3 Questions... and urgent questions about Litchi App...

[Biggle]

Hi, some questions..

1. The other day i took off and did a "dronie", flying directly away from myself and up. In the footage the bird clearly flies up and away, but also to the left quite a bit. It that likely to be some calibration error or did I just push the stick sideways a bit? For all other flying it seemed OK so I'm guessing just an over-excited thumb? Or is that a known symptom of something else?

2. Using the Litchi app - I would normally just take more time and read up on it, but someone wants me to video around a river he is submitting a proposal to dredge, and I need to demo the thing running a Litch mission tomorrow morning... But I've never used Litchi before Some truly noob questions on Litchi:

A. Do I take off as normal, manually, then tell it to run the mission? I understand the 1st waypoint needs to be above me, to prevent it hitting obstacles on the way to the first one, but how do I even take off?

B. If I set the final waypoint back above my head at 30 meters, how do I land it? Can I just take over control by using the controls or do I have to end the mission first or something? Is it like cruise control where the moment you touch the controls it disengages?

C. And if so, suppose the control was knocked or moved accidentally, how to get it to continue it's mission and ignore that the controls were touched? Is that possible?

D. My understanding is under a waypoint mission it doesn't matter if it loses contact with the controller? True or not? Or will it abort the mission and RTH? (I have/will set the default to RTH but i'm somewhat confused, as on the one hand i've heard it can fly beyond transmitter range, on the other there seems to be a setting for what to do if that happens for "manual flight"? So will it ignore the fact it's lost contact with the controller and just continue, when in waypoint mode?

3. Using my Samsung S6 yesterday, with the normal Go app, I was flying around OK, then the screen went quite dark, like it was about to sleep the screen? I tried poking the screen to wake it up but it made no difference, and for the rest of the flight I was pretty much forced to look at the bird, as the phone was pretty much useless.

The S6 is prone to overheating and here in Borneo it gets hot, 32 centigrade. Do you think that was my Sh^t 6 overheating, or is there a known reason for the screen to go dark like that?

Sorry to be so demanding with so many questions but like I say, the guy is expecting to see me demo the thing with a waypoint flight tomorrow, and if all OK wants me to do a more serious, 15 minute mission for his business. I don't want to be all flustered while figuring out what to do, with a dark phone screen, if I can avoid it!

*cheesey grin *

 

[With The Birds]

Take it slowly and build your experience at a comfortable rate. Small I close missions initially until you get a feel for how things work.

A. No
B & C.Simply set the last waypoint wherever you want it. To end the mission switch out of F mode.
D. If set to LCMC it will continue to last waypoint

3. I would be looking for a phone/tablet that doesn't overheat.

 

[JohnnyB]

Litchi App "Waypoints for NOOBS!" - Demunseed:

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1. More than likely a drift caused by you.

2a. 2b. You can take off and land both ways.. Manual or automatic. I try to take do both manually personally.

2c. Speaking from a p4 perspective, hitting the joysticks does not abort the mission. I have to toggle the mode switch to abort.

2d. Yes. It will complete the mission and return back to the last waypoint but "make sure" you have the mission set up correctly. Know the land your working with. If I fly a long range flight I use Google Earth Pro to set up the path as it will follow the contour of the land.

3. All I can say about your phone is make sure the auto brightness is turned off. Overheating is the other reason.

Now for what my opinion is worth.. Man if your not at all familiar with litchi, why take that big of a chance using it on such an important mission? I believe I would do a manual FPV flight before I would make an a** out of myself in front of a client. But that's just me. Good luck to you and hope this helps.


Sent from my XT1096 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[sinxa]

A. You can choose any of those option you've mentioned. You even able to just start waypoints mission from the ground, and it will takeoff and go to 1st point.

B. You can land it manualy as always. Or you can set the waypoint option to Land after mission finished.

C. I think the mission won't be affected as long as you keep the mode switch to F. Yo might takeover control anytime (inside controller range) by switch to P mode first.

D. Yes, in waypoint mode, the quad will take count of failsafe routine only on its remaining battery level. It will ignore the controller signal range.

Sent from my SCL23 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Biggle]

Thanks guys!

I've set my alarm for early, will go to some waste ground near my home, with a simple 7 point circle mission planned, see if I can get it to work smoothly, without looking a twit

Erm... F mode? Wassat?

I'm familiar with GPS and Altitude-Hold mode, not so sure about F mode?

(if not already abundantly clear, I have less than 2 hours flying time lol)

Mmm, seems I switch that via the right-hand switch on the controller, clicking it all the way down? OK, so when i want to (manually) land, I flick the switch back up to GPS mode, at which point I have manual control again, right?

