How much intestinal fortitude do you have with waypoints?

Check the elevation of each point to ensure you keep enough clearance with ground.

What about determining how fast the AC can climb over an obstacle?

I plan to do the following kind of mission next summer: waypoints #1 and #2 at 2 meters above a lake going Litchi's max 54 km/h towards the 40m tall trees at the shore. Waypoint #3 on top of the trees 50m high still going 54 km/h. ...how much distance should there be between waypoints #2 - #3 so the AC has enough time to climb to 50m and not hit the trees??

I.e. how fast can Litchi make the AC go up while going full speed ahead? Can this be calculated in advance (not going to try this on a windy day...)? Maybe it is best to test this empirically with plenty of safety margin first, then fine-tune the mission.
 
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Maybe it is best to test this empirically with plenty of safety margin first, then fine-tune the mission.

Matti,

Yeah, I'd do a few test runs first. I'm very careful about changing altitudes between waypoints. I'll do a few runs at a higher altitude, make certain I won't run into any obstacles by watching the higher elevation videos and then adjust accordingly. Also, be careful with speed, too much can have a negative effect on your camera and gimbal's ability to stay stabilized. Just my opinions, of course.

Jerry

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And a safe way is also fly slowly and maybe even backwards and then speed it up and reverse in post. But sometimes those effects might to spoil the clip (people walk unnaturally fast and/or backwards etc...).
 
Can this be calculated in advance (not going to try this on a windy day...)?

Matti,

Go high first runs and come down to where you're comfortable on subsequent runs. Things can be deceiving from above. Watch for the power lines along the river (first ones show up at about 46 seconds in on this clip).

Jerry

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Heck, I bought the app several weeks ago and haven't even started using it yet, I figured $20 was a small price to pay to support a developer for what is admittedly a pretty niche market.
 
What about determining how fast the AC can climb over an obstacle?

I plan to do the following kind of mission next summer: waypoints #1 and #2 at 2 meters above a lake going Litchi's max 54 km/h towards the 40m tall trees at the shore. Waypoint #3 on top of the trees 50m high still going 54 km/h. ...how much distance should there be between waypoints #2 - #3 so the AC has enough time to climb to 50m and not hit the trees??

I.e. how fast can Litchi make the AC go up while going full speed ahead? Can this be calculated in advance (not going to try this on a windy day...)? Maybe it is best to test this empirically with plenty of safety margin first, then fine-tune the mission.
Any rising speed can be converted to two components: Horizontal speed and vertical speed. You got to use geometry concepts to do it. Once you separate out these components, check if both are within the limits of P3 discounting the effects of wind.

I suggest to Litchi developers to warn users if the computed components cross the set limit. Currently Litchi has no parameter for vertical speed limit. A good program should compute internal hidden values and should warn users if they cross limits.

Similarly I request Litchi dev to warn users if the ground clearance goes below a set clear value. Litchi should automatically compute along the route and warn users if needed.
 
I want to buy the litchi app but I haven't found an answer to what happens if the craft looses GPS when out of controller range.
Why exactly would that be a concern.. I have in over 100 flights not lost GPS. Lost signal... Every time I fly it now because I put this puppy in the wind. I push it out and it comes back without issue. Litchi lets you push this out without any problem. If it loses signal it keeps flying.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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I studied the P3P manuals, the DJI GO app manuals, then I bought the P3P. I was already a Typhoon Q500+ pilot. A week after I got my P3P, I found out about the Litchi App. I read the manual, fell in love with it's capabilities, bought the Litchi App, and have never turned back to the DJI Go app to fly. I now have over 112. miles on the Litchi App. About half of that is using Waypoints. WOW! what a great App!!!
Joe
KC7GHT
 
