Daily Time Lapse - How do I create precision images?

[s2seyecle]

I use Auto Pilot for Progressive Construction Videos, You can program a flight with video, and you can also program way points and tell it the direction and angle to take a photo at each way point. If you shoot in 4K, then in PS you can adjust the horizontal and vertical alignment, and blow up/reduce each picture when editing to line up each shot. After all shots are in and if you have one frame showing a border, then you adjust the whole clip up to removed the border on that one frame. By using 4K you give yourself the ability to do these adjustment and not lose quality. Shooting 2-4 times a week over a 7 month period in high winds, sub-zero temps, and various other weather factors, the flight path has not varied over 1 foot in height. Any minimal distance variation will be corrected with the zoom adjustment in PS. So you should have no problems making your time lapse of your home.

Just spent an hour+ on the AutoPilot website. I'm going to give them a call. While it's a VERY robust product with way better documentation (online, at least) there are a few things that I have questions on. Much of the process documentation hasn't been updated for MPro's - even though the introductory materials include them as compatible. And their coverage for all iPad mini's is listed as "legacy." As a "legacy" product they kind of hedge on whether or not there will be problems. They "allude" to the fact that maps might not work, but don't give me confidence that any cached maps will be sufficient to execute. Obviously I've just taken a look and don't have operational experience -as do you- so I need to investigate further. For $30 (and the cost of the aircraft!) I'd want to have some assurances. FWIW, Litchi doesn't have any of the legacy caveats.

 

[s2seyecle]

Yeah was thinking that. Plus GS is for iOS only too eh?
Litchi or Drone Harmony it is then...or a lamp post...

Hummm. From what I read in the description (of the App in the App store), it might not be compatible for the MavPro.

 

[Keule]

Autopilot has its own flight controller logic running on the iPhone / iPad.
Therefore the device must have enough 'power' such as CPU performance and memory.
Legacy devices wil work, but as Hangar states on their website:

Legacy devices are supported, but you will see degraded performance and possibly experience memory pressure causing the app to unexpectedly terminate.

I used an iPad mini 4 in the past, which worked well, but had a few app crashes while running waypoint missions.
Using an iPad Pro 10.5" now, i have had no problems anymore.

 

[Qoncussion]

Hummm. From what I read in the description (of the App in the App store), it might not be compatible for the MavPro.

I just saw that Drone Harmony is in pre-release with an Android version, called "Planner for DJI Drones". You can install the pre-release from the Play Store, but I'll wait for others to test it and work out the bugs.

 

[Keule]

it might not be compatible for the MavPro.

Look at their website, the Mavic Pro is supported.
Autopilot - Hangar

 

[Simmo]

I just saw that Drone Harmony is in pre-release with an Android version, called "Planner for DJI Drones". You can install the pre-release from the Play Store, but I'll wait for others to test it and work out the bugs.

Drone Harmony is an excellent tool. I've been testing it for some months and they tell me it's just about ready for the paid version to come out.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Yesterday, I tested 6 new SDHC cards by recording 3 minutes of video with my Mavic sitting on a table in my patio. It was shut down for card changes. Each new view of the patio on Google Earth imagery had the home point in a different place within a couple of meters, none was at the actual a/c position.

The kind of GPS accuracy needed to re-occupy a point in space for "time-lapse" photography is available but I sure as **** can't afford it.

Was your table made of metal or was there metal nearby?

 

[s2seyecle]

Look at their website, the Mavic Pro is supported.
Autopilot - Hangar

You misunderstood. I was replying to Simmo with regard to GS Pro (Ground Station). I did see that AutoP would apply to Mavic and Spark.

Some of my related comments reflect my observation that the documentation for AutoP hasn't been updated to refer to some of the Mavic or Spark specific functions, or lack thereof. While that doesn't necessarily mean a non functional attribute, I was contacting the company for answers.

Thanks to all for your replies and sharing your experience.

 

[bushie]

Have a look at Drone Harmony . It will let you do what you want,and its free

 

[bushie]

Have a look at Drone Harmony . It will do what hou want, and it's free

 

[s2seyecle]

Have a look at Drone Harmony . It will let you do what you want,and its free

Looks like a possible alternative for Android users. I'm all iOS. Sorry for missing that in my OP.

 

[William Ball]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

I use Autopilot for this purpose. The accuracy is pretty spot on. You simply have to set a way point mission and save it. each time you want to fly it you load the mission and hit "engage" The number of possible settings with autopilot is mind numbing. you can set the gimbal pitch to a certain height from the ground, you can set it to shoot interval photos, It truly is an amazing app. It is however only for IOS, Litchi is sub par as compared to Autopilot, but is for andriod users. Now don't get me wrong, I own both, Litchi is ...ok, but pales in comparison to Autopilot. Well worth the 20 bucks I spent on it.

 

[gjhick]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

Drone Harmony, since it will let you include the gimbal angle in your recorded waypoint. Then use the 'align' controls in Photoshop when you come to edit.

 

[modbuilder]

I've been doing this very job on a construction project for the last several months using LItchi. Don't have any Autopilot experience, but I've found Litchi to be as fully featured as I need, and it's very robust. The biggest problem I've encountered has to do with wind. I don't know if it's the level of GPS precision that we civilians get, or whether it's the PID tuning response compromises built into the MP, but the videos I get are not absolutely precision overlays of each other. And I really don't think it's due to Litchi because the biggest variations I've seen have definitely been wind related.

I'm going to follow the links provided above to see what others have done about aligning shots from different times. I haven't been real successful finding something in the image to index around.

Good discussion ........... R

 

[Pol]

Yesterday, I tested 6 new SDHC cards by recording 3 minutes of video with my Mavic sitting on a table in my patio. It was shut down for card changes. Each new view of the patio on Google Earth imagery had the home point in a different place within a couple of meters, none was at the actual a/c position.

The kind of GPS accuracy needed to re-occupy a point in space for "time-lapse" photography is available but I sure as **** can't afford it.

Great job. I'm working on a video like that with Litchi also. Making the same round every month, for 8 months now. They are restoring an old fortress in my neighborhood and it will still take some 8 months to finish it. Can't wait to make the end video.......

 

[TerryJ]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

Create a waypoint mission and save it. Simply do the same waypoint mission for each day you do it. Eazy peezy bro!!

 

[harly]

Yep - that was me, and here's the video:

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Done with Go4, which will save a mission - but leaves too much room for error. I would definitely suggest Litchi to anyone who wants to replicate this.

Hmm... seems like that guy used manual control for these shots? I'm just wondering if POI-mode would've yielded better results?