Forest Transition - a work in progress...

[RadioFlyerMan]

I started this in early spring, and will continue through fall and winter. We'll see what happens... (alignment is difficult).

 

[Thomas B]

Great effort and transitions... conveyed the title well.

 

[Twocalf]

I started this in early spring, and will continue through fall and winter. We'll see what happens... (alignment is difficult).

So did you just use some "landmarks" to get each shot lined up or did you have a set of waypoints to fly?

 

[akh023]

I love this video, the way you are putting it together is amazing.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

So did you just use some "landmarks" to get each shot lined up or did you have a set of waypoints to fly?

I did both. I first set a two point waypoint mission to take me to a starting location, an altitude, and a general direction. Then I set my gimbal angle to the same point via the scale on the screen with the dot and all. Then I lined up a visible and repeatable landmark in the far distance with one of the vertical grid bars on my screen and kept it there during the flight. Finally, I start recording and fly forward manually.

Now here's the thing.... For a few of my paths (I have 4 that I'm working on), the entire shot was longer than 500m from home point. So I could not use waypoints, and that's why the actual shot was flown manually.

HOWEVER, today I did an experiment with waypoints and discovered you can overcome the 500m limit. In the event one of the points is greater than 500m from the home point, I simply reset the home point to where I am at, and then continue recording points. While doing this, it is risky since my home point may be over trees or dense forest. But it only has to be done once. When it is played back, it does not care if the mission goes beyond 500m from HP.

Sooooo, I'm going to create new WP missions to follow the entire forest transition path and eliminate the manual part of the flight. We'll see what happens.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I love this video, the way you are putting it together is amazing.

Thank you.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Great effort and transitions... conveyed the title well.

Thank you.

 

[Twocalf]

I did both. I first set a two point waypoint mission to take me to a starting location, an altitude, and a general direction. Then I set my gimbal angle to the same point via the scale on the screen with the dot and all. Then I lined up an visible and repeatable landmark in the far distance with one of the vertical grid bars on my screen and kept it there during the flight. Finally, I start recording and fly forward manually.

Now here's the thing.... For a few of my paths (I have 4 that I'm working on), the entire shot was longer than 500m from home point. So I could not use waypoints, and that's why the actual shot was flown manually.

HOWEVER, today I did an experiment with waypoints and discovered you can overcome the 500m limit. In the event one of the points is greater than 500m from the home point, I simply reset the home point to where I am at, and then continue recording points. While doing this, it is risky since my home point may be over trees or dense forest. But it only has to be done once. When it is played back, it does not care if the mission goes beyond 500m from HP.

Sooooo, I'm going to create new WP missions to follow the entire forest transition path and eliminate the manual part of the flight. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for the detailed descriptions. I wasn't aware of the 500m limit, are you talking total mission or 1 waypoint being more than 500m VLOS from HP? I had a bad experience with my first waypoint mission and have yet to try one again but I plan on laying out another one soon!

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Thanks for the detailed descriptions. I wasn't aware of the 500m limit, are you talking total mission or 1 waypoint being more than 500m VLOS from HP? I had a bad experience with my first waypoint mission and have yet to try one again but I plan on laying out another one soon!

The algorithm used by GO 4 is that no single point can be recorded if that point is greater than 500m (1640 feet) radius from your current home point. Now there is also a limit to the total length of the mission of 5000m or 16400 ft., but I don't find that as a problem.

By the way, when I do the risky thing of setting my home point out in the boonies, I beforehand set my signal lost setting to Hover instead of RTH. Then watch the map to know where that point is in case it loses signal. Now I'm not miles away, and I make sure I have plenty of signal before doing this. Again, such a risky move only has to be while recording the mission.

 

[Twocalf]

The algorithm used by GO 4 is that no single point can be recorded if that point is greater than 500m (1640 feet) radius from your current home point. Now there is also a limit to the total length of the mission of 5000m or 16400 ft., but I don't find that as a problem.

By the way, when I do the risky thing of setting my home point out in the boonies, I beforehand set my signal lost setting to Hover instead of RTH. Then watch the map to know where that point is in case it loses signal. Now I'm not miles away, and I make sure I have plenty of signal before doing this. Again, such a risky move only has to be while recording the mission.

Gotcha. I'll probably keep my waypoint missions relatively close to the launch/HP until I have my training wheels under me. I hope to setup a seasonal video of my pasture ground changing with the seasons similar to your forest transition video that you're working on.

 

[ClaudioSr]

Wow, this is beautiful!!!!!! I'd love to watch the final work. By the way, the music was perfect for the project in my opinion.

 

[passedpawn]

Cool video. Loved the music, from one of my favorite movies.

 

[RTI Glen]

Mi gusto

 

[davidzimagery]

I thought of doing something like this. I started trying to set it up and have run into a major life disruption. Seeing this has reignited that inspiration, and once through this issue, I hope to follow through. Since you say a work in progress, I look forward to seeing the complete cycle of changes. The information on how you set things up is helpful.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I thought of doing something like this. I started trying to set it up and have run into a major life disruption. Seeing this has reignited that inspiration, and once through this issue, I hope to follow through. Since you say a work in progress, I look forward to seeing the complete cycle of changes. The information on how you set things up is helpful.

It will be interesting to complete it with the turning of leaves and the coming winter snow.
I have one I'm working on for a single maple tree. I'm starting near ground level and just fly upward to the top of the tree. It will then change through the seasons.

 

[passedpawn]

I haven't tried the waypoints feature, but this gives me a reason. We don't get much of a seasonal change down here in the sunshine state tho.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I thought of doing something like this. I started trying to set it up and have run into a major life disruption. Seeing this has reignited that inspiration, and once through this issue, I hope to follow through. Since you say a work in progress, I look forward to seeing the complete cycle of changes. The information on how you set things up is helpful.

Here's my example of a single tree transition. It's a lot less work than a forest path project. Poor video but you get the idea...

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I have an update regarding using waypoints to run a path multiple times throughout the year. My bottom line is it does not work; it is way too inconsistent, either because of variability due to wind or compass or IMU variations.

The approach I have been using is to let waypoints get me to the starting position and altitude, then use alignment with something in the horizon while flying manually, especially for the longer paths. Today, I set up a rather long path using solely waypoints, then ran it three times using either route linked or free form methods and using manual yaw alignment. None of them worked well with respect to accurate yaw positioning of the camera. It was most difficult to keep the alignment without being jerky.

This is on an MPP, so maybe you can have better positioning with M2P. For me, I'm going back to my original approach.