Virtual Litchi Mission

[namirda]

namirda - just to say I came across your app by accident the other evening and after using it today - brill, wow! You should defo setup some kind of donation system for a few pennies in your pocket!

One question though - my main litchi settings for some flights is set to heading Auto (TNW) and what I am seeing in the Google Earth replay is the flight plays at heading 0 degrees unless you set heading mode to Custom (WD) in Litchi and stipulate Heading per waypoint
- is this just how it is or am I missing something?

Hi deggers,

Yes - that's just how it is I'm afraid. The csv file does not contain any of the general settings and so for VLM to work properly, there must be a heading and a gimbal setting provided for each waypoint.

I believe that Litchi could do better in this regard - there is no good reason why a mission created with TNW should not have valid headings and gimbal values set the in the csv file. At the moment they are just left at zero which is what you see in the virtual mission.

And thanks for helping out bernard34 - nice when other folks start supporting my software..!!

N

 

[bernard34]

Hi Namirda
You are rigiht : VLM starts but stops prompting the message I sent to you. I have also seen that it may be a question of version, regarding py system who is in 64bits.
Before removing VLM and installing it again, how be sure I have the 64bits version ?
The best would be that you send me the link to download the 64bits version, then I will clear my PC from any other version and install it again with the new 64bits version.
Do you think it is possible ?
Thanks in advance and to other contributions.

 

[namirda]

Hi Namirda
You are rigiht : VLM starts but stops prompting the message I sent to you. I have also seen that it may be a question of version, regarding py system who is in 64bits.
Before removing VLM and installing it again, how be sure I have the 64bits version ?
The best would be that you send me the link to download the 64bits version, then I will clear my PC from any other version and install it again with the new 64bits version.
Do you think it is possible ?
Thanks in advance and to other contributions.

Hi

The link to the x64 version of VLM V2 is given in post 172 of this thread.

Hope it works for you

N

 

[bernard34]

Hi Namirda
Now it works perfectly ! Many thanks to you and others who helped me.
I am attaching the file of the mission That I am preparing: it's a partial view of the coast of the Portugal, where I am living most of the time. It may be of interest to you.
By the way, as i did save the mission file in .csv format, what is saved (in another directory compared to what I planned) is in .kml format. A bit surprising, but anyway it worked. But impossible to attach it, as the format is rejected
Again, many thanks

 

[Johanna]

Does VLM work on IOS? I tried to download but it gives me error ...can't run Microsoft programs? Not a techie here. Am I missing something?

 

[bernard34]

I am sorry, i cannot say anything regarding iOS, as I am on PC, running W10.

 

[ghuggins]

Hi

The link to the x64 version of VLM V2 is given in post 172 of this thread.

Hope it works for you

N

Namirda,

I am so glad I stumbled onto your software. I have only used it for a day or two but I can't tell you how many hours it has saved me! I have been using Litchi and GE, but your app is absolutely amazing! I know exactly how my mission will work. I can't thank you enough!

Have you had anyone ask about increasing the maximum waypoints to 100 to match Litchi? I frequently end up with 60-80 waypoints. When trying to run those missions the your app tells me I have to decrease the number of waypoints.

Also, do you have a paypal account or some other method of receiving payment. You really should charge for this software!!!

Thanks again!!!

 

[CaveDrone]

Following

 

[namirda]

Does VLM work on IOS? I tried to download but it gives me error ...can't run Microsoft programs? Not a techie here. Am I missing something?

Hi Johanna,

I do not have a Mac and so cannot try it myself but I believe the 64 bit version of VLM does run on IOS with appropriate emulation software. Please see post number 174 on this thread to read information from a Mac user who seems to have this working.

You can find the link to the 64 bit version of VLM 2 in post 172 of this thread.

Good luck with it.

N

 

[Johanna]

Hi Johanna,

I do not have a Mac and so cannot try it myself but I believe the 64 bit version of VLM does run on IOS with appropriate emulation software. Please see post number 174 on this thread to read information from a Mac user who seems to have this working.

You can find the link to the 64 bit version of VLM 2 in post 172 of this thread.

Good luck with it.

N

OK, thanks, Namirda

 

[namirda]

Namirda,

I am so glad I stumbled onto your software. I have only used it for a day or two but I can't tell you how many hours it has saved me! I have been using Litchi and GE, but your app is absolutely amazing! I know exactly how my mission will work. I can't thank you enough!

Have you had anyone ask about increasing the maximum waypoints to 100 to match Litchi? I frequently end up with 60-80 waypoints. When trying to run those missions the your app tells me I have to decrease the number of waypoints.

