Programming circles?

[Chriscasab]

Hi guys. My name is Chris and I am new to the forum. I own a Yuneec Typhoon for hobby, but now planning to move to a P4 for working on aerial photography. I still don't have and ever had a DJI, so before making the move I would like to get to know a bit more of the Phantom and it's capabilities, with your help. So I hope you can give me some insights on this.
I know nothing about the apps available for flight programming for a photography project, for example. (And of any other apps available neither) Yuneec is very basic actually, LOL.
Ok. Question: let's say a client asks me to make a video surrounding all his property. It will be a circular path with center is his house. How the hell do you do that?
You have to use continuous aileron (flying laterally in order to mantain the fixed camera pointing the house) and rudder with extreme precission, in order to mantain the most perfect possible circular path and constant distance to the house all the time, while making it a smooth flight and paying atention to the image it is taking. All this while being aware of trees, poles, etc !
Nearly impossible, at least for me.
So I wonder if this could be programmed. Selecting center coordinates on the house, desired radius, altitude and speed. And making the drone to fly laterally.
Can this be done somehow or am I just too used to the CNC machines at my work? LOL
Thanks a lot guys.

 

[microlinux]

In this particular situation, I think you'd want Point of Interest mode.

You can also create pre-programmed, automated flight and camera movements with an app called Litchi.

 

[Chriscasab]

In this particular situation, I think you'd want Point of Interest mode.

You can also create pre-programmed, automated flight and camera movements with an app called Litchi.

Thanks Microlinux, very useful info. You think that Litchi allows that exact program with imput of center/radius/altitude/speed?
Where do I het the app? Is it sold or free?
Thanks!

 

[With The Birds]

You can do this in the standard (and free) DJI flight app- point of interest mode as mentioned above.

You would need to draw the circular flight path in litchi, at least that was the case when I last used it.

 

[ftttu]

Point of Interest is just one of the basic flight modes DJI has for its birds. You just fly over the object, set it as the point interest back up as far as you want, and the set clockwise or counterclockwise at the speed you choose. Really easy.

Litchi is another DJI flight control app, and it is available Apple App Store and where ever Droid stuff is sold. It may have the same feature, but I only use it for its autonomous waypoint mission feature. Check it out to see.

 

[With The Birds]

Just confirmed litchi has orbit mode, will serve your purposes nicely.

 

[rockydog]

As the posts above have said, you can do exactly what you have described using the DJI GO 4 app. Just fly your P4 over the top of the house and select that as your centre point...fly backwards away from the house to where you want the outside of the circle to be...choose whether you want to go clockwise or anti clockwise...select the speed you want to fly at...then push the button! It's that simple.

Litchi is a paid for app, available from either the App Store or Google Play Store depending on what operating system you have in your tablet. But you don't need it for what you want to do.

Edit..@ftttu has already posted this info while I was typing

 

[Chriscasab]

Thanks a lot to all of you for your answers. Amaizing what can be done easily with DJI. Better than what I expected. Thanks!!

 

[Meta4]

Thanks a lot to all of you for your answers. Amaizing what can be done easily with DJI. Better than what I expected. Thanks!!

POI is just one of the programmed intelligent flight modes.
The latest models have even more.
This shows some of the basic ones.
DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography

 

[wa5tef]

Yes! Litchi will be the best 2.5% investment you can buy! Get it and learn all its features and you'll never fly with anything else!
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[AWD]

Did somebody mention POI and circles???

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[kndll]

and you have full control of the camera when in POI mode , set your poi , height , radius , direction of travel , speed and point the camera in or out as you fly