Right?

I've set the final waypoint to "stay for 60 seconds" to give me time to do so...

In the Demunseed video he doesn't really explain how you take off, my impression is you take off in GPS mode as usual, then flip to F mode, and then tell the Litchi app to run the mission?

Is F mode like Altitude mode, where it will start moving with the wind? Will it maintain height? Fly into the bushes..?

Seeing as it can, allegedly, continue even with the controller signal lost, on that basis once the craft is on it's way with the data loaded, it doesn't matter if the Litchi app crashes on my phone? I ask because while playing with it, the app crashed a minute ago 0_o

Cheers!

 

[With The Birds]

If you can't get litchi running without crashing on the ground I'm going to suggest running a mission, particularly as a new operator, is a recipe for disaster.

 

[sinxa]

If you can't get litchi running without crashing on the ground I'm going to suggest running a mission, particularly as a new operator, is a recipe for disaster.

Are you saying that fly with litchi is more dificult than with go app?

Sent from my SCL23 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[sinxa]

Is F mode like Altitude mode, where it will start moving with the wind? Will it maintain height? Fly into the bushes..?

Seeing as it can, allegedly, continue even with the controller signal lost, on that basis once the craft is on it's way with the data loaded, it doesn't matter if the Litchi app crashes on my phone? I ask because while playing with it, the app crashed a minute ago 0_o

Cheers!

For me, F mode is more like P mode instead. Because it keeps the quad by its gps position and altitude. But the difference between P vs F mode is : P only take command from RC operator. While F will take command from apps + RC operator.

Compared to A mode, it only take operators command regardless on GPS/VPS position.

That's all i know.

By the way, you have not mention which phantom you are using.. . ,

Sent from my SCL23 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[With The Birds]

Are you saying that fly with litchi is more dificult than with go app?

Sent from my SCL23 using PhantomPilots mobile app

No. apologies if I didn't make myself clear. I'm saying it's easier, to the point you can get a false sense of security. The OP has two hours max on the sticks and litchi is crashing. I'm suggesting. As I expect should be obvious, that if he is over ambitious with his mission he is likely to end up in a scenario he doesn't have the experience to fly himself out of.

 

[Biggle]

It's a Phantom3 Standard.

Bearing in mind there are 2 goals here, 1. record the river so his dredging company can put in a proposal, showing how badly silted it is, 2. if he likes it and thinks it is practical he will be buying my Phantom, thus helping finance my purchase of a Mavic

(My main hobby is exploring Borneo by motorbike or hiking, camping overnight, and while I used to be into photography decided against lugging camera gear. However the Phantom has changed my mind and I was going to take that - but the Mavic is more suitable for me)

Well here's how it went...

First, i overslept, so no time to fiddle around this morning, woke to his phone call asking if I was ready..?

I wanted to show him some things and explain stuff in my house, with air con and shade, but he was in a rush to see it fly so we ended up heading straight off to the wasteground.

He then told me his friend had shown him how to fly once before, and "how the propellers go on different ways, how you have to calibrate the camera"...

Right.

Standing in the hot sun wasn't the best place to explain compass, not camera and other such stuff, so I just explained I already had a pre-set route around the wasteground, but that having never used the Litchi app I was somewhat nervous and would take a bit of time making sure it was all set. Again though, hard to really check anything when sweating in the sun, the phone screen already going dark (argh!).

I made sure the DGI Go app was forced closed, then opened Litchi.

It said safe to fly, 9 sats.

I took off, to about 12 feet and showed the basic controls, then decided I best visually check the waste ground, as my view of parts of it was obscured by trees, so landed again. Just as well I did, as there was a new transmission tower and a water tower built, so I walked back and said 'Sorry, no waypoint flight' and just tried to demo normal flying.

Again, with some shade and a bright screen I could simply move the waypoints to ensure they were nowhere near the towers, but not practical with a dim screen and a phone already overheating. The Samsung S6 really is a POS.

Now, at this point I'm struggling to remember what I did... Did I close the litchi app and run Go instead? Or did I do that after The Incident?

The Incident?

Yes, The Incident...

We did a bit of flying around, he wanted to see how it could take photos as well as video, was asking how high it could go, I did some figures of 8 and we generally fly around a bit.

"Show me the return home button!" he asked, eagerly.

I explained that if too close to home it will just land, so best not to use that unless a bit of a distance away, and then flew about 100 yards away. I also reminded him it would climb to 60 meters.