Also, do you have a paypal account or some other method of receiving payment. You really should charge for this software!!!

Thanks again!!!

Hi ghuggins,

Thanks for the feedback.

I think you must be using a very early version of the software! I increased the maximum number of waypoints per mission to 200 ages ago!

The link to version VLM 2.0 is given in post 172 of this thread. Does that help?

N

 

[namirda]

Namirda,

I am so glad I stumbled onto your software. I have only used it for a day or two but I can't tell you how many hours it has saved me! I have been using Litchi and GE, but your app is absolutely amazing! I know exactly how my mission will work. I can't thank you enough!

Have you had anyone ask about increasing the maximum waypoints to 100 to match Litchi? I frequently end up with 60-80 waypoints. When trying to run those missions the your app tells me I have to decrease the number of waypoints.

Also, do you have a paypal account or some other method of receiving payment. You really should charge for this software!!!

Thanks again!!!

Thanks for the kind offer of payment - but really not necessary thank you! If I accepted payment then I would feel under obligation to provide a certain level of service!! I prefer to keep it as just a little hobby!

If you would like to help in some way then one thing you can do is to tell other Litchi users about VLM. I feel sure that there are many Litchi users like you who have not yet 'stumbled onto' it! VLM really is something quick and easy that you should use to test/check every Litchi Mission before you put your drone in the air and I think there are still many folks out there who do not know about it.

If you come across posts on this or other forums where users might benefit from using VLM then please point them to this thread.

Thanks

N

 

[ghuggins]

Hi ghuggins,

Thanks for the feedback.

I think you must be using a very early version of the software! I increased the maximum number of waypoints per mission to 200 ages ago!

The link to version VLM 2.0 is given in post 172 of this thread. Does that help?

N

Namirda,

I am using ver 2.0.0. here is the actual error:

9:34:18 PM New CSV Mision File detected - af since litchi update 30m agl
9:34:18 PM Altitudes in this csv file are in Feet
9:34:18 PM CSV File OK - 99 Waypoints Processed
9:34:18 PM Error Getting Location Elevation from Google
Max URL length exceeded
Try reducing the number of Waypoints
9:34:18 PM Error Getting Ground Elevations from Google Earth
9:34:18 PM Error Correcting Waypoint Altitudes for reference

If I cut the waypoints to 50, it then works but that is too few for many of my missions.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Greig

 

[ghuggins]

Thanks for the kind offer of payment - but really not necessary thank you! If I accepted payment then I would feel under obligation to provide a certain level of service!! I prefer to keep it as just a little hobby!

If you would like to help in some way then one thing you can do is to tell other Litchi users about VLM. I feel sure that there are many Litchi users like you who have not yet 'stumbled onto' it! VLM really is something quick and easy that you should use to test/check every Litchi Mission before you put your drone in the air and I think there are still many folks out there who do not know about it.

If you come across posts on this or other forums where users might benefit from using VLM then please point them to this thread.

Thanks

N

I WILL!!!

thanks again

Greig

 

[jctarvin]

When Litchi released the upgrade to their Mission Hub recently (V1.1.9), they upgraded the csv export file format to include speed and elevation reference data and this forced me to sit down and make some corresponding updates to VLM.

Here is the result - Virtual Litchi Mission V2.0.0. Please give it a try and let me know how you get on….

There are quite a few significant differences from the previous version :

1) Version 2.0.0 now incorporates a built-in Chrome browser to access the Litchi Mission Hub. This allows better integration between the Mission Hub and VLM and will hopefully allow for direct integration with Google Earth Web in the future. Unfortunately this makes the download considerably larger than VLM V1. It also means that VLM V2 requires installation and is no longer a standalone executable.

2) There is now a “Profiles Panel” which can optionally be shown below the Mission Hub Panel on which you can plot drone altitude and ground elevation. You can also plot heading and gimbal tilt angles if required.

View attachment 32628

3) As mentioned above, Litchi introduced some changes to the csv file output by the Mission Hub in their new version 1.1.9. This extended csv file now includes speed and ground reference information on a waypoint by waypoint basis and this new information is now handled properly by VLM V2. It is now very easy to create a mission with elevations relative to ground - provided you trust Google's elevation data!!

4) Prerequisites for installation of VLM V2 are Windows 7/8/10, x64/86. There is also a requirement for .NET4.6 and VC++ 2013 Redist but these should be handled by the installer.

