Litchi for DJI Drones 2.9.0 (2700) - added Orbit mode for Mavic Mini - (IOS) BETA

zeusfl · Oct 23, 2020

Litchi for DJI Drones 2.9.0 (2700) is ready to test on iOS.

What to Test:

- added Orbit mode for Mavic Mini
- added Simulator mode that can be used to simulate a flight, enable/disable it with a long press on the top bar's flight mode (requires a connection to the drone)
- misc improvements and bug fixes

To test this app, open TestFlight on your iOS device using iOS 9.0 or later and install the update.

By using Litchi for DJI Drones, you agree that crash data as well as statistics about how you use Litchi for DJI Drones will be provided to VC Technology Ltd and linked to your email address. VC Technology Ltd may contact you regarding this information. Review the TestFlight Terms and Conditions, as well as the terms, policies, and practices of VC Technology Ltd. Beta versions of apps may crash or result in data loss.

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KiloMeater · Oct 23, 2020

Looking forward for tests of the orbit

Kyle76 · Oct 23, 2020

It will be interesting to see if Litchi has solved the jerkiness that plagues Dronelink orbits.

karlblessing · Oct 23, 2020

Kyle76 said:
It will be interesting to see if Litchi has solved the jerkiness that plagues Dronelink orbits.

You mean when it rotates the aircraft to keep subject centered? I haven't tried it in Orbit, but I know in Focus (sets to point to a specific GPS position), it's horizontal rotation does seem a bit erratic as opposed to smoothly rotating to fit.

Example around the 30 second mark panning off to the right, then the little jerk over around 43 seconds to recenter to target

Likewise here thru the whole thing though a little more subtle.

It seems better when the marked GPS location is further away (and by that a bit more often to be in the frame)

The "Start" button is hit 30 seconds in, sorry for the delay of configuring while recording.

But seems to handle the tilting pretty decently (as I guess the gimbal is more suited for small adjustments).

maelstrom · Oct 23, 2020

Kyle76 said:
It will be interesting to see if Litchi has solved the jerkiness that plagues Dronelink orbits.

A lot of issues people have with Dronelink are down to trying to run it on a phone with a low-power processor. As all the work is being done by the app using the “virtual sticks“ method, the faster the processor, the smoother the flight. I’d guess that Litchi will have similar performance with this sort of feature.

Kyle76 · Oct 23, 2020

I’m running an iPhone XS, which I think is plenty of processing power on the phone. The Dronelink guys blamed it on processing limitations of the Mini. It just can’t handle the commands necessary for a smooth orbit of a small diameter.

Flaming · Oct 23, 2020

The update for Android is also available

dronelink · Oct 24, 2020

We have been doing a lot of testing on the upcoming GPS-based follow mode with the Mini and have noticed that, despite the fact that we are sending a constant rotational velocity command to the drone, it will randomly have dramatic jerks to the left or right. Yesterday was particularly windy, so as best as we can tell, this drone basically gets shoved around in the air very easily because it is so light. I'm not really sure how that is going to be a solvable problem in software. The onboard 2-axis gimbal tries to account for stuff like this already of course, but it runs at much lower latency (single digit milliseconds), and it only has so much physical space to use.

W5CI · Oct 24, 2020

zeusfl said:
Litchi for DJI Drones 2.9.0 (2700) is ready to test on iOS.

What to Test:

- added Orbit mode for Mavic Mini
- added Simulator mode that can be used to simulate a flight, enable/disable it with a long press on the top bar's flight mode (requires a connection to the drone)
- misc improvements and bug fixes

To test this app, open TestFlight on your iOS device using iOS 9.0 or later and install the update.

By using Litchi for DJI Drones, you agree that crash data as well as statistics about how you use Litchi for DJI Drones will be provided to VC Technology Ltd and linked to your email address. VC Technology Ltd may contact you regarding this information. Review the TestFlight Terms and Conditions, as well as the terms, policies, and practices of VC Technology Ltd. Beta versions of apps may crash or result in data loss.

TestFlight is a service provided by Apple.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe
Copyright © 2020 Apple Inc. One Apple Park Way
Cupertino, CA 95014, United States.

What is Litchi ? and where is it avialable. I am using an iPhone 11 Pro Max

KiloMeater · Oct 24, 2020

I tried it today, I liked especially the fact that you can control all aspects of the orbit with the sticks manually while the Mini preserves its cyclical trajectory

Capt KO · Oct 24, 2020

Still no "follow" in ios, for the mini. Sounds like orbit works good though.

deani77 · Oct 25, 2020

Using follow me mode. Vehicle speed range 30-40kmh

karlblessing · Oct 25, 2020

deani77 said:
Using follow me mode. Vehicle speed range 30-40kmh

I feel like I'd lose a drone doing that.

On the note of the jerky-ish adjustments, I'm curious what device you were using with the controller since dronelink above mentioned that how 'smooth' the adjustments can be can be heavily influenced on how powerful/fast the phone or tablet is.

lowellton · Oct 26, 2020

Waiting for official release here. Thanks

dronelink · Oct 26, 2020

karlblessing said:
dronelink above mentioned that how 'smooth' the adjustments can be can be heavily influenced on how powerful/fast the phone or tablet is.

Not saying that a slow device cannot cause jerky movements, but our most recent testing was with a modern / fast device, and we still saw it happening, even while sending a constant rotational velocity command to the drone. Will continue to do more testing but that doesn't bode well from being able to correct this issue in software (as it sounds like it is either physics or hardware/firmware related).

deani77 · Oct 26, 2020

karlblessing said:
I feel like I'd lose a drone doing that.

On the note of the jerky-ish adjustments, I'm curious what device you were using with the controller since dronelink above mentioned that how 'smooth' the adjustments can be can be heavily influenced on how powerful/fast the phone or tablet is.

Using my OP7 for this video... Since the first video I taken using earlier version of this software, in this new version look better

KiloMeater · Oct 26, 2020

My MM in follow me mode using litchi

maelstrom · Oct 26, 2020

KiloMeater said:
My MM in follow me mode using litchi

I thought follow didn’t work with iOS devices (the subject of this thread).

ff22 · Oct 26, 2020

deani77 said:
Using follow me mode. Vehicle speed range 30-40kmh

Duly impressed. Thanks for sharing.

EyesWideShut · Nov 1, 2020

I believe Litchi's latest iOS beta version for the Mavic Mini is 2.9.0 (2700) and it doesn't have a "Follow Mode". I have seen several videos showing the MM following your phone either behind in Leash Mode or staying in front from the side. I drop down Mode menu just has FPV, Waypoint (n/a yet), Orbit, Pano, Focus. Has the Follow Mode been discontinued in iOS 2.9.0 (2700)? I haven't seen an answer in scrolling through this thread.

@KiloMeater are you using Android. Oops, I think I just answered my own question, is Follow only available with Android? But does the Litchi Leash App which has the mini follow another phone while also under your own phone's control work with iOS or just Android as I've seen in videos??