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Spiral Maker for Litchi Waypoint Missions

Very neat piece of work. There is another enhancement that would be interesting.

Right now the POI height can be set but it is static. Being able to control the pitch angle as the altitude increases would provide some benefits when flying around taller structures.

One could start looking at the base (ground level) with a large degree of pitch and then decrease pitch as altitude increases to get a horizontal view higher on the structure. This would then bring the horizon into view and offer a sweeping vista at altitude.
 
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Very neat piece of work. There is another enhancement that would be interesting.

Right now the POI height can be set but it is static. Being able to control the pitch angle as the altitude increases would provide some benefits when flying around taller structures.

One could start looking at the base (ground level) with a large degree of pitch and then decrease pitch as altitude increases to get a horizontal view higher on the structure. This would then bring the horizon into view and offer a sweeping vista at altitude.
Thanks for the suggestion. This is something that I've been thinking about for some time. I've added this as a new option.

  • Multiple Gimbal Pitch Modes: Both "Focus POI" and "Interpolate" gimbal pitch modes are now available in spiral missions.
    • Focus POI: This mode is appropriate when flying around an object where it is desired to keep the camera pointed at a specific height on that object throughout the entire mission. Flying around a small building is an example of a mission where focusing on a point of interest might be the best option.
    • Interpolate: This mode is appropriate when flying around a tall structure where it is desired to have the camera focus at a height that changes throughout the mission. Flying around a tower is an example of a mission where interpolating between a starting and ending gimbal pitch angle might be the best option.
 
So looking forward to flying some missions with this, thanks for adding it!

I've got several missions planned and ready to go - unfortunately the weather is terrible :(
 
I know what you are referring to - there appears that there needs to be a "destination" component between waypoints and an orbit which causes the footage to either pause, jump, etc. That's what video editing is for. :)
Wow, I never knew this - in fact, most of my Dronelink missions failed before Orbit was started after Path. I always thought this was because of wind etc (I tried them at the coast), but perhaps this was the reason? I must try with Destination in between.
 
Really cool! I'm just getting started with a Mavic 2 and this is going to make it much easier to get some of the shots I'm after. Looking forward to actually flying my first generated spiral mission. Thank You!
 
Wow, I never knew this - in fact, most of my Dronelink missions failed before Orbit was started after Path. I always thought this was because of wind etc (I tried them at the coast), but perhaps this was the reason? I must try with Destination in between.
 
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Did you start from spiral? When I started from spiral it worked.
But when I incorporated spiral in the route after the "path", it continuously failed with error "too far off the course". This was in a different location than the flight that succeeded, so I just assumed that this had something to do with conditions.
It rained over the weekend here in SA, so I did not get chance to try with "destination" in between that would probably correct the error. I will share the result if it works :)
 
That was a waypoint mission, constant radius. The gimbal pitch changes between top and bottom.

Here is one that is just a orbit with a constant gimbal pitch with a increasing diameter.
 
I've been trying to get the opportunity to try this for months, and this was my first attempt. I combined three rotations with a fly in and fly out as a mission.

I made some mistakes in the original mission, and the video jumps where I have cut out a bit where the drone detected and object and stopped. Also, the people in the video are me and my two kids who were part of my "Crew" so no uninvolved persons are near my flying.

I've sped it up just a tad to make it run faster, but it's really just experimentation and I need to do some fine tuning of the mission. In addition, I had programmed several other missions but they were too tight to objects and the ground so I am going to have to have another go at them and fly again.

 
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Hi DJ Wes

First of all, thank you for your work on the spiral programming for Litchi! Nice job and very usefull!
I have an request/ doubt... Is it possible to convert or use the kml file generated in Google Earth to use in DJI Pilot Missions?

Thanks!
Regards from Portugal!
Rui Madureira
 
You might want to extend the spiral flight line to a more diverse flight line such as the logrithmic spiral for approaching a target - or even collecting aerial photography over an area. The benefits of gently curved, convergent, non-traditional (non-linear/non-parallel) flight lines include a) a more diverse view perspective and b) mitigation of the Structure-from-Motion doming/dishing (elevation) error. Google "Gently Curved, Convergent, Non-traditional Drone Flight Paths" to see the math for the log-spiral curve. I've attached a couple examples of curved flight mission plans for your review - fixed wing drones and multi-rotor drones.Purtuniq - Quebec - Canada Image.jpgPeeble Creek Mine Second TEST 021819 Image.jpgBessemer Airport POINTS 021619.jpg
 
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Just wanted to throw in my THANK YOU to DJ Wes for this tool - what a great job, and I can't wait to incorporate it into some flights!
 
You might want to approach your target using a log-spiral trajectory. It might make for a more interesting, dramatic video. The attached image offers some options.
 

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Being a software engineer, I really appreciate clever solutions like this! Nice work.

But, I do have to ask: Is there something that Litchi does (at least in this spiral use-case) that Dronelink doesn't?

I also own a Litchi license, but find I'm using Dronlink more due to the combining of components in a single mission and the web version supporting everything. I will use Litchi if a Dronlink mission fails for some reason and I need to quickly create a mission in the field.
Try using the log-spiral curve instead of the basic spiral entry curve. Then add an orbit component once in the immediate vicinity of the target point (POI). Here's an example prepared using DroneLink - for the same reasons you are mentioning.
 

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Would there be a way to emulate the Parrot Anafi's "Rise" feature with Litchi ? The idea is to go up and then do a 360, it's demonstrated here
 
Discovered Spiral Maker yesterday and tried it today. But immediately tried something. Twice a small section from Google Earth -> created the two .CSV with Spiral Maker and copied them into one file. Created a Litchi file with this new CSV and then flew it.
See screenshots(Airdata / Mission Hub)

This opens up completely new perspectives. I still have a small problem:
The Spiral Maker creates a "mission.csv" from a "named.kml". It would be nice if the mission had the name of the .kml.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 

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A great tool! Thanx for your effort!!!
 
Attention Litchi and Google Earth Pro users:

A type of mission that I like to fly when capturing video is a "spiral reveal". This is where the drone revolves around a point of interest (POI) while gaining in altitude. Geometrically, this is probably better described as a "coil" or "helix". Even though you can manually design such a mission in Litchi, it is difficult to get a perfect circle, spiral, or coil in a waypoint mission. Dronelink has an “Orbit” component that does this. However, Litchi does not.

I’ve created an application that takes a kml file from Google Earth Pro and converts it into a csv file that can be imported into Litchi as a waypoint mission, giving you a perfectly circular path. It allows you to specify the starting, ending, and POI height then generates a path and gimbal pitch angles based on those (and other) parameters making the whole process rather easy.

Since I am a software developer and do a bit of web development, I decided to take this stand-alone application and turn it into a web application that you can use.

My general workflow is this:

  1. Use Google Earth Pro to define a perfectly circular path around the POI.
  2. Export that path as a kml file.
  3. Import that circular path into my web application and specify heights and other parameters.
  4. Export the path as a csv file.
  5. Import that csv file into the Litchi Mission Hub (usually VLM).
  6. Tweak as necessary.
  7. Export the mission as a csv file which opens back up in Google Earth Pro.
  8. View and validate the virtual Litchi mission in Google Earth Pro.
  9. Go fly!

If interested please give it a try. I am open to feedback and would like to see any videos where you used this to help generate your mission. The URL of this web application is:

Hey DJ Wes, did you take down the instructional video from your website? It keeps giving me an error
 
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