Any way to repeat a position in the air multiple times

[Babaganoosh]

I'm part of a lawn care group (another hobby) and my buddy and I both have dji drones. I have a Mavic Air and he has a Mavic Pro. We want to take a picture from the same point in the airspace every few days to eventually put them together and make a time lapse video.

Would Litchi be required for this or is there a way to do it thru dji go? We are both pretty new to all this so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
B

 

[Thomas B]

Likely you’ll need a post processing app to let you keep the view constant since the drone will Be at different relative locations. Hopefully some of the photography gurus here wil chime in.

 

[brett8883]

I'm part of a lawn care group (another hobby) and my buddy and I both have dji drones. I have a Mavic Air and he has a Mavic Pro. We want to take a picture from the same point in the airspace every few days to eventually put them together and make a time lapse video.

Would Litchi be required for this or is there a way to do it thru dji go? We are both pretty new to all this so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
B

I don’t believe there’s a way to share a waypoint mission in DJI Go 4.

Could you both just fly to a point and record your own waypoints? Or find something on the ground to use as a landmark? Or walk under the place you want to take the picture and drop a pin in Google maps which you can share with the other person?

Litchi would be the most technical and easiest way to do this and the truth is Litchi has so many benefits over DJI Go you’ll probably be getting it and some point anyway especially if you will be doing other jobs like this.

 

[Shon]

If you have a landmark, Like a tree, you can use grid-lines to help you line up the landmark exactly where you want it. in Post production, you can further line up objects on the x and y access or zoom in closer as needed.

A free version of software that would allow you to do this is Davinci Resolve 15 by Black Magic. It is a full-featured video editing, color grading and sound editing software. It has a high learning curve, but once you get the feel of it, and watch a few videos on YouTube...you will be good to go.

The pros make stuff like this look easy. honestly...it would probably take years of practice to get it to look like the camera stayed exactly in the same position the entire time...but I think you could do a "good enough" version with just a bit of practice... You might even try it with the drone filming an object from the ground at first...just so you will have a better idea how to line up your shots in the air.

Programs like Litchi (I've never used it) might make a specific GPS waypoint easier to locate for both drones...but it still isn't going to be exact... and you will still have to do post processing in order to line things up. You might have an easier time locating a specific crack in the asphalt or sidewalk (x marks the spot) for your launch point and a specific orientation for your drone when launching, and not changing the yaw of the drone... share the exact altitude with the other pilot. You might find that doing it this way, while not exact...is going to get you about as close as GPS might approximate.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I don’t believe there’s a way to share a waypoint mission in DJI Go 4.

Could you both just fly to a point and record your own waypoints? Or find something on the ground to use as a landmark? Or walk under the place you want to take the picture and drop a pin in Google maps which you can share with the other person?

Litchi would be the most technical and easiest way to do this and the truth is Litchi has so many benefits over DJI Go you’ll probably be getting it and some point anyway especially if you will be doing other jobs like this.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my original post. I want to be able to fly to a certain point over my property and take a pic. Then 2 days later take another from the exact same spot. Then 2 days later, repeat repeat repeat for a few weeks or maybe a few months.

He wants to do the same thing at his house.

Make sense?

 

[Babaganoosh]

If you have a landmark, Like a tree, you can use grid-lines to help you line up the landmark exactly where you want it. in Post production, you can further line up objects on the x and y access or zoom in closer as needed.

A free version of software that would allow you to do this is Davinci Resolve 15 by Black Magic. It is a full-featured video editing, color grading and sound editing software. It has a high learning curve, but once you get the feel of it, and watch a few videos on YouTube...you will be good to go.

The pros make stuff like this look easy. honestly...it would probably take years of practice to get it to look like the camera stayed exactly in the same position the entire time...but I think you could do a "good enough" version with just a bit of practice... You might even try it with the drone filming an object from the ground at first...just so you will have a better idea how to line up your shots in the air.