"It climbs to 60 meters is it, when it comes home?" I explained that's how I'd set it, as there are high trees and being Borneo some bits of land are higher than others, that 'gentle slope' could easily add 10 or 30 meters, so 60 meters should be safe.

So, having never used it before, I pushed the "return home" button - and I remember now, it was deffo on the Litch app.

"Home point has changed. Use current location?" or some such message came up.

It was at that point (he knew he'd f..) I remembered I hadn't turned on my phone's GPS...

I turned it on, hoping to hear about the home point recorded. I don't remember if it was a voice or text but it DID say home point recorded. In fact I recall it sounded like the Go app, that "please check it on the map" voice...? Which is why I'm confused if I had already swapped to Go rather than Litchi at this point?

Anyway, having recorded my current location as the home point, I confidently told it to go home. Return to home? Yes, go for it Fanny, impress the guy...

Wheee... it climbed to 60 meters. "See, it's climbing to 60 meters, like it's supposed to do." I said, confidently.

Fanny then tucked her chin down and determinedly flew off diagonally away from us, rapidly vanishing out of sight.

WTF?

I peered at my dark screen and jabbed at the red X, hoping that meant cancel the RTH. Nothing happened.

I kept jabbing.

Red "Signal lost"

"Where is it going?" asked the guy

At this point I'm cursing and jabbing my Sh^t 6 repeatedly

"How to chase it?" asks the guy, realizing the situation, and realizing the impossibility of chasing a drone by car

I then, vaguely, notice that a dialogue is open, asking "Cancel return to home? Y/N?

YES!!!

"Where is it? Asks the guy.

"I can't see it" says his wife.

I look up from the phone, and see nothing.

"Signal lost"

I wave the controller around, holding the antenna horizontal at the general direction it went.

"Safe to fly"

Peering at the screen I try swiveling the camera..? It works, I can see the light patch of land, the wasteground. I shove the stick forward.

"It's coming back" says the guy.

"I can see it" says his wife.

A little dot heads towards us, and I realize how tense I was, as I relax.

Fanny swoops into view and obediently hovers above me.

I land.

As I recall, I either ALREADY HAD, OR at this point I changed to the Go app, and did some more flying demos.

"So, if you'll follow me home again, you can look at the footage from the SD card?"

"Great!"

We will try the main mission this or next Sunday, when he will hand over the money

So my question is, WTF happened with the RTH?

I'm SURE it said new home point recorded, so why did it go somewhere completely different? From the general direction I suspect it was heading towards Lundu, where I last used it (about 30 km from where we were today)

One thing is for sure, I really don't like switching from one app to the other. I need to get more familiar with Litchi. I think I also need to make sure the local area map is preloaded, because "check it on the map" is somewhat meaningless with no map, but it did show it as being right next to the drone, which I figured did indeed mean "right here", not someplace entirely different?

I'm presuming at this point that it was me that screwed up. Anyone spot from the above what I did wrong?

 

[With The Birds]

I hate to say it but that pretty much turned out exactly as I suggested it might. Except you have your drone safely back in one piece, which is very good news!!!!!!!

Take the money while you can and convince your friend to practice in close and get an appreciation of all functions and performance (esp RTH) before getting into autonomous flight.

And find another phone to use with the Mavic please.

 

[Biggle]

I'm currently transferring data from my Sh*t6 to a new and shiny S7 Edge. Whether that will really be an improvement I don't know, but I'm inches away from punting my Sh*t6 like a rugby ball, so it has to go...

I'm still not sure how exactly I ended up with a totally wrong RTH point?

The direction it went seems to be towards the mountains where I was flying in a few days ago.

One thing that really drives me nuts about this DJI product is how you cannot even really look at, let alone adjust anything, without unzipping the case, removing the gimbal guard, powering on the remote control and then the bird, and then, and only then, can you do much of anything with the app/s. So I can't even look at the Litchi app properly to see how or where to set the homepoint, or how to see if one is actually set and where the heck that might be.

I really do think half the flyaways and issues people have is because they're trying to do things in a rush, peering at a small screen, desperately trying to figure it all out before they use too much battery (and get too hot or cold, depending on the weather).

Surely a simple "App data transferred to craft, safe to fly" system would help people learn this stuff, rather than trying to learn with a live bird flying away from them?

 

[kennedye]

It's a Phantom3 Standard.

Bearing in mind there are 2 goals here, 1. record the river so his dredging company can put in a proposal, showing how badly silted it is, 2. if he likes it and thinks it is practical he will be buying my Phantom, thus helping finance my purchase of a Mavic

I hate to be "that guy," but what you're describing is something the FAA would definitely consider a commercial flight, which means you should really have a Remote Pilot certificate.

