Autopilot Beta Test

[lake_flyer]

Are you using an iPad? The font sizes were chosen to accommodate all screen sizes, so they may look unnecessary small on iPads. We may look into doing something special for the iPad view.

I'm using an iPad Mini2. Indeed the readings are very small. Would be great if you could look into that.

 

[CaptainBadge]

Just got home from a boat shoot today. Used Focus and Orbit the most. Orbit worked well with the boat moving at 10 knots or less but anything more and the Inspire had difficulty keeping up. Also it took a full revolution to get the camera to hone in on the boat. Focus mode worked almost flawlessly. You can see orbit mode at the beginning of the clip while the vessel is stationary. The running shots were done in focus mode. Nothing edited or stabilized- straight from the SD Card.

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[mdomeny]

Captain Sir, you have a REALLY REALLY nice yacht...
what's her name?
nice shots too...
i did some with my jeep... not so classy but hey? i like the rig [emoji14]

 

[CaptainBadge]

Captain Sir, you have a REALLY REALLY nice yacht...
what's her name?
nice shots too...
i did some with my jeep... not so classy but hey? i like the rig [emoji14]

Thanks, its a friends boat and a listing we have. Was REALLY pleased with Focus mode for the running shots. I have a bunch more footage for an edited video at a later date. Just wanted to get a video up showing what the program is capable of at speed, which happened to be 30+ knots.

 

[damoncooper]

Actually, the new firmware does support the SDK - but not fully.. The new firmware works with the two android apps: Litchi and Ultimate Flight which requires SDK for GS/POI.

However, the new firmware is not fully compatible with the current SDK as some functionality has been broken. I'm pretty sure this new firmware was made to be paired with the next android and IOS SDK (which was referenced in a recent developer's email by DJI). Once the new SDK is released by DJI, the developers will most likely need to make some changes to their app.

BTW, one of your beta tester on the P3 also confirmed it working on the P3 1.3.20 firmware on the phantompilot site..

So basically DJI released a broken SDK FW (I was the one who filed the bug in the DJI Beta program to report this) because they were releasing the Phantom 3 Standard and wanted to claim it and the Inspire supports the SDK.

But in fact they knew it was broken (because they closed my bug saying it would fixed "in a future FW build") and released the 1.3 (aka .22 broken FW) anyway.

That is pretty much a smoking gun as to how DJI operates.

 

[damoncooper]

Just got home from a boat shoot today. Used Focus and Orbit the most. Orbit worked well with the boat moving at 10 knots or less but anything more and the Inspire had difficulty keeping up. Also it took a full revolution to get the camera to hone in on the boat. Focus mode worked almost flawlessly. You can see orbit mode at the beginning of the clip while the vessel is stationary. The running shots were done in focus mode. Nothing edited or stabilized- straight from the SD Card.

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Awesome. Stunning. Take me with you next flight!

 

[mdomeny]

Awesome. Stunning. Take me with you next flight!

tell your friend i am adoptable and would like to be his trainee lol
really nice shots...

 

[lake_flyer]

Just pushed Build 26, which has an attempt to correct this issue, please test when you can.

just did a short test again with props off.

+ buttons work now.
Gimbal does not reset.
Chirp does not sound at all at disengaging, in landscape mode.
In portrait however it does chirp. Gimbal still didn't reset even once.
App crashed 3 times during the test.

 

[lake_flyer]

Just got home from a boat shoot today. Used Focus and Orbit the most. Orbit worked well with the boat moving at 10 knots or less but anything more and the Inspire had difficulty keeping up. Also it took a full revolution to get the camera to hone in on the boat. Focus mode worked almost flawlessly. You can see orbit mode at the beginning of the clip while the vessel is stationary. The running shots were done in focus mode. Nothing edited or stabilized- straight from the SD Card.

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Just one word: WOW

 

[lake_flyer]

just did a short test again with props off.

+ buttons work now.
Gimbal does not reset.
Chirp does not sound at all at disengaging, in landscape mode.
In portrait however it does chirp. Gimbal still didn't reset even once.
App crashed 3 times during the test.

Forgot to mention: one time I got the error: failure initializing gimbal
Or something similar.

 

[lake_flyer]

The previous built seemed more stable.
Any chance I can get back to that one? I was going to have another test shoot on the boat tomorrow, but if it's crashing on me I won't risk it over the water.

 

[Hangar]

The previous built seemed more stable.
Any chance I can get back to that one? I was going to have another test shoot on the boat tomorrow, but if it's crashing on me I won't risk it over the water.

