First flight - Way Point Test Flight - w/Litchi - Hmmmm

[56_kruiser]

I don't remember how I got logged into the Mission Hub. I had a test flight I created, and went out and flew it today. Now that I'm back to the computer, I wanted to go in and double check some of the settings on the way points. But I see no way to login to the hub to get to it. No login link, no menu, nothing. Any thoughts?

As for the flight, here are a couple of my experiences, and not sure what to think:

• I had set a Point of Interest, and had the flight 'Focus on POI'. I'm guessing I need to still be watching and constantly click on the screen to focus. So it's not 'Focus on POI', it's 'Point at POI', it seems. Entire video was out of focus.
• It paused at each way point, maybe a second, and occasionally even a couple. No smooth continuation of the flight.

Is that what I should expect from this app? Thought I'd ask before I spend a lot of time trying to see what I did wrong. Especially given I can't even login to the hub.

BTW...I thought maybe I needed to go to flylitchi.com and login there first, then select hub, but no way to login there either.

At a minimum, something as basic as logging in shouldn't be a mystery. Maybe I'm just completely unobservant today

 

[kgreylgrey]

Same here. I was in the hub, exited, then tried to get back in with same results as you. Still doesn't work as of this post.

Also, when I was in the Hub originally, I created a quick mission with the settings orientation set to TNW, toward next point. It didn't work at all.

 

[56_kruiser]

Bummer. I was expecting to hear I just didn't know what I was doing.

 

[56_kruiser]

Same here. I was in the hub, exited, then tried to get back in with same results as you. Still doesn't work as of this post.

Also, when I was in the Hub originally, I created a quick mission with the settings orientation set to TNW, toward next point. It didn't work at all.

Say...I just tried to get to it using Edge instead of Chrome, and it works. So, logging in problem is due to the Chrome browser. Sucks on that front.

Now, I'm left with the other questions around pauses, and focus.

What browser are you using? Try a different one and report back.

 

[Dragonfly]

Before you get carried away with litchi and get frustrated and if you are using Android give Drone Harmony a look, you will be glad you did and wont look back.

 

[56_kruiser]

Before you get carried away with litchi and get frustrated and if you are using Android give Drone Harmony a look, you will be glad you did and wont look back.

I actually have it installed already, but haven't looked at it at z all yet. It's listed as 'unreleased', so I've been ignoring it.

I've watched several crisis on Litchie with glowering reviews and what looked like successful missions. I'm surprised about what I'm experiencing.

I'll take a look at Harmony.

 

[kgreylgrey]

Well, I just got logged into Litchi using IE. However, the app is all messed up. I can load a mission and click on a waypoint, can't do anything with it - no waypoint property box is displayed. And the

As far as camera focus goes, have the drone in the air and focused before you activate the mission. I've not been able to focus or re-focus after the mission is activated.

When you want the waypoint to point towards a POI, select "Focus POI" for the Gimbal Pitch Mode and then a specific POI. The "Focus POI can be a General Setting or an override of the General Settings for a specific waypoint.

As for the Pausing at a waypoint - do you have "Curved Turns" or "Straight Lines" selected in the General Settings. I use curved turns and haven't had a problem with pausing. With straight lines selected, you can then select an "Action" for the drone to do when it reaches the waypoint, such as stop recording, take a picture, start recording, etc. This would require the drone to pause the flight in order to perform the actions. Curved turns does not allow actions at waypoints.

I think I'm going to use the android app to create and maintain my missions until they get the mission hub problems fixed.

 

[xtrmtrk]

I use Litchi on an iPhone with my Mavic and like it a lot. I haven't had any problems creating missions on a laptop on their website (using Safari on a Mac) then downloading them and using them (and modifying them) on the iPad app.

There are a couple of "issues" I have with the app - first is that the POI aiming seems to happen between the 1st and 2nd waypoints - I want it aimed right from the first waypoint. Yes, I can add a waypoint before the 1st one, but that's a pain. Being able to add actions to curved waypoints could fix this. Second, the aim isn't always great - I'm always having to tweak and move the POIs and change their altitudes; it seems hard to get it right the first (or second or third) time. Third, and this is more of a feature request, I wish that altitudes of waypoints and POIs could be expressed as above local ground level and not relative to the take-off position. It would be very convenient to be able to takeoff from any location and not worry about it's altitude relative to the waypoints and POI.

 

[jag32266]

As for logging in- Mission Hub - Litchi
and what I get on my web page is located top right, I'm using it on firefox (web) and do my first run on Android-

I don't think the web app does allow for much editing. But I'm a noob to Litchi. I plan on the web and edit on the app which to me is crazy cuz then you are using precious battery for fine tuning.

 

[56_kruiser]

I'll post some thoughts in blue in your quoted text:

Well, I just got logged into Litchi using IE. However, the app is all messed up. I can load a mission and click on a waypoint, can't do anything with it - no waypoint property box is displayed. And the

Interesting. It is working fine for me in Edge. I have no idea why not in Chrome.

