DJI AIR 3 WAYPOINTS End of Flight Issue

[danCER]

Hello, I have been planning Waypoints Missions ever since I began with the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, so I am not unfamiliar with how to set up a waypoints mission.

So I decided to test my new DJI Air 3 (AGAIN) and plotted my course on the map preflight. I had 5 waypoints and in settings where you can choose HOVER, RTH, LAND, or BACK TO START, I selected BACK TO START. On settings its shows: BACK TO START/END OF FLIGHT. I had done an earlier test a couple days earlier--very short--and choose BACK TO START and it performed as expected.

However on my latest waypoint flight, It followed all of the waypoints until reaching waypoint #5 and just HOVERED there. I waited and it stayed in place. I finally enabled RTH manually and it returned. I checked the settings in the Waypoint flight and it still said BACK TO START.

Any thoughts on what may have happened? I never lost signal and as far as I can tell the waypoint flight worked fine until reaching the end of the flight.
THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHT.

 

[mavic3usa]

No idea but I always place a final waypoint near where I want the drone to end up after I am done with flying, not at the end of the mission; which in this case would be very near where the homepoint would likely set. This would at least give you more control over what appears to be an issuing with wrapping up the waypoint mission properly and executing that last command.

 

[danCER]

Thanks and in the past, I always had the waypoints start at home and then end back near home like you said. I contacted DJI support and they said they could think of two scenaios where what happened might occur--either I set the hover time to longer than zero seconds(WHICH i DID NOT) OR THE DRONE WAS DISCONNECTED and then it finally RTH. I had no signal loss or warnings about signal loss. I also did RTH manually. I will test again with a different flight and plot waypoints back home.

 

[Limewood]

Thanks and in the past, I always had the waypoints start at home and then end back near home like you said. I contacted DJI support and they said they could think of two scenaios where what happened might occur--either I set the hover time to longer than zero seconds(WHICH i DID NOT) OR THE DRONE WAS DISCONNECTED and then it finally RTH. I had no signal loss or warnings about signal loss. I also did RTH manually. I will test again with a different flight and plot waypoints back home.

I would not be surprised if the end waypoint somehow got set to hover. I have had POIs completely disappear after a mission plan had been saved. They have some real glitches in their waypoint functions.

 

[danCER]

I would not be surprised if the end waypoint somehow got set to hover. I have had POIs completely disappear after a mission plan had been saved. They have some real glitches in their waypoint functions.

I was curious about that. I did a screen recording and everything looked fine at the 5th waypoint: plenty of Sattelites,Strong signal. Thanks for your experience too!

 

[Limewood]

Here’s something u

I was curious about that. I did a screen recording and everything looked fine at the 5th waypoint: plenty of Sattelites,Strong signal. Thanks for your experience too!

Though unrelated to your end point issue, try flying directly over a POI. My other platforms rotate the gimbal to maintain focus on the POI. My Air3 loses gimbal orientation and ends up pointing at the sky as it flies to next waypoint. I often do this when flying over old RR bridges to get a vertical. I don’t know how DJI’s other platforms handled this.

 

[danCER]

Here’s something u

Though unrelated to your end point issue, try flying directly over a POI. My other platforms rotate the gimbal to maintain focus on the POI. My Air3 loses gimbal orientation and ends up pointing at the sky as it flies to next waypoint. I often do this when flying over old RR bridges to get a vertical. I don’t know how DJI’s other platforms handled this.

I haven't tried POI yet with the Air 3 but will keep your tip in mind. Back to Waypoints and losing signal, have you ever tried the CONTINUE option so that it finishes the Waypoint Mission(Like LITCHI did) if it loses signal?

 

[Limewood]

I always set that variable to continue, but I have yet to lose signal on the Air3, even with the antennas folded down. I guess I could try turning off the controller to see what happens.

I haven't tried POI yet with the Air 3 but will keep your tip in mind. Back to Waypoints and losing signal, have you ever tried the CONTINUE option so that it finishes the Waypoint Mission(Like LITCHI did) if it loses signal?

 

[danCER]

I always set that variable to continue, but I have yet to lose signal on the Air3, even with the antennas folded down. I guess I could try turning off the controller to see what happens.

I actually saw someone on Youtube turn off the controller and it continued the mission. Before I think LITCHI was the only way to continue mission if signal was lost. Be interesting to hear your results if you turn off controller during WP mission. I will try when I get to an open field.

 

[mavic3usa]

I actually saw someone on Youtube turn off the controller and it continued the mission. Before I think LITCHI was the only way to continue mission if signal was lost. Be interesting to hear your results if you turn off controller during WP mission. I will try when I get to an open field.

My understanding is ALL dji drones using the native waypoints application have the ability to continue the mission upon a signal disconnect. In contrast, the Litchi 3rd party app does not. That's my understanding.

 

[DJ Wes]

My understanding is ALL dji drones using the native waypoints application have the ability to continue the mission upon a signal disconnect.

This is correct. Having on-board waypoints mean that the drone is capable of continuing a mission if the control signal is lost.

In contrast, the Litchi 3rd party app does not. That's my understanding.

This is not correct. If a drone (with on-board waypoints) is capable of continuing a mission after loosing the control signal, Litchi will also allow the mission to continue.

