Playing with waypoints

AnzacJack · Dec 17, 2022

Spent some time with waypoints this afternoon. Overall it was a good experience. The transition between waypoints was great.
Some issues (could just be me still learning the system)

While i could plan on the ground, waypoint 1 could only be set by positioning the drone at the waypoint. After that the rest of the points could be done on the map
Could not select the POI on map, and could only set it by positioning above the POI.
The system would be a million times better if DJI could fix the sat. Maps on the RC Pro

Tested the continue waypoints on lost signal, and worked great. (Although a little scary)

I would really like the ability to build a mission and plan on computer or my 12”ipad and load to RC pro. Hopefully something they will add.

silvioalessi · Dec 17, 2022

Would be great DJI fix sat resolution on the RC Pro, or at least sync missions between devices, this way I can plan the mission on iPad with good sat resolution !!

Ralph thompson · Dec 17, 2022

There seems to be a few bugs including occasional SW crashes on the RC PRO which will hopefully be fixed in the next update. There are several posts on this already.

Dale D · Dec 17, 2022

AnzacJack said:
Spent some time with waypoints this afternoon. Overall it was a good experience. The transition between waypoints was great.
Some issues (could just be me still learning the system)

While i could plan on the ground, waypoint 1 could only be set by positioning the drone at the waypoint. After that the rest of the points could be done on the map

Could not select the POI on map, and could only set it by positioning above the POI.

The system would be a million times better if DJI could fix the sat. Maps on the RC Pro

Tested the continue waypoints on lost signal, and worked great. (Although a little scary)

I would really like the ability to build a mission and plan on computer or my 12”ipad and load to RC pro. Hopefully something they will add.

I have found that things are not easily done in the app but if I persist, I will eventually get to my goal. Watch some of the You Tubes. I have finally constructed a way point mission on my RCPro with 8 way points, a point of interest and all of the way point arrows pointing to the POI. It was tedious to do this, to say the least. Each way point can be adjusted as to height and POI, and there are abilities to command start and stop recording for the first and last waypoints. It takes a LOT of patience. You can then save the way point in the file folder to activate when you get on the site.

Dale

Macinfo · Dec 17, 2022

Looking at the few waypoint videos for the M3, it provides a # of options to give you flexibility in your missions, however with Flexibility and options comes complexity, which requires patience to configure... Is there a way to make it simpler? maybe, but not seeing at the the moment...

Dale D · Dec 17, 2022

Macinfo said:
Looking at the few waypoint videos for the M3, it provides a # of options to give you flexibility in your missions, however with Flexibility and options comes complexity, which requires patience to configure... Is there a way to make it simpler? maybe, but not seeing at the the moment...

Take it from me- it is not. user friendly at all. But on the plus side, once you run through the steps a few times, like anything else, it becomes more understandable. Just try one at your desk and save it , then go out and fly it.

Chrislaf · Dec 17, 2022

I was able to plan a Waypoints mission including a POI on my RC Pro to a downloaded map at a location close to my home without much problem, but when I tried to plan a mission that was at a location kilometres away from my home it was frustrating and basically useless. As others have mentioned the maps are not detailed enough so finding the location to download the map and plan the waypoint mission is next to impossible because there is not enough detail to see so you can plan a suitable mission, plus you have to scroll constantly to get to the target area. I did end up going out to the area and pre-flying the mission to mark the Waypoints but now that winter has arrived this is not practical as my hands were cold before I had even started the actual waypoints mission.

Improvements I would like to see in the next release to make waypoints more useable: More detailed maps and a map search feature so you can find a target area quickly instead of having to endlessly scroll on low detail maps.

Chris

R.Cowan · Dec 17, 2022

Dale D said:
I have found that things are not easily done in the app but if I persist, I will eventually get to my goal. Watch some of the You Tubes. I have finally constructed a way point mission on my RCPro with 8 way points, a point of interest and all of the way point arrows pointing to the POI. It was tedious to do this, to say the least. Each way point can be adjusted as to height and POI, and there are abilities to command start and stop recording for the first and last waypoints. It takes a LOT of patience. You can then save the way point in the file folder to activate when you get on the site.

Dale

Is there a setting that I might be missing for straight line waypoint missions? While the curved transition between waypoints will make for more cinematic videos, I'm interested in photos from exact positioning.

Dale D · Dec 17, 2022

Chrislaf said:
I was able to plan a Waypoints mission including a POI on my RC Pro to a downloaded map at a location close to my home without much problem, but when I tried to plan a mission that was at a location kilometres away from my home it was frustrating and basically useless. As others have mentioned the maps are not detailed enough so finding the location to download the map and plan the waypoint mission is next to impossible because there is not enough detail to see so you can plan a suitable mission, plus you have to scroll constantly to get to the target area. I did end up going out to the area and pre-flying the mission to mark the Waypoints but now that winter has arrived this is not practical as my hands were cold before I had even started the actual waypoints mission.

Improvements I would like to see in the next release to make waypoints more useable: More detailed maps and a map search feature so you can find a target area quickly instead of having to endlessly scroll on low detail maps.

Chris

Chris:

Did you know that when you upload the map, you can view the map in either map view or satellite view? It is essentially a Google map which ha as much detail as I usually need.

Chrislaf · Dec 17, 2022

Dale D said:
Chris:

Did you know that when you upload the map, you can view the map in either map view or satellite view? It is essentially a Google map which ha as much detail as I usually need.