As far as camera focus goes, have the drone in the air and focused before you activate the mission. I've not been able to focus or re-focus after the mission is activated.

That sounds like it would be problematic to me. What if the next waypoint needs a different focus?

When you want the waypoint to point towards a POI, select "Focus POI" for the Gimbal Pitch Mode and then a specific POI. The "Focus POI can be a General Setting or an override of the General Settings for a specific waypoint.

I used Focus POI technique in the test video. Although I had not used the General Setting. I'll remember that one.

As for the Pausing at a waypoint - do you have "Curved Turns" or "Straight Lines" selected in the General Settings. I use curved turns and haven't had a problem with pausing. With straight lines selected, you can then select an "Action" for the drone to do when it reaches the waypoint, such as stop recording, take a picture, start recording, etc. This would require the drone to pause the flight in order to perform the actions. Curved turns does not allow actions at waypoints.

I did not use Curved Turns (although I would like to), but as it avoids use of actions, I didn't. Seems they should be able to program it to take into consideration the fact that the waypoint is programmed with curves, and so allow for the actions within range of the curve.

I think I'm going to use the android app to create and maintain my missions until they get the mission hub problems fixed.

 

[56_kruiser]

Before you get carried away with litchi and get frustrated and if you are using Android give Drone Harmony a look, you will be glad you did and wont look back.

I took a look at some videos. None of the 'tutorial' videos were very good, and frankly left me with a bad taste. It makes it seem like quite a bit of programming needed to use: building boxes around everything, setting heights on all of it etc. I understand the though behind that, but seems like a lot of effort. I may play with it, but that's my initial take away from some very poor demo videos. Some of them even put the building of it into fast forward to not make it seem so obvious about the time expended.

 

[56_kruiser]

...There are a couple of "issues" I have with the app - first is that the POI aiming seems to happen between the 1st and 2nd waypoints - I want it aimed right from the first waypoint. Yes, I can add a waypoint before the 1st one, but that's a pain. Being able to add actions to curved waypoints could fix this. Second, the aim isn't always great - I'm always having to tweak and move the POIs and change their altitudes; it seems hard to get it right the first (or second or third) time. Third, and this is more of a feature request, I wish that altitudes of waypoints and POIs could be expressed as above local ground level and not relative to the take-off position. It would be very convenient to be able to takeoff from any location and not worry about it's altitude relative to the waypoints and POI.

Very good points.

I plan to play with it some more. Hopefully I'll ultimately find it better than my fist experience demonstrates.

One question for you: Do you have your waypoints go to more than 1 POI, and do you find focus issues when doing that?

 

[Dragonfly]

I took a look at some videos. None of the 'tutorial' videos were very good, and frankly left me with a bad taste. It makes it seem like quite a bit of programming needed to use: building boxes around everything, setting heights on all of it etc. I understand the though behind that, but seems like a lot of effort. I may play with it, but that's my initial take away from some very poor demo videos. Some of them even put the building of it into fast forward to not make it seem so obvious about the time expended.

You dont have to build anything if you dont want to. That is only if you ate doing exact work around buildings.
There are many many modes to DH including free planning and waypoint missions which are alot simpler than litchi and allow more control over camera and POIs, but hey, stick with Litchi and struggle on becuase you judge a book by its cover.

 

[56_kruiser]

... but hey, stick with Litchi and struggle on becuase you judge a book by its cover.

No need to get the shorts stretched up all tight...I was just reporting my thoughts based on what I did say were lousy videos.

 

[jag32266]

I forgot to mention in my post,.. on the page they have on FB I have left messages basically requesting some of the same features we are iscussing here. The take about a day to respond but as I have left them several they have replied to several. So I encourage you to leave msg's there cuz the more they see the more they know we want.

In one reply they did mention in so many words,they are slightly handcuffed by the DJI s/w itself. I took from that they meant theirs is an 'overlay' of the djigo4 and that if the function wasn't already IN the s/w they could not add it. Meaning if a function exist then yes, they can dress is up- but if it is not there,.. pls correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[lisadoc]

I would say that you all are very judgmental without much experience in the app and/or its use. Litchi is by far one of the better programs out there and is consistently easy to use. There are a few gripes here and there but this is true for all of the apps. It's also one of the most user-friendly apps going (try Autopilot for a comparison), but it sacrifices some features in order to stay user friendly.

In terms of the Mission Hub, all you need to do is create an account and log in with that each time. Mission Hub works perfectly well on Chrome, along with most of the other major browsers. DOn't know why anyone would say that it doesn't work on Chrome. To log in to your account (or to create one), just click on the arrow box in the upper right-hand corner (next to the Litchi logo). It's that simple. Same goes for your device app. Saving and loading missions is accomplished in the lower left corner.

