Dronelink is released!

[dronelink]

The native iOS app is submitted to the App Store, waiting for approval.

To be clear, the release candidate (build 43) which is waiting for app store approval is freely available through TestFlight right now.

Dronelink thinks about a special version for hobbyists.

This this thread for more information:

Introducing Dronelink

This software is fantastic! As a IT-professional I want to applaude the developes for thinking in the terms of modules/commands. Love it! What is the status of the project now? We are planning to release v1.0 in a few weeks. Have you tried the beta?

mavicpilots.com

If DroneLink had a lower cost option, I would go for it.

See thread above for a primer. As far as a lower cost option, are you wanting the same functionality as the current pro plan for a lower price, or a subset of the functionality? The other factor is subscription vs one-time payments. If you are looking for one-time, how do we avoid the same fate as Autopilot (see thread above) or even Litchi (haven't seen anything new from them in years). Are you saying you are happy to just have a snapshot of the current features and never see updates?

 

[marklyn]

To be clear, the release candidate (build 43) which is waiting for app store approval is freely available through TestFlight right now.


This this thread for more information:

Introducing Dronelink

This software is fantastic! As a IT-professional I want to applaude the developes for thinking in the terms of modules/commands. Love it! What is the status of the project now? We are planning to release v1.0 in a few weeks. Have you tried the beta?

mavicpilots.com

See thread above for a primer. As far as a lower cost option, are you wanting the same functionality as the current pro plan for a lower price, or a subset of the functionality? The other factor is subscription vs one-time payments. If you are looking for one-time, how do we avoid the same fate as Autopilot (see thread above) or even Litchi (haven't seen anything new from them in years). Are you saying you are happy to just have a snapshot of the current features and never see updates?

I beg to different about Litchi. I've been a Litchi user for 2+ years now and every quarter I've seen updates/fixes and/or new features. There has to be a middle ground, it seems like *everything* is moving to a recurring billing/annual/monthly model. One of the reason why I really don't like this model is I minimize my credit card as much as I can but that's a minor aspect of it. I'd rather see a higher fee to get in and a minimal annual fee, or a model like Airdata, $30 a year for minimal, $50 for more flights per year and $100 maybe for unlimited with special commercial application usage for a higher end user.

 

[dronelink]

every quarter I've seen updates/fixes and/or new features.

Not trying to take anything away from Litchi, and it is certainly in a better place than Autopilot in that they continue to maintain it and add support for new drones. The point was less about Litchi specifically, and more about autonomous flight apps in general. Of the existing apps on the market, how many look radically different from when they first launched, or offer features that are an order of magnitude improvement over where they started? Or has it just been incremental updates? In the end, true innovation is hard, expensive, and time consuming.

As stated elsewhere, we are open to creating different pricing plans with different feature sets, but we need clear feedback from the community on what these plans and feature sets would include.

 

[marklyn]

Not trying to take anything away from Litchi, and it is certainly in a better place than Autopilot in that they continue to maintain it and add support for new drones. The point was less about Litchi specifically, and more about autonomous flight apps in general. Of the existing apps on the market, how many look radically different from when they first launched, or offer features that are an order of magnitude improvement over where they started? Or has it just been incremental updates? In the end, true innovation is hard, expensive, and time consuming.

As stated elsewhere, we are open to creating different pricing plans with different feature sets, but we need clear feedback from the community on what these plans and feature sets would include.

Well, for me, in regard to Litchi, I'm ok with occasional updates/fixes and minor feature additions for the one time price paid. My expectation for what I paid and what I'm getting is spot on. I don't expect them to do much more than what I wanted as a basic tenet of their app: to provide a way to program an autonomous flight from the convenience of my home computer. For what I paid it would be realistic to expect more more and I'm ok with that.
Or if they added a very major feature that significantly changed the app in a very big way, I might be willing to pay for that as an "add on upgrade" (one time payment). Maybe they do that once a year, and leave it up to their customers if they want to buy the upgrade or continue using a basic version of the app.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very interested in Dronelink. If there was a one time buy in that was higher and a reasonable annual maintenance fee I'd likely bite but even then I'd want a trial period to be sure this is a good fit for my hobby.

