What was Litchi designed for? My opinion.

[Former Member]

I use Litchi to automate much of the flight so that I can focus on the video aspect of flying, to be able to focus and shoot certain objects. When I see people use it just for distance I kinda scratch my head, especially when flying over highways and people, without having any video feed. At a certain time, you are going to lose video feed when you fly out of range of the controller. As soon as that happens, yes, Litchi will allow you to finish the mission, but at what cost? How do you know where your drone is? The answer is, you dont. If you are using a tracking device, thats just an afterthought.

My advice, if/when using Litchi, try to maintain VLOS. If not, then at least have a spotter with you who can maintain VLOS. Finally, if you dont have VLOS or a spotter, then do not go outside of the point where you have lost video feed. Im not concerned about you as the pilot, because you will be fine, but it isnt worth the risk to any one or anything in your path when your drone is flying blind.

 

[Grantt]

Point taken. Are you seeing a significant amount of repair work coming in due to drones crashing via Litchi missions?

 

[Former Member]

Point taken. Are you seeing a significant amount of repair work coming in due to drones crashing via Litchi missions?

Nope, exactly the opposite, believe it or not. With Litchi, most of the mundane flight operations are done by the app. As long as you have a good flight plan, Litchi is your friend. All you have to do is plan the mission, press the play button, and it will take off, fly the mission, and land.

After a couple of early crashes with my own drone a few years ago, I found Litchi, and it was the app I was looking for. My wife imposed some flight restrictions on me, mostly that I was required to allow Litchi to do the flying, and I could just watch. After that, she would ask me who flew that day, and reluctantly I would tell her Litchi did, so she wouldnt ground me. That made her happy, but made me feel like just an observer (right seat).

 

[tleedom]

My wife imposed some flight restrictions on me, mostly that I was required to allow Litchi to do the flying, and I could just watch. After that, she would ask me who flew that day, and reluctantly I would tell her Litchi did, so she wouldn't ground me. That made her happy, but made me feel like just an observer (right seat).

Happy wife = Happy life

 

[Grantt]

I purchased Litchi to have the ability to fly a preset mission without signal over and over again. I am doing my own testing to see my limitations and find out its problems.

For example, one issue i foind out yesterday. Ive done this mission multiple times before, but yesterday the winds were a little strong. I wanted to see how the drone could handle. I normally set my missions to fly closeby for a bit before zipping away. My mavic was really struggling to stay on course. I have it set to 30 mph cruising speed, and it was flying maybe 1 to 2 mph. I let it continue as it started to go on its distance run, and continued to monitor its speed. It finally got up to 5 maybe 10 mph. But then I realized if I had let it get away from me until I lost signal, and the winds picked up again and slowed it down to 1 to 2 mph again, it could struggle out there and deplete the battery before reaching it max distance. Then once it goes into auto rth, it could be too far to make it bsck home. Plus, I started to see a rainbow form where the mavic was headed, which meant rain was on its way. I cancelled the mission while I still could. I flew manually afterwards for a bit, and it was struggling, but put that guy into sports mode, and wow, it could cut through that wind no problem, going 10 plus mph into the wind.

 

[Former Member]

I purchased Litchi to have the ability to fly a preset mission without signal over and over again. I am doing my own testing to see my limitations and find out its problems.

For example, one issue i foind out yesterday. Ive done this mission multiple times before, but yesterday the winds were a little strong. I wanted to see how the drone could handle. I normally set my missions to fly closeby for a bit before zipping away. My mavic was really struggling to stay on course. I have it set to 30 mph cruising speed, and it was flying maybe 1 to 2 mph. I let it continue as it started to go on its distance run, and continued to monitor its speed. It finally got up to 5 maybe 10 mph. But then I realized if I had let it get away from me until I lost signal, and the winds picked up again and slowed it down to 1 to 2 mph again, it could struggle out there and deplete the battery before reaching it max distance. Then once it goes into auto rth, it could be too far to make it bsck home. Plus, I started to see a rainbow form where the mavic was headed, which meant rain was on its way. I cancelled the mission while I still could. I flew manually afterwards for a bit, and it was struggling, but put that guy into sports mode, and wow, it could cut through that wind no problem, going 10 plus mph into the wind.

Very good points. If there are winds aloft that exceed 10 mph, I usually dont use Litchi, unless its a very short mission of less than 10 minutes. Even then, I have to monitor forward progress, to make sure the mission is going according to plan.

As far as cruising speed, I usually set it at 15mph or less, because anything higher than that, the video is going to be unstable. In search and rescue training, we set it at 4mph or less because otherwise, with the narrow field of vision of the camera, things just speed by too fast, especially if you are zoomed in.

