Virtual Litchi Mission

[modbuilder]

Hi modbuilder,

I don't think that information is available from any of the available displays. However, it is available in the exif metadata stored with your dng files. Lots of ways to extract exif data but one of the simplest is "exiftool" - Google is your friend (sometimes!)

It sounds as if you must have lots of detailed data of the corrections needed to adjust the VLM mission to reality. I would be interested to know if you have found the required corrections to be systemic - or are they all completely random?

N

Interesting! Most interesting reply. I'll definitely check out the exif data today and will post a follow up report as I learn more.

Regarding "systemic" ... I hoping to find that out myself. I'm setting up several new photo missions in the next couple of weeks. All are new projects for local government (schools, offices,etc), so they all tend to be rectangular or square layouts. I'm asked to get head-on shots of front, back, and both sides plus I'm adding corner shots of the four corners. So far I've found that those 8 shots have similar altitude and mirrored placement along the square or rectangular flight path, but not much else in common one to another. I'm hoping to find other details carry over from site to site, like distance to the subject and altitude. For sure the heading and pitch have to be fine tuned for each shot, and that's taking a LOT of fly time to trial/error the settings for 8 shots at each site, so if I can do those manually and pull the settings off the exif data, I'm going to be miles ahead (literally) in getting these set up. Thanks a ton for the lead. I'll post a follow up report when I've got more to add. Best regards............... R

 

[modbuilder]

Well drat! I got into the EXIF data on my Mavic Pro DNG shots, and the compass heading and camera pitch are not reported. That would have been exciting if it had been in there, but no joy. If was a noble call though. It's hard to accept that the aircraft knows that level of detail (otherwise it couldn't control it), but the information is not being made available anywhere. Drat!

 

[modbuilder]

Hmm..... I wonder if it's in the flight text file. I'll take a look. Haven't needed to do that before, so I'll have to go look it up. Any good ideas, throw 'em out here. Please! More later.

 

[Keule]

That would have been exciting if it had been in there

Exiftool reports following from a MavicPro .DNG: (All parameters you were looking for)

Absolute Altitude : +447.83
Relative Altitude : +50.50
Gimbal Roll Degree : +0.00
Gimbal Yaw Degree : +38.60
Gimbal Pitch Degree : -16.80
Flight Roll Degree : +2.40
Flight Yaw Degree : +38.80
Flight Pitch Degree : -1.20

Pitch : -1.10
Yaw : +38.70
Roll : +2.70

Camera Pitch : -16.80
Camera Yaw : +38.60
Camera Roll : +0.00

GPS Version ID : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude Ref : North
GPS Longitude Ref : East
GPS Altitude Ref : Above Sea Level

GPS Altitude : 50.5 m Above Sea Level
GPS Latitude : 48 deg 17' 43.61" N
GPS Longitude : 11 deg 50' 11.68" E
GPS Position : 48 deg 17' 43.61" N, 11 deg 50' 11.68" E

 

[modbuilder]

Now I'm excited again. Clearly the EXIF data that I was looking at was not the complete set of what was available. I didn't use the recommended EXIFTOOL. I thought I had it covered with another app, but obviously not. It's a new world. Thanks for the follow up Keule. ........... R

 

[modbuilder]

OK, Got it! Was intimidated by all the programmer-speak instructions initially, but finally relied on the "drag and drop the DNG file onto the EXIFTool executable on the desktop for Win10" sentence. That works a treat! It's absolutely amazing how much data is captured.

Now I need to understand what I have and make sure I use it correctly back into a Waypoint setting. I found all the same info that Keule described above (and a ton more). Let me take a bite at a time, starting with Pitch.

I now have 4 pitch numbers from EXIFtool:
Gimbal Pitch = -43.00
Pitch= +4.2
Flight Pitch = +4.2
Camera Pitch = -43.00

I'm guessing that Gimbal Pitch and Camera Pitch are just listing the same measure under two different labels. Same situation for Pitch and Flight Pitch. So I'm interpreting these numbers to mean that the drone was leaning 4.2 degrees into a slight breeze, and the camera was pitched 43 degrees down relative to horizontal, and if I put -43 degrees into the Waypoint camera pitch field, that it will reproduce that pitch relative to horizontal regardless of how the drone is pitched the next time I fly the mission. Am I right?

 

[modbuilder]

Similar situation with 4 different Yaw values that are within 1-degree from max to min. So I'm thinking that I can treat the Flight Yaw value as a Heading in the Waypoint field. At least that's the next field trial I'll run. This is fantastic stuff. This is going to let me fine tune a Litchi Waypoint mission MUCH faster and more accurately than the trial/error I'd been using. Hope somebody else can benefit from this too. Thanks Namirda and Keule .............R.

 

[dronedoodle]

can i know which GE version known working good with VLM, I.m using W10(64bit) and Virtual Litchi Mission V2.1.0 , still having timeout issue
googleearth-win-pro-6.2.2.6613
googleearth-win-7.1.8.3036
googleearthprowin-7.3.1-x64

 

[namirda]

can i know which GE version known working good with VLM, I.m using W10(64bit) and Virtual Litchi Mission V2.1.0 , still having timeout issue
googleearth-win-pro-6.2.2.6613
googleearth-win-7.1.8.3036
googleearthprowin-7.3.1-x64

Hi Dronedoodle,

Sorry I really don't know how to help you. VLM is trying to connect to Google to get elevation info for your mission but the connection is timing out - it has nothing to do with Google Earth.

