Today I attempted to complete a multiple battery mission using:
- the latest version of the DD iOS app (v1.4.4),
- P3P using the latest firmware (v1.6.0040)
- and my iPhone 6
The first battery’s flight went well until it was time to “pause” the mission in order to bring the drone home for a fresh battery. When the battery was running low I was not sure how to properly “pause” the mission. So I moved the remote controller’s flight mode switch from “F” to “P”, then pushed the return to home button so the drone would return to home autonomously. That seemed to work just fine. After landing I completely closed the DD app, turned off the drone, turned off the remote controller and swapped the drone’s battery with a fresh battery. I then turned on the remote controller, turned on the drone, then re-launched the DD app. The app connected with the drone just fine, but the “old flights” button that is supposed to appear on the right side of the app never appeared. So I completely closed and re-launched the DD app again, but still no "old flights"button on the right side of the screen. I then clicked on “New Mission” and finally the “old flights” button did appear. Using the “old flights” button I found my mission in progress (the part of the mission I flew using the 1st battery was depicted as a dotted line). The app asked me if I wanted to continue this mission and I clicked “yes”. As the drone was ascending, the DD app crashed. While I was re-launching the DD app, the drone seemed to continue with the mission, so I just let it continue with monitoring it’s progress in the DD app. The remainder of the 2nd battery’s flight seemed to go just fine. When the mission was complete, the drone returned home and just before it landed I again switched the flight mode switch from “F” to “P” so I could land it manually (my preference). After I had packed the drone up to go home, I checked the drone’s memory card to see if all the images from the mission were ok. The images from the 1st battery’s flight looked good. However, the images from the 2nd battery’s flight were not good… throughout the flight the drone’s camera was pointed straight ahead (over the horizon) instead of down at the ground. Needless to say, this multiple battery mission was a failure.
What is the properly procedure to “pause” a mission so you can return home and exchange batteries? It would be nice if the was a button “pause mission and return home” button on the DD app.
When restarting the DD app, is it possible for the app to recognize that you are mid-mission and immediately give you the option to continue your mission-in-progress? It would be nice if a little dialog box would appear and ask you “Continue Mission? or New Mission?”.
Is there some way to confirm that the DD app has pointed your drone’s camera down? It’s a shame to not know if the camera was pointed down and the drone was collecting proper images until the flight is over and it’s too late.
Thanks,
Patrick