Litchi is only as good as the pilot thats programming it, and then the pilot has to use his common sense before executing the mission. Its a great tool, but its not perfect.

 

[Former Member]

I purchased Litchi to have the ability to fly a preset mission without signal over and over again. I am doing my own testing to see my limitations and find out its problems.

For example, one issue i foind out yesterday. Ive done this mission multiple times before, but yesterday the winds were a little strong. I wanted to see how the drone could handle. I normally set my missions to fly closeby for a bit before zipping away. My mavic was really struggling to stay on course. I have it set to 30 mph cruising speed, and it was flying maybe 1 to 2 mph. I let it continue as it started to go on its distance run, and continued to monitor its speed. It finally got up to 5 maybe 10 mph. But then I realized if I had let it get away from me until I lost signal, and the winds picked up again and slowed it down to 1 to 2 mph again, it could struggle out there and deplete the battery before reaching it max distance. Then once it goes into auto rth, it could be too far to make it bsck home. Plus, I started to see a rainbow form where the mavic was headed, which meant rain was on its way. I cancelled the mission while I still could. I flew manually afterwards for a bit, and it was struggling, but put that guy into sports mode, and wow, it could cut through that wind no problem, going 10 plus mph into the wind.

I just reread your post, and realized that you are using Litchi for flights without signal. Yes,, doing that requires almost ideal conditions, calm winds, and a guardian angel doesnt hurt either.

For me, there is just too much that can go wrong midflight to be able to trust Litchi that much, especially if the mission is being planned to fly autonomously out of transmission range. Its possible that some of the folks on the range leaderboard use Litchi to be able get as far away as they do, but for me, Im more interested in flight endurance than distance.

 

[bushie]

I use DroneHarmony in much the same way. I preplan my mission, camera direction, gimble angle etc and then let DH fly. Get much smoother results. I can then refly with different parameters, different filter, different PH filter oridntation etc.May fly same 15min mission 3 times and then edit all the video to 1 3 min clip.

 

[Grantt]

I just reread your post, and realized that you are using Litchi for flights without signal. Yes,, doing that requires almost ideal conditions, calm winds, and a guardian angel doesnt hurt either.

For me, there is just too much that can go wrong midflight to be able to trust Litchi that much, especially if the mission is being planned to fly autonomously out of transmission range. Its possible that some of the folks on the range leaderboard use Litchi to be able get as far away as they do, but for me, Im more interested in flight endurance than distance.

Yes, I am purposely trying to get comfortable flying beyond transmission range. I've done maybe 20 flights so far with litchi, and only around 5 have been beyond transmission range. So I'm still very unexperienced. I'm slowly making the flights longer and longerb But still, I'm only in the 8 to 10 minutes flight mission range, out of fear that winds could make those flights much longer. Thanks for the tip on 4 mph for search and rescue. That type of flight is one of my goals.

 

[Former Member]

Yes, I am purposely trying to get comfortable flying beyond transmission range. I've done maybe 20 flights so far with litchi, and only around 5 have been beyond transmission range. So I'm still very unexperienced. I'm slowly making the flights longer and longerb But still, I'm only in the 8 to 10 minutes flight mission range, out of fear that winds could make those flights much longer. Thanks for the tip on 4 mph for search and rescue. That type of flight is one of my goals.

Yes, at 4 mph, flights are much shorter in distance, but the same length in duration. Even 4mph sometimes is too fast for a good search speed especially if there is ground cover.

 

[AMann]

Point taken. Are you seeing a significant amount of repair work coming in due to drones crashing via Litchi missions?

My biostatistics class came to mind immediately with your post: is Litchi really causing fewer or more crashes and trips to the repair shop, or is Litchi better at making crashed drones disappear?

 

[Grantt]

My biostatistics class came to mind immediately with your post: is Litchi really causing fewer or more crashes and trips to the repair shop, or is Litchi better at making crashed drones disappear?

After flying with litchi for a bit now, I believe litchi is making drones disappear forever. Each time I send it off on a long mission, I am starting to intentionally tell myself that this may be the last time I see my mavic.

 

[Grantt]

Yes, at 4 mph, flights are much shorter in distance, but the same length in duration. Even 4mph sometimes is too fast for a good search speed especially if there is ground cover.

What altitude do you fly at 4 mph for a search and rescue mission?

 

[Former Member]

What altitude do you fly at 4 mph for a search and rescue mission?

125' or 150' depending on the terrain