issue because my Air 2 does not have this problem. Since I discovered the problem in February, I saved a waypoint hyperlapse mission on my Air 2 and have reflown it numerous times and it nails the altitude within 2 to 3 feet every time.

A fellow called me saying he was an engineering manager and told me they were aware of the problem and were working on it but had not yet resolved it. Huh? I asked how they resolved it on the Air 2 and he said the Air 3 was a different animal. He said they were hoping to possibly fix it with a future firmware upgrade. I asked how long for that? He said he didn't know because they hadn't resolved the problem. But I first started complaining about this 4 months ago in February. Did you know about it before that?

Sorry for the long post but this just Pi$$es me off to no end. I like the A3 because of the longer battery life and excellent low light camera for my late evening and night work but it needs to not miss the saved altitude by 100 to 200 feet for heaven's sake.

To me it's like buying a new model car of the one you already have and the manufacturer says it has a lot of new great features but one feature we weren't able to retain was the headlights don't work. We don't know why and we're working on it but they don't work and of course you don't find out about it until you buy it. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

I know there are quite a few Air 3 owners out there. If it matters to you and enough people complain to DJI they may just cut the BS and fix their screwup. And then again, maybe not.