Litchi Waypoint- Custom and Auto heading..

[dustmanion]

Litchi waypoint mission question here:
Can someone quickly explain how to have the Mavic turn toward its next waypoint and then at that point turn to POI for say a couple waypoints and then switch back and face toward the next waypoint?

I’ve tried and I’ve searched with no avail for a straight answer...

 

[lisadoc]

Your answer is here:
Help - Litchi

"Heading Mode: Defines the heading of the aircraft during the mission. Choose between "Toward next Waypoint" ("Auto" on iOS) where the aircraft will point toward the next waypoint, "Initial Direction" ("Initial" on iOS) where the aircraft will keep the heading it has when the mission is started, "User Controlled" ("Manual" on iOS) where you are able to control the heading of the aircraft during the mission using the left joystick left/right (mode 2) or "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS) where the aircraft will use the heading defined at each waypoint. Using "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS) also means that the aircraft will smoothly transition from one waypoint's heading to the next."

Also:
"Heading: The direction relative to north in which the aircraft will look at when arriving at this waypoint (0° is North, 90° is East). This setting only applies when the mission setting "Heading Mode" is set to "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS). If two consecutive waypoints have different headings, the aircraft will smoothly transition from one heading to the other while travelling from the first waypoint to the second.
Info The waypoint heading is represented by the blue aircraft icon on top of each waypoint. It will update dynamically as you adjust the heading setting."

And:
"Rotation: When two consecutive waypoints have different headings, the aircraft will smoothly rotate from the first heading to the next. This setting defines the direction in which the aircraft will rotate, clockwise or anti-clockwise."
"POI: Use this setting to change which POI a waypoint will focus on. By default, when adding a waypoint it will focus on the nearest POI, if there is one."

 

[TomHTx]

Litchi really is pretty amazing. You can drop POI's wherever you want the drone camera to be looking, and then create waypoints and designate which POI you want to the drone to be looking at from each waypoint. You set POI for each waypoint, so if you want to be looking straight ahead you can drop a POI up ahead of you and designate that. You can even do "interpolate". Lots of Youtube vids on this as well.

 

[dustmanion]

Thank you for the explanation!

I was trying to run a waypoint mission on custom an expecting it to turn back to the way it was flying after the POI.

Apparently if using POIs you will need to set the custom heading (for each waypoint in between the POIs) in order to have the aircraft face the way it is flying until you get to the waypoint that you want it to refocus to the next POI. If flying in this way I think you will need to use the Interpolate setting at the waypoint in order to have the camera come back to looking straight ahead until it is time to refocus to the next POI.

Now that I understand (I think) I have made a new mission and will check back here after flying.

Again thank you for the responses!

 

[namirda]

I recommend you use Virtual Litchi Mission (VLM) to check out your mission parameters before going out to fly - it can save a lot of wasted flights.

VLM is free PC software which allows you to fly your Litchi mission in Google Earth. It's really easyto use!

Take a look at this thread for the full discussion. Virtual Litchi Mission

The latest version of VLM is attached here

 

[marciano]

... "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS) where the aircraft will use the heading defined at each waypoint. Using "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS) also means that the aircraft will smoothly transition from one waypoint's heading to the next."

Is this the only mode that the aircraft will turn smoothly from one WP to the next one?

"Heading: The direction relative to north in which the aircraft will look at when arriving at this waypoint (0° is North, 90° is East). This setting only applies when the mission setting "Heading Mode" is set to "Waypoint Defined" ("Custom" on iOS). If two consecutive waypoints have different headings, the aircraft will smoothly transition from one heading to the other while travelling from the first waypoint to the second.

It is not that clear if other heading modes will also turn smoothly to the next point heading (the blue arrow)

"Rotation: When two consecutive waypoints have different headings, the aircraft will smoothly rotate from the first heading to the next. This setting defines the direction in which the aircraft will rotate, clockwise or anti-clockwise."

In all modes?

I'm in the hub. I don't have rotate orientation options in any of the heading modes. I guess shortest turn is auto-selected by default.

On this occasion I just want to fly straight from WP1 to WP2 keeping head always to WP2. WP1 blue arrow is pointing to WP2, but WP2 is pointing to North (Auto (TNW) heading mode)

Edit 1: because I wasn't sure about heading turns I added WP3 in the "same" line as WP1-WP2, next to WP3.
I didn't realize WP1 heading is 56° while WP2 is 57° (because of WP3 position).
Running VLM the aircraft did a 359° smoothly turn from WP1 to WP2
That was a VLM fault because of outdated version I downloaded

Edit 2: The app does display turn orientation (Clock/Anticlockwise) but I'm not able to change it (in my example seems I would keep turning 359° instead of 1° in the other direction)
Still in the app all WP headings are set to 0° (instead of 56° and so).

Edit 3: As I said before I just want to fly straight from WP1 to WP2 keeping head always to WP2. I also have set cruising speed to 0 so I can manually control it. The app displays "Distance 1454m Time 327min" I understand time is not real but I worry if the app will start the mission because of that.

Thank you

 

[crofter]

I believe that in Auto heading mode it also rotates smoothly to the heading direction set for the next Waypoint. I don't think I can use POIs to govern heading because I'm looking straight down (mapping, camera -90), so I have to define an extra Waypoint after I've finished the map path, once I've found out what the heading is on the path I want to map, and use 'Custom'. I don't understand 'Initial Direction' above: "the aircraft will keep the heading it has when the mission is started". Is that the same as heading at Waypoint 1, if not it's not what I need.