However, I have not seen this kind of error myself and nobody else has reported anything like it - so I can only conclude that the problem is related to your internet connection somehow.

Please test your connection to google by typing "ping maps.googleapis.com" in a command window.

If google responds to your ping then try the following url in your browser :

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/elevation/json?locations=31,56&key=badapikey

Google should send a json response telling you that key is invalid - because it is! If the reply from google is something else then it will hopefully tell you what to do next.

N

 

[dronedoodle]

Hi Dronedoodle,

Sorry I really don't know how to help you. VLM is trying to connect to Google to get elevation info for your mission but the connection is timing out - it has nothing to do with Google Earth.

However, I have not seen this kind of error myself and nobody else has reported anything like it - so I can only conclude that the problem is related to your internet connection somehow.

Please test your connection to google by typing "ping maps.googleapis.com" in a command window.

If google responds to your ping then try the following url in your browser :

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/elevation/json?locations=31,56&key=badapikey

Google should send a json response telling you that key is invalid - because it is! If the reply from google is something else then it will hopefully tell you what to do next.

N

Hi Namirda,
Tq very much for giving a way to check my connection, VLM is working now !!..

 

[wombat]

Hi Namirda,
I am running VLM 2.0.0 x64 how can I get 2.1.0 x64 ?

 

[dronedoodle]

Hi Namirda,
I am running VLM 2.0.0 x64 how can I get 2.1.0 x64 ?

See posting #01

 

[wombat]

See posting #01

thanks dronedoodle going there now

 

[MOTTO]

A question from a newby who just discovered this VLM. I've successfully installed it in VMware Fusion Pro 10.1.1 Windows 10 Pro Virtual machine with Google Earth Pro, logged into litchi hub and all looks great. But when I right click on the "home" button in the litchi hub view, I see an "empty menu". As one who knows nothing about "chrome-devtools," might someone tell me if there is some simple tweak (like a font substitution or other) that'll allow me to see my menus? (Incidentally, the menus work: I can let go of the right click and it'll execute whatever is under the cursor. I have also tried changing my screen resolution to no avail.)

By the way, I just ran two "old" missions and they worked flawlessly! Wow! So cool and useful!

 

[ThorDar]

Download latest version here :
Dropbox - Virtual Litchi Mission x64 V2.1.0.zip
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In this thread started almost a year ago - https://mavicpilots.com/threads/how-hard-would-it-be-to-simulate-litchi-missions-in-google-earth.7864, user “torqum” introduced the intriguing idea ‘flying’ a Litchi mission virtually in Google Earth to see how it looks from the perspective specified in Litchi. It was a very appealing concept – to fly a mission anywhere in the world without getting out of your armchair!

N

Thanks for writing this!

I just stumbled on it while searching for something else but decided to give it a shot and I'm having a blast! The weather has been preventing me from flying for real the last few days so I've had lots of time to experiment and have graduated from the intended purpose of previewing Litchi missions to creating missions I could never do in real life, like flying around downtown in my city (I'd be busted before I got off the ground) and setting up missions that are hundreds of kilometres long.

Cheers!

 

[namirda]

Thanks for writing this!

I just stumbled on it while searching for something else but decided to give it a shot and I'm having a blast! The weather has been preventing me from flying for real the last few days so I've had lots of time to experiment and have graduated from the intended purpose of previewing Litchi missions to creating missions I could never do in real life, like flying around downtown in my city (I'd be busted before I got off the ground) and setting up missions that are hundreds of kilometres long.

Cheers!

Thanks - glad you are enjoying it!

It's also interesting to use VLM to fly litchi missions which other users have made public in the Litchi Mission Hub - fascinating to see where other people live and fly. I just wish it was possible to sort the missions by location - at the moment when you open a mission you have no idea whether you are going to see China or Texas!

N

 

[marklyn]

I'm complained to them enough about the lack of organization of missions and suggested improvements (folders). They said they are working on that.

 

[Mitomark]

Afternoon Namdira (and all)
First of all.... VERY MANY THANKS for this software. It's an amazing piece of kit for us all to have and even more so because its free due to your generosity. (is there somewhere that we can donate to you) ???
I've just downloaded the newest version and am finding my way round the new features.
Just one question.... When I amend a waypoint setting the dialogue box is "chopped off" at the top and I cannot get to the delete or close options at the top of it.
Is this something I'm doing (or setting) wrong ?
Also, I'm curious about the figure when I hover over a waypoint profile (64 in the screenshot).

Apologies if the answers are already here and I've missed them.
Thanks again and keep up the amazing work.
Mark.

 

[Mitomark]

ps sorry I spelt your name wrong, it won't let me edit now.

 

[JoeBuster]

@ namirda - Nice Work - THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!

Here are some small virtual and real flights witch i cut together

It looks easy, but there was a lot of work (using Sony VEGAS) to synchronized the speed ot the virtual and the real stream.

Don`t ask why, but the virtual stream had the same flight speed as the real mission does. But in the end result the two stream had a different lenght.

It was difficult to strech and compress the two stream that it looks smooth - have Fun.

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