DroneDeploy not saving video files

[The_Gregors]

Hello all,

Started the day by formatting all 4 SD cards in my Mavic 2 Pro.

Just orded these Sandisk Extreme 128GB cards (Red and Gold version)

I flew 4 multi-part DroneDeploy missions yesterday, and had an issue I have never noticed before. The missions are made up of an Orbit Video, Orbit Photos, Pano 360, and Ortho. When I start the mission in DroneDeploy, I start with the video, then ”add” the other tasks to the Queue. The Mavic 2 Pro flew the missions just fine, but after the mission, I reviewed the files before leaving the location. I had all the jpeg files, but no video. I launched the aircraft again to fly just the video mission and it flew the flight, but no video collected. I landed, swapped out the card, then launched the video mission again and finally noticed the video timer in the interface showing that I was actually collecting video data this time. Landed, checked the card and yes, I had a video file. I moved on to my next location, Identical type of mission and same result. The first SD card happened to be in the aircraft and it was fine for the photos, but failed to collect video. Swapped out for the second card and video was fine. Same thing happened for the third and forth locations, I ended up having one SD card for photos, and one for video. No big deal, I can match up the timestamps and Geo location to identify the files, but having to land and refly is a problem.

Notes, after flying the DroneDeploy flights, I do use Go4 App to manually fly and take a few photos, I am wondering if the use of Go4 App and DroneDeploy with the same SD card has caused an issue. I am going to do a lot more testing, but am wondering if anybody has any suggestions.

 

[Meta4]

The first SD card happened to be in the aircraft and it was fine for the photos, but failed to collect video. Swapped out for the second card and video was fine. Same thing happened for the third and forth locations,

Are you stopping the video before shutting down the drone?
Unless the video file is finalised, it will look like there's nothing there.

 

[The_Gregors]

Are you stopping the video before shutting down the drone?
Unless the video file is finalised, it will look like there's nothing there.

Can you explain? In DroneDeploy, the video is automatically started and stopped. And it works, on one of the memory cards. Maybe if you were using the DJI Go App and started a video and landed, the video would not be saved, I have heard of people talking about this, but I have not experienced it, yet.

 

[Meta4]

Can you explain? In DroneDeploy, the video is automatically started and stopped. And it works, on one of the memory cards. Maybe if you were using the DJI Go App and started a video and landed, the video would not be saved, I have heard of people talking about this, but I have not experienced it, yet.

I've not used DD for video to know how it does that.
But every video file needs to be finalised and your description sounded a lot like that.

 

[Sharky05]

I've not used DD for video to know how it does that.
But every video file needs to be finalised and your description sounded a lot like that.

I've read what you posted. Not sure if you actually exited the go 4 app before using the dd app. I've not done any video work with the dd app but have used it for roofing inspection etc. I just go straight to the dd app to use the drone mission if I have something planned for the dd app. As far as I know and read on the mavic site seen on YouTube the videos need to finish before the drone is shut down or you won't have any videos saved on the card

 

[dodgerr]

Hello all,

Started the day by formatting all 4 SD cards in my Mavic 2 Pro.

Just orded these Sandisk Extreme 128GB cards (Red and Gold version)

I flew 4 multi-part DroneDeploy missions yesterday, and had an issue I have never noticed before. The missions are made up of an Orbit Video, Orbit Photos, Pano 360, and Ortho. When I start the mission in DroneDeploy, I start with the video, then ”add” the other tasks to the Queue. The Mavic 2 Pro flew the missions just fine, but after the mission, I reviewed the files before leaving the location. I had all the jpeg files, but no video. I launched the aircraft again to fly just the video mission and it flew the flight, but no video collected. I landed, swapped out the card, then launched the video mission again and finally noticed the video timer in the interface showing that I was actually collecting video data this time. Landed, checked the card and yes, I had a video file. I moved on to my next location, Identical type of mission and same result. The first SD card happened to be in the aircraft and it was fine for the photos, but failed to collect video. Swapped out for the second card and video was fine. Same thing happened for the third and forth locations, I ended up having one SD card for photos, and one for video. No big deal, I can match up the timestamps and Geo location to identify the files, but having to land and refly is a problem.

Notes, after flying the DroneDeploy flights, I do use Go4 App to manually fly and take a few photos, I am wondering if the use of Go4 App and DroneDeploy with the same SD card has caused an issue. I am going to do a lot more testing, but am wondering if anybody has any suggestions.

Any updates on this issue, Hummingbird?

A few ideas on your issue-

-I have been flying DroneDeploy for several years now and have settled with using a separate sd card and flight for all of the DDvideos just because it seems to work better and it makes it easier when sorting/uploading later. DD also seems to be fussy about when during a mission you are adding another to the queue. It seems to work better if you wait until a mission is in progress before you add a mission, but not before it's started a mission, near the end or when it is flying back home already.

- I haven't had a problem using the same sd card for DD flights and DJIGO4 when doing just photos. I do the DD missions first, then shut down DD and open DJIGO4 mid-flight and begin manual photos and it works fine.

-The only other idea is that perhaps the new micro sd cards you bought might have been fakes and not capable of faster write speeds for video. But if that were true, you wouldn't have had the DDvideo work on a later flight. Anyways, there are a lot of fake micro sd cards out there, even on Amazon. To check the write speed on an sd card I'd recommend using the free app AJA System Lite.


DroneDeploy is not always the perfect app, unfortunately. There are a few things I'd suggest to help with using it. One is to always update your device and the DroneDeploy app before you go out for the day. Occasionally DroneDeploy updates seem to happen weekly and then not for several weeks depending on issues they are having. Also, when arriving onsite, I always do a compass calibration in DJIGO4, especially if the new location is far from the last flight location or there has been a large temperature swing since the last compass calibration. I usually do my DJIGO4 compass calibration and then micro sd card formatting at the same time and then shut DJIGO4 down and open DroneDeploy. Meanwhile I takeoff and hover at 30 feet or so that I can get more satellites while DD is starting. DD seems to initialize the flight better for me when the drone is already in the air and not on the ground.
When I am monitoring the DD missions I always keep an eye on the photo counter to make sure its moving along and the photo locations on the map because it occasionally can get stuck or even keep flying and not taking photos and need a landing and then "continue mission" or a complete restart of the mission. It happens.

If you do have a longer DDvideo mission in the future, also be aware that it will limit the file size to about 4GB and then start a new one, but with no break in the video footage.

If ever the files are not on the sd card, one thing I can suggest is to check the Mavic 2's onboard memory for the video file as sometimes it "decides" to record to the onboard storage rather than the sd card. Not sure why. All you'll need to do is hook up a male usb-c data cable up to the drone and use the drone like an sd card reader. I have also occasionally had a micro sd card not readable by an micro sd card reader hooked to my computer, but plugged the micro sd card back into the Mavic 2 and it was readable. Still scratching my head on that one.

Hope some of that was useful!

 

[The_Gregors]

Unfortunately, I don’t have good update on this issue, I have not had any other DroneDeploy missions and flying with the Go4 App has been just fine. I think it was just a card format issue. The biggest leaning for me was how DD shows that a video is being actually recording when it should.

 

[Meta4]

Also, when arriving onsite, I always do a compass calibration in DJIGO4, especially if the new location is far from the last flight location or there has been a large temperature swing since the last compass calibration.

Neither temperature or distance from your last flight makes any difference to your compass calibration.
There should be no need to recalibrate the compass.
If it flew normally last flight, it should fly normally next flight.