Recording flight information

[Will Rockwell]

Yes, I'm new here, forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered, but I did search first.
How do you record the GPS information about a flight, is it embedded in the video somewhere? For instance, I'd like to know my maximum altitude during a high aerial shot. I know it's live on my DJIVision app, but I'm way too busy to see it.

 

[Super-D]

Yes, I'm new here, forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered, but I did search first.
How do you record the GPS information about a flight, is it embedded in the video somewhere? For instance, I'd like to know my maximum altitude during a high aerial shot. I know it's live on my DJIVision app, but I'm way too busy to see it.

That's what I want to do too and Gunslinger turned me on to Flytrex. This will get you your data and using sofware like Dashware you can apply it to your videos if you want. I'm still waiting on mine but there are Youtube videos of both products.

David

 

[gpauk]

Hopefully dji will take the 5 minute step of logging the flight data sent back to the app in a file soon!!

 

[Will Rockwell]

There should be a way to use an existing app like Google MyTracks to log the GPS feed from DJIVision

 

[BenDronePilot]

Yes, I'm new here, forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered, but I did search first.
How do you record the GPS information about a flight, is it embedded in the video somewhere? For instance, I'd like to know my maximum altitude during a high aerial shot. I know it's live on my DJIVision app, but I'm way too busy to see it.

A record of your flight information is not yet currently an available option for the Phantom 2 Vision. In theory though with software updates the app itself can save records of the telemetry received during any given flight and associate that information with any video or pictures shot as well.

So your only option for now if you want to be able to have a copy of all flight data, is to use what the other person said. Which is a "Flytrex" module. It requires you take apart your Phantom and do some tinkering inside. It's not overly complicated to do but should not be done unless you're handy with doing repair work on your own. Otherwise have someone else do it.

Here's a link to the Flytrex web site.
http://flytrex.com/

Here is a link to Dashware web site.
http://www.dashware.net/

Here's one example among many, "Dashware" software being used to overly the Flytrex data onto their recorded video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuIkzASNac4

 

[Pull_Up]

I can recommend a Flytrex, too. The installation is removing some screws, inserting a couple of plugs, making a small groove in the shell to take the leads out, then doing the screws up again. No major surgery by any means but yes, if you're not confident then don't do it yourself. I've made a video about how to open up the Vision with some internal views if you're interested - link in my sig below.

Here's some real-world Vision flights of mine with Flytrex data: http://flytrex.com/simon.newton.5201/

Until someone hacks the DJI data or DJI release something then this is your best option. As a side benefit it has an accurate barometer and temperature sensor built in, so your height information is much more accurate than GPS-derived info - plus you get to see exactly why your fingers went numb flying that day!

 

[Luap]

Yes, I'm new here, forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered, but I did search first.
How do you record the GPS information about a flight, is it embedded in the video somewhere? For instance, I'd like to know my maximum altitude during a high aerial shot. I know it's live on my DJIVision app, but I'm way too busy to see it.

If you're on Android and have a rooted phone you can record the DJIVision live feed using a capture app such as Screencast and view it after.
That would be the cheapest alternative today to check altitude etc.

 

[Waterborne]

Is it realistic to use the iPhone and hold simultaneously the home and power button to take a screen shot? This would capture all or most of the pertinent details....says he has not yet recv'd his P2V yet. Thoughts?

 

[Pull_Up]

Yes, plenty of screenshots about. In GPS mode the Vision sits where you put it in the sky hands-off, so you can take a screen capture with reasonable ease.

 

[wp6529]

Does anyone know if the recorded data on the microSD from the Flytrex is uesable outside of their service, i.e. in some straightforward log format? I like the idea of the flight data logger, but have less than zero interest in posting my logs to some service outside my control and certainly don't want to share it on any sort of "social media".

 

[OI Photography]

Does anyone know if the recorded data on the microSD from the Flytrex is uesable outside of their service, i.e. in some straightforward log format? I like the idea of the flight data logger, but have less than zero interest in posting my logs to some service outside my control and certainly don't want to share it on any sort of "social media".