I don't believe TestFlight has a facility for this. Do you have steps that can reproduce the crash? We can get a new build out very quickly if it is reproducible.

 

[mdomeny]

i am out on "my field" now with 4 batteries done. i went through all modes. intercept is not clear to me but that might be my english... (not native)
in the modes what confused me although i read the flight school are the strategy focus and the starting of those... when set to poi how do i set the POI... if it is on RC what exactly does it do? i did read and i will say it again i didn't get it... i got it to work but also might be pure luck or coincedence...

what i did notice: the battery baris still gray at 21% should it not be red at that time?
i got a code 228 failed to initilaize camera and hat to land and powercycle the AC... that was in orbit mode i think.
i will read the flight school again more intense and check for the section how to get the logs and data... so i can send everything to autoflightlogic (AFC)...

other than that the app works great. still having some issues with understanding some things but reading and asking will solve my problem i guess

 

[Dean Bloomfield]

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

 

[mdomeny]

i would like to ask if the min altitude can be less then 5 meters because i sometimes need to go down to 1-2 meters above ground and even lower close to the ground (camera is about an inch above surface). i fly with an iPhone 6 which did not have any crashes yet.

@dean,
as for zip line i found out that you can drag a bar at the very top where it says the % of where inbetween piont A and point B you want to be or start - i am not sure but draging that left or right will make her go between the two points.

 

[lake_flyer]

I don't believe TestFlight has a facility for this. Do you have steps that can reproduce the crash? We can get a new build out very quickly if it is reproducible.

Just exactly the same fiddling with Focus mode, props off, the same as in my video. It crashed mostly after hitting the disengage button and then engage again, if I recall correctly. But I read that Dean Bloomfield experienced the same crashes, also with iPad mini2, just like I use.

 

[Hangar]

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?

It will try to stay in front of you given the speed and sensor limitations. For example, if you are going too fast it may never be able to outpace you. Alternatively, if you are going slower than 3mph, the sensors are not accurate enough to determine your course so it just stays at whatever angle it currently is at.

Also the 3 options to follow, arent they all the same?

http://autoflightlogic.com/beta/autopilotdji/support#854294a6

i would like to ask if the min altitude can be less then 5 meters.

Are you talking about in Focus Mode when you are manually flying the aircraft? If so, there is nothing preventing you from flying that low, it will just display the warning. If you are wanting lower than 5 meters in computer controlled Modes, you can already select 4m in the settings. Going any lower than 4m with the accuracy of the sensors is dangerous and we cannot allow it.

as for zip line i found out that you can drag a bar at the very top where it says the % of where inbetween piont A and point B you want to be or start - i am not sure but draging that left or right will make her go between the two points.

It sounds like you guys are operating with the Advanced Mode controls. If you want the aircraft to move in Basic or Intermediate, just tap Fly to Point A or Fly to Point B.

 

[Patou]

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...

 

[mdomeny]

It will try to stay in front of you given the speed and sensor limitations. For example, if you are going too fast it may never be able to outpace you. Alternatively, if you are going slower than 3mph, the sensors are not accurate enough to determine your course so it just stays at whatever angle it currently is at.


http://autoflightlogic.com/beta/autopilotdji/support#854294a6


Are you talking about in Focus Mode when you are manually flying the aircraft? If so, there is nothing preventing you from flying that low, it will just display the warning. If you are wanting lower than 5 meters in computer controlled Modes, you can already select 4m in the settings. Going any lower than 4m with the accuracy of the sensors is dangerous and we cannot allow it.

i was thinking about flying manually but having the camera focus/ move for me... i could not get it work since the camera would always correct up to the sky (was nice and blue ) but my car would have been (will try to post a vid for this) better... we also (cam operator and me) took over control of the camera and that went ok for auonomus flying (follow mode) and him doing the cam...
as for the low alt in autonomus flight i understand you point. i did not know that the sensors are not soooo accurate...

It sounds like you guys are operating with the Advanced Mode controls. If you want the aircraft to move in Basic or Intermediate, just tap Fly to Point A or Fly to Point B.

yes i checked all and intermediate was the most confortable for me since i can choose to where the craft should fly when for eg in follow mode... behind, front etc...

 

[Patou]

Couldn't get out this days to test the App, but i tried to learn how to use it in a comfortable way at home.
There is just a little suggestion for the Markers we can Drag on the Map:

If you drag them to a specific point you get them always under your finger and you can't see exactly the point to release the Marker. Is it possible to get this tag a little bit out of the covered surface by the finger when you move it?

Thanks for this great App, i will buy it when released.