Virtual Litchi Mission

namirda · Mar 6, 2018

marklyn said:
namirda,
I'm trying the new version for the first time and I might have discovered a bug (unintended feature).
If I load a mission for the first time, the profile plots look as expected.
If I load another mission the profile plots don't change *until* I export the csv from mission hub (to GE), then they change to match the new mission I just loaded.
Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the kind words - I was wondering if anybody had tried the new version!

The behaviour you describe is neither a bug nor a feature - it is unfortunately just how it is for now! The main panel in VLM which contains the Mission Hub is a CEF chrome browser and the only way of getting data in or out of it is via the import/export options provided by Litchi. I would very much like to be able to interact with the Mission Hub more directly but that would involve cross site scripting and all the security issues that entails. Something for later perhaps!

sowega · Mar 6, 2018

namirda, I tried to install the latest release of your VLM on a MacBook Pro running Parallels and Windows 10...Was unsuccessful in getting the program to work so I'm going to use an old laptop I'm upgrading to Windows 10 and will try installing the program again on that computer with nothing else loaded...Hopefully everything goes well...BTW what you've developed is really super...Thanks...

marklyn · Mar 6, 2018

I used the new version today for several flights I had planned for my hometown visit (Shiner Tx). All of the flights turned out just like the virtual mission looked and the video was exactly the way I wanted/hoped it would be (angles, height, etc.). This tool is simply amazing and so appreciated!!!!

Radagast · Mar 6, 2018

I have just installed your latest version on a 6 year old laptop running Windows 10.
It works perfectly. I applaud you namirda for this great effort, thank you very much, this is going to be very helpful!

Jeremy · Mar 8, 2018

I've been using VLM for quite some time and it worked perfectly on my comp. However when I use it today, I got an error message "Timed Out waiting for Google Earth Elevation API" when trying to export the mission as CSV. Any thoughts? Should I try to re-install Google Earth?

namirda · Mar 8, 2018

Jeremy said:
I've been using VLM for quite some time and it worked perfectly on my comp. However when I use it today, I got an error message "Timed Out waiting for Google Earth Elevation API" when trying to export the mission as CSV. Any thoughts? Should I try to re-install Google Earth?

No - nothing to do with Google Earth. The Google Elevation API is used in VLM to get the values for the elevation profile and to correct the Litchi Hub elevations to Ground Level. I arbitrarily opted for a timeout period of 5 seconds which seemed adequate during my testing - for some reason that is not enough for you. Perhaps the Google servers were busy when you tried it - or perhaps your internet connection is slow sometimes?

If you continue to get that error then I can always increase the timeout period. Let me know..

N

Jeremy · Mar 8, 2018

namirda said:
No - nothing to do with Google Earth. The Google Elevation API is used in VLM to get the values for the elevation profile and to correct the Litchi Hub elevations to Ground Level. I arbitrarily opted for a timeout period of 5 seconds which seemed adequate during my testing - for some reason that is not enough for you. Perhaps the Google servers were busy when you tried it - or perhaps your internet connection is slow sometimes?

If you continue to get that error then I can always increase the timeout period. Let me know..

N

Just realized Avast antivirus is blocking the access. I can successfully export the mission when I disable Avast.

wombat · Mar 9, 2018

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.

Sorry I have been in hospital and not up to date yet, with Ver 2 does 4) Pre mean I have to have NET 4.6 installed ? or is that an option ?

namirda · Mar 9, 2018

wombat said:
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.

Sorry I have been in hospital and not up to date yet, with Ver 2 does 4) Pre mean I have to have NET 4.6 installed ? or is that an option ?

No, it's not an option - .NET4.6 is required by VLM2. If your system does not already have .NET4.6 installed then the VLM installer should offer to do it for you.

N

wombat · Mar 10, 2018

namirda said:
No, it's not an option - .NET4.6 is required by VLM2. If your system does not already have .NET4.6 installed then the VLM installer should offer to do it for you.

N

Thank you namirda, my Win 8.1 has been having problems uploading to NET 4.6, not a problem i will just use VLM on my Win 10 computer.

bdethy · Mar 10, 2018

namirda said:
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!

In that thread, user "JTS" submitted a conversion program which apparently worked for some folks but not for others – and not for me so I decided to write my own.

The utility is called Virtual Litchi Mission (VLM) – it is a standalone executable and does not need any installation. It runs on my Win10 x64 machine but should run on x86 machines as well. On older versions of windows your mileage may vary…..

VLM sets a watch on a user specified Downloads folder and will automatically read any csv file created in this folder. When Litchi Mission Hub writes a csv file to this folder, VLM will convert it to a “Tour” in Google Earth including the complete camera orientation and gimbal settings which were specified in Litchi.

The resulting Virtual Mission can then be flown in Google Earth and should show results very similar to that obtained when the mission is flown with your drone. I have tried it out on quite a few of the public missions available in Litchi Mission Hub and in areas where the satellite imagery is good, the results are impressive. Google Earth is so amazing!!

I have found VLM useful to check that there are no erroneous parameters in my Litchi Mission and to check that the camera ‘sees’ what I want it to see. It has saved me several wasted flights with my mavic.

A full User Guide is available in VLM under the Help Tab

Please give VLM a try and let me have any feedback, comments etc. I hope you find it useful.

Thanks

Link to Virtual Litchi Mission V1.0.5 available in post #118
Link to Virtual Litchi Mission V2.0.0 available in post #138

Hi, I tried to use VLM but I always get an error message at the time when the .csv file is upload (see attached file).
I get this error message as well with my own missions as with missions downloaded from Litchi mission hub. Apparently, the error prevents the csv file to be upload in Google Earth.
Any idea of the problem ?
Many thanks in advance.
Bruno

bdethy · Mar 11, 2018

Just found the trick ! (should be added to the help file).
If you get this error message : "syntax error in line 1 ..." you just have to change the decimal separator on your systel from "," to "." ...

