Does anyone use this flight control software? I’ve just watched an Australian video on photogrammetry and the guy used it to setup survey patterns for overflying his target building to make a 3D rendering. I’ve downloaded it and will give it a try with the Mavic Air.
Pinging @Longstride … since this might be of interest to him.
Looks good however my biggest worry would be the reliability of the software ie a breakdown or cant connect and ya drones in the air…I would try smaller flights.
Aero Ranger seems to work like Litchi in that once the mission is loaded to the aircraft it needs no further input to complete its task. However both will abort the flight in the case of a sustained (more than a couple of seconds) loss of signal and, if the pilot has set up Return-to-home, will RTH.
Litchi will complete the mission on signal loss.
You can turn the controller off and let it do its thing.
It will only abort if smart or low battery RTH kicks in.
Now this is interesting. I had an abort with Litchi which I put down to distance - 600+ metres (but I have very good eyesight!)
Looking in Airdata UAV after the flight the craft had not done a sudden RTH but suffered downlink data loss for fifteen seconds at 04 min 19.9 seconds. At that point it was following the planned mission at a speed of 5.9 metres per second - around 13 mph.
At 04m.21.2 seconds Airdata shows it had reached a maximum speed of 44.8 metres per second - just around 100mph !
At 04 40.8, with the speed a little slower at 2.8 m/sec it initiated RTH. Battery was 77%
Instead of coming straight home it reversed course and travelled for 20+ seconds before then making for home in a straight line. At one point battery level which is checked every 0.4 seconds or so in Airdata showed a sudden drop from 77% to 73%.
The video shows a normal smooth flight as expected with Litchi. The intention was to orbit the newish estate built on the site of an old holiday camp that had been used as a naval shore base, HMS Northney, during WW2. Gimbal angles and POIs were as expected. Then the left front propeller comes into shot, the aircraft jerks around and does a complete revolution before heading back toward the previous waypoint.
It was at around 70metres altitude and the entire flight path was more than 50m from any housing or building. At the time of the incident the aircraft was over open fields. It arrived back above the home point with 60% battery remaining. I spent the next few minutes flying it around close to home to see if I could replicate the fault.
I got an inkling of what may have happened when talking to a friend connected with the military. I had previously flown line of exceptionally keen eyesight with no problems but the location where I had trouble was in direct sight of Thorney Island, a Royal Artillery barracks. The regiments stationed there are cloud puncher )surface to air missiles) not drop shorts (field guns). I have been in the back of one of their tracked vehicles during a display of Starstreak (high-velocity missile) and the operator got a target lock on a seagull; the system tracked the bird with no problem.
It is rumoured that at least one of the regiments on the island is experimenting with anti-drone measures, my friend was telling me of one demonstration he had seen that locked onto the targets as soon as they rose above the horizon.
Is it fanciful to think that I was the victim of a training exercise? I had not had a problem before and, flying in other areas, the problem has not recurred. Thorney Island is a former airfield and flat. The land over which I was flying at && metres is across the water from Thorney with no trees to obscure the view. If anyone has any theories I’ll be glad to provide Airdata logs and video from the aircraft.
No probs at 3.17km! Perfect signal and connection … and that was Litchi.
Signal Map:
At point I the aircraft threw a wobbly, I thought that it had been hit as I could see the scenery spinning round. It retraced its path to H at which point it got its act together, straightened up and flew right and hightailed it for home.
Thorney Island (Baker Barracks) is lower right in this picture. From the runway area the aircraft would have been in clear sight. They use that area for exercises.
