Autopilot Beta Test

[Richard Hurst]

Just got back from spending an hour or so flying with the latest App, I tested as much as I could, overall the App like many have said is superb, massive congrats to the Auto Flight team, great work!

Its going to take many flights to completely work it all out, theres so much to take in and I appreciate you're trying to make it as easy and user friendly as possible and at the same time trying to include as much in the app as you can, trying to find a balance is never going to be easy but since the first revision you're making huge steps.

Focus:
Went really well, exactly as I'd hoped it would be

Follow:
I set this to follow the operator "in front" 100ft altitude 90ft distance, if I'm honest this is probably because I'm not an expert at it yet and don't understand the offset settings "absolute" and "course", it didn't stay in front of me it was nearly always behind me, how does it determine the front of me for example if I do a "U" turn should it correct itself and jump in front of me to maintain the setting?, I 'll play more with this at the weekend.

Also the 3 options to follow, arent they all the same?
Operator - The person flys the i1 (the person with the RC and the person with the RC with an iOS device connected to it?
Device - Same as above
RC - and again same as above

The RC is always in the operators hands which has to have the iOS (iPad mini 2 in my case) connected via a cable, what am I not getting?

Can someone put on a Apple watch on and follow that?, so then its able to follow a 3rd person as to be honest that's what people want the "follow me" feature mainly for, i.e, MX Sports, Wedding (horse and cart, BMX, etc etc. If that is possible how would you set it to follow that device?

Orbit:
Only tried this a little as the battery the last of the 4 batteries was getting low, but I think it did as it should, will test some more

Zip:
Couldn't get this to work, probably as user error, I could set the 2 points and engage the flight and off she went to point A, but then just sat there!, see attached pic, I pressed pause/resume, disengage/engage and she just sat there at point A laughing at me ;-)

Also in the hour or so the app crashed about 3 times and I had to reopen it.

I really cant get my head around all the offset settings and meaning, I'll keep playing around with it, no matter how many times I read the flight school or click tutorial I don't get it, but I will!

Thanks Guys keep up the good work

In Zip Line mode you then needed to press "Fly to point B". It took me a while tow work that out also

 

[mdomeny]

In Zip Line mode you then needed to press "Fly to point B". It took me a while tow work that out also

i did not see that button... may it could be put on the bottom or the dashbeard seethrough to start after engaging...
just an idea..

 

[Richard Hurst]

i did not see that button... may it could be put on the bottom or the dashbeard seethrough to start after engaging...
just an idea..

Yes I've already said similar in a feedback email to them.

 

[mdomeny]

Yes I've already said similar in a feedback email to them.

sorry did 't know

 

[Richard Hurst]

Are we sure that Autopilot doesn't work with the latest firmware V1.3.0. Th only reason I ask is I loaded that onto my 2nd craft and the App opens fine and I can set the functions I want for each mode and press engage. I just stop it on the countdown as I didn't have props attached. I thought that it wouldn't of let me get that far if there was compatibility issues?

 

[mdomeny]

dji aperantly confirmed to autopilot that it does not work.
but hey if you have a second bird, you can give it a try... the sdk supported fw is a version if the last .06 so rolling back should work.
i have a gig comming up so i don't want to risk my bird at this moment.

 

[Richard Hurst]

dji aperantly confirmed to autopilot that it does not work.
but hey if you have a second bird, you can give it a try... the sdk supported fw is a version if the last .06 so rolling back should work.
i have a gig comming up so i don't want to risk my bird at this moment.

Yes I might try it tonight. You'd think that if there was an issue the AutoPilot App wouldn't even be able to connect the craft but it shows it all connected and shows the camera view as the engage countdown starts, It's at that point though I've disengaged due to no props on but I might try tonight and see what happens.

 

[Kilrah]

Are we sure that Autopilot doesn't work with the latest firmware V1.3.0. Th only reason I ask is I loaded that onto my 2nd craft and the App opens fine and I can set the functions I want for each mode and press engage. I just stop it on the countdown as I didn't have props attached. I thought that it wouldn't of let me get that far if there was compatibility issues?

You'd get "unable to initialize aircraft" at the end of the countdown.

