Introducing Dronelink

[2nd2non]

I’ve come to understand that many tech services have moved to subscription. There are pros/cons to any subscription service, but as a commercial drone pilot with low to moderate income from it, the value exceeds the cost. I’m just able to scale it quickly for construction progress imaging (especially when the customer ask for slight changes). The mission preview alone makes it worth it to avoid burning through batteries and time with trial and error.

 

[franknitty69]

found out about dronlink last week from another companies email. checked it out and was impressed. played around with it, signed up and flew my first mission with a mavic pro. flawless.

 

[Dan C]

found out about dronlink last week from another companies email. checked it out and was impressed. played around with it, signed up and flew my first mission with a mavic pro. flawless.

That's great news.

Be aware that development is ongoing, too. It's only getting even better with time.

 

[MontanaFree]

Will it be possible to import waypoints missions from Litchi or the DJO Go4 app (waypoints.db)?

 

[AnzacJack]

I think that even at consumer level, considering the $ some of us spend on this past time of droning, the dronelink pricing plan is quite reasonable

 

[MontanaFree]

I am curious how you guys actually use Dronelink.
For me it is a major drawback that I cannot control the gimbal angle when out of reach of the RC.
What kind of missions are you doing? I you loose connection with the drone none of the instructions besides flight path are performed. Are you only performing missions VLOS?
(I'd like to add that all apps written with the SDK have this limitiations, but DJI GO 4 does not).

 

[dronelink]

development is ongoing, too.

Here is a sneak peek of our facade scan testing. We are using existing component types (Path and Orbit) to prove it out, and then we will release a Facade component type when feel like the requirements are locked down. Click here to see the mission plan for this preview:

Will it be possible to import waypoints missions from Litchi or the DJO Go4 app (waypoints.db)?

Check out these posts from our forum, and go upvote the features on our product roadmap. All of this is coming!

I you loose connection with the drone none of the instructions besides flight path are performed.

Dronelink does not support lost connection mission continuation (LCMC). If the connection is lost it will return home.

Are you only performing missions VLOS?

This is currently the law in most places including the US, so we hope so. Having said that, we understand there are specific times and places and authorizations that can allow BVLOS operations, and we have an item on the roadmap for "DJI Waypoints", meaning use DJI's onboard flight controller like DJI GO and Litchi (and most other apps) so that the mission continues even after signal loss. Just be aware that if we implement this feature, you will lose much of the functionality that makes Dronelink unique and powerful (just like when you select LCMC in Autopilot). FWIW, after much feedback from the community in the Autopilot days, I decided to roll out the LCMC feature and the usage numbers didn't lie. Less than 1% of all missions used it because people didn't want to give up the features that the Autopilot flight controller offered over the onboard flight controller. There is no reason to believe Dronelink will be any different.

 

[2nd2non]

Wow this will be really handy!

 

[Roamer105]

Here is a sneak peek of our facade scan testing. We are using existing component types (Path and Orbit) to prove it out, and then we will release a Facade component type when feel like the requirements are locked down. Click here to see the mission plan for this preview:

View attachment 82237


Check out these posts from our forum, and go upvote the features on our product roadmap. All of this is coming!


Dronelink does not support lost connection mission continuation (LCMC). If the connection is lost it will return home.


This is currently the law in most places including the US, so we hope so. Having said that, we understand there are specific times and places and authorizations that can allow BVLOS operations, and we have an item on the roadmap for "DJI Waypoints", meaning use DJI's onboard flight controller like DJI GO and Litchi (and most other apps) so that the mission continues even after signal loss. Just be aware that if we implement this feature, you will lose much of the functionality that makes Dronelink unique and powerful (just like when you select LCMC in Autopilot). FWIW, after much feedback from the community in the Autopilot days, I decided to roll out the LCMC feature and the usage numbers didn't lie. Less than 1% of all missions used it because people didn't want to give up the features that the Autopilot flight controller offered over the onboard flight controller. There is no reason to believe Dronelink will be any different.

