Can DJI Fly Waypoints be Edited Without Powering up the Drone & Controller?

[Conservative Nihilist]

My Air 3 finally arrived and I created a couple of waypoint flights by flying the course and pressing the <Fn> button to mark each successive waypoint. That worked out well and I was able to save each waypoint mission and rename them later before powering off the drone and controller. I then launched the Air 3 to fly one of the waypoint missions and all seemed well initially.

My question concerns the later EDITING of previously saved waypoint missions in DJI Fly. I'd hoped to make alterations to the camera directions on a saved waypoint mission but I was dismayed and baffled to discover that I would not even access the DJI Fly waypoint planning feature UNLESS the Air3's controller is powered ON, and connected by the usual cable to the iPad I use for all my drone flying. Furthermore, I found that the drone must ALSO be powered ON before I can access saved DJI Fly waypoint missions to edit them.

As a long-time user of Litcfhi in all my waypoint planning for DJI Go drones, I realize now how spoiled I have been in that Litchi does NOT require a drone or its controller to be powered up and connected before waypoint missions can be created or edited using the Litchi Mission Hub on my desktop computer. In the short time that I spent tinkering with a saved DJI waypoint mission flight plan, the drone began to get quite hot sitting there powered up, so I stopped the experiment and shut off the drone and controller for fear of damaging them by overheating while I hurriedly edited saved waypoint missions in a race against time.

I am writing this account in the hopes that other more experienced Air3 operators might be able to point out an obvious error that I might be making here, which if corrected would enable me to edit DJI Fly waypoint missions WITHOUT that bizarre requirement in DJI Fly for BOTH the drone and controller to be powered on before the DJI Fly waypoint menu will even appear, after which the drone and controller must be left switched on and getting hotter by the minute during the entire editing process. I want to believe that I am mistaken in my presumption that DJI Fly waypoint missions can only be retrieved and edited if both the drone and controller are powered up and connected as though for an actual flight, so news that I misunderstand this process would be most welcome as I sit here scratching my head over the sheer absurdity of this predicament.

Any thoughts on this subject that can be shared would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I've reverted to flying waypoint missions with my trusty old Mavic 2 Pro whose fully autonomous Litchi missions are created and edited with the drone and controller sitting on a shelf switched OFF and staying cool for as many hours as it takes while I tinker with highly detailed waypoint flight plans using the versatile and intuitive Litchi Mission Hub on my old desktop computer.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Air 3 or Air 3S?

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

This is the earlier Air 3. Might get an Air 3 S later when prices drop within reach.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Turns out that the FIRST time a new or factory reset Air 3 drone is used to create waypoint missions, editing such missions will require the drone and controller powered on and connected as though in preparation for a flight.

I didn't see the waypoint icon in the camera view initially because it would only become visible AFTER the first time that the drone is used to create and save a waypoint flight. This inside scoop is courtesy of the good folks who frequent the DJI forum.

 

[Facherty]

My question concerns the later EDITING of previously saved waypoint missions in DJI Fly... As a long-time user of Litchi...

Okay, in that case, to avoid leaving the controller on and working with the stupid DJI interface, let's go back to Litchi with our DJI Air 3.

Create the mission in Litchi, and edit it in Litchi. Thanks to @DJ Wes, we can use Litchi, and transfer the mission data to the RC controller after finishing the planning and digital testing.

The attached .pdf gives details on how to do it.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Great minds think alike, Facherty. I am right now learning all the steps to convert select flights from my numerous saved Litchi Mission Hub waypoint flights into DJI Fly-compatible waypoint flight plans. But for the existence of the Litchi to DJI Fly waypoint mission converter that Wes Barris created, I'd never have bought my Air 3 because I'd heard enough about DJI's native waypoint planning offering to know I'd never want to use it, having been spoiled by the ease of using Litchi's Mission Hub.

After finally converting one of my saved Litchi missions to a DJI waypoint mission using that converter, I noticed just as the author of the converter pointed out that I would need to re-specify the drone's camera directions for every waypoint in sequence because the original directions of the camera at each waypoint didn't translate from Litchi to DJI format, but instead wound up facing the same direction on the map. That loss of camera direction settings is the reason why I need to edit transposed Litchi flights within DJI Fly.

All told I am very slowly learning to use this versatile and one-of-a-kind waypoint mission converter, and I look forward to mastering the process of turning saved Litchi waypoint flights into DJI Fly waypoint flights before long.

 

[Facherty]

I noticed just as the author of the converter pointed out that I would need to re-specify the drone's camera directions for every waypoint in sequence because the original directions of the camera at each waypoint didn't translate from Litchi to DJI format, but instead wound up facing the same direction on the map.

I can't explain this, because this simply didn't happen on my conversion. One of my missions had six Points of Interest, and 28 waypoints, all of which were directed at one of the PoIs. Most points had curved turns and interpolated Gimbal PItch. For example:


I did not have to reset anything for my DJI Air 3 to make it fly an identical (as far as I can tell) route with very similar set of camera moves.

The only thing I was concerned about was the difference in curve modelling from Litchi to DJI. Someone (I've forgotten who!) published some film of his drone entering water after completing a downward curve over the sea. The speculation was that this was caused by DJI's ways of completing curved turns being significantly different to that of Litchi. However, I was somewhat reassured by this article from @DJ Wes:

How Curved Litchi Missions and DJI Fly Waypoint Missions Differ

Feb 6, 2024

Most people who have used both Litchi and DJI Fly waypoint missions know that the flight paths differ. If the same set of waypoints are used in both applications, in DJI Fly, the flight path goes through the waypoints while in Litchi, they do not.



Upon initial inspection, it appears that Litchi is using a B-Spline while DJI is using a composite Bezier curve. However, that is not the case. I know that many will not care. If you do want to know but don’t care about the details and just want the answer, Litchi is using straight lines with quadratic B-Splines (or quadratic...

• DJ Wes
• litchi spline waypoint
• Replies: 9
• Forum: Control Apps - DJI, Litchi, Autopilot, etc...

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[DJ Wes]

After finally converting one of my saved Litchi missions to a DJI waypoint mission using that converter, I noticed just as the author of the converter pointed out that I would need to re-specify the drone's camera directions for every waypoint in sequence because the original directions of the camera at each waypoint didn't translate from Litchi to DJI format, but instead wound up facing the same direction on the map.

I don’t remember ever saying this so I’m curious where you found it. What you describe is not the expected behavior of the conversion. With Litchi, there are three methods to control the heading:
1. Use a POI.
2. Specify a heading angle (Interpolate).
3. Control the angle manually.

The conversion process lets you specify whether you desire the heading to be:
1. Controlled by POI or Interpolated angle
2. Follow the wayline.
3. Controlled manually

If you have either POIs or heading angles specified in your Litchi mission, you would want to use the first option (POI or Interpolated).

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

This is good news, Wes, that I should not have to re-set the Air 3's camera direction indicators at each waypoint of a Litchi to DJI Fly converted flight plan. I must have misunderstood a comment made on this subject earlier. Oddly, all camera direction indicators wound up pointing due north in my converted waypoint flight, whereas in the original Litchi flight plan the camera pointed in the direction of travel the entire trip.

I'll try a different, spiral-shaped waypoint flight for the next Litchi to DJI conversion. This is my go-to drone test flight waypoint mission that spirals upward in a helix-shaped ascent to 1,500 feet, before spiraling down to land after 20 minutes total elapsed time. In the original Litchi waypoint flight plan, the camera consistently points to the center of the circle on the way up and down, so if in the converted DJI Fly mission the camera points anywhere else on ascent or descent, it'll be easy to spot.