DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Litchi for mavic air 2

disco1stu

Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2020
Messages
8
Reactions
14
Age
44
Location
AZ
Uggh, I misread the supported version from litchi (looks like only mavic air and not mavic air 2). I had the spark, and the most fun part for me by far was programming litchi waypoints, but the short flight time was an issue. So I upgraded to mavic air 2 and have great flight time but lost the litchi functionality :( I understand they've been saying support is coming out for a while, but there is no firm date yet. I was considering biting the bullet and upgrading to the mavic pro or mavic pro 2, but I understand they are louder than then the mavic air 2? The low noise (particularly the low pitch) is one of my favorite things about mavic air 2, as it can hardly be heard at 100m height if there is a bit of background noise. Funny enough, this is my third drone - first I bought the mini but returned it because I learned about litchi. Then I bought the spark, but the short flight time was a big issue. So I thought 3d time would be the charm with the mavic air 2, but apparently not...

Has anyone heard anything new about when mavic air 2 might be supported by litchi? From the sounds of it, the mavic mini is close to having it, and is currently in beta. But it sounds like they are further away from supporting mavic air 2 if I'm reading it right. So it looks like as of right now, if I would like to have 30 min + flight time, low noise/pitch, and litchi support I can only pick 2 out of the 3 for the foreseeable future. Part of me wants to just hang on to the mavic air 2 and wait for litchi support - but who knows how long that will take. I'd probably be better off waiting to buy it as it may have come down in price by then, or some new model has been released. I am also quite interested in skydio 2, which looks like it will be available in december so I might go that route.
 
Bottom line, Litchi requires the Mavic Air 2 SDK to work. Until DJI makes that available, and Litchi writes the code to support the MA2 with the SDK, you can't use Litchi with the MA2. It is really in DJI's hands to first release the MA2 SDK. Same with the MA2 SC support, that DJI just enabled. Patience, Grasshopper!
 
Bottom line, Litchi requires the Mavic Air 2 SDK to work. Until DJI makes that available, and Litchi writes the code to support the MA2 with the SDK, you can't use Litchi with the MA2. It is really in DJI's hands to first release the MA2 SDK. Same with the MA2 SC support, that DJI just enabled. Patience, Grasshopper!

OK so first DJI needs to release the sdk, and only after that can litchi begin the actual development on their end, and then beta testing etc? So even if dji releases it tomorrow we're still at least a few months off. Looks like the mavic mini sdk was released in July, and is in Beta as of October, so assuming similar development cycle it should be 3-6 months from whenever DJI releases the sdk, which is still TBD. ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: GadgetGuy
OK so first DJI needs to release the sdk, and only after that can litchi begin the actual development on their end, and then beta testing etc? So even if dji releases it tomorrow we're still at least a few months off. Looks like the mavic mini sdk was released in July, and is in Beta as of October, so assuming similar development cycle it should be 3-6 months from whenever DJI releases the sdk, which is still TBD. [emoji24]

You got it. I contacted the Litchi folks and they say DJI is estimating the SDK towards the end of the year. So it will be a long wait.
 
  • Like
Reactions: disco1stu
Litchi Support (VC Technology Ltd)

14 Sep 2020, 10:27 BST

Hi,

DJI has said they will add support for the Mavic Air 2 in a future SDK update towards the end of the year. This update is required for Litchi to support this drone. At the moment we don't have more details on which feature will be supported.
Kind Regards,
Litchi
Online help at Help - Litchi
 
  • Like
Reactions: J Herb
It was only a few weeks for Litchi to support the Mini after the SDK was released.
Yes and I suspect the same will be true after the MA2 SDK is released by DJI. Litchi is eager to support the MA2, too (huge market increase for Litchi!), so Litchi will make it a top priority, and get it out quickly. DJI releasing the MA2 SDK is the only real hold up.
 
What was that movie with the line: “...patience grasshopper.. “ ?
 
I'm thankful DJI actually puts out a SDK for their aircraft, so I don't mind the wait. All that Litichi and DroneLink show for supported aircraft are the ones from DJI. These other drone makers are missing out for third party developers to develop specialized apps which would more than likely help increase sales.
 
Does it have traditional waypoints? Not referring to virtual sticks.
 
Does it have traditional waypoints? Not referring to virtual sticks.
There's a thread on the DJI board discussing it (the thread is a bit of a cesspool so I'm going to copy some of the more worthwhile responses) - I'm staying optimistic because at the moment this is a go/nogo for me, but it sounds like DJI is claiming there are memory usage issues preventing them from implementing it.

I like dronelink for most things but using it for video captures with my mini was never as smooth as Litchi is with my larger professional drones and tends to be quite jerky. If this improved I'd probably be quite happy with it.

I would like to clarify something for everyone watching this forum topic.

The Software Development Kit only grants access to the pre-existing functions of a drone's firmware and hardware but the SDK can not change what is under the hood. So the SDK can only expose already existing features of a drone. Which means, any current limitations of the drone will continue to apply since these are dictated by the drone's firmware/hardware.

To know what features are possible with the Mavic Air 2 please navigate to the product page here: Mavic Air 2 - Up Your Game - DJI and read over the manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... Manual_v1.2_en_.pdf

In the manual, there is a section called "Intelligent Flight Mode" and there is not a waypoint feature here outside of the limited 1-5 waypoints to make a timelapse video. DJI's SDK engineers do not have any control overthis and if anyone would like to request this as a feature please email [email protected] or go to DJI's main product forum here: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... r=typeid&typeid=556
I understand your frustration and hear your feedback. I think everyone is right to want Waypoints from the MA2, since it's the next generation of Mavic Air and should be better.

What I want to make sure to do, is to pass on to the developers reading this forum what to really expect even if it's not what they want to hear. And sadly it's not up to the SDK to offer waypoints, if the hardware doesn't support it. However, automated flight is possible using virtual sticks which will be up to developers to offer for the MA2.
The SDK is already capable of supporting waypoints, so the limitation is in the M2A hardware. However, automated flights using virtual sticks is still possible with the MA2 and it will be up to each app developer to offer that option for their users.
I'm not sure if I'm responding to a software developer or a pilot who wants to use 3rd party apps - so I'll give you two answers:

3rd party app developers will be able to support MA2 after DJI's next SDK release - it will likely take them time to adopt the new version and it is up to the developer if they will support MA2

As a developer, the MA2 hardware doesn't support DJI's waypoints APIs, however the SDK does offer virtual sticks control over the drone which is an alternate way to make automated waypoint flight available to users of your app

073613hkfn01ll99n9nkat.png
 
There's a thread on the DJI board discussing it (the thread is a bit of a cesspool so I'm going to copy some of the more worthwhile responses) - I'm staying optimistic because at the moment this is a go/nogo for me, but it sounds like DJI is claiming there are memory usage issues preventing them from implementing it.

I like dronelink for most things but using it for video captures with my mini was never as smooth as Litchi is with my larger professional drones and tends to be quite jerky. If this improved I'd probably be quite happy with it.






073613hkfn01ll99n9nkat.png

Meanwhile the original Mavic Air SDK fully supported waypoint missions, even though DJI Go 4 didn't have that functionality for the MA1. So this excuse for not adding waypoint to the MA2 SDK doesn't hold water.
 
DJI announced the release of the DJI Mobile SDK 4.14.
This version of UX SDK introduces support for Mavic Air 2 and fixes for various bugs.
Litchi will be an option in a near futur !
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,987
Messages
1,558,666
Members
159,981
Latest member
bbj5143