Well, my P3P is on the latest DJI official firmware (1.07.6) and I didn’t notice any difference concerning DD’s functions. All’s ok with it, the troubles I had with this dev are the same I had with the stable on the DJI firmware 1.06.4.
I’ve been seeing people flying with 1.07. 1.06 should work with both apps I think.
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I flew a mission on 3/22 with 1.07.0060 (P3A) and I noticed that the EXIF GPS Altitude data field is once again populated with the GPS Altitude ASL (as opposed the the barometric AGL) I believe it switched to baro altitude with 1.05, remained there with 1.06, and is now back to the (highly inaccurate) GPS recorded value. Sigh
Hello again everybody,
I was able to get passed by the recording video error by uninstalling and then re-installing the DJI Go app, since it got to a point when starting the RC linked via USB cable to the tablet did not prompt any action from the tablet (which usually asked which program to use: DJI Go, DroneDeplay Beta or Litchi), so this is a good tip for anyone experiencing this kind of behavior.
I took the drone out for 4 missions yesterday. On the first two I used Pix4D for flying it, on the next two I used DroneDeploy Beta. Pix4D has some neat features which could really be easy to implement in DroneDeploy and would constitute a big benefit for all DroneDeploy users:
- the ability to control the camera angle. Pix4D users can specify the angle, whilst DD users can only get nadir pictures. This feature is especially good when making 3D models and will also improve the quality of the DSM, i.e. get rid of the doming effect;
- the ability to control the speed of the drone before flying. Right now DD users can get only the max speed with the DD with the drone making some braking when about to reach the end waypoint of the leg;
- the ability to make criss-cross passes on the same area to be mapped, i.e. if you had vertical long passes and horizontal small passes then using this feature you also get vertical short passes and horizontal long passes for the second flight. This is again useful when making 3D models with oblique photos;
- the mission management in Pix4d positions the drone in one direction and keeps that direction for the whole flight and just translates the drone along the pathway, whilst in DroneDeploy the drone is turned at each leg waypoint to face the next leg waypoint, which, if you think of it, is unnecessary, especially when taking photos with the camera at -90 degrees. It would save time and consequently battery life and could make the missions cover larger areas or in more detail.
- Pix4D is using the LightBridge communication to sync the photos on board of the drone to the tablet immediately after it starts returning to the HomePoint, which is very neat to have a sort of backup.
- Pix4D has however two disadvantages Drone Deploy does not have:
a. it requires the drone homepoint to be at a very short distance (150 m, maybe it is user definable, but on the field I did not have time to check) from the furthest away leg waypoint, which makes the Pix4D app suitable only for mapping small surfaces;
b. you have to make the drone aiborne manually before you get into the mapping mission
which is a nuisance, especially after being accustomed with DroneDeploys ability to get the drone lifted on its own.
The last two missions I flew with Drone Deploy using the Beta app for debugging. The first one went so and so: - No more test camera failures, congratulations for fixing it! Unfortunately I could not sync any plans I preplanned at home on the DroneDeploy PC platform
- when hitting the Return Home button the drone changes its camera to the horizontal position (0 degrees) and keeps taking pictures all the way home, which is a nice way to get some selfies when you catch it close to landing
, but otherwise you need to clear those images from the whole bunch before uploading them to the Drone Deploy map engine, where they could cause failures. - On the second part of the first drone deploy mission the DroneDeploy beta crashed. The drone icon on the screen begun moving along the projected pathway in a more and more fragmented way until the screen went black with the message from the Android that Drone Deploy stopped. Fortunately I had experience with such events and I left everything untouched and the done zigzagged home ok and also collected pictures. Although the app has stopped, you can only close it from the Android Application Manager. When forcefully closing it, I noticed that Pix4D was also still active, which could account for this behavior, so I closed Pix4D and the drone Deploy did not crash afterwards. It would be therefore quite useful for DroneDeploy to check before launching if other apps are competing for the same resources it needs, it would make it more robust.
- The last Drone Deploy mission went without a glitch. However I noticed that Drone Deploy takes pictures also when heading home and descending. The first one may be ok, maybe a sort of overkill, but the last one is not, because you have to manually clear out this unwanted camera down selfies from the whole bunch as they might get the Map Engine into confusion.
- Back home, after sorting out the pictures, I noticed that on the last Drone Deploy missions the Drone Deploy Map Engine reported altitudes of 120 m that could affect the quality of the produced map, which is odd for two reasons
a. the first mission was at 95 m and the second one was at 80 m;
b. I did not see the same warning on the pictures collected with the Pix4D app. - The first drone deploy mission was about 4.85 GB which prompted another warning from the Drone Deploy Map Engine that missions above 3 GB could cause problems… Well, since Drone Deploy accepts 1000 pictures and the average JPG size of any picture collected with a DJI is about 5 MB, this is bound to happen for any mission exceeding 600 pictures, right?
- I did not have a chance to look at the DSM to see if it was affected by this altitude error, since my trial period exceeded some time ago and DSM and NDVI are available only for paid subscriptions, so I make a plea with you guys to prolong it until the beta testing is over, which I thank you for in advance.
With best wishes,
C0ndu
- We are planning to add this.
- We are also adding this at the moment
- Do you find the criss-cross pattern useful? I can add this to our idea list.
- Our planning is currently based on having the drone facing the direction it is flying. We have some new stuff coming soon that actually takes advantage of this which will be exciting.
- How often do you download using lightbridge? We have found it to be too slow for any reasonable amount of photos 50-100+. We used to have it in our app but we removed it.
7 & 8. It shouldn’t continue taking photos. I’ll add this to the bug list. - I’ll add to the list to see if we can check for other applications open that we know about.
