Launching Waypoint Mission

[techandfitness]

I am about to purchase Litchi but wanted to ask a question beforehand. More out of curiosity then a need. If I plan a mission at home and go out flying say a few miles away from the planned mission and launch it what will happen? I am assuming it knows the coordinates of the first way point and will make its way there? I suppose there is no danger as long as the altitude is set high enough for it to make it clearly?

 

[the88man]

Yes it will go to the first point then start the mission.

 

[techandfitness]

Yes it will go to the first point then start the mission.

And if incorrect settings were over looked with disconnection then it could turn fatal correct? If disconnect I understand you can tell it what to do in case of losing communication.

 

[namirda]

And if incorrect settings were over looked with disconnection then it could turn fatal correct? If disconnect I understand you can tell it what to do in case of losing communication.

When you click the button to start a mission, Litchi uploads all the waypoint info and some other settings to the drone. One of those settings is the "Finish Action" which tells the drone what to do at the end of the mission. After upload of the mission data, the drone will fly to the first WP and will complete the mission REGARDLESS of what happens to the RC connection.

I have tested this by switching off my controller part way through a Litchi Mission - all was well, the drone completed the mission and then came home.

For this reason, if you are flying a Litchi mission far away from your RC location, I would definitely put RTH as the "Finish Action" in Litchi Mission Settings.

 

[Mossiback]

...If I plan a mission at home and go out flying say a few miles away from the planned mission and launch it what will happen? I am assuming it knows the coordinates of the first way point and will make its way there? I suppose there is no danger as long as the altitude is set high enough for it to make it clearly?

One advantage of using Litchi Waypoint is being able to set it up ahead of time. That being said, it would be insane to start a mission a few miles away from the first way point for several reasons:

• You will lose VLOS. You will not be able to see the Mavic to take control if needed.
• You may lose RC connection. Litchi will continue the mission in this case but you are turning control of your expensive equipment to technology, just hoping it works correctly to get it back.
• You have to be 100% correct with your mission: height of obstacles, wires, other items that may not show up on a map/satellite picture can cause a crash.
• You have to have enough battery to make it back. Wind direction/speed aloft is often much different than at launch point and you may need to alter the height or use Sport mode to compensate. This is difficult to do if you cannot see it or lose RC control.
• All of the waypoint height settings are based on your launch point. If you launch downhill from your mission the difference will not be compensated for. There may be a way around this using Google Earth to set height but I have not tried it.
• You have to confirm that the camera is in focus and pointed in the right direction. Cannot be done without connection to the app.

I could go on but basically, this is a bad idea. The first time I fly a Waypoint mission, I am watching with my finger over the pause button. Even if it is set up properly there could be a bird strike or hardware failure knocking it out of the sky. If you are a few miles away and that happens, good luck finding it.

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

Do NOT launch far away from point 1. There IS danger. This is not a good idea and will only become a worse idea as you get farther away. You most likely WILL lose radio contact and all manual control if you are a few miles away, and the mission will continue regardless (at whatever speed it was traveling when signal was lost), but the Mavic will initiate a low-battery RTH at some point and abort the mission, if you have low-battery RTH enabled. At best, I would only plan a 5 to 6-mile round trip mission that was 15-17 minutes in length maximum, to allow for a margin of safety, which means flying fast and shooting poor video. Plan missions meticulously, use Google Earth to review them and make changes. Look at forum member Namirda's software called "Virtual Litchi Mission". It works very well for previewing your proposed flight almost exactly as it will be flown (using Google Earth).