 

[DJ Wes]

Though unrelated to your end point issue, try flying directly over a POI. My other platforms rotate the gimbal to maintain focus on the POI. My Air3 loses gimbal orientation and ends up pointing at the sky as it flies to next waypoint.

This is because the gimbal pitch angles are set to point at the POI at the waypoints and in-between waypoints, the gimbal pitch angle is interpolated from the value at one waypoint to the value at the next. If you want the gimbal to point down when flying over a POI, you must add a waypoint very close to that POI.

There is a special case on the older, Go4 DJI waypoint implementation that changes the above behavior when the mission has one and only one POI.

 

[mavic3usa]

This is correct. Having on-board waypoints mean that the drone is capable of continuing a mission if the control signal is lost.


This is not correct. If a drone (with on-board waypoints) is capable of continuing a mission after loosing the control signal, Litchi will also allow the mission to continue.

Thanks for the correction; agreed. Those who do not have Waypoints in their DJI drone who are looking for a 3rd party solution can get it, if available, from Litchi but will not gain the ability to continue the mission if the signal is lost.

 

[Limewood]

I was curious about that. I did a screen recording and everything looked fine at the 5th waypoint: plenty of Sattelites,Strong signal. Thanks for your experience too!

I just tried the CONTINUE on signal loss. It did continue but not as expected. It flew EXTREMELY fast.

 

[Limewood]

This is because the gimbal pitch angles are set to point at the POI at the waypoints and in-between waypoints, the gimbal pitch angle is interpolated from the value at one waypoint to the value at the next. If you want the gimbal to point down when flying over a POI, you must add a waypoint very close to that POI.

There is a special case on the older, Go4 DJI waypoint implementation that changes the above behavior when the mission has one and only one POI.

I can’t agree. That would defeat the purpose of having a POI. Shouldn’t matter where the waypoint is. If they are using Bézier curves, they need to look at the equation for fewer control points, not just 3 or more.

I was able to get around the problem by using a minimum of 3 waypoints, all pointing at same POI. Didn’t matter their location in relation to the POI.

 

[DJ Wes]

I can’t agree. That would defeat the purpose of having a POI. Shouldn’t matter where the waypoint is. If they are using Bézier curves, they need to look at the equation for fewer control points, not just 3 or more.

Whether you agree or not is irrelevant. What I am describing is how waypoint missions with POIs work.

Consider a simple mission with two waypoints and one POI. The mission is designed to fly directly over the POI. At waypoint one, with the camera pointing at the POI, the gimbal pitch angle is -30 degrees. At waypoint two, with the camera pointing at the POI, the gimbal pitch angle is -20 degrees. As the drone flies from waypoint one to waypoint two, at the midpoint, the gimbal pitch angle will be interpolated to be -25 degrees (the average of the angles at each waypoint) instead of -90. This is how waypoint missions work in general.

There is an exception (or there used to be). With DJI Go4 waypoint missions, if the mission has only one POI and all waypoints point to that POI, the mission is flown in what DJI calls "hot spot" mode. In this case, the camera will correctly track the POI. I do not know if this has been implemented in the DJI Fly waypoint mode.

 

[Limewood]

Whether you agree or not is irrelevant. What I am describing is how waypoint missions with POIs work.

Consider a simple mission with two waypoints and one POI. The mission is designed to fly directly over the POI. At waypoint one, with the camera pointing at the POI, the gimbal pitch angle is -30 degrees. At waypoint two, with the camera pointing at the POI, the gimbal pitch angle is -20 degrees. As the drone flies from waypoint one to waypoint two, at the midpoint, the gimbal pitch angle will be interpolated to be -25 degrees (the average of the angles at each waypoint) instead of -90. This is how waypoint missions work in general.

There is an exception (or there used to be). With DJI Go4 waypoint missions, if the mission has only one POI and all waypoints point to that POI, the mission is flown in what DJI calls "hot spot" mode. In this case, the camera will correctly track the POI. I do not know if this has been implemented in the DJI Fly waypoint mode.

Then explain why it works fine with 3 waypoints. I do understand what you are trying to say, but it’s all in the calculation. I can still obtain a CINE style moves, but it must contain 3 waypoints. It doesn’t just miss the waypoint, the current method is so far off the gimbal points at the sky, the opposite direction.

 

[DJ Wes]

Then explain why it works fine with 3 waypoints. I do understand what you are trying to say, but it’s all in the calculation. I can still obtain a CINE style moves, but it must contain 3 waypoints. It doesn’t just miss the waypoint, the current method is so far off the gimbal points at the sky, the opposite direction.

I would need to see the mission to analyze it.

 

[Limewood]

I would need to see the mission to analyze it.

I will pull out the info I submitted to DJI. I will also upload a mission and video from a different platform just so you understand what I have come to expect. I realize expectations can bite us, but still, the ability to do this exists. I know you know what you are talking about, Wes. Mapping with DJI wouldn’t exist without Litchi. But DJI doesn’t have the only solution to waypoint missions.

Like I told DJI, I’ve figured out how to work around it so it’s not a show stopper for me.

 

[DJ Wes]

I will pull out the info I submitted to DJI.

Good luck with that.

I will also upload a mission and video from a different platform just so you understand what I have come to expect.

Yes, I would like to see the mission.