Programs like Litchi (I've never used it) might make a specific GPS waypoint easier to locate for both drones...but it still isn't going to be exact... and you will still have to do post processing in order to line things up. You might have an easier time locating a specific crack in the asphalt or sidewalk (x marks the spot) for your launch point and a specific orientation for your drone when launching, and not changing the yaw of the drone... share the exact altitude with the other pilot. You might find that doing it this way, while not exact...is going to get you about as close as GPS might approximate.

I think I'm going to use a combination of grid lines and launch from the same point every time then go to the same elevation every day and see if that works.

 

[Thomas B]

Still feel you’ll need to post process to match exactly as the limits of positioning while hovering are a few feet. Hope the grid idea works. Please post your findings and the resultant “time lapse” her so we can all learn.

 

[Cdcolt]

I'm part of a lawn care group (another hobby) and my buddy and I both have dji drones. I have a Mavic Air and he has a Mavic Pro. We want to take a picture from the same point in the airspace every few days to eventually put them together and make a time lapse video.

Would Litchi be required for this or is there a way to do it thru dji go? We are both pretty new to all this so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
B

I’m my mind Litchi would be the way to go. Create the mission and save the GPS position, altitude, drone orientation, gimbal angle, etc to Mission Hub. Of course it’ll be up to you to approximate the best lighting conditions between shots but the drone will be very close to the same place every time.

 

[Thomas B]

I’m my mind Litchi would be the way to go. Create the mission and save the GPS position, altitude, drone orientation, gimbal angle, etc to Mission Hub. Of course it’ll be up to you to approximate the best lighting conditions between shots but the drone will be very close to the same place every time.

Agree! That is simpler than a grid.
Still feel that you’ll need to match pics by adjusting each in post processing before you stitch together to avoid a lot of jerkiness, but since you’ll likely be adjusting brightness to match it shouldn’t add too much work.
Remain interested in your final production.

 

[brett8883]

Maybe I wasn't clear in my original post. I want to be able to fly to a certain point over my property and take a pic. Then 2 days later take another from the exact same spot. Then 2 days later, repeat repeat repeat for a few weeks or maybe a few months.

He wants to do the same thing at his house.

Make sense?

Oh ok well that’s really easy. DJI Go 4 is plenty capable of doing this. Just use a waypoints mission. Enter waypoints mode and then fly to the spot and record your waypoint(follow instructions to record). Save the mission as a favorite and then you just play the mission and the drone will fly to the original point that was recorded each and every time you want to take the picture.

For your friend he might need to get Litchi because(I could be wrong) but I don’t believe the Mavic Air can do waypoints in DJI Go 4, however, it can in Litchi.

With Litchi you can program the drone to automatically take the picture for you and tell it how long to stay at a waypoint. So Litchi is still better for this but with your Mavic Pro you could do it in DJI Go 4 if you don’t want to get Litchi. DJI Go 4 just isn’t all that intuitive to operate in waypoints mode as Litchi.

Is that what you are asking?

 

[TAG-DRONES]

For me, the simplest way to do this would be to use Litchi. You can create a mission with waypoints at the location you want to record, that is repeatable and then by using the Litchi Mission Hub, you can share the mission with your friend, he can download it and you'd both have the same mission, that you can repeat any time you want.

The other cool thing is that in the settings menu in the Litchi app, you can choose a button on your remote, that when you press it will record the exact location of the drone and use that as a waypoint. So you fly to the location you want, click the button and that waypoint is saved. Once you are done recording the waypoints, you save the mission.

 

[Babaganoosh]

For me, the simplest way to do this would be to use Litchi. You can create a mission with waypoints at the location you want to record, that is repeatable and then by using the Litchi Mission Hub, you can share the mission with your friend, he can download it and you'd both have the same mission, that you can repeat any time you want.

The other cool thing is that in the settings menu in the Litchi app, you can choose a button on your remote, that when you press it will record the exact location of the drone and use that as a waypoint. So you fly to the location you want, click the button and that waypoint is saved. Once you are done recording the waypoints, you save the mission.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks man.