5) Unfortunately the installer is about 56MB and so too big to upload to MavicPilots directly. You can download the installer from Dropbox here :

Dropbox - Virtual Litchi Mission V2.0.0.zip

Please let me know how you get on.

N

First and foremost I want to say thank you for a wonderful useful application. Well I was not able to get version 1.05 to run on my desktop it performed beautifully on my laptop both are Windows 10. Was hoping version 2 might work on both but alas it doesn't run on my desktop either. I will be installing it on my laptop tomorrow and fully expect it will work perfectly. Are there any known issues on some installs of Windows 10 Pro not working with your app? Many thanks again for your contribution to this marvelous Hobby.

 

[namirda]

Namirda,

I am using ver 2.0.0. here is the actual error:

9:34:18 PM New CSV Mision File detected - af since litchi update 30m agl
9:34:18 PM Altitudes in this csv file are in Feet
9:34:18 PM CSV File OK - 99 Waypoints Processed
9:34:18 PM Error Getting Location Elevation from Google
Max URL length exceeded
Try reducing the number of Waypoints
9:34:18 PM Error Getting Ground Elevations from Google Earth
9:34:18 PM Error Correcting Waypoint Altitudes for reference

If I cut the waypoints to 50, it then works but that is too few for many of my missions.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Greig

Hi Greig,

Ah yes - this is another matter! VLM has an internal limit of 200 waypoints per mission but sadly there is another limit.

The Google Elevation API requires all the lat/long information for all waypoints to be appended to a single character string and they put a limit of 2048 characters on the length of that string. That is the limit you are hitting - Google is just complaining that the length of that string exceeds 2048 characters.

I have never hit that limit before - most of my missions only have 20 waypoints or less! Do you really need 100 waypoints in a 20 minute flight?

I could probably update VLM so that it passes waypoint information to Google in chunks of say 50 waypoints at a time - that should solve the problem. I will think about it for a bit but it should be easy enough to do.

Until then you will just have to fly your mission in two halves!

N

 

[namirda]

First and foremost I want to say thank you for a wonderful useful application. Well I was not able to get version 1.05 to run on my desktop it performed beautifully on my laptop both are Windows 10. Was hoping version 2 might work on both but alas it doesn't run on my desktop either. I will be installing it on my laptop tomorrow and fully expect it will work perfectly. Are there any known issues on some installs of Windows 10 Pro not working with your app? Many thanks again for your contribution to this marvelous Hobby.

Hi,

Yes there have been some issues. My first release of VLM 2.0 was compiled 32bit because 32bit software should generally run on both 32bit and 64bit PCs and I thought that would cover all possibilities. However, it doesn't seem to be so simple - some folks have had problems with that 32 bit version for reasons which I don't understand. If you get to understand it then please educate me!

I therefore compiled a 64bit version of the same software which should run on any 64 bit machine - I have not heard of any issues with that version yet!

The link to the 64bit version can be found in post #172 of this thread.

Hope it works for you!

N

 

[Gasjkh2]

Looks interesting

 

[ghuggins]

Hi Greig,

Ah yes - this is another matter! VLM has an internal limit of 200 waypoints per mission but sadly there is another limit.

The Google Elevation API requires all the lat/long information for all waypoints to be appended to a single character string and they put a limit of 2048 characters on the length of that string. That is the limit you are hitting - Google is just complaining that the length of that string exceeds 2048 characters.

I have never hit that limit before - most of my missions only have 20 waypoints or less! Do you really need 100 waypoints in a 20 minute flight?

I could probably update VLM so that it passes waypoint information to Google in chunks of say 50 waypoints at a time - that should solve the problem. I will think about it for a bit but it should be easy enough to do.

Until then you will just have to fly your mission in two halves!

N

Namirda,

I'm happy to trim my missions to 50 waypoints. I just fly them higher AGL till I can feel I can drop the waypoints closer to the ground, and add waypoints back in if necessary... (I enjoy shooting video flying up very steep cliffs close to terrain and then flying drone off the cliffs. If waypoints are off by a few feet it could be disasterous, thus many waypoints and verify waypoint accuracy before dropping AGL). I really do appreciate all the effort you put into this program.

I have at least 20 missions planned (with the help of your program) that I will be flying in some beautiful red-rock terrain here in Utah. I have still photographed there a lot (Yant Flats – Candy Cliffs II – Red Rock Formations Near St. George, Utah) but the 4K video with my recently purchased P4P should be spectacular!!!

thanks again,

Greig

 

[Trottstw]

Namirda. I installed VLM v2. These are the error messages I receive when trying to run it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled. Same messages. Your 1st version seems to work. Thanks