 

[firestars]

Litchi. Why on earth do people purchase a drone and then hand over the fun of flying to an app before packing up and going home?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Biggle]

I hate to be "that guy," but what you're describing is something the FAA would definitely consider a commercial flight, which means you should really have a Remote Pilot certificate.

Oh absolutely, and that would be a real concern, if i lived in the Land of The Free.

But I don't

Reminds me of when I got my first boat here, a little 19ft 90 horsepower cuddy cabin. I asked the guys doing some repairs on the trailer how I should go about getting a license, insurance, what permits would I need to fish on the main rivers..?

(As an aside, when a Malaysian is emphasizing something, or like an exclamation mark, they add the word "lah" on the end of the sentence.)

"Does your boat float lah? If it floats, can go fishing lah. Unless you catch a crocodile, then maybe you need a crocodile license lah... (at which point they were all giggling)

The basics here are not within 5 kilometers of an airport, any airport, even a little landing strip, and don't bother people with it. Seems fair to me?

If I were to try to explain to the locals that in the Land of The Free, you needs a license to fly a plastic Phantom... My goodness..

Well I did the right thing and spent huge money upgrading my phone to the S7...

And now I read that the Go app sh*ts the bed on the S7, forcing it to keep rebooting?

I've had a short test indoors with no props, seemed OK. Then flew from a full battery down to 30% in my garden yesterday, with no problem. Today I'm going to go back to the place of the near-miss and see how the S7 copes at greater distance than my garden...

And will make triple-sure the **** thing has a homepoint set somewhere nearby, not 30 kilometers away..

(But back to that, if it thought my homepoint was so far away, then why didn't it immediately head for there, seeing as the "intelligent flight battery" must have known it was too far away from the homepoint? Why did it only head that way once RTH was initiated?)

firestars, I'm only using Litchi because the guy wants a 2 kilometer flight over a river system, 1km that way, 1 km this way - which is beyond the operating range of my Standard if relying on the controller.

 

[Biggle]

(I am hoping that because my craft is the Standard, using wifi rather than the USB port, that it is not affected by the rebooting issue? Only way to find out is to fly it I suppose..)

Update - took my Standard to the local park, using the S7.

Made sure it was showing a homepoint at my current location.

Flew around until 34% battery without any issues, including a 'dronie' shot where I ascended and away by 100 meters (which was rather scary and quite a relief to see it responding to the stick to coming back again!)

I did a practice landing, and noted it once again recorded a home point. Mmm.

So... test out the Return To Home, RTH..?

I deliberately waited until the battery was low and set the altitude to only 20 meters, so it would probably hit a tree and couldn't go very far anyway, if it decided to go AWOL on me before I could regain control...

Return to home.... This time a slider, asking me to confirm? That makes me thing the previous one was with Litchi, because I don't remember using a slider? Maybe, dunno. Anyway, slid it across while Fanny was about 60 meters away and hovering at 10 meters...

It rose to 20 meters..

Turned around, facing me, and sped back again.

At this point I realized the flaw in my plan - I was under a tree in the shade; if it flew over my head I'd have a hard time regaining control - but happily it then slowed right down and hovered above me.

That was actually a problem, because if it landed there it would be landing in a tree, rather than the proper landing spot about 20 ft behind it.

I poked the red X (deja vu), again a slider to confirm disengaging RTH, and was then able to back it away a bit and land it without problem.

So:

1. My S7 is not a Sh*t7, as it didn't overheat or give other issues like my Sh*t6 did. I already tested at close range but it also seemed OK today, flying the bird around all over the place, about 50 meters away.

2. None of the rebooting issues reported for the S7, so I'm reasonably confident that is an issue with the USB port/cable connection, rather than the phone per se?

2. Return to home seemed to work fine, if somewhat inaccurate it was certainly near enough to clearly see it and regain control.

Before the Mavic was revealed I ordered a range-booster reflector thingy, a better gimbal protector with lens cap and a carbon fiber gimbal guard. I also see you can get tablet holders for under $20 on Ebay

I'm supposed to be selling this thing but I gotta admit, it's such fun that if the sale doesn't go through i won't be too upset. I won't mind keeping it and get a Mavic sometime later, or a Karma 2 or whatever is around at the time.

Will also give some time to find and fix the teething troubles with the new Mavic?

Now that I know the phone works I can try again with Litchi.... but I think my next test flight will simply be a manual fly around again, to get used to the Litchi app and see if everything works at close range etc.