Okay, I searched the forum for this question first but didn’t find it so my apologies if this is a simple, beginner question. I want to be able to control where the first start point is and can’t figure it out. If I’m creating the mission in the field, it starts close to where I’m standing which is what I want. If I create it on the computer ahead of time though, it picks based on something else. I understand that DD won’t know where I’m going to be standing so it has to pick something but like this last one I did, the starting point was 2000’ away from me which wasted 3 minutes of the battery just flying there, which really matters on a large map. I can’t figure out how to move it to the spot I want it to start once I get there (or even from the computer ahead of time).
I have to add for the DD staff, the “moving the start point” slider is misleading as it skips all the points that you select past. It wasn’t obvious to me initially that was what was happening until the drone came home without completing the rest of the map. I think a different labeling method would be helpful as I messed up a couple of maps until I figured out what was going in. That slider looks like it is exactly what I was looking for until you don’t get all the mission flown.
I am sorry for the confusion when it comes to the starting point. When creating flight plans on the computer, you can change the starting point by manipulating the flight direction. You can also change the starting point using the “moving the start point” slider. At this time there is not a way to set the actual start point freely on your map. Your feedback is much appreciated as we take this into consideration when implementing product features and requests.
Thanks but just to be clear, the “Moving the start Point” slider doesn’t actually move the start point for the entire map. For example, if you have 30 waypoints and you move the start point to #15 it will skip the first 15 waypoints and never go back. At least that is what I’ve seen happen. Let me know if I’ve missed something.
What would be great is to just be able to designate where you want it to start once you get on location and see where the home point is going to be.
Changing the flight direction can help but it can also totally mess up the flight and add wasted minutes to the flight time. The simplistic solution is to simply click and drag the start point to wherever you want it to be once you understand where you are going to be flying from or have an option to have it start where the controller is at the time the flight starts.
I 100% agree with you. On this enhancement, I think DroneDeploy is overdue for its implementation. To get high overlaps on a one-battery mission (best for highest quality map), one is looking for every saving possible in order complete the mission before the battery runs out. Optimizing the starting point can be a major benefit for those of us flying missions over more than 10 acres.
I think DroneDeploy should prioritize this enhancement so it gets done this quarter. Please.
I’ve got a really large golf course to map and I need to keep the drone in line of sight the entire time, so I thought it would be ideal if I could create a map that is broken into sections (that I specify). For example say I have a 40 hectare area to map. I would then decide to break that into four 10 hectare sections. Each time being able to specify where the drone takes off from and lands from so that I can walk to those locations and maintain line of sight.
In the meantime though, having a feature described by Samphotodd would be very helpful.
Keeping the aircraft in line of site all the time is a requirement for private and commercial use here in Australia.
Yes, that would have really helped me with my 200 acre area that with a 80/80 overlap will take over 65 minutes to fly. If I could break it up, that would be much more manageable. Having control of the start location would make a big difference.
How about starting a feature request? This is definitely not Data Pricessing. Get the view total up! You only need about 50 views to even be in the top 10.
A similar request from me, would be to skip to the next waypoint whilst in flight.
When carrying out a Crosshatch to capture the oblique shots of a subject with the gimbal up at an angle, the drone is capturing images way way outside the target object having flown past it vertically but the waypoints need to be spaced further apart so as to capture the object in the opposite direction, until it flies past it vertically again.
What would be good is to be able to click ‘Next’ or similar to force the drone to move to the next waypoint quickly without taking unnecessary images and then continue as planned until I click ‘Next’
again half way along the next pass.
Or to just have Crosshatch auto-configured more efficiently. Ideally you need to fly past as to catch the outside of the subject when coming back in, but like you are saying less capture of the outside. I would think it would be easy to accomplish according to the direction of the drone.