Can someone check over this Litchi mission for me?

General Drone Discussion
1

Soooo!

My first ever Litchi mission… Mission Hub - Litchi

Wigan Flashes - Practically on my doorstep, I fly here more than anywhere else. I also walk my dog here every day of the week so I know it really well. What I don’t know though, is the height of the trees in the distance :roll_eyes:

So this is my first ever Litchi Mission, more of a test than anything else. I have a plan in my head, which I think I’ve translated in to a mission… Need someone to double-check it before I crash and burn though please :blush:

The plan in my head is:

  1. Focal point is the centre of the water
  2. Take off from the car park (google maps is out of date and doesn’t show it as a car park here)
  3. Take off, ascend to 200FT. Definitely clear of the trees in front of me as this is my regular take off point - then head at cruising speed to the start of “Scotsmans Flash”.
  4. Drop down fro 200FT to 100FT as there are no trees along this side. Turn to face the centre of the water where POI 1 is, then at 10mph start heading south
  5. As we get towards the end of the flash water (way point 7) start to head back up to 200FT as I’m unsure of the tree height over there, still focusing on the centre of the water
  6. Points 8, 9, 10 keep cruising at 200ft over these trees, around the back of the houses there, still looking at the middle of the water
  7. Then drop down to 150ft, then 100ft, then 50ft, and start heading out in to the water, this time turning to face the little boat yard there (point 12 on the map now)
  8. Head back in land, still looking at the boat yard, head up to 100FT as we head back in land.
  9. Cruise back East, at 100ft, now looking south, back to the middle of the water
  10. At pont 16 now we’re pretty much done, so head back up to 200FT then head back at fast cruising speed towards the take off point.
  11. Mission ends pretty much above where I took off

Does that make sense?!

Any tips, advice??

2

You have set waypoint 1 setting at 61 metres, and cruising speed at 40 km/ hour.

That means the drone will blast off like a space rocket straight up to 61 metres at 40 km/hour !.
Not good for the motors.

Consider moving waypoint 1 back towards the road, lat. 53.53340 lon. -2.637400 and set it at 5 metres height,
then in waypoint 1 settings box, click the green insert box to place a new waypoint between the current waypoint 1 and 2, at 30 metres,
slide the new waypoint 2 back toward waypoint 1 at 40 metres distance from waypoint 1 and set at 40 metres height, this will give a nice smooth 45 or so degree take off path.

In settings ( bottom left of screen ) you should set cruising speed at say 20 km/hour.

Also set default curve size to 100% there, or you will have very sharp turning curves.

Set all Waypoints to POI.
When using interpolate, the camera will drift off all over the place, because it doesn’t know what or where to focus on.

Waypoint 11 to 12 distance needs spreading out a bit, there the camera turns 180 degrees in a very short distance.

Waypoint 16 - 17 needs an inserted waypoint between them at the same height and distance as the new waypoint 2.

Waypoint 17 needs a POI 3 somewhere on the road for something to aim at.
Waypoint 17 needs setting to 5 metres height.

In all the waypoint settings, tick the box that says above ground.
It will give you an indication of your actual height, and the difference to your programmed height, in each waypoint marker.

Just my £0.02 worth … Ha Ha.

dave

2 Likes
6

ok call me numb but would first flight be a test to see what height the trees where using the magic display so you know the height before you then do the litchi flight?

1 Like
7

Indeed - that was my thought.

In fact, you don’t even need to fly over to them … just upwards at t/o and note the height you can see plenty of stuff the other side of them.
The further you are from the trees, the bigger margin gets built in … but adding another 5m would be more than adequate.

It’s method I’ve used before a flight to ensure RTH is set high enough.

1 Like
8

Thanks for the detailed reply @opochka :+1:

I have some questions though :slight_smile:

I’m not sure that’s a problem? If I was filming something interesting at the point of take off then yes, that’d made sense, but I’m taking off from the car park and have no interest if the footage it will capture while it travels from the car park over to WP2. It’s only once it gets to WP2 that I then slow it down and point towards POI 1.

Why’s that Dave?

Again, I’m new to Litchi and I understand the cruising speed to be the speed it travels at between two points unless it’s told otherwise. So again, travelling from the car park over to WP2 should be done quickly, as I have no interest in that part of the footage. At WP2 then I slow things right down.

Good spot, I’ve changed that now :+1:

My understanding of the Interpolate option was that it would factor in the large increase in altitude between two points and adjust the camera angle smoothly. Have I got the wrong end of the stick on this one?

Thanks again for taking the time to check this one over :smiley:

9

Yes you are correct !
But …
It would do the same if you don’t use interpolate at all, by just using waypoints.

Litchi do not explain in their help section at all about interpolate use.
Bit of a mystery function, well, just like all the others.

I have spent hours, depending on weather and time to do it, twiddling with different settings, using
the same short programmed course that I had made especially for these experiments.

Seems to me that interpolate will only work, smoothly transitioning the camera from one view to another,
IF … just one instance of interpolate is included on the waypoint before the action needed.

If consecutive waypoints have interpolate turned on, I have found that the camera loses direction and points anywhere it likes, until it is forced back to look at a waypoint, where a waypoint POI is set, and interpolate is turned off.

There are so many permutations possible in this software, none are explained !
I am waiting for someone to write a guide map !
Looks like I am going to have to make one myself !

dave

1 Like
10

Interesting!

It’d make sense for it to do it on that waypoint, but the fact it does it by default thereafter is a bit weird.

And that sounds more like a bug than anything else :slight_smile:

Thanks again for the detailed explanations :+1:

11

Did you fly this mission, yet?

//has the tune to Mission Impossible in head//

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Not yet… it’s still planned! Not enough hours in the day (week) currently :frowning_face:

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June is the month with most hours in the “day”! You’ll be screwed in the winter! (aka August onward … :stuck_out_tongue: )

14

Hi Rich
Had a quick look at the plan and seems fine to me apart from being in LoS
Did a class on this on the PfCO course the guy who to the lesson used Litchi in his filming to get track shots of buildings he had to shoot such as schools and houses and had some examples looks like it’s on my list of software to get
Jeff

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