It very much depends what the mission purpose is. All of my missions over the years had been to shoot scenery mostly through mountainous terrain precisely because communications would be spotty. It often difficult if not impossible to find a high spot that will guarantee connectivity. So clearly the trade off is functionality/control against mission path continuation.

 

[Roamer105]

found out about dronlink last week from another companies email. checked it out and was impressed. played around with it, signed up and flew my first mission with a mavic pro. flawless.

No doubt! Dronelink is a great product and will continue to get even better. Controlling any DJI Drone other than an M2P will produce fantastic cinematic video results. Unfortunately the M2P, even after the latest firmware upgrade, still shows a bit of jerkiness when panning in automated flights. It improved a lot but the problem is not completely eliminated. However pan-shots are smooth enough now that the stabilization in the studio version of Davinci Resolve is capable of smoothing them out.

 

[SaskDJI]

Does Dronelink have the ability to do a ‘follow me’ based on the GPS location of the controller? This is why I purchased Autopilot, but unfortunately was never able to get the Mavic Air to follow at 24mph (which is what I need for my application). Follow Me doesn’t work in Sport Mode, but I had read that if you disable the vision sensors, you can get more speed out of it. I was able to get about 20-21mph in my tests, but would like to find a way to get the speeds that I need. Just wondering if Dronelink would work...

 

[dronelink]

Does Dronelink have the ability to do a ‘follow me’ based on the GPS location of the controller?

On the roadmap.

Follow Me doesn’t work in Sport Mode, but I had read that if you disable the vision sensors, you can get more speed out of it.

The DJI SDK does not work in sport mode either.

 

[SaskDJI]

On the roadmap.


The DJI SDK does not work in sport mode either.

Thanks for the reply. That’s what I had figured (I think I read that somewhere before) - but had to ask.

Do you think it’ll ever be possible to get a follow me mode to go 24-26mph without sport mode?

 

[dronelink]

Thanks for the reply. That’s what I had figured (I think I read that somewhere before) - but had to ask.

Do you think it’ll ever be possible to get a follow me mode to go 24-26mph without sport mode?

It is possible by using percentage based commands (over velocity and course) and if you are flying downwind, but it would be quite a bit of code to fit a very specific use case that not too many people are asking for.

 

[SaskDJI]

It is possible by using percentage based commands (over velocity and course) and if you are flying downwind, but it would be quite a bit of code to fit a very specific use case that not too many people are asking for.

Totally understand. Good to know though. Thanks again!

 

[dronelink]

We are excited to announce that Dronelink is now free for individuals that want to fly missions for non-commercial purposes. This includes recreational and educational users, and even professionals that are looking to test Dronelink before making a commitment.

Our long-term mission has always been to make Dronelink available to as many people as possible, and we are grateful that the incredible demand for the pro, team, and enterprise plans is allowing us to make our product available to you at no cost. We believe that using automation is the first step toward flying commercial missions, but if you just want to have fun with it (and maybe help us test new features along the way), enjoy!

For those of you who already paid for a Pro account and are not flying commercially, contact support and we will happily give you a refund.

 

[HawkEye76]

We are excited to announce that Dronelink is now free for individuals that want to fly missions for non-commercial purposes. This includes recreational and educational users, and even professionals that are looking to test Dronelink before making a commitment.

Our long-term mission has always been to make Dronelink available to as many people as possible, and we are grateful that the incredible demand for the pro, team, and enterprise plans is allowing us to make our product available to you at no cost. We believe that using automation is the first step toward flying commercial missions, but if you just want to have fun with it (and maybe help us test new features along the way), enjoy!

For those of you who already paid for a Pro account and are not flying commercially, contact support and we will happily give you a refund.

Wow! That is good news!

 

[Jerry]

Was excited to try this out, unfortunately I can’t get the app to load on my iPad 11, I get a black screen with logo, then the app just closes after couple of seconds

 

[zappy54]

Yes me too the app just crashes on iPad mini 5 iOS 13.1.2

 

[Jerry]

Hopefully this will be sorted soon zappy54