 

[Hangar]

Are there any possibilities to record and save a POI for further flights when you survey a construction site. Would be helpfull to recover the same settings...

This is planned for a future release.

i did not see that button... may it could be put on the bottom or the dashbeard seethrough to start after engaging...
just an idea..

As with all interface suggestions, need to understand where these buttons would go on all screen sizes, orientations, etc. It is very difficult to accommodate all devices without making the screen cluttered.

You'd get "unable to initialize aircraft" at the end of the countdown.

Autopilot may be able to connect, but I believe the actual flight control APIs have changed, so yes, it will not initialize when it gets to sending actual commands.

 

[Patou]

Tested different modes this afternoon and most everything worked fine, but i got some hickups in ZIPLINE mode.

Point A at my location with altitude at about 15m, Point B 250m away from me at mostly 70m altitude, speed set to 60-70% :

When engaged my Inspire started as normal, but instead of a linear ascending to point B, he stopped every 40-50m the lateral movement (looked like the active breaking of the inspire) and started to ascend vertically for about 1-2m...before reaching finally Point B.

I tried with lower speed settings and it seems to be a little bit better but not perfect...

Somebody out there with the same observations?

 

[Patou]

Like to hear if somebody tested the accuracy of the RC (GPS) with an iPad Air (Non GPS).
This afternoon my position was about 150m from the spot indicated on the Map...

I'm not confident enough to try follow mode in this situation...

 

[G-unit]

Like to hear if somebody tested the accuracy of the RC (GPS) with an iPad Air (Non GPS).
This afternoon my position was about 150m from the spot indicated on the Map...

I'm not confident enough to try follow mode in this situation...

Mine is the same, but follow me works perfect..

 

[Hangar]

When engaged my Inspire started as normal, but instead of a linear ascending to point B, he stopped every 40-50m the lateral movement (looked like the active breaking of the inspire) and started to ascend vertically for about 1-2m...before reaching finally Point B.

The next build will attempt to address this issue, but there is a max ascent rate, and if the altitude difference between the two points is too great, it will have stair-step at some point. I will also point out that there is a pretty conservative altitude priority by default:
http://autoflightlogic.com/beta/aut...ettings-movement-parameters-altitude-priority

You might want to consider setting it to something larger to avoid the stair-step motion.

Like to hear if somebody tested the accuracy of the RC (GPS) with an iPad Air (Non GPS).
This afternoon my position was about 150m from the spot indicated on the Map...

The RC GPS does not have altitude information, so if you are going to follow it with an iPad Air (no barometer), be careful not to change altitude as you will be forced to select a fixed altimeter reference.

 

[Hangar]

Just released build 27.

 

[Paul Koepnick]

Just released build 27.

Any hint when the DJI firmware will come out with SDK that will work with them? Just even a hint!!

 

[Hangar]

Any hit when the DJI firmware will come out with SDK that will work with them? Just even a hint!!

Last message we received from DJI (2 days ago):

We will release a new ground station firmware and SDK in the late August hopefully.​

 

[Method007]

Just released build 27.

Why did you remove hover mode? I assume because target mode is the same thing essentially?

 

[Hangar]

Why did you remove hover mode? I assume because target mode is the same thing essentially?

Target Mode is essentially Hover Mode with a speed control. People were skipping right over Hover Mode because the name didn't convey all that it was capable of - which is a lot.

 

[kode]

Hi Jim. Is there anyway to purchase autopilot 2.0 in beta mode and use it with the firmware listed on your site in lieu of the wait for DJI to get their act together? I will be travelling across America very soon and would like to get used to autopilot before hand. Late August is a too late for app orientation in preparation for the trip. Also there's no more beta testing slots available. Been reading every post in this thread in excited anticipation. Just want to say thanks to the autopilot team, the beta testers and the posts/videos.

 

[gottafly]

Target Mode is essentially Hover Mode with a speed control. People were skipping right over Hover Mode because the name didn't convey all that it was capable of - which is a lot.

I think that was my issue... I didn't see the point of hover but can certainly see the point of the new update to move hover point "on the fly" ! Nice!