Waypoint flights, some questions.

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Prompted by a recent thread, I haven't flown a waypoint flight nor have I tried to program one, I don't even know if my drones are capable of them. I don't think I ever will fly one but the thread made me wonder about some aspects of them.
Qu 1, speed, can the drone's speed be changed for each leg? I.e. could it be 5m/s between points 1 & 2, 10m/s between points 2 & 3, 7m/s between 3 & 4 .........?
Qu 2, are flight-mode speed limitations applicable? Meaning, is the flight flown in one of the three flight-modes, cine, normal, sports or in a 'waypoint' flight mode.
Qu 3, where do changes in height take place?
Qu 4, where do turns take place and are they smooth turns?

 

[Robert Prior]

This depends on the drone. Different drones have different capabilities.

I used waypoints a bit with my Mavic 2 Pro. I basically set the direction the drone was facing at each waypoint, and it smoothly transitioned as it went between them. It was great for getting nice smooth footage, but as the Mavic 2 is too heavy for the location I really want to take footage I didn't use it much.

The mini 3 Pro doesn't have waypoints, so I've been trying to get smoother at flying. I'm not really into video, though, so haven't got much better.

The Mini 4 Pro has waypoints. I don't have one so can't speak to what it can do, but I am getting tempted. Not tempted enough to buy one, but I wouldn't turn down a gift if DJI felt generous.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I used waypoints a bit with my Mavic 2 Pro.

Thanks, so I have waypoint capable drones lol but what about questions 1, 2, & 3?

but I wouldn't turn down a gift if DJI felt generous.

Wouldn't that be nice lol. I'd post a Beach Boys' clip but it might be video overload lol

 

[Robert Prior]

I have no idea about speed. I don't think so, but I'm a newbie to waypoints.

All changes are applied gradually between waypoints, which is what makes them attractive to me.

I know that with the M2P I can start low with the camera pointing down, end up high with the camera pointing in a different direction and horizontal, and the shot is a smooth transition between the viewpoints I set.

With the M2P you set waypoints by flying the drone there manually, then recording the waypoint. I don't know if it's possible to set them on a map with the M2P; I think it is for later drones.

 

[DJ Wes]

I never fly manually. All of my flights are automated. I'll answer your questions based on my experience with Litchi. I'm pretty sure you can do the same using DJI Go4 or DJI Fly, it just that DJI's implementation of waypoint missions leaves a lot to be desired.

Qu 1, speed, can the drone's speed be changed for each leg? I.e. could it be 5m/s between points 1 & 2, 10m/s between points 2 & 3, 7m/s between 3 & 4 .........?

Yes, you can. You can set an overall mission cruising speed. However, you can also optionally specify a speed at each waypoint that will override the mission cruising speed.

Qu 2, are flight-mode speed limitations applicable? Meaning, is the flight flown in one of the three flight-modes, cine, normal, sports or in a 'waypoint' flight mode.

In order to fly a waypoint mission, one must be in "Normal" mode. Therefore, "normal" speeds are applicable. However, one can specify a very slow "cine/tripod" cruising speed for smooth footage or a higher speed if desired.

Qu 3, where do changes in height take place?

The drone's height is smoothly interpolated from the height specified at one waypoint to the height specified at the next waypoint.

Qu 4, where do turns take place and are they smooth turns?

You can either specify a straight-line path typically used for photography or a curved-turn path typically used for capturing video.

 

[shb]

Prompted by a recent thread, I haven't flown a waypoint flight nor have I tried to program one, I don't even know if my drones are capable of them. I don't think I ever will fly one but the thread made me wonder about some aspects of them.
Qu 1, speed, can the drone's speed be changed for each leg? I.e. could it be 5m/s between points 1 & 2, 10m/s between points 2 & 3, 7m/s between 3 & 4 .........?
Qu 2, are flight-mode speed limitations applicable? Meaning, is the flight flown in one of the three flight-modes, cine, normal, sports or in a 'waypoint' flight mode.
Qu 3, where do changes in height take place?
Qu 4, where do turns take place and are they smooth turns?

With the Mavic 3 pro you cannot change the speed. It has to be the same for the whole flight, unfortunately.
The speed can be up to 33 mph, so no sport mode speeds allowed. You can turn and change altitude at any waypoint.

 

[Jet skier]

I have the air three and have lately just got into doing waypoint because it is pretty interesting. The air three will do just about anything you mentioned in your questions. Also, you can plan a mission on the app itself without even flying and you can change speed there is a global speed, but you can change speed between waypoint to be different, and for some particular missions, you get more features by flying the drone for instance point of interest has to be set with the drone flying over the spot

 

[PHZ]

Ahhhh. This is the use case where the Mavic 2 Pro with Litchi beats the pants off anything DJI is selling today. The Mavic 2 Pro is a workhorse and has yet to be equalled in this arena.

 

[rfaass]

I use waypoints to take pictures. I stop the drone M2P for 5 seconds before taking the picture as that increases the sharpness a lot. I have empty land around where I live and homeless try to sqaud and now and then I do a surveillance flight and it is niice to be able to compare the pictures as they are from the same height and angle.

 

[mobilehomer]

Here is a very informative tutorial.

