Question regarding upcoming Groundstation capabilities

[noreason4]

Hey there,

i wonder, what will happen, if i enter a GPS Target that will be further away than the RC Range will handle. Is anyone already using the iPad Groundstation App with their Phantom 2 or F450/F550? What happens with this setup? Will the Copter just return or fly its circuit as programmed?

Thx!
Norason

 

[LandYachtMedia]

Hey there,

i wonder, what will happen, if i enter a GPS Target that will be further away than the RC Range will handle. Is anyone already using the iPad Groundstation App with their Phantom 2 or F450/F550? What happens with this setup? Will the Copter just return or fly its circuit as programmed?

Thx!
Norason

The ground station isn't compatible with the phantom yet. Hopefully we will see the firmware update soon that makes it work.

 

[Magnumb]

Hey there,

i wonder, what will happen, if i enter a GPS Target that will be further away than the RC Range will handle. Is anyone already using the iPad Groundstation App with their Phantom 2 or F450/F550? What happens with this setup? Will the Copter just return or fly its circuit as programmed?

Thx!
Norason

The ground station isn't compatible with the phantom yet. Hopefully we will see the firmware update soon that makes it work.

I got from the OP that he knew it wasn't out and ready for the vision, he was asking what the behaviour of the quads was for those that do operate the ground station and the waypoint is beyond radio range.

Sorry, just wanted to clear that up. He was quite specific in his question!

 

[djayz]

Guys, am I understanding it correctly, but I believe even after the new firmware is out we still need to purchase additional hardware to install on the P2V to have it work with the ground station software?

I thought I read it needs a transmitter and receiver (worth several hundred dollars)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[FPV col]

Nope...it will only require additional firmware and additional App update, no extra hardware need

 

[Pull_Up]

No. Rather like the "NAZA-like" mode you can change to in the Assistant, my understanding is that we will have a "Groundstation-like" mode. The ground station DJI supply for use with the rest of their aircraft range comes with a separate piece of hardware which is a datalink that plugs into the flight controller to allow the ground station iPad app to program and control the aircraft.

Because the Vision already has a built-in 2-way datalink with your smartphone you will set waypoints on a google map and then the phone will tell the aircraft to fly to those points. What we don't know yet is how tweakable that's going to be. With the full Ground station you can set speed, height, climb rate, pauses at waypoints, etc, etc. I'm not expecting to get the full feature set with ours, and I'm also expecting it to be able to fly autonomously only within wifi range - there's no way for the Vision to store your commands on board as far as I know so the phone does all the work. If the aircraft is out of wifi range then presumably it will initiate failsafe. Again, that's just speculation as we haven't seen any specs yet.

What's very interesting is how the guys currently playing with extending their wifi range will get on if the above is how it's going to be implemented - in theory they may be able to fly autonomously much further, but will the software be able to cope with that, or will DJI have put some sort of geofence in it to say "no waypoints further away than x"?

 

[FPV col]

No. Rather like the "NAZA-like" mode you can change to in the Assistant, my understanding is that we will have a "Groundstation-like" mode. The ground station DJI supply for use with the rest of their aircraft range comes with a separate piece of hardware which is a datalink that plugs into the flight controller to allow the ground station iPad app to program and control the aircraft.

Because the Vision already has a built-in 2-way datalink with your smartphone you will set waypoints on a google map and then the phone will tell the aircraft to fly to those points. What we don't know yet is how tweakable that's going to be. With the full Ground station you can set speed, height, climb rate, pauses at waypoints, etc, etc. I'm not expecting to get the full feature set with ours, and I'm also expecting it to be able to fly autonomously only within wifi range - there's no way for the Vision to store your commands on board as far as I know so the phone does all the work. If the aircraft is out of wifi range then presumably it will initiate failsafe. Again, that's just speculation as we haven't seen any specs yet.




What's very interesting is how the guys currently playing with extending their wifi range will get on if the above is how it's going to be implemented - in theory they may be able to fly autonomously much further, but will the software be able to cope with that, or will DJI have put some sort of geofence in it to say "no waypoints further away than x"?

Yes pull_up the very questions I think about but I recon its going to be the magic 300m mark with a limitation input on app.. Now wouldn't it be nice if they also included the POI feature

 

[LeoS]

Guys, am I understanding it correctly, but I believe even after the new firmware is out we still need to purchase additional hardware to install on the P2V to have it work with the ground station software?

