Smoothing out Litchi gimbal transitions?

[Skybuyer]

I've watched Litchi tutorials but seem to be slow on some nuances, particularly when it comes to gimbal transitions between waypoints. The flight paths I create on the computer are fine. And the gimbal will be where I want it to be on one waypoint, but if there is a second POI that needs it to transition to, the camera/gimbal just thinks "OK... it's time to skip to the next POI" and then moves to the new POI in one motion.
What I really want is for there to be a smooth transitional transition from one POI to the next as my drones pass through the waypoints. In other words I'm looking for filming to look less robotic.

Perhaps it's that I don't understand and grasp the difference between setting the gimbal between "POI" and "Interpolation"? I know that DroneLinke can be smoother, but I haven't been successful at programming that for a single mission. I'm a little slow learning new software these days. Can anyone help me figure out how to smoothen out the camera transisions from waypoint to waying and POI to POI?

 

[ratjr15]

Use interpolation for all, if possible, and add in some extra waypoints between what you have to give it more control.

 

[DJ Wes]

When talking about gimbal transitions it is best to separate them into the three actions involved:

1. Heading transition (yaw)

1. Height transition (not strickly a gimbal transition)

1. Gimbal pitch (vertical transition)

The heading of the drone (yaw) and the height of the drone will linearly interpolate between the headings and heights defined at each waypoint (Heading Mode = Auto or Custom). This is automatic and part of Litchi’s programming. See Note 1 at the bottom.

The gimbal pitch will also linearly interpolate between the gimbal pitch angles defined at each waypoint (Gimbal pitch = Focus POI or Interpolate). However, how you define the gimbal pitch angle at each waypoint can be done using either a POI (Focus POI) or by directly specifying the angle (Interpolate). Once specified by either method there is no difference in flight characteristics.

There is one exception to the above actions called “Hotpoint Mode” that I will not bother to describe here.

The jerkyness that you describe is most likely due to the mission being flown using a DJI Fly drone (see Note 1). I have heard of some having limited success in smoothing out the yaw jerkyness by making some gimbal adjustments in DJI Fly. In DJI Fly, access the main menu and select “Control” then “Advanced Gimbal Settings”. Under “Normal Mode”, change the Yaw Speed from the default of 75 to something smaller like 35. Also change the default Yaw Smoothness from the default 7 to something like 70. These changes are saved to the drone and will affect flights with Litchi as well. I have tested this and I think I see an improvement in waypoint missions but I’m not 100% convinced.

Note 1: In DJI Fly drones, DJI has removed the ability to upload the entire mission to the drone and have the drone autonomously fly the mission. Instead, Litchi is forced to use the inferior “Virtual Sticks” method to execute waypoint missions on DJI Fly drones. Drones with onboard waypoint capability are able to perform yaw transitions much more smoothly than DJI Fly drones using the “Virtual Sticks” method.

 

[Facherty]

The "jerkyness" can also occur on a DJI Go4 drone, and is most likely when the drone is some distance from the controller. This because even though the Waypoints have been uploaded to the drone, both the yaw and gimbal movements are transmitted when needed.
Litchi has attempted to overcome this failing in its most recent update [Version 4.25.0 (4 July 2022)], but this is for Android only, and I have not seen any posted comments on the performance.

 

[DJ Wes]

The "jerkyness" can also occur on a DJI Go4 drone, and is most likely when the drone is some distance from the controller. This because even though the Waypoints have been uploaded to the drone, both the yaw and gimbal movements are transmitted when needed.
Litchi has attempted to overcome this failing in its most recent update [Version 4.25.0 (4 July 2022)], but this is for Android only, and I have not seen any posted comments on the performance.

This is incorrect. In Go4 drones the waypoint headings were uploaded to and executed by the drone autonomously. Only the gimbal pitch angle was transmitted to the drone in real time.

The update you refer to is only addressing the gimbal pitch angles which are now also uploaded to the drone at the start of the mission.

 

[Facherty]

See here and here for clear failures in gimbal and yaw control using Litchi, using the Mavic Air 2S and Mavic Air. To an extent, these have been addressed by recent updates for Android. iOS users will have to wait.

 

[DJ Wes]

See here and here for clear failures in gimbal and yaw control using Litchi, using the Mavic Air 2S and Mavic Air. To an extent, these have been addressed by recent updates for Android. iOS users will have to wait.

No. Your post #4 is about DJI Go4 drones. This video is about an Air 2S (DJI Fly). Also, what is shown in the video is clearly operator error. Notice at 1:44 of the video when he sets up the mission, he has the "Gimbal Pitch" mode disabled and no POI selected (because he has not yet placed a POI). Of course the gimbal will not focus on the POI. He must be new to Litchi.