 

[MavicPilot Skywalker]

Ahhhh. This is the use case where the Mavic 2 Pro with Litchi beats the pants off anything DJI is selling today. The Mavic 2 Pro is a workhorse and has yet to be equalled in this arena.

I absolutely agree. I’ve been wanting to upgrade from my M2 Pro but can’t seem to justify it. Everything I need is in this drone. I’m disappointed that the M3 Pro has doesn’t have SDK. I use Litchi for almost everything I do commercially. No can do with the M3P for programming flight automation.

 

[jephoto]

Here is a very informative tutorial.

Nice. Thanks for that.
I’ve still not played with waypoints- but I want to incorporate them into theses school website shoots I do.
Would’ve been helpful yesterday…
Sometimes with an irregular shaped property with buildings of different heights a simple POI doesn’t quite do what I’d like.
Although I’ve the Mavic 3- and surpised that only a global speed is possible. Seems like we’d be able to adjust that for different legs.

 

[tribar]

Waypoint Mode in DJI Fly (for supported drones)
(Mavic 3 Pro, Air 3, Mini 4 Pro)

Mission Settings:
-Global Speed
-End of Flight (Hover, RTH, Land, Back to Start)
-On Signal Lost (RTH, Hover, Land, Continue)
(Continue is not available in the EU)
-Starting Waypoint (Default is WP1)

Waypoint Settings:
-Camera Action (None, Take Photo, Start REC, Stop REC)
-Altitude
-Speed (Global, Custom)
-Heading (Follow Course, Face POI, Manual, Custom)
-Gimbal Tilt

POI Settings:
-Altitude
-Link Waypoint


Waypoint Missions are executed in Normal Mode
The maximum speed equals the maximum speed in Object Avoidance Mode.

The flight path follows the "Bezier Curves" algorithm in ALL directions.
This means the drone WILL descent between 2 waypoints with the same altitude when the next waypoint has a higher altitude (and vice versa) !

 

[Robert Prior]

The flight path follows the "Bezier Curves" algorithm in ALL directions.
This means the drone WILL descent between 2 waypoints with the same altitude when the next waypoint has a higher altitude (and vice versa) !

That is an important piece of information!

 

[MavicPilot Skywalker]

Correction on my part. I didn't think that you could do preprogrammed flight automation on the M3 Pro but it appears that one can with the native DJI app for the drone. That's good news for me,

 

[jephoto]

I know this thread is from a couple months ago, but I have an additional question.
I’ll be using a Mavic three with the RC pro.
- Is there anything in the waypoint mission set up that visually shows you the angle of view with the standard lens? I.e. 24 mm equivalent.

The reason I ask is that if you’re remotely planning your mission you need to have an idea of the distance from your point of interest to set the waypoint, so you’re encompassing the area you want to see.

 

[Droning on and on...]

If you mean the camera gimbal vertical angle then yes. Level is 0°, down -90°. You can explicitly set the angle for each waypoint if you select "custom" fore the gimbal setting in the waypoint, and then set the angle.

Unfortunately, if you're using a POI and set the gimbal to "POI" to automatically point at the right angle, it does not display what the angle is, and setting it to "POI" and then "custom" doesn't preserve the calculated angle (an old Litchi trick), so we're SOL on that.

But but but! There is a messy, cumbersome workaround: Extract flight logs after the flight, everything's in there. With something like 250ms resolution (i.e. one record every quarter second, don't quote me on the interval).

 

[jephoto]

If you mean the camera gimbal vertical angle then yes. Level is 0°, down -90°. You can explicitly set the angle for each waypoint if you select "custom" fore the gimbal setting in the waypoint, and then set the angle.

Unfortunately, if you're using a POI and set the gimbal to "POI" to automatically point at the right angle, it does not display what the angle is, and setting it to "POI" and then "custom" doesn't preserve the calculated angle (an old Litchi trick), so we're SOL on that.

But but but! There is a messy, cumbersome workaround: Extract flight logs after the flight, everything's in there. With something like 250ms resolution (i.e. one record every quarter second, don't quote me on the interval).

Nope. By Angle of view I mean the Horizontal width of the view the camera sees. The FOV of the lens.
I was hoping there would be some visual representation showing how much area the camera would see at a given distance.

If you are curving around any POI you want to be close as you can without cropping into it or far enough back to show the amount of surrounding area that you want.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Okay, well there's something I don't understand here... The FOV is a fixed characteristic of the camera, isn't it? For example, the Mini 4 Pro specs say the FOV is 82.1°, 24mm equivalent focal length.

So this doesn't seem like something that can vary, and wouldn't therefore be relevant to individual waypoints?

I'm confused.

As for the dimensions of a plane at distance D perpendicular to the sight line, can't this just be computed given the camera FOV and D?

Or were you hoping you could set the visible area, and have the waypoint system calculate D for the waypoint? (Boy would that be handy!)

In any case, I think the best advice for your application is to create a waypoint sequence by flying the mission and setting them interactively.

If that's feasible, of course.

 

[jephoto]

“In any case, I think the best advice for your application is to create a waypoint sequence by flying the mission and setting them interactively.”

Yes. Of course that’s the most accurate and what needs to be done if critical.
I was just asking if there was any visual cues on the remote setup to assist with setting the distance of the waypoints.
The short answer is then, no.