DroneDeploy App Version 4.3 Bugs

Let us know if they give you access to the older version or not.

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I just saw there is now a v4.7. I updated and will give it a try tomorrow on a site where the client is flying out of town to meet us. Hopefully, its no worse than the last version I was using.

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I ran 4 missions today with v4.3.2. Two with the iPad Mini 5, one with the iPad 7th gen and one with the iPad 6th gen.
None of the flights exhibited any lagging behavior. Two of the flights were right around 15 minutes. The iPad 6th gen used 15% battery and the iPad Mini 5 12%. The mission with the 7th gen iPad was two batteries at a total of 31 minutes. It used 17% of the battery.
Here’s the kicker. None of the flights showed telemetry for horizontal and vertical speed. Besides that everything performed beautifully.

Where is V4.7? The latest I have in the UK for iOS is V4.3.2, released 3 days ago. You’re not referring to the average rating of 4.7 are you? :wink:

You are right James. Version 4.3.2.

Setting the focus of the p4p camera is performed by climbing up from DJI GO 4 and continuing to work by launching DroneDeploy in the air. Or with new versions of DroneDeploy , focusin g is performe d automaticall y withou t DJ I G O 4? Som e tim e ago, yo u helped me solv e problem s wit h p4 p focus whe n flyin g wit h DroneDeploy. Ever y da y I trac k you r forums o n issues of new version s o f th e DroneDeplo y program. I don’t do any further update s of the progra m ye t, I’ m waiti n g f o r go o d result s . I alrea d y updat e d i t earli e r to a no n- work i ng versi on. Himself while testing can 't we have winter and lots of snow.

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Hi Sergey, glad to see you! Personally I have never had any problems with focus with any of our P4P’s. One thing that I do is that when the drone is on the ground ready for takeoff it sits on a platform just a little off the ground. I then make sure to point it in a direction that has no obstruction close so that the check-shot from DroneDeploy doesn’t have the opportunity to auto-focus at to short of a distance. I have never used DJI Go4 except to check the drone and to calibrate it. DroneDeploy controls everything. Another thing that you could try is to manually take a picture on the way to the first waypoint?

When flying over bright conditions like snow it is obviously the best in overcast days. Beyond that I have had the best luck by post-processing the images with ACDSee in order to compensate for the under-exposure from the camera reacting to a bright condition. If you have an image of snow that is dark that you can share I can show you what I do.

Having issues with the app in recent months too.

4.3.2 version of DD, 13.3.1 -7thgen iPad. P4P.

Terrible lag and unresponsive to touch-screen commands are the common theme. WiFi or not. Other various problems that don’t repeat every time. I’ve noticed these issues since the update asking about new view.

The worst part is the battery power that is used up while trying to troubleshoot issues. Now I have to bring additional batteries and budget time to get dronedeploy to function properly. Super long times to cache maps for offline flight compared to before.

Hoping these issues will be illuminated because I preferred dronedeploy over Pix4D capture. Now half the time I fly my missions manually versus DD because of the headache and wasted time/battery. More difficult manual flights still better than jacking around trying to get dronedeploy to behave like I had come to expect.

Like the flight app but losing faith. Doing everything as I had done before with new unpleasant results in recent times.

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iPad Pro 11" (2nd Gen) ordered. This had better work.

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Wishing you luck! I flew 5 batteries on Wed. and operation was perfect. Unfortunately, this was using DD 3.1.8 on ios 12.3. 1-15 min. flight and 4-20min. flights and the ipad went from 100->92% Clearly on pre v.4, DD isn’t using ipad resources like it is now. It’s hard to understand what the ipad is now working on that is was not in the previous series?

wishing you all the luck !!

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Have been researching DD since mid to late October of 2019 in order to kick start our business with a credible mapping app that could also do roofing and this certainly does not seem to be the one based on the high price point and complete unreliability that people seem to put up with

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Hi MichaelL!

Thanks for the answer. It’s nice to receive prompt assistance from You, and I think you will not refuse this time. I have a few questions about aerial photography and working in the DroneDeploy program.

Regarding the problem with focusing P4P. As I understand from Your letter, The dronedeploy program takes the first control picture for focusing when the drone is on the ground. At what height from the ground surface do You place the platform on which the drone is located before flight? At what minimum distance should objects be placed in front of the drone so that there is no incorrect automatic focusing?

You said that you can take a picture manually in the air on the way to the first point of the route. This can be done while in the DroneDeploy program by clicking on the button located on the control panel, or you need to go to Dij GO4 in flight and take a picture there, or this feature has appeared in the updated program? Why doesn’t DroneDeploy make the program take the first control image in the air on the way to the first point on the route?