A lot of people are very happy with Litchi - but if any of you are iOS users, you owe it to yourself to also check out AutoPilot from @autoflightlogic. There are some things that are possible with AutoPilot that Litchi just can't do. The opposite is also true. Many people own BOTH AutoPilot and Litchi - but Autopilot is currently an iOS only app. Both apps are adding features on a regular basis. Two of my favorite AutoPilot features are:
1. Plotting a waypoint flight - for example a figure 8 pattern and then set its reference point to a moving object i.e. a car or boat! It's like a merger between Follow and Waypoints.
2. The flight path inspector! After creating your waypoint mission in advance you can place the inspector on any portion of your flight path and click play to send it along the flight path at 1x - 8x normal speed and it will be constantly updated as it travels to show you the drone location and orientation as well as what the camera is pointing at, how high it is, how fast it is moving and how long it will take from the start of the mission to arrive at the current position! Something like this might be exactly what that earlier poster needs in order to determine where the drone needs to start climbing so it can clear the trees without having to run dozens of tests!

I'm not sure that Litchi has both of these capabilities or if they sound useful to any of you. On the other side of the coin - Litchi is reportedly more intuitive and it supports more "actions"' at each waypoint. A big differentiator used to be that Autopilot could not finish a mission if it lost connection (and Litchi could) but Autopilot is currently in the final testing phases of the mission continuation feature and it will be in the next update.

The bottom line is that for iOS users - the two apps complement each other very well. There is a lot of overlapping functionality, but if you limit yourself to just one - you'll be missing out on features. They are both affordable and they are both very powerful. My advice is to put them both in your toolbox and try them both out! You'll be glad you did!
 
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Hello everyone

I was just wondering if people trust the litchi waypoints system and the phantom?
I`ve used the litchi app and p3p coupple of times, sent it far away so I loose the signal but the awesome phantom is always finding it`s way back.

Do you trust your phantom and litchi app?
I don`t send it out because I find that awesome except it ism but I think the waypoints are really good.
You can do actions at each waypoints and focus on objects on the way+++
And it flies better than you!


And for the drone police, I don`t send it in the cicty or populated areas.
I fly almost exclusively using LITCHI for iOS. I don't like the idea of my P3A or P4 doing a RTH when it looses signal and potentially flys over places I don't want it flying. I am coming up on 200 LITCHI missions. Always double check your flight plan and make sure you have not accidentally added a rouge waypoint....easy to do when touching the screen. Set your action at last waypoint to none....and the bird will just hover until you take over. I had one crash due to a failure to double check the assigned altitudes and add some extra buffer for tree heights. I like not having to fly the bird whilst filming and panning. Also, after I upload waypoints from LITCHI and the bird is flying, I often kill the LITCHI app and fire up the GO app. I like the GO Apps battery monitor because it show the individual cell voltages. The LITCHI waypoint route shows up in the GO app...a nice surprise indeed.
 
I want to buy the litchi app but I haven't found an answer to what happens if the craft looses GPS when out of controller range.
I can't think of a situation where you would lose both GPS and controller signal, but my guess is you're screwed whichever app you are running. If you are running a Litchi WP mission and lose RC signal for some reason, the P3 will just finish it's mission and either hover or come home (However you have it set).
I always set my first and last WP close to my home point and tell it to hover when done.
Don't worry too much - it's very reliable.
 
I can't think of a situation where you would lose both GPS and controller signal, but my guess is you're screwed whichever app you are running. If you are running a Litchi WP mission and lose RC signal for some reason, the P3 will just finish it's mission and either hover or come home (However you have it set).
I always set my first and last WP close to my home point and tell it to hover when done.
Don't worry too much - it's very reliable.
Agree.

Waypoint mission is entirely based on availability of GPS. If you find problems in getting 15+ satellites on a day, think before starting your mission.
 
Any rising speed can be converted to two components: Horizontal speed and vertical speed. You got to use geometry concepts to do it. Once you separate out these components, check if both are within the limits of P3 discounting the effects of wind.