 

[marklyn]

As stated elsewhere, we are open to creating different pricing plans with different feature sets, but we need clear feedback from the community on what these plans and feature sets would include.

I haven't investigated your site thoroughly and maybe you offer a trial but if you don't I'd suggest a trial for new users. Give them a month with the understanding that after the trial they'd answer a survey about the app, usage, etc. That would be your opportunity to ask questions based on real experience and a better understanding of your product. Right now, for me, it's just pie in the sky stuff and sounds good but I'm a touchy/feely person and until I play around with something, I don't know how bad I want it. My first drone was a Mavic 3.5 years ago. Didn't even know much about drones until my brother in law brought his down one weekend and I played around with it. I got hooked then, but wouldn't have by just reading about them, it took using it and playing with it and understanding it to know I have to have one

 

[dronelink]

maybe you offer a trial but if you don't I'd suggest a trial for new users.

The explore plan is free, which allows you to dig in to the mission planner and experience the mission previews and other unique features on the pre-flight side, but it doesn't currently allow you to plan and fly your own missions. We may consider adding a trial period for the paid plans in the future, but for now we are confident enough in the value that if you aren't satisfied, we will happily give you a refund.

 

[GaryR.]

To be clear, the release candidate (build 43) which is waiting for app store approval is freely available through TestFlight right now.

If you click the link for the native iOS app on the Dronelink website, it redirects you to the App Store.
For TestFlight now you need an invitation.

 

[dronelink]

 

[HawkEye76]

Maybe a limitation in number of flights could be a way to seperate hobbyist, part time pilots and full time professionals? And price it accordingly?

 

[GaryR.]

It’s not possible anymore, because there’s no option for TestFlight, because beta is over!

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

You guys (dronelink) are telling us that you're on the same level as an O365 subscription @ $100/year?

Really?

Way. Too. High.

 

[dronelink]

It’s not possible anymore, because there’s no option for TestFlight, because beta is over!

The beta is over but the release candidate (build 43) is still available in TestFlight. We did not disable downloads through TestFlight.

Way. Too. High.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and we understand that our current plans and pricing model will not meet everyone's use cases and expectations. In the end, we have to start somewhere and we chose to start with professionals, many of whom are already using competing systems that cost 10x more than our price (UgCS, DroneHarmony, etc).

It seems like there has been a lot of people asking for a hobbyist / consumer version of Dronelink, and we hear you loud and clear! We are flattered that there is apparently such a demand for it, despite the fact that there are great existing solutions such as Autopilot and Litchi. We are very open to suggestions about features and pricing for such an offering, and we would love your feedback.

Having said all of that, just know that it has always been our goal to get the most adoption across the most segments of drone users in the long run, and our hope is that the higher-end, professional and enterprise plans can subsidize the lower-end, consume plans, even to the point of being able to offer a completely free tier. We did not have the development resources to launch with multiple tiers on day one, so please be patient as we try to reach a sustainable level of revenue that can support an investment in such an offering.

 

[zappy54]

I would’ve still sooner buy Autopilot if it supported Mavic 2 £100 bit to much for me though

 

[dronelink]

I would’ve still sooner buy Autopilot if it supported Mavic 2 £100 bit to much for me though

We agree, the current plans are not meant to compete with Litchi and Autopilot (see above).

 

[dronelink]

We may consider adding a trial period for the paid plans in the future

We just updated the Explore plan to include the ability to create repositories (public and private), and create mission plans and components. You still need to upgrade to a paid account to actually fly missions with your plans, but we added the 30-day money back guarantee to the pricing page to take a step in the direction of offering a trial. More to come soon.

 

[dronelink]

To be clear, the release candidate (build 43) which is waiting for app store approval is freely available through TestFlight right now.

