Terrain following with Litchi?

[nightflight]

I do a lot of waypoint flights with Litchi, and because I live in a hilly area, I'm always worried about altitude. Before putting down the waypoints, I always open an app called My Elevation and check the height of various points on the route I want to take, then add these to the 250ft altitude I always use as a baseline. This is laborious, but also open to mistakes, because it's hard to match the points you check with My Elevation with the waypoints you make with Litchi.

I believe there's a way of getting the route to include changes in terrain height using Litchi Hub, but I really don't like that website.

So I was just wondering, does anyone think an upgrade of the Litchi app might one day incorporate terrain following in waypoints?

 

[kbutterfield]

I followed this method using Google Earth and worked out great at our mountain property.

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[BryanBTX]

When I setup waypoint flights (a Mission) in Litchi after the first point where I set the altitude the next point it will tell me +/- from the last point ie. (51 feet higher then last point) and that's because of the hills in my area? You don't see that?

 

[Jayfdee]

What don't you like about Litchi hub? I plan all my missions at home using it. As kbutterfield posted using google earth is another way, and upload the file generated to the hub.

 

[InforGuy]

Yes - in the current beta release for Android (3.10.x), you can set the altitude of your way points relative to the ground:

 

[Jayfdee]

Yes - in the current beta release for Android (3.10.x), you can set the altitude of your way points relative to the ground:

View attachment 74949

OK,good. Hope they put it out on IOS soon.

 

[InforGuy]

OK,good. Hope they put it out on IOS soon.

Ha. That's why I have both - for situations like this. It seems there are always cool apps/features being released and only one is supported. It may be worth shooting them an email and seeing if it's out yet (or if they have an ETA). I got this release a few months ago.

 

[DaveMorris]

I may have to check out the Litchi app. These methods of setting up waypoint flights with relative altitudes looks really cool.

 

[Richard R]

Yes - in the current beta release for Android (3.10.x), you can set the altitude of your way points relative to the ground:

View attachment 74949

Curious about what AC an RC firmware versions you are using. For a number of reasons, I haven't updated my P3A to the latest and I don't want to opgrade my Litchi if it is goon to force me to upgrade FW.

 

[royster]

Yes, as Richard says- I haven't updated Litchi for months, as I;m afraid If I do I will be commanded to upgrade my 5 month old firmware. My P3A flys so well, I don't want to mess with firmware upgrades.

 

[bsartist]

I downgraded my P3S to earlier firmware (1.5.7 or something like that). I've been happily upgrading Litchi without any forced firmware updates.

The latest version of Litchi app on iOS does have the relative to ground feature in the bulk edit of waypoints. Please be sure to have enough waypoints so your AC isn't surprised by abrupt changes in terrain elevation. Maybe it helps to think of each waypoint like a utility pole carrying a wire (ignore the catenary (sag)). If you have two waypoints very far apart, elevation rises in a straight line between the two. If the ground rises in between the two, the flight path does not rise along with it. Unless you stick waypoints (poles) along the way. Esp on the bumps in terrain.

 

[royster]

That bulk edit you speak of, is that the little wrench that turns into a box? If so, I only get that on my monitor version of Litchi, not on Litchi hub. I;m thinking, after reading your post, i may have to update Litchi to get it on the hub,eh?
If i recall, after you load your Litchi mission, that last summary page comes up showing all waypoints as you show above, but, i don't get the 3 choices, at least i'm pretty sure i don't get the "ground" option i see on your post

 

[bsartist]

That bulk edit you speak of, is that the little wrench that turns into a box? If so, I only get that on my monitor version of Litchi, not on Litchi hub. I;m thinking, after reading your post, i may have to update Litchi to get it on the hub,eh?
If i recall, after you load your Litchi mission, that last summary page comes up showing all waypoints as you show above, but, i don't get the 3 choices, at least i'm pretty sure i don't get the "ground" option i see on your post

Unfortunately it's not available on hub. That batch edit is only in the app

 

[dwallersv]

Unfortunately it's not available on hub. That batch edit is only in the app

Hence the workflow I put together... This would be so much easier if we could batch edit on Hub. Even better, add a KML export too (it's dirt simple, nothing technically challenging).

 

[JMFinch]

I have problems smoothly flying a path I set with the batch edit. When filming golf holes I want to overfly the tee box at 20' above the tee's ground level, roughly fly 40-50'the fairway.climb to 40-50 feet Above the ground level (AGL) along the fairway then drop to overfly the green at 20' Above the fairway's elevation then drop back down to 20' above the green's elevation. I use the batch edits to set all the waypoint to 20' above the waypoint's elevation then manually add 20-30' to the waypoints along the fairway. Instead of gradually changing altitudes between each waypoint both my P3P and P4P slow down while climbing or descending at each waypoint. This does not produce quality video footage. Can anyone tell me if this is a setting I need to change or do I need to find other software. I recall DJI Go does what I want but it will more than triples my time onsite to pre-fly each hole to set waypoints?

 

[bsartist]

I have problems smoothly flying a path I set with the batch edit. When filming golf holes I want to overfly the tee box at 20' above the tee's ground level, roughly fly 40-50'the fairway.climb to 40-50 feet Above the ground level (AGL) along the fairway then drop to overfly the green at 20' Above the fairway's elevation then drop back down to 20' above the green's elevation. I use the batch edits to set all the waypoint to 20' above the waypoint's elevation then manually add 20-30' to the waypoints along the fairway. Instead of gradually changing altitudes between each waypoint both my P3P and P4P slow down while climbing or descending at each waypoint. This does not produce quality video footage. Can anyone tell me if this is a setting I need to change or do I need to find other software. I recall DJI Go does what I want but it will more than triples my time onsite to pre-fly each hole to set waypoints?

Do you have the mission set to use “curved turns”? Without curved turns I think it stops at each waypoint.

 

[JMFinch]

I did not know that about straight turns. Thanks. I recall setting one of the missions set to straight turns but the other golf hole missions were set to curved turns. Both the P4P and P3P pause at the same waypoints but not others.