- I heard from someone recently that DJI’s recent firmware switched ASL and AGL in the altitude again. Could this be what you’re seeing?
- We are still testing larger uploads at the moment. It’s coming soon.
- We don’t consider the android or iOS app to be in beta as of a few months ago. Of course it’s still under active development as we are always making changes.
Thanks for all the great feedback!
Chase
- It is useful for oblique images for 3D models. In one go the drone gets oblique pictures from one direction, in the second go it gets oblique pictures from the direction perpendicular to the first one. no need for orbiting around in DJI Go. Although doing that will produce better 3D models…
- that will lead to a great performance improvement indeed.
- you are right, it is only useful for small areas with not so many pictures
- maybe. How can I know for sure? What should I be looking at?
- then you should change the app name from “Drone Deploy Beta” to “Drone Deploy” with the next app upgrade
I am glad to be of service to the Drone Deploy community anyway.
C0ndu
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Hi,
Nice backup C0ndu.
I flew another mission this morning and once more had a DD App crash after 3-4 minutes, hwilst the mission was scheduled for 14 minutes.How long are the last 10 minutes, keeping an eye on what the bird does, keeping a finger on the RTH button in case of … Really bas sense,.
Tab (Galaxy tab s2) was clear and just reboot, no other apply backwards.
May be I should try to reinstall the App, this malfunction is not usable for job.
I didn’t experience this trouble on my first flights with DD.
It’s a good thing that the team is introducing the abilities you listed, I’m impatient to test them.
For the moment, I found how to slow the bird by increasing front covering but well …
How long before a next version comes out Chasemgray ?
Anyway, mission ended correctly, all pictures taken and now uploading.
I try to add some obliques picture taken out of DD for 3D model …
I also have a Galaxy Tab S2. I do not believe rebooting the tablet does the trick the way it usually happens with PCs. I have had surprise to see apps still active after reboot in the Android Application Manager. I would suggest to try if uninstalling DJI Go and then reinstalling it back does the trick. After checking that, you also need to look in the Android Application Manager if other drone control apps like DJI Go, Litchi, Pix4D or even Drone Deploy are still active before flying a Drone Deploy mission. If they are, close them down forcefully. Only after that you can be sure only Drone Deploy has control of the drone.
Yeah, I do check each time I use DD.
And after rebbot, it’s very strange you get the app active !
Btw, did you also encounter troubles for DD to get control even if no other app is active ?
I need at least twice cold start of the RC/bird.
And when back on DJI Go, often the same.
Finally got out to try the beta version of the app today. It worked great with the newest firmware. Or atleast appears to have worked! It’s currently processing two of my flights now so I’ll see soon how it worked.
Awesome app, look forward to learning it!
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I have had problems with DD in earlier versions of it regarding:
- failures to make camera test pictures;
- drone stopping in mid air with no apparent reason;
- DD app crash resulting in no pictures taken;
- mission loaded but drone hovering but not going anywhere, caused by DD not reading or not interpreting correctly the newer DJI firmwares/SDKs error messages (accumulator temperature too low, survey height higher than DJI Go specified limit, possible breach of geofencing, etc., you will find them on the forum);
So far these errors seem looked after properly, so the only major concern is to make sure no other app is having control or communication with the RC via USB cable and that is done via the Android Application Manager. One area of concern is still why the plans do not sync, at least in my case.
Unfortunately weather was against me today. Rain and rain …
I also have troubles for syncing from PC/web to the App.
But App syncs with the web after a"new mission" has been done …
So, I had some spare time and nice weather today !
After deinstalling and reinstalling last version of DD, tried a new mission.
This time, no app crash, that’s fine !
But I still have some gaps on the coverage, some pictures … are not taken !
Meaning a few “holes” of from 3 to 6 seconds between 2 pictures, which makes a gap…
Edit: holes are confirmed on the generated map, showing unfocused and garbled zones … ;-(
And by the way, I noticed something else.
It seems that DD keeps the camera setup made with DJIGO.
Meaning I had set EV +0.7 for the last use and all pictures are overexposed.
Doesn’t DD make its own setup according to light conditions ? That should be corrected !
I’ll check if this is something that isn’t getting set in the new Android app. It should be getting set to +0.0 each flight unless you have the “auto flight settings” turned off in the dronedeploy app.
Thx chasemgray, any idea for the missing pictures ?
Doesn’t seem to be a camera/sdcard trouble, never had before and Class10/UHC I Sdcard empty before flight.
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New test today… not a so good day.
Troubles to connect DD and the bird.
At least 4 tries including cold reset on the tab … pfff
And if data in “fly mode”, DD did not want to go on a new mission…
So, data “on”, no connection with server BUT… I had the map and was able to launch new mission.
So far so good, all ok, Go for a 7 minutes fly.
but … app crash after 6 minutes, no more tab connection.
Bird finished the fly and came back landing as is nothing occured …
New mission, still hard to get the bird connected.
And then another new issue.
Fly up to 300m maybe, something like 20 acres.
No take-off, just a message I don’t exactly remember: something like “too far away” …
So ? DD refuses to go more than 300 m away ?
Any information of the “limits” ? What should I do if I want a 500m * 200m map ?
I noticed something else after my last fly: I tried to fly lower, 40m, to get more detailed pictures.
They are ! But !.. DD seems not able to get as good assembly as at 60m or more.
Picture seems to be “non conform” to reality.
Any ideas on this ?
Thx
Well, that’s DJI obviously…I hope they will release the new version as soon as possible cause this one is inoperable. For me at least…
up: it seems, in general Phantom 4 doesn’t have a lot of problems with firmware.