DJI or 3rd Party Control software with a HUD (Heads-up Display) and 3D mapped terrain overlay?

[Jack in Dixie]

Newbie question. Is the DJI Fly software or a third party software for iOS available with a HUD and a 3D (or 2D...) terrain map overlay for better situation awareness for the Mini line of DJI drones? (I purchased an M4P w/RC-N2 controller the day they were announced).

I flew million-dollar drones for the Department of Defense for more than 20 years. As a pilot I'm accustomed to seeing more drone/aircraft position data along with course/heading and terrain following maps along my flight path. The only thing I see on the DJI Fly software is Speed and Altitude data and maybe a Google Earth map to show position. Also it would be nice to have drone ATTITUDE data (rate of climb or descent, wings level or in a turn, compass heading, etc.) normally available in a HUD. Surely someone out there, another aircraft or helicopter pilot, also likes to have more flight data available to him/her and I'm not the first person to 'wish' for this visual data when flying a relatively expensive UAV.

I've been going thru the archives the past few days. You guys (and gals...) have a treasure trove of good information available to you and others. I look forward to future threads on the Mini 4 Pro and drone flight in general.

 

[pinballwiz86]

Thank you for your service. The Mini is the cheapest drone DJI sells, so it's probably not going to have a HUD and terrain overlay. BUT! they just released new firmware that has “AR Home Point, AR Return-to-Home Route, and AR Aircraft Shadow.”

 

[Jack in Dixie]

Thank you for your service. The Mini is the cheapest drone DJI sells, so it's probably not going to have a HUD and terrain overlay. BUT! they just released new firmware that has “AR Home Point, AR Return-to-Home Route, and AR Aircraft Shadow.”

Thank you Sir and THANKS for your reply/response!

I know it was a 'reach' but thought I would ask anyway. Maybe one of the 788 members here is a Computer Science Guru who could put something like that together (over a long weekend...) for our drones. I bet there's a market for a product like that.

 

[TonyPHX]

The first requirement to add new functionality to a UI experience is that DJI release a SDK for this drone. They broke precedent when they decided the Mavic 3 series (consumer) would not have a SDK. Then they threw out their own rules when they SDK enabled the Mini 3 Pro, so I am wondering now what they will do with the Mini 4 Pro.

 

[Jack in Dixie]

The first requirement to add new functionality to a UI experience is that DJI release a SDK for this drone. They broke precedent when they decided the Mavic 3 series (consumer) would not have a SDK. Then they threw out their own rules when they SDK enabled the Mini 3 Pro, so I am wondering now what they will do with the Mini 4 Pro.

Tony, Forgive my ignorance, but what is SDK? Jack

 

[Luckyguy9]

Newbie question. Is the DJI Fly software or a third party software for iOS available with a HUD and a 3D (or 2D...) terrain map overlay for better situation awareness for the Mini line of DJI drones? (I purchased an M4P w/RC-N2 controller the day they were announced).

I flew million-dollar drones for the Department of Defense for more than 20 years. As a pilot I'm accustomed to seeing more drone/aircraft position data along with course/heading and terrain following maps along my flight path. The only thing I see on the DJI Fly software is Speed and Altitude data and maybe a Google Earth map to show position. Also it would be nice to have drone ATTITUDE data (rate of climb or descent, wings level or in a turn, compass heading, etc.) normally available in a HUD. Surely someone out there, another aircraft or helicopter pilot, also likes to have more flight data available to him/her and I'm not the first person to 'wish' for this visual data when flying a relatively expensive UAV.

I've been going thru the archives the past few days. You guys (and gals...) have a treasure trove of good information available to you and others. I look forward to future threads on the Mini 4 Pro and drone flight in general.

I've been flying the mini 2 for a few years and just got the mini 4 Pro yesterday.

In the bottom left-hand corner there is a Compass view available plus an attitude indicator which shows whether you're in a left or a right bank. You can also see that on the screen by changing the gimbal to FPV (first person view) so you'll see the actual bank of the drone like you're flying in the cockpit.
There's an awful lot of data on the screen now with avoidance system, battery strength, time remaining to fly, number of satellites, time, Google map, return to home point, plus all the camera settings.

Remember, you're a professional pilot trained DoD pilot for a full-time job, and it's hard to manage what's on the screen now and adding all the other things you'd like would probably be sensory overload for those of us who only fly an hour or 2 a week.
Thank you for your service, and it must be pretty exciting to fly million dollar drones on the other side of the world + weapons? I can't begin to imagine the stress level you must have when all of a sudden during one of your flights there's an … Oops!!

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Tony, Forgive my ignorance, but what is SDK? Jack

SDK=Software Developer Kit

 

[Jack in Dixie]

I've been flying the mini 2 for a few years and just got the mini 4 Pro yesterday.

In the bottom left-hand corner there is a Compass view available plus an attitude indicator which shows whether you're in a left or a right bank. You can also see that on the screen by changing the gimbal to FPV (first person view) so you'll see the actual bank of the drone like you're flying in the cockpit.
There's an awful lot of data on the screen now with avoidance system, battery strength, time remaining to fly, number of satellites, time, Google map, return to home point, plus all the camera settings.

Remember, you're a professional pilot trained DoD pilot for a full-time job, and it's hard to manage what's on the screen now and adding all the other things you'd like would probably be sensory overload for those of us who only fly an hour or 2 a week.
Thank you for your service, and it must be pretty exciting to fly million dollar drones on the other side of the world + weapons? I can't begin to imagine the stress level you must have when all of a sudden during one of your flights there's an … Oops!!

Thanks! My M4P was just delivered this afternoon. An attitude indicator would be a nice start. Maybe one day there will be a HUD in every flying car so even non-aircraft pilots could increase their situational awareness.

Stress level goes off the charts when you (and your co-pilot/mission planner) fly one of those million-dollar drones into the side of a mountain and airborne RECON reported another 15-20 FEET and we would have successfully cleared it! It was a sickening feeling that made me want to puke. I blamed it on bad chartography and my co-pilot/mission planner. Otherwise it was a pretty cool gig...

 

[Jack in Dixie]

SDK=Software Developer Kit

Got it. Thanks!

 

[Luckyguy9]

Thanks! My M4P was just delivered this afternoon. An attitude indicator would be a nice start. Maybe one day there will be a HUD in every flying car so even non-aircraft pilots could increase their situational awareness.

Stress level goes off the charts when you (and your co-pilot/mission planner) fly one of those million-dollar drones into the side of a mountain and airborne RECON reported another 15-20 FEET and we would have successfully cleared it! It was a sickening feeling that made me want to puke. I blamed it on bad chartography and my co-pilot/mission planner. Otherwise it was a pretty cool gig...

So what career do you have now? When you are a drone pilot for the DoD, does that get you a regular pilots license? Private, commercial?

 

[Jack in Dixie]

So what career do you have now? When you are a drone pilot for the DoD, does that get you a regular pilots license? Private, commercial?

I'm retired!

 

[MikeFox]

Hi.
I've also been looking into the possibility to have a more 'professional' aviators instrument cluster, HUD and 3D DEM but so far it's just the Matrice series using the 'Pilot 2' app and maybe the Mavic 3 which can provide a better set of instruments.
You might want to check out 'Auriga for DJI Drones' for a nice HUD (with support for 3D goggles). It's far from perfect and it's not providing any terrain model but it gives you a very useable HUD. But I'm not sure if it supports the Mini 4 Pro yet and the app is in active development.
Search the Playstore for 'AURIGA DJI' and have a look! It's payware but costs just a few dollars so it might be worth a try - peovided it supports your drone.