After using the new iOS app I think it’s very good but there are a few features that I think would be nice to have, forgive me if some have been requested previously :
Image preview window - a small window to show what the camera is seeing during the mission.
Option to return the camera to the fully up position when returning home. This would prevent possible foreign object damage when landing and remove the need to remember to do it manually.
Ability to pause / resume the flight.
Be able to set a max battery flight time and show point at which this will expire during planning to make multiple battery flights easier to plan.
Presets for overlap settings (eg. Low, Med, High) rather than manually typing in the percentage.
Speed reduction option for higher quality images.
Be able to plan mission on app without having to connect to UAV.
Range ring. As limited to 500m VLOS is would be useful to have that as a circle on planning map.
This is a dynamic calculation dependent on a lot more than the app can know. It is updated on a continual basis in DJI Go. You couldn’t know pre-flight, so would have to put in a ‘most cautious’ estimate that would waste battery and flight time.
I think most pro mappers would prefer the flexibility of the percentages as there is a constant trade-off between several technical and economic factors that determine where to set this. Low / Med / High is a little counterintuitive.
Do you have blurry images? You shouldn’t. Speed is dynamic based on altitude, front lap / camera profile. You can override shutter speed by setting camera to manual. Economically speaking you want to map as quickly as possible. You don’t get paid for flying. Why would you want to slow it down?
This is also a little misleading. 500m VLOS is 500m from the pilot…who can move. So where do you set your centre point? Perhaps a dimensioned grid would be more use?
Yes I realise it can’t constantly update and predict the point at which the battery will reach a certain level, but it would help (me anyway) with a rough guide to where, under standard conditions, the aircraft will expect to reach after a set flight time. If you could set say, 15 minutes, it would be a rough guide in planning as to where the battery change would be expected and how many will be required.
Ok maybe user defined presets. I mostly map with a set overlap, but if covering areas of trees or complex detail etc, I increase the overlap. Having a preset to change between would help, but it’s not a big deal.
The images are not blurry but they are not exactly sharp and losing detail that I require to be retained. It’s fairly low light conditions at this time of year and having the aircraft at full speed is possibly resulting in either the shutter not being set as quick as it needs to be for the map speed, or the ISO is being increased to compensate. Either way it will impact image sharpness. Yes time is money etc etc. but how much is wasted having to redo a map as the detail is insufficient. I personally would prefer an option to have a slower run with better image quality.
The centre point could be set to where you expect to stand as again it’s just an idea for planning as an aid. If you know where the 500m point is you can see if you will need to move or not during the mapping run. A grid would also be of use yes. If using the Inspire, or a gps enabled iPad it could update position for the 500m centre point dynamically.
No major points, on the whole I think it’s a great implementation, just some ideas.