For focus and such during missions, you should be sticking with POIs at roughly the same effective distance. Yes, Litchi is hamstrung by the DJI SDK, but it does what it can control well. If you want something with more manual control, use Autopilot (as it doesn't rely on DJI's SDK).

Frankly, I'm amazed that people would bash Litchi as being difficult to figure out or use. If you can figure out DJI Go, then you can figure out Litchi.

 

[kgreylgrey]

Lisadoc, I never said Litchi doesn't work on Chrome. I said I was in Litchi, using Chrome for my browser, exited and when I tried to go back into Litchi using Chrome, and it did not work. All I saw was a world map, with no way to log in. This condition persisted over the week end and I was able to use Chrome with all other URLs. As of this morning, Litchi and Chrome are playing well together. However, the general mission setting of Auto (TNW) still doesn't work. Just making a clarification and a FYI.

I also agree that Litchi is a great product, overall. But I would add that I think the ideal learning path would be:

1. Learn how to fly the drone well in GPS mode.

2. Learn how to setup the Mavic camera settings to produce what you would consider a good video while flying in Tripod Mode or using Litchi with just two way points and slow speed. The camera settings have been and still are very challenging for me.

3. Then tackle more sophisticated and complex missions using Litchi.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[royster]

I agree, I;ve found Litchi to be very user friendly, especially for us "computer illiterate" types.
I;m using Litch for 95% of my flying now, maybe if they stopped releasing GO4 updates every 10 minutes I'd have some faith in it!

 

[56_kruiser]

As the OP of this thread, I'll give you a reply to your thoughts, in blue in the quoted post of yours.

I would say that you all are very judgmental without much experience in the app and/or its use. Litchi is by far one of the better programs out there and is consistently easy to use. There are a few gripes here and there but this is true for all of the apps. It's also one of the most user-friendly apps going (try Autopilot for a comparison), but it sacrifices some features in order to stay user friendly.

To be sure, my initial opening and post to this thread was not intended to be critical of the Litchi app. It was my very first flight, and expected to hear about all the things I was doing wrong, and getting suggestions.

The app does seem very user friendly, but of course it needs to be understood how it works, and any limitations that it does have.

In terms of the Mission Hub, all you need to do is create an account and log in with that each time. Mission Hub works perfectly well on Chrome, along with most of the other major browsers. DOn't know why anyone would say that it doesn't work on Chrome. To log in to your account (or to create one), just click on the arrow box in the upper right-hand corner (next to the Litchi logo). It's that simple. Same goes for your device app. Saving and loading missions is accomplished in the lower left corner.

I did all of that. Thinking back on it, the way I logged in was I created my first way point flight, then I clicked save, and it prompted me to login. I had no idea that the arrow pointing to the right at top was for logging in. I'm used to seeing 'Login' for login.

But, after flying the first test flight, when I wanted to open the mission, the screen from within Chrome was not showing anything: no icons, just the Google Earth map. Once I went over to Edge, it worked fine from there. Like kgreylgrey, it now works fine. Something was screwy for a while on that day.

For focus and such during missions, you should be sticking with POIs at roughly the same effective distance. Yes, Litchi is hamstrung by the DJI SDK, but it does what it can control well. If you want something with more manual control, use Autopilot (as it doesn't rely on DJI's SDK).

Good advice, and appreciated. I had decided that was what I probably would need to do. I guess the best thing to do for focus, is manually fly the drone to (or at least close enough to) the first Waypoint and get it focused, then start the mission.

Frankly, I'm amazed that people would bash Litchi as being difficult to figure out or use. If you can figure out DJI Go, then you can figure out Litchi.

I appreciate your input. I also appreciate that you didn't bash me and fellow participants in this thread. Everyone has different experiences, skills, and preferences. I like what I see with Litchie, and hope to make good use of it.

That being said, I think every app will have it's advantages and disadvantages. I plan to understand several, including Harmony, and ultimately decide on which one, or however many, meet my needs.

 

[Mossiback]

...As for the flight, here are a couple of my experiences, and not sure what to think:

• I had set a Point of Interest, and had the flight 'Focus on POI'. I'm guessing I need to still be watching and constantly click on the screen to focus. So it's not 'Focus on POI', it's 'Point at POI', it seems. Entire video was out of focus.
• It paused at each way point, maybe a second, and occasionally even a couple. No smooth continuation of the flight.

Is that what I should expect from this app? Thought I'd ask before I spend a lot of time trying to see what I did wrong...

I can't help with Mission Hub because I have not used it. But to address your two bullet points:

• Litchi uses the word "Focus" to mean point the camera, not the actual focus of the camera lens. It has a "feature" to set the camera focus on takeoff, which will probably set the camera focus on something close. What I do is have the first waypoint close to where I want to start filming and when it get there I pause the mission and set my parameters (camera focus, white balance, etc.). When the camera is set up I then start recording and resume the mission.
• As mentioned in #7 above, set the mission to use curved waypoints for continuous movement. It sucks that the waypoint options are not available using curves.