I thought I read it needs a transmitter and receiver (worth several hundred dollars)

No.

@OP: I'm also wondering about the same thing. I thought it's reasonable for groundstation to continue with its preprogrammed path, regardless of the transmitter signal's availability. The other option would be to RTH when it loses control signal, but it doesn't make sense to trigger RTH when the quad actually has a better route already planned/given, than risk creating a new path home.

Perhaps groundstation has an online manual that'll surely have the answer to this question.

 

[friscoflyer]

Legally, at least in the US, you have to be able to control the P2V during the entire flight. So yeah, it would need WIFI connection the entire route which would allow you to control it through the ipad in an emergency situation.

 

[garygid]

Presumably, one could still override the P2V's programmed path with the RC Transmitter.

The WiFi goes to the camera, which usually has lots if storage available.

 

[friscoflyer]

Not sure on that, as I understand it when using the ground station your controls are on your ipad.

 

[LeoS]

I think the logic used here is backward.

Unless artificially restricted (i.e.: "Ground Station can only be used to program a flightpath no further than 200m from its home point") then how will it know when or if it will lose signal? There's no guarantee that you won't move or it won't lose control signal due to being blocked by a structure.

So the right question should be, what would your Groundstation-programmed Phantom would do, if it loses control signal during a pre-programmed flight?

a). Continue as planned
b). Immediately Return to Home
c). Make an immediate emergency landing
d). Fly away fly away fly away - Enya

Edit: The answer is it will hover for 10 seconds then (b). Return to Home. I guess there is both practical safety issue and legality that restricts this.

http://download.dji-innovations.com/dow ... 2.5_en.pdf

 

[Pull_Up]

Not sure on that, as I understand it when using the ground station your controls are on your ipad.

You can fly from the iPad if you want using the existing Ground Station. However that's somewhat moot here as the Vision app isn't going to carry the full features of the standalone DJI Ground Station software/hardware package - it's got to work within the existing Vision infrastructure, we're not going to be attaching a bluetooth module, for example. Looking at the app screenshot DJI released it looks like your in-app "controls" will be pause flight, return to home and either rotate or maybe skip next waypoint - I don't know how to interpret the last icon.

 

[LandYachtMedia]

Hey there,

i wonder, what will happen, if i enter a GPS Target that will be further away than the RC Range will handle. Is anyone already using the iPad Groundstation App with their Phantom 2 or F450/F550? What happens with this setup? Will the Copter just return or fly its circuit as programmed?

Thx!
Norason

The ground station isn't compatible with the phantom yet. Hopefully we will see the firmware update soon that makes it work.

I got from the OP that he knew it wasn't out and ready for the vision, he was asking what the behaviour of the quads was for those that do operate the ground station and the waypoint is beyond radio range.

Sorry, just wanted to clear that up. He was quite specific in his question!

Quite right. Sorry about that. The rest of the answer is none of us know that answer until the firmware is released and we see it work. Until then anything said beyond - it currently does not work - is pure speculation and should be treated as low confidence.

 

[Scottrod]

This is kinda disappointing. I had hoped ground station would be able to carry the Vision to pre programmed waypoints beyond the wifi range. You guys think they will keep the auto return to home?

 

[gunslinger]

This is kinda disappointing. I had hoped ground station would be able to carry the Vision to pre programmed waypoints beyond the wifi range. You guys think they will keep the auto return to home?

I'm wondering how far off this Ground Station feature is. They can't even get a minor app revision right... :roll:

 

[Scottrod]

Yeah seriously.

 

[OI Photography]

This is from the FAQ page on DJI's site about the current groundstation setup:

Q: Will the waypoint mission continue if my radio signal is lost?

A: The waypoint mission will be continued, if the aircraft operates fully-autonomous mission, regardless of Tx signal and datalink signal. Datalink Signal lost will cause Go Home function if aircraft is in the situation of waiting for next mission

No idea if that will hold true for the P2V version, but that's how it operates now. The iPad + app is just an additional interface for the existing system, but there's been no official word on what might be different when it's rolled out for the Vision.

 

[Pull_Up]

The standalone ground station uses a hardware box called a datalink. This has some memory storage in it to allow it to relay the saved instruction out of range. Unless there is something built into the Vision they can use for this purpose then they won't be able to save any instructions. Of course there may well be such a storage device lurking in there - in which case it will probably work outside wifi range - whether they'll let it off the leash and go beyond tx range, though, if that's the case...