Tried Litchi, my thoughts

[Wyattroa]

I tried Litchi out and had some mixed opinions, will have to try it out some more. I tried using the way points, really weird by the way just watching your craft fly off and you not controlling it. It followed the 4,000ft round trip path I sent it on around the pond. At the last waypoint it started to climb to around 220ft, I then realized that was my RTH height and it was set to do that. I did start to freak out a bit, as that was happening I could hear a helicopter coming towards my direction. I always drop my bird down low when I start to hear this coming as they seem to fly very low in my area and usually pass directly over our house time to time.

The only way it would start on its waypoint was if it was in f mode. P mode would not work for it. I then tried the follow me mode and again only the f mode would work. Interestingly when I activated the follow me mode the bird took off on a hard southern direction at full speed. Not even paying attention to me. I quickly switched the phantom into Atti mode and regained control before anything serious happened. I know from a couple years of reading that if you lose control, to just switch it to atti mode. Luckily, that turned out to save me. If I hadn't done that, I surely would have crash and been searching for the phantom.

Just my initial thoughts. As of now I prefer the DJI go app, but will also use litchi for waypoints...Its just hard watching your bird fly off out of site and hoping it comes back to you when the video breaks up...

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Litchi will do what you tell it to. You can tell your mission to RTH after the last waypoint, to just hover, or to return to the first waypoint. It did nothing wrong.

All automated flights happen in F mode, that's what it's for. This is true for Go or Litchi.

Switching out of F mode will always let you regain control, which is what you could have done when you heard the copter. This is true for both apps.

Follow-me requires that you have a FPV device with cellular ability (not necessarily turned on with your carrier, but the device should not be a WIFI only device). This is also true for both Litchi and Go apps. And also, the Go app is just as wonky in Follow-me mode as any other app.

Litchi has a free side-car app called 'Litchi Magic Leash' that you can put on your cellphone, so if your FPV tablet is WIFI only, you can sync it with your cellphone and do follow-me, even without carrying around the RC.

Chris

 

[Wolfiesden]

You should also look at the litchi hub. Its easier to program the waypoint missions on a nice large computer screen rather than a small device.

It seems everything went pretty well for you. I agree, the first few times its very nervewracking and not knowing. My first few WP flights I kept it in LOS so I could see what it was doing. I have since learned to trust it and its been sent well out over water, lakes and tress and faithfully came home.

As for the F and P mode. This is whats supposed to happen. None of the feature modes will engage without the controller in F mode. This is by design.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Question: I use Litchi, and I've been to the Hub, but it's not clear to me how to sync the two. Any pointers?

 

[Wolfiesden]

Follow-me requires that you have a FPV device with cellular ability (not necessarily turned on with your carrier, but the device should not be a WIFI only device). This is also true for both Litchi and Go apps. And also, the Go app is just as wonky in Follow-me mode as any other app.

Chris, are you quite sure? I seem to remember doing Follow Me once (I dont use it very often) using my Shield K1 which is not a cellular device. I am pretty sure it needs GPS for the follow me device. Not so sure of the celular requirement.

 

[Wolfiesden]

Question: I use Litchi, and I've been to the Hub, but it's not clear to me how to sync the two. Any pointers?

You must be signed in on both the hub and on the device (though you don't have to be on both at the same time). At least for the android platform, its automatic. You save in the hub, and it shows up on your tablet. And vice versa, save on tablet and it shows on the hub.

I think I read a dialog on what you have to do different for iOS but not having any apple things, I ignored it.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Chris, are you quite sure? I seem to remember doing Follow Me once (I dont use it very often) using my Shield K1 which is not a cellular device. I am pretty sure it needs GPS for the follow me device. Not so sure of the celular requirement.

Yes. Without cellular on your phone/tablet, you don't have GPS. Your Phantom has GPS so it flies in normal conditions just fine. But for Follow-me, you need cellular/GPS on the device.

 

[Sagebrush]

But for Follow-me, you need cellular.

I've monkey'd around with Litchi's Follow-me mode with my GPS enabled (cellular) iPad and it works just fine without cell service.

SB

 

[Wolfiesden]

Yes. Without cellular on your phone/tablet, you don't have GPS. Your Phantom has GPS so it flies in normal conditions just fine. But for Follow-me, you need cellular/GPS on the device.

Not true.
GPS != Cellular
You do NOT need cellular service to have GPS functioning on a device. My tablet knows exactly where it is without having any cell service at all.

For the Magic leash, thats likely a different story as it must get the GPS coordinants from the remote device to the bird somehow.

However, for follow me on the device located on the RC, I do not believe that is the case.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I've monkey'd around with Litchi's Follow-me mode with my GPS enabled (cellular) iPad and it works just fine without cell service.SB

Correct. As I said:

"Follow-me requires that you have a FPV device with cellular ability (not necessarily turned on with your carrier, but the device should not be a WIFI only device). "

 

[Wolfiesden]

My nVidia tablet has no ability for cell service. Its a WiFi only device. And its got GPS. That means its got the ability to send its location to the phantom via the RC.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Not true.
GPS != Cellular
You do NOT need cellular service to have GPS functioning on a device. My tablet knows exactly where it is without having any cell service at all.

Without cell service, yes, but does it have the ability? Is it a cellular device without service turned on?

I can tell you without a doubt with all of the Wifi only IPADs I've tried, there is no GPS.

 

[Wolfiesden]

GPS is NOT dependant on cellular service. I suspect that the WiFi only iPads simply do not have the GPS module in them. As I said, my nVidia Shield K1 is a WiFi only device and it HAS a GPS receiver module. It knows where it is.

My Asus Transformer tablet is also a WiFi only tablet. However, it has no GPS module much like your experience with the iPad Wifi only models. So its device dependent on whether the unit has a GPS receiver or not.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

My nVidia tablet has no ability for cell service. Its a WiFi only device. And its got GPS. That means its got the ability to send its location to the phantom via the RC.

That's news to me then. The iPads are not the same beasts, they have no GPS without being cellular capable (even without service enabled). What model is your nVidia tablet?

 

[Wolfiesden]

nVidia Shield K1

 

[RocketBrew]

That's news to me then. The iPads are not the same beasts, they have no GPS without being cellular capable (even without service enabled). What model is your nVidia tablet?

This is only true for iDevices. To get the GPS function, you need the cellular model.
Most Android devices have GPS regardless.

 

[SpaceDan]

What happens if you're flying a Litchi waypoint mission and you switch to the DJI Go app? Will it transition seamlessly?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[RocketBrew]

What happens if you're flying a Litchi waypoint mission and you switch to the DJI Go app? Will it transition seamlessly?

The aircraft will continue to fly the uploaded mission as long the controller remains in F mode.
You should close Litchi, before opening GO, and vise-versa.
Why would you want to switch back to GO? You can switch the controller back to P mode to fly and land the aircraft with Litchi.

 

[Wolfiesden]

What happens if you're flying a Litchi waypoint mission and you switch to the DJI Go app? Will it transition seamlessly?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

I can't answer that. I don't fly with GO. But, as I understand it, the waypoint mission is uploaded to the bird and RC. I am not completeely sure that the device needs to remain connected once started. But it something I have never tried.

 

[impilot51]

Perhaps he was using track mode? It uses a visual algorithm to track an object on the ground. No device required.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app