I just saw a new android program called Drone Harmony. Very different idea for mission planning where the points of interest and the obstacles are defined. Then a flight plan is created for both nadir and oblique observations. Right now it just works on Phantom 4 so I have not had a chance to try it yet.
Apps for flight coordination.
- Thread starter Jurassic_Clark
- Start date
We just unboxed a Phantom 3, thus you can expect support for it in one of the next updates after we did proper testing.
Our planner provides also a sophisticated top down flight plan with additional key features:
- Support for multiple polygon areas
- Optimized flight plans even for non-convex polygons
- Optimized flight directions
- Obstacle avoidance in case of hills or high buildings
- DJI 99 Waypoint limit is overcome by auto-uploading the mission in batches (e.g. at 100 wp next batch of mission is auto-uploaded).
- Preview of flight plan in 3D environment
For those among you new to Drone Harmony, feel free to have a look at our website: Drone Harmony - Optimal mission planning for DJI Drones
If you want an app that does well and lets you have quite a bit of freedom, check this one out. Its limited to android but works better than DD or Pix4D.
Unfortunately for now it is only Android. We would love to have the manpower to develop for both platforms from the outset, but for now iOS is future plans for which we have not set an ETA yet.
Ok, next questions. I don't use go on android for a number of reasons. And only keep it on IOS for things like reformatting the SD card, setting RTH, etc. and other functions not readily available in LItchi and Map Pilot. Des one still need to use Go for those functions when using Droneharmony?
Richard, some of the functions you mentioned are readily available in the Drone Harmony app:
1. You can format the SD card by going to the menu -> Drone -> Format SD card
2. The RTH option is available as one of the end-of-flight options when you are flying plans with the app. The button on the RC also works, but in case you decide to take manual control of the drone, we recommend that you change modes to "sport" (causes the drone to hoover in place) and start giving manual command like RTH then.
3. Many more options that you might be using DJI GO for at the moment will be added with the following updates to the app, notably the control of camera parameters.
You will likely need to keep using the DJI GO app at least for firmware updates in the near future.
A lot more information is available in our FAQ. Feel free to have a look and of course just ask us directly.
Best,
DH Team
Great. However, I'm running P3As so I'll be waiting for the P3 version. Definitely will plan to check it out.
Last edited by a moderator:
I went through just about all the android apps I could get my hands on(pix4d, dronedeploy, altizure and more) and I ended up going with UGCS. Its a powerful tool that has just about everything you could ask for as far as flight plan control goes. It has the ability to fly at a constant height AGL that follows the terrain and as far as I know its the only software I could find that supports flying grid missions while capturing raw DNG photos as oposed to jpegs like pix4d, DD etc. Only catch is it is a desktop program that links to the app on your controller so a laptop AND phone/tablet connected by wifi hotspot are required in the field I honestly like that aspect as I do most of my planning ahead of time for mapping/grid flights. There is a free version but the paid version is needed for flying photogrametery/grid missions which costs $65 if I remember right. Its definitely worth a look.
The Pix4DCapture worked great for me using an Android tablet, but sadly the tablet became so flaky that I had to switch to an iPad. What I don't like about the iOS version is that you can't save missions. My main concern is that I will be taking the P3P to remote peatlands in Sweden, Finland, Scotland where there is no Internet to access maps, so I want to store missions ahead of time. DroneDeploy says it will do that, but I haven't tried it yet. Does anyone have experience in apps that can store multiple different missions at different sites reliably and let you fine-tune them once on the site?
Map Pilot allows you to preplan a mission and store it for recall. My only problem is that the mission cannot be changed in the field afterwards. It is not really saving the background map except for the stored mission. I wish a program would store a location so the project could be modified in the field as necessary
Missions can be modified in the field. Find the little lock icon and unlock it.
Hi JeanMcK,
You make a good point. Having maps available offline for on site and "off the grid" flight planning is a nice feature. Drone Harmony currently allows to store (and load) reliably the flight plans at different sites, but the map caching is relying on google map caching. From my own experience it works quite well, if you just open the maps before you go flying at known locations while you still have proper internet access. Still I added your future request to our todo list. We will look into it, maybe there is room for improvement.
Thanks,
DH Team
Does anybody know of an app that will let the pilot select an area, and the app make an overlapping grid like drone deploy, Map Pilot etc, but will offer the option to video record as the overlapping grid is flown. Everything I have tried shoots stills that then have to be stitched..
Last edited:
Takes a bit more work than in MME, but I've created several such missions in Litchi. Just set up waypoints at the beginning and end of each grid line, point the gimbal as you wish and start recording at the first WP and stop at the last. First one I ran covered over 20 acres with 5 grid lines.
I have done that as well, but would like to see an app that would set up the pattern with overlap. I'm never sure that I have not missed something, or set the pattern too close, wasting flight time, when setting the grid pattern myself. If I can find what I am looking for, i will use the app for search and rescue.
Hi jvhooser,
The (Android based) Drone Harmony mission planner let's you do that. Create your mission like a normal "photo top down mission" where you can specify the overlaps, flight directions etc. But when you start your flight simply choose the video recording capturing mode.
As a plus when you think of an applications in search and rescue, we offer you to compute a flight plan that covers several distinct areas and we take into account non-convex shapes for optimizing the paths.
Hope you give us a try (it is free during beta), would be great to hear your feedback & experience from using our planner. Maybe there is something specific to S&R that we could add / improve on.
Happy flying,
DH Team
PS: Our David posted an article on our top down mission features in our blog, you may want to have a look: Drone Harmony’s Top-Down Scans: An Introduction and an Advanced Use Case
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Drone Harmony, I will certainly check out the your app. This sounds like what I am looking for..
Similar threads