Just got iOS App Store approval. Enjoy:

Dronelink Flight

Drone Flight Control - Fully Automated Missions, Semi-Automated Workflows and Manual Flight Tools Fly missions for maps, waypoints, orbits, panos, vertical mapping, or inspections. Use flight modes such as orbit, follow, or focus. Link missions together, automate everything, and preview in 3D...

apps.apple.com

The Android app is still available via direct download due to the DJI SDK issue

 

[nafisgal]

It may seem redundant ... But .. what difference is there with the intelligent "Trajectory" mode of DJI Go 4 ...?
Will there be a Spanish version? I live in Spain / Europe and we are 400 million Spanish speakers ... Will they discard such a succulent market? Thank you.
---------------------------
Puede parecer redundante... Pero.. ¿que diferencia existe con el modo inteligente "Trayectoria" de DJI Go 4...?
¿Existirá una versión en Castellano ? Vivo en España/Europa y somos 400 millones de Hispanohablantes... ¿ Descartarán un mercado tan suculento ? Gracias.

 

[dronelink]

what difference is there with the intelligent "Trajectory" mode of DJI Go 4 ...?

DJI GO (as well as Litchi, and most other flight control apps except Autopilot) use the onboard DJI waypoint mission system, which has many limitations. Dronelink uses a custom flight controller that was built from the ground up with multi-purpose mission planning in mind. This fact has many implications that are discussed in the Dronelink tutorials.

Will there be a Spanish version? I live in Spain / Europe and we are 400 million Spanish speakers ... Will they discard such a succulent market? Thank you.

Additional languages are on the roadmap.

.

 

[marklyn]

Dronelink, What you just said peaked my interested in something I've wondered about regarding Litchi (or other 3rd party apps). From what I've read and understand, Litchi (as other apps) use DJI's core code (API?). From my experience this means that if you want a sertain setting changed in Litchi that isn't shown in Litchi but is in the DJI Go app, you have to make the change in the DJI Go app thus Litchi adhearing to that change. This has always been frustrating for me to "remember" that certain settings that aren't in Litchi are in DJI Go and must be changed there. I can't think of any examples at this time but I know I've had to do this before for a few settings. (I use Litchi almost exclusively over DJI Go app)
Does Dronelink operate with access to 100% of the settings that are available in DJI Go? If not, can you give me an idea of what settings wouldn't be available in Dronelink in this case?
I looked through your tutorials but didn't see anything that addresses this.
Thanks.

 

[dronelink]

Does Dronelink operate with access to 100% of the settings that are available in DJI Go? If not, can you give me an idea of what settings wouldn't be available in Dronelink in this case?

I think there are two things to consider here:

1. The flight dashboard (in DJI GO, Litchi, Dronelink, etc) exposes menus with various settings that you as an operator can set manually, such as camera exposure or video frame rate. All of these types of settings are saved on the drone or camera and thus they remain set to the previous values selected in the app that you were using before you open Dronelink (or Litchi, or DJI GO for that matter). The DJI SDK includes a UI library that gives developers a basic flight dashboard out of the box, and this is what Dronelink and many other apps take advantage of. Unfortunately the flight dashboard in the UI library is usually several revisions behind what DJI includes in DJI GO, and so invariably there are more settings available in DJI GO than 3rd party apps, particularly when they release new hardware like thermal cameras or the M2 enterprise with accessories. DJI is completely revamping their UI library to bring it more in line with what DJI GO has, and we are hopeful this will significantly close the gap soon.
2. Dronelink is introducing the industry-first concept of programmatic commands (drone, camera, gimbal, etc) as components. Instead of setting a camera setting at mission time manually, the goal is to create your list of desired camera settings that gets applied before every mission, so you know you will never make a mistake and fly with the wrong settings. Dronelink has implemented most of the available camera settings exposed in the DJI SDK, but there are some things that are still on the roadmap, such as the XT camera options and things like the lens focus ring value.

Hope this helps!