I read that the new program DroneDeploy has the ability to pause and switch to other programs while in flight. I haven’t been able to test the new program yet. In October 2019, my drone fell into a river, I lost it. Purchased in Singapore through AliExpress new drone P4P. Have not yet flown. I haven’t used The new dronedeploy program yet. On the forum, I read a lot of complaints about the new version of the program. I don’t like the new interface of the program. I have empty Windows near my flight plans in the new interface. What do you see in these Windows? Perhaps I do not display anything because I do not send the shooting materials to DroneDeploy for processing, but do everything myself in the Agisoft Metashape Professional program.
How Do you feel about P4P version 2? Do You work with P4P RTK?

I closely follow the forum on dronedeploy issues of the latest versions. Is it worth it to upgrade to version 4.3.3? I am waiting for a stable version that will work better and will not use the tablet resources so much. Please let us know when this version appears.

Thanks for the advice on image processing in the ACDSee program, I have already tried group compensation for insufficient exposure of photos.
Send a screen shot of the program interface of the new version as it looks You have?

Best Regards, Sergey
jablokov@mail.ru

I may have mistated, but the program takes a checkshot on the ground to confirm camera triggering is working. I have noticed that on the first waypoint image or two that it was slightly out of focus and I attributed this to the checkshot as each time it happened there was an obstruction near the camera and there are no other images taken before the first mapping image. That said by default a P4P should run on auto-focus so this shouldn’t happen. I have wondered though how the system manages “auto-focusing” with any accuracy while on the move at 12-18mph… I do not have this issue since I propped up the takeoff area by an inch or so and making sure there were no obstruction. I also level the pad so it is never looking downhill or rolled.

I will say that I have seen many posts about Mavic’s not focusing correctly and I am not sure what that is all about.

Yes, you can take a picture using the button on the controller.

I have not found an ability to switch missions, but yes you can pause and manually fly then resume back to the mission that was running.

There have been issue with performance causing a lag in the interface, but I have not experienced this since the new update. Problem is that I have an iPad Mini 5 which has more horsepower. I also retested on the 10.2in 7th Gen iPad and it worked fine, but I have not been able to retest with a 6th Gen 9.7 inch.

This looks like they have not loaded a thumbnail of the map. Have you left it open for a while to see if they eventually come through? If not, I too experienced this before the update and was running a 6th Gen 9.7in iPad, but they did eventually start to populate after about 30 seconds. If this screenshot is from a PC it should not happen at all with a decent Ethernet connection. Wifi maybe…

If you’ve already upgraded to a version 4.x.x then yes you want to go to the latest. If you are still on a v3.x.x and running an iPad Mini 4, 9.7in 6th Gen or older I would wait for the next release as there is no way to go back.

Hi MichaelL! Thanks for the answer.

I don’t load map thumbnails regardless of the time. I use an iPad Pro 10.5 256 Gb 2017, can connect to the Internet not only via Wi-Fi. Thumbnails do not appear on the PC, and the connection speed is 100 Mbit / s. this is probably because I do not send my images to the DroneDeploy server for processing and do not use Live Map. MichaelL, do you display thumbnails on all missions, planned and completed, or just completed? I sent the previous email from an e-mail, I didn’t know that it would immediately get to the forum, I wouldn’t have publicly asked so many questions. Can you tell me your personal email address, or is it forbidden by the forum rules?

Best Regards, Sergey

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I see, so you don’t actually have any maps on DroneDeploy? You just use it to fly? That would make sense why this would happen. It pulls the thumbnail from the hosted maps.

I’ve got your email and have removed it and will PM you mine.

Nobody replies….….???

Reports have really slowed down so it seems like things have gotten much better. We’ll keep this thread open until the next version comes out.

To the contrary Michael, despite no software updates, my mission last week was not good. The worst in 4 months for me.

Whereas I had not previously suffered lagging and my issues were limited only to the app draining the iPad battery prematurely, my mission last week suffered extensive lagging, to the point that the complete app froze for several seconds before crashing out. It needed me to reopen it and land before I was able to continue with the mission from the point it shut down. It wouldn’t rejoin the mission without.

My direct contact with DD Support resulted in them telling me there were compatibility issues with iOS13 and they were looking to do something about it during the second quarter. I had in the meantime purchased the new IPad Pro on behalf of the company, only to be told there was a strong possibility we’d be looking to return it given the current climate.

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I didn’t say that all the cases have been good, but with the lack of input for over a week I would say that the situation has definitely gotten better, including my own experience even going back to testing an older device.

They are correct in the iOS 13 problem and this has been known for a month now. Not just DroneDeploy, but we have several apps in our Maas360 Catalog that started acting up and crashing without even opening. Apple’s response was that they are aware of these issues and are continuing development.

This problematic mission was with the new iPad Pro 11?