You don't have to share them with social media if you don't want to (the settings on the site let them all stay private). You can also export the data to a standard .csv file from their site, and then view/manipulate in a spreadsheet or database.

 

[Pull_Up]

Yes, there's no requirement to share any of your data. I don't share all of my flights, but I do upload them all to the Flytrex site - it acts as a virtual log book, I know exactly how many hours I've flown.

As well as the csv file export that's been mentioned you can also export as .kml so you can plot a 3d overlay on Google Earth, for example.

 

[Celt in Siam]

The Flytrex/Dashware solution looks good but too much work overlaying/editing videos for a lazy old git like me! Hopefully, DJI will do the decent thing and include a flight data overlay option for vids and stills. Meanwhile, I am about to order a Display Recorder app for my iPhone 5 at $1.99 - has to be worth a try though the video quality may be well below that taken direct from the Vision SD card.

 

[Super-D]

The Flytrex/Dashware solution looks good but too much work overlaying/editing videos for a lazy old git like me! Hopefully, DJI will do the decent thing and include a flight data overlay option for vids and stills. Meanwhile, I am about to order a Display Recorder app for my iPhone 5 at $1.99 - has to be worth a try though the video quality may be well below that taken direct from the Vision SD card.

I know the feeling but actually there was a guy who created a bunch of Flytrex gauges / dashboards already so it's just a matter of selecting them from Dashware. You are correct there is still a bit of work but it does look pretty simple.

David

 

[Celt in Siam]

Bummer, seems that the Display Recorder app has been pulled :x and I can't find any other on in ITunes Store.

 

[Celt in Siam]

Just did a bit more checking in the I-Net, there were several screen record apps available mid last year but were taken off the iTunes store by Apple. The best one seems to be xRec but can only be installed on jail broken phones and I don't really want to do that. Does anyone know of any alternatives?

 

[wp6529]

"Yes, there's no requirement to share any of your data. I don't share all of my flights, but I do upload them all to the Flytrex site - it acts as a virtual log book, I know exactly how many hours I've flown.

As well as the csv file export that's been mentioned you can also export as .kml so you can plot a 3d overlay on Google Earth, for example."

That's the issue, I am not willing to provide log data of my flights to any third party, it's a privacy issue. I wouldn't let anyone put a tracker on my truck either for the same reason, but I do keep my own dashcam in my truck. If the data on the SD is useable as-is I'm interested, but if I need to breach my privacy and provide my data to a third party in order to use it I'm not.

 

[Pull_Up]

That's fair enough. In that case, no the output from the Flytrex is in a proprietary format which the back-end of the site crunches for you. Unless you manage to reverse engineer the Flytrex .FPV output files...

Here's their privacy policy just for information: http://flytrex.com/corp/privacy/

 

[gunslinger]

The Flytrex/Dashware solution looks good but too much work overlaying/editing videos for a lazy old git like me! Hopefully, DJI will do the decent thing and include a flight data overlay option for vids and stills. Meanwhile, I am about to order a Display Recorder app for my iPhone 5 at $1.99 - has to be worth a try though the video quality may be well below that taken direct from the Vision SD card.

I know the feeling but actually there was a guy who created a bunch of Flytrex gauges / dashboards already so it's just a matter of selecting them from Dashware. You are correct there is still a bit of work but it does look pretty simple.

David

It's extremely simple and I'm pretty sure you'll like the added benefits to be gotten from Flytrex aside from the ability to extract the .csv file for use with DashWare. DashWare itself is very, very user friendly. Like David said, there are a number of pre-configured gauges for Flytrex and a number of other (non-Flytrex specific) pre-configured gauges that also work well with FlyTrex. And if you're a bit adventurous you can modify existing gauges or create a few of your own.

-slinger

 

[Pull_Up]

Although there's a bit of an irony in discussing not wanting to share data over privacy concerns when said data comes from a flying camera! I'm not having a dig at you, just thinking about how wide the spectrum of concerns about privacy is and thinking back to those towns in the US who mooted passing laws to put a bounty on any drones that were shot down... because of privacy concerns!

I've got a very dull life, though, so I've never got anything to hide. :lol: