Litchi Orbit, very disappointed

[EpicFlight]

I've been using Litchi off and on for years, been happy with it until now.

Tried orbiting a POI with mini 2, although this applies to all DJI Fly operated drones.

The Orbit was unusable for filming. Constant jerky correction getting the POI recentered in frame.

I can fly a much smoother Orbit with the sticks myself, so Litchi can too. Fix this, Litchi... you're our only option now.

 

[teccer]

I've been using Litchi off and on for years, been happy with it until now.

Tried orbiting a POI with mini 2, although this applies to all DJI Fly operated drones.

The Orbit was unusable for filming. Constant jerky correction getting the POI recentered in frame.

I can fly a much smoother Orbit with the sticks myself, so Litchi can too. Fix this, Litchi... you're our only option now.

I found the same as you, jerky video, sort it out Litchi, mini 2

 

[EpicFlight]

If I can do it with the sticks, so can Litchi.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Yes I agree. Even having a straight line the video is jerky and needs stabilization from a video editor. The result still is terrible. Only thing I use Litchi for now is photogrammetry 3d scanning which it does a fairly good job at.

 

[RonanCork]

Yup good point. They need to sort it out. I'm in the process of trying to plan a waypoint mission on a new build where I take video each week, ie poi around the house. But it's so jerky it looks amateur. Could never give that to a client. Even if I attempt to stabilize it in da vinci resolve it still looks amateur. Please litchi fix this.
Ro

 

[spsphotos]

Litchi is still in beta testing. Are you using the public release or the beta?

 

[Yaros]

Yes I agree. Even having a straight line the video is jerky and needs stabilization from a video editor. The result still is terrible. Only thing I use Litchi for now is photogrammetry 3d scanning which it does a fairly good job at.

Same!
The litchi developers need to work a little bit on the smoothness of the yaw stick, instead of applying fast changes, they should gradually increase/decrease the value. There is nothing that we (the community) can do for now about it (as I did with Litchi 3D Mapping), Virtual Sticks just produces this result, a disappointing one, hope Litchi devs can fix it!

 

[EpicFlight]

Well, the solution is to use an older model that supports way points, etc al.

Just flew a perfect Orbit from litchi, smooth as butter, with my Mavic Air.

Wishing I hadn't sold my M2P...

 

[BigAl07]

I use Litchi a LOT specifically for the ORBIT and it's as smooth as can be but I'm flying a M2P. It must be something to do with the Mini2 SDK or something. Was it recently released for the Mini-2?

When using 3rd party software keep in mind they are at the mercy of DJI and the SDK. Not everything is "handled" properly during the hand-off and especially during initial releases. It takes time to get the kinks worked out. This is true for all 3rd party apps not just Litchi.

 

[Yaros]

It must be something to do with the Mini2 SDK or something.

It is something with the SDK of drones that use the DJI Fly App.
Let me explain:
Newer drones don't support waypoints natively, and app developers like Litchi devs use something called Virtual Sticks, which simulates the movement of the sticks in real-time by the app, and sends them to the drone.
Drones that use the Go4 app such as your M2P work fine because Litchi uploads the orbit to the drone and executes it in real-time.
Virtual Stick Commands is something we all hope that DJI can fix, or at least smooth out the performance.

 

[zeusfl]

I had the same problem with both, Litchi and Dronelink. I open a discussion about this in Dronelink beta forum and I have this response.

https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en...y-video-footage-with-Mavic-Air-2S-using-beta-

I also created a video made with Dronelink which looks better than the one created with Litchi.
FYI this was made with the Mavic Air 2S. The Mavic 2 Pro is perfect. The best drone ever.

 

[BigAl07]

It is something with the SDK of drones that use the DJI Fly App.
Let me explain:
Newer drones don't support waypoints natively, and app developers like Litchi devs use something called Virtual Sticks, which simulates the movement of the sticks in real-time by the app, and sends them to the drone.
Drones that use the Go4 app such as your M2P work fine because Litchi uploads the orbit to the drone and executes it in real-time.
Virtual Stick Commands is something we all hope that DJI can fix, or at least smooth out the performance.

Ahh that makes sense.

I was reading the link shared by @zeusfl and here is most likely a BIG factor in the issue:

"Virtual stick missions have a 200ms round-trip latency, meaning onboard code will always have an advantage with respect to smoothness."

200ms lag is going to cause lots of issues and be exaggerated when doing something that needs almost constant adjustments (such as doing a POI orbit).

 

[EpicFlight]

Okay, this has been solved outside of Litchi, a year ago, so get your act together and fix this, Litchi!!

Check out this thread: waypoints vs virtual sticks

 

[EpicFlight]

Ahh that makes sense.

I was reading the link shared by @zeusfl and here is most likely a BIG factor in the issue:

"Virtual stick missions have a 200ms round-trip latency, meaning onboard code will always have an advantage with respect to smoothness."

200ms lag is going to cause lots of issues and be exaggerated when doing something that needs almost constant adjustments (such as doing a POI orbit).

200ms occurs 5 times a second, and the jerks are 2-4 seconds apart. That's at least 10 adjustment cycles on stick input in that time frame that appear to be doing nothing.

According to the fellow that coded a solution (and posted a video demonstration), the problem is the vertical axis of the gimbal, and it's aircraft yaw response. There's some locking mode that needs to set.

How about doing that, Litchi? I know you read the forum

 

[BigAl07]

200ms occurs 5 times a second, and the jerks are 2-4 seconds apart. That's at least 10 adjustment cycles on stick input in that time frame that appear to be doing nothing.

According to the fellow that coded a solution (and posted a video demonstration), the problem is the vertical axis of the gimbal, and it's aircraft yaw response. There's some locking mode that needs to set.

How about doing that, Litchi? I know you read the forum

Litchi reads this forum? I don't think so sir. I've never seen a single clue they frequent here at all. I think you'd be a LOT better off submitting this to their Customer Service.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Oh I would suspect "vico" from the Litchi forum sticks his nose in here every once in a while to see whats all the fuss is about LOL

 

[EpicFlight]

Oh I would suspect "vico" from the Litchi forum sticks his nose in here every once in a while to see whats all the fuss is about LOL

It would be exceedingly foolish customer service policy/practice not to, IMO

 

[surfbird]

Ahh that makes sense.

I was reading the link shared by @zeusfl and here is most likely a BIG factor in the issue:

"Virtual stick missions have a 200ms round-trip latency, meaning onboard code will always have an advantage with respect to smoothness."

200ms lag is going to cause lots of issues and be exaggerated when doing something that needs almost constant adjustments (such as doing a POI orbit).

Completly untrue

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Completly untrue

If completely untrue do you have any facts to backup your claim?

 

[surfbird]

If completely untrue do you have any facts to backup your claim?

It's the gimbal control that's bad in the firmware. The only way to get rid of that is to set gimbal to freemode.
If you read the thread at dronelink you will get it.

1 Gimbal implementation
2 You never adjust the gimbal in steps, you set the speed the drone yaws and gimbal as well. In the video where I don't have any jerky movements the control loop is like 400ms.
3 You can simulate the jerkiness with the drone in VS-mode just by shaking it.