I suggest to Litchi developers to warn users if the computed components cross the set limit. Currently Litchi has no parameter for vertical speed limit. A good program should compute internal hidden values and should warn users if they cross limits.

Yes, I agree. I flew a mission this past Sunday morning with a altitude of 16' and a speed of 12.1MPH. The mission required me to increase altitude to 131' to navigate over some power lines. In the attached picture, you can see WP 11 is where I needed to program the altitude for 131'. The distance from WP 10 @16' to WP 11 @ 131' is only 62' in horizontal distance. The P3 was able to overcome that vertical climb and get me over the power lines (red line in picture).
That's a climb of 61.67° or ~150% grade.


I am wondering if Litchi ignores the horizontal speed and places altitude as a higher priority. In other words, Litchi tells the craft to be at altitude no mater what the horizontal speed. It slows down in speed until it gets to the desired altitude. A question for the developer, unless someone know for sure.
 

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Yes, I agree. I flew a mission this past Sunday morning with a altitude of 16' and a speed of 12.1MPH. The mission required me to increase altitude to 131' to navigate over some power lines. In the attached picture, you can see WP 11 is where I needed to program the altitude for 131'. The distance from WP 10 @16' to WP 11 @ 131' is only 62' in horizontal distance. The P3 was able to overcome that vertical climb and get me over the power lines (red line in picture).
That's a climb of 61.67° or ~150% grade.


I am wondering if Litchi ignores the horizontal speed and places altitude as a higher priority. In other words, Litchi tells the craft to be at altitude no mater what the horizontal speed. It slows down in speed until it gets to the desired altitude. A question for the developer, unless someone know for sure.
We should talk more with Litchi reps as we don't have documentation to cover this topic.

I liked your Halloween video. Did you setup zero gimbal pitch or say -45 deg? What were other camera settings.
 
I liked your Halloween video. Did you setup zero gimbal pitch or say -45 deg? What were other camera settings.

Thank you. I left the gimbal pitch under my control. You can see where I adjusted it during the flight. The camera was set to 2.7K and auto exposure.

Below is the flight program for the Halloween flight.
 

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I am wondering if Litchi ignores the horizontal speed and places altitude as a higher priority. In other words, Litchi tells the craft to be at altitude no mater what the horizontal speed. It slows down in speed until it gets to the desired altitude. A question for the developer, unless someone know for sure.

We should talk more with Litchi reps as we don't have documentation to cover this topic.

Very good question. I posted it on the Litchi forum for their VC Tech to provide an answer.
My post:
I bring this question to our VC Tech from a thread in the Phantom Pilots forum for the definitive answer.
If a very steep climb is needed between waypoints to clear an obstacle and the pilot has selected a vertical distance that cannot be accomplished within the horizontal distance between the waypoints at the aircraft speed selected for the mission,
  1. Will the aircraft correct by slowing down to accomplish the vertical distance within the horizontal distance?
  2. crash into the obstacle because it is unable to achieve the vertical speed necessary to climb to the next WP altitude in the horizontal distance and speed specified?
 
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We should talk more with Litchi reps as we don't have documentation to cover this topic.

I should fly the mission again and pay close attention to the P3 speed from WP 10 to WP 11.
 
Very good question. I posted it on the Litchi forum for their VC Tech to provide an answer.
My post:
I bring this question to our VC Tech from a thread in the Phantom Pilots forum for the definitive answer.
If a very steep climb is needed between waypoints to clear an obstacle and the pilot has selected a vertical distance that cannot be accomplished within the horizontal distance between the waypoints at the aircraft speed selected for the mission,
  1. Will the aircraft correct by slowing down to accomplish the vertical distance within the horizontal distance?
  2. crash into the obstacle because it is unable to achieve the vertical speed necessary to climb to the next WP altitude in the horizontal distance and speed specified?
Also suggest to them that Litchi should do some kind of internal computation and let us know if there are any issues to achieve the mission.
 

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