For windows 10, see tuto

Radagast · Mar 11, 2018

namirda,
with the omission of the 'ground' option in inputting altitude reference in your latest version, I am having trouble getting any mission to run at the correct altitude. The 'wp1' and 'user' options don't seem to work for me either. What am I missing?
In version 1.0.4 everything works perfectly when I select 'ground'
thanks

Indy443 · Mar 11, 2018

GAAh, Feeling so left out with my pile of (amazing) Mac computers. So wishing I could use this software.

marklyn · Mar 11, 2018

Indy443 said:
GAAh, Feeling so left out with my pile of (amazing) Mac computers. So wishing I could use this software.

Couldn't you use a PC/Windows virtual machine? It is so neat and has cut my "bad" videos down to a fraction of what they used to be.
It might be worth finding a cheapo laptop, like $150ish.

What about something like this:
How to Emulate Windows on a Mac

wywh · Mar 13, 2018

When I try to launch VLM 2.0.0 I get an error message:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.
File name: 'CefSharp.Core.dll'

AFAIK VLM installed the prerequisites (I tried to separately install .NET4.6.2 but it was already installed).

If I ignore the error, then in VLM 2 the Mission Hub panel is grayed out (should it be the Google Chrome window?). I can open the "real" Google Chrome and Mission Hub, export .csv, go to VLM 2 and manually open .csv and from there to GE. I have to open VLM as an administrator because otherwise there is an error message in its log:

Access to the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Namirda\Virtual Litchi Mission\missionname.kml' is denied.

VLM 1.0.5 worked, but with each session I first had to manually open a .csv file to get it going and automatically open the .csv, make the GE icon active and feed the info to GE.

(MacBook Pro running Windows 10 Pro 1709 16299.15 via BootCamp)

namirda · Mar 15, 2018

Radagast said:
namirda,
with the omission of the 'ground' option in inputting altitude reference in your latest version, I am having trouble getting any mission to run at the correct altitude. The 'wp1' and 'user' options don't seem to work for me either. What am I missing?
In version 1.0.4 everything works perfectly when I select 'ground'
thanks

Hi,

In the old version, the 'ground' option was a global setting for the whole mission and was a feature of VLM because Litchi did not provide that facility. In the latest version of the Mission Hub, you can specify the 'above ground' option for each individual waypoint and so there was no longer any need of my global 'ground' option.

If the 'above ground' option is specified for a given waypoint in the Mission Hub then VLM will honour this. If the 'above ground' option is not selected for a given waypoint then elevations are taken to be with respect to the Home Point altitude specified in the VLM settings.

I hope that is clear - if not then please ask again.

N

namirda · Mar 15, 2018

bdethy said:
Hi, I tried to use VLM but I always get an error message at the time when the .csv file is upload (see attached file).
I get this error message as well with my own missions as with missions downloaded from Litchi mission hub. Apparently, the error prevents the csv file to be upload in Google Earth.
Any idea of the problem ?
Many thanks in advance.
Bruno

Hi,

Yes indeed, VLM only handles standard international locales. I did look into fixing this but it is so confusing!!!!
I see you are using an old version - if you try V2.0.0 then you will get a proper error message if the locale settings are wrong.

N

namirda · Mar 15, 2018

wywh said:
When I try to launch VLM 2.0.0 I get an error message:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.
File name: 'CefSharp.Core.dll'

AFAIK VLM installed the prerequisites (I tried to separately install .NET4.6.2 but it was already installed).

If I ignore the error, then in VLM 2 the Mission Hub panel is grayed out (should it be the Google Chrome window?). I can open the "real" Google Chrome and Mission Hub, export .csv, go to VLM 2 and manually open .csv and from there to GE. I have to open VLM as an administrator because otherwise there is an error message in its log:

Access to the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Namirda\Virtual Litchi Mission\missionname.kml' is denied.

VLM 1.0.5 worked, but with each session I first had to manually open a .csv file to get it going and automatically open the .csv, make the GE icon active and feed the info to GE.

(MacBook Pro running Windows 10 Pro 1709 16299.15 via BootCamp)

Sorry - I really don't know anything about Macs. There could be all sorts of gremlins there!

CefSharp is the package I use for the built-in browser and this would normally be installed by the VLM installer. However something obviously went wrong in your case. Looks like there are some permissions issues as well.

I'm sorry but I can't really help more - I don't have access to a Mac.

N

Radagast · Mar 16, 2018

namirda said:
Hi,

In the old version, the 'ground' option was a global setting for the whole mission and was a feature of VLM because Litchi did not provide that facility. In the latest version of the Mission Hub, you can specify the 'above ground' option for each individual waypoint and so there was no longer any need of my global 'ground' option.

If the 'above ground' option is specified for a given waypoint in the Mission Hub then VLM will honour this. If the 'above ground' option is not selected for a given waypoint then elevations are taken to be with respect to the Home Point altitude specified in the VLM settings.

I hope that is clear - if not then please ask again.

N

Hi
Yes that's clear thanks. Unfortunately, any mission I run, whether my own or a discover mission, flies at an incorrect altitude (approx halfway down the 'curtain'), sometimes below ground. It doesn't matter whether the waypoints are defined as above ground or not. Using either WP1 or user seems to make no difference. I am probably missing something obvious, but I have tried everything I can think of. I will stick to using the older version for now.
Thanks