Yes, I am aware of this but when you zoom in there is much less detail than if I was planning a mission in say Litchi or Dronelink. Hopefully DJI will fix this for the RC Pro as the hardware for that controller is certainly capable, probably less so on the DJI RC. Would be another way to differentiate the two controllers.

Chris

Dale D · Dec 17, 2022

Chrislaf said:
Yes, I am aware of this but when you zoom in there is much less detail than if I was planning a mission in say Litchi or Dronelink. Hopefully DJI will fix this for the RC Pro as the hardware for that controller is certainly capable, probably less so on the DJI RC. Would be another way to differentiate the two controllers.

Chris

I rarely, if ever, need a planned route, or way point route for my purposes as a recreational hobbyist. I have always been a technophobe as far as purchasing and learning Litchi, so I wouldn't really know about that. I am a sort of free-flyer, and way points, for me, is only a bonus, not a requirement for an occupation such as real estate or mapping.

Dale
Miami

vindibona1 · Dec 17, 2022

It's too bad that DJI can't provide a stand-alone waypoint mission app like Litchi. Unfortunately we are at the merci of DJI to produce SDK's for their drones so the 3rd party developers can create a value added features such as autonomous missions, etc. I think the SDK for the Mini 2 took 18 months to release and only a few months before the Mini 3 Pro was released. God knows when the SDK will be available for that and the Mavic 3... if a all. IMO a quick release of the SDK would promote new drone sales. While the Mavic 3 has some cool features missing with the Mavic 2 Pro and Go4 app, there has been little incentive for me to "upgrade". I certainly wouldn't want to part with my M2P's extra features that I get with Litchi, DroneVR, Maven, etc. I do plan on getting one of the M3 variants some time next year, but I can't even think of selling my M2P because of the extra stuff that 3rd party apps allow me to do.

Chrislaf · Dec 17, 2022

Dale D said:
I rarely, if ever, need a planned route, or way point route for my purposes as a recreational hobbyist. I have always been a technophobe as far as purchasing and learning Litchi, so I wouldn't really know about that. I am a sort of free-flyer, and way points, for me, is only a bonus, not a requirement for an occupation such as real estate or mapping.

Dale
Miami

For me too, waypoints is a bonus and I am a free-flyer as well but in the winter months I rely more on the automated functions to perform some of the tasks that I usually do manually such as taking panos. Being able to pre-plan a waypoints mission and run it when I get to my flying location is immensely helpful. Right now temperatures are ranging between lows of -10ºC to highs of 0ºC but are gradually getting colder, so having the ability to use autonomous waypoint flight is a big plus. I do not fly from inside a vehicle as I do not have situational awareness and I don't like using gloves when the drone is in flight (except on autonomous functions) because I don't have the fine control I need.

Chris

Dale D · Dec 17, 2022

Chrislaf said:
For me too, waypoints is a bonus and I am a free-flyer as well but in the winter months I rely more on the automated functions to perform some of the tasks that I usually do manually such as taking panos. Being able to pre-plan a waypoints mission and run it when I get to my flying location is immensely helpful. Right now temperatures are ranging between lows of -10ºC to highs of 0ºC but are gradually getting colder, so having the ability to use autonomous waypoint flight is a big plus. I do not fly from inside a vehicle as I do not have situational awareness and I don't like using gloves when the drone is in flight (except on autonomous functions) because I don't have the fine control I need.

Chris

Luckily, I don't have that problem where I fly, which is here in Miami and when on a trip, it is usually warm where I travel (except for that time in Iceland).

Filmarik · Dec 17, 2022

Chrislaf said:
For me too, waypoints is a bonus and I am a free-flyer as well but in the winter months I rely more on the automated functions to perform some of the tasks that I usually do manually such as taking panos. Being able to pre-plan a waypoints mission and run it when I get to my flying location is immensely helpful. Right now temperatures are ranging between lows of -10ºC to highs of 0ºC but are gradually getting colder, so having the ability to use autonomous waypoint flight is a big plus. I do not fly from inside a vehicle as I do not have situational awareness and I don't like using gloves when the drone is in flight (except on autonomous functions) because I don't have the fine control I need.

Chris

FWIW, I planned my first simple waypoint mission with about 7 waypoints and 1 POI. Couriously even though I downloaded and saved the map prior I could only see the very low resolution map and not the satelite google map version. Anyway, I completed the planning and created a simple mission in RC Pro. I was asked by the App to log into DJI account, so I did. After that I was able to execute the mission. After the first autonomous flight I adjusted the POI altitude a few times because the default (for some unknown reason) is 50m which for filming or photographing subjects on the ground is not practical, moved a few waypoints to slightly different position to adjust the path etc. After about 5 flights I examined the footage on a computer and I have to say that it looked pretty good. The video recording started and finished on points as planned, camera was following the POI smoothly.
To me, despite the planning on the map being tedious and fiddly it is pretty amazing feature. It expands the abilities of this drone for both commercial and creative applications. I hope DJI will work on it and improve it further to make it more user friendly and less buggy.

Chrislaf · Dec 17, 2022

For me at the present time I will have to probably drive to near a location I want to hike to (on a bad weather day), sit in my truck and download the map and plan my mission on my RC Pro and save it, then on a good day head back out and fly my mission and tweak it as needed.

Chris