Autopilot Beta Test

[mdomeny]

one question on focus mode. when in intermediate or advanced what exactly is the altitude setting? is there a way to set the camera in a way where i can fly close to the ground without the camera looking up?
at some point it says warning below (something- i forgot the word... border or similar) what does that mean?
i tried to find it in the manual aka flightschool but might have missed something... - by the way the video tutorial, the first one is cool .

 

[tomtnt]

It will only rise first (without lateral movement) insofar as it is outside the range implied by the Altitude Priority Setting. You can choose smaller values for altitude priority to lessen this effect at your own risk.

Isn't it the other way around? "The maximum allowable difference between the current aircraft altitude and the target altitude." - I should choose a larger value if I want lateral movement without rising first?

I'm at 20' and Target is at 100' - if I set altitude priority to 82ft, it will do lateral movement as well as rise to the target?

 

[Hangar]

one question on focus mode. when in intermediate or advanced what exactly is the altitude setting? is there a way to set the camera in a way where i can fly close to the ground without the camera looking up?
at some point it says warning below (something- i forgot the word... border or similar) what does that mean?
i tried to find it in the manual aka flightschool but might have missed something... - by the way the video tutorial, the first one is cool .

Are you referring to the Altitude Offset on the Focus Subject? It is the distance that will be added or subtracted from ground level. For example, if you are orbiting a light house, an the top of the light house is at 100m, and you want to focus on the top of the light house, you should set an Altitude Offset of 100m. You can also just manually adjust the Gimbal using the RC and it will automatically calculated the implied offset for you. The below the Hard Deck warning is explained here.

Isn't it the other way around? "The maximum allowable difference between the current aircraft altitude and the target altitude." - I should choose a larger value if I want lateral movement without rising first?

The setting means, if you are further away than x meters (or feet) from the target (vertically), then stop all lateral movement and close the vertical distance.

 

[tomtnt]

Are you referring to the Altitude Offset on the Focus Subject? It is the distance that will be added or subtracted from ground level. For example, if you are orbiting a light house, an the top of the light house is at 100m, and you want to focus on the top of the light house, you should set an Altitude Offset of 100m. You can also just manually adjust the Gimbal using the RC and it will automatically calculated the implied offset for you. The below the Hard Deck warning is explained here.


The setting means, if you are further away than x meters (or feet) from the target (vertically), then stop all lateral movement and close the vertical distance. If you could select 0m (no possible, but for the sake of argument), then it would mean never apply altitude priority. That is, no matter what altitude you want the aircraft to be, never stop lateral movement. As this is inherently unsafe, we didn't even allow this to be an option (5m is the minimum).

sorry for being dense - but that seems backwards still:

If I'm at 10m and my target is at 30m - shouldn't I set the setting to be greater than 20m in order to NOT stop lateral movement? If I set it to 5m, 20m is further away than 5m which would stop all lateral movement and close the vertical distance.

 

[Hangar]

sorry for being dense - but that seems backwards still:

If I'm at 10m and my target is at 30m - shouldn't I set the setting to be greater than 20m in order to NOT stop lateral movement? If I set it to 5m, 20m is further away than 5m which would stop all lateral movement and close the vertical distance.

The setting means: If the aircraft is further away than x meters from the target (vertically), stop lateral movement. For example, say the aircraft is at 80m, and you set a target of 100m. If altitude priority is set to 25m, the aircraft will immediately start closing the horizontal distance because the difference (20m) is less than 25m, so it considers lateral movement to be safe. Now let's say that the aircraft is at 50m instead of 80m and you do the same thing. The different is 50m, which is greater than 25m, so it considers any lateral movement unsafe until the aircraft ascends to at least 75m (100 - 25). Once the aircraft reaches 75m it will then start moving laterally again. The logic is that you may see the aircraft heading for a grove of trees, for example, and realize that the current altitude is too low, so you then adjust the altitude setting to higher. With smaller altitude priorities, the aircraft will stop lateral movement and ascend more aggressively.

 

[Hangar]

I think the confusion may have been around which values are less / more safe. Before I said smaller values were less safe - I meant to say larger values are less safe as they will allow lateral movement when further away from the target altitude. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[damoncooper]

It's clear to me that the thought that's gone into these modes is substantial. Thanks Jim and co.

 

[infocus]

AFL is a great, but for proper exposure a histogram plus the ability to change the camera settings inside the AFL app should be high priority for the next update. On bright sunny days it's difficult to get the right exposure even with a sunshield....difficult to judge the exposure on the IPad mini under these conditions. Histogram is really important to get this right.

 

[damoncooper]

AFL is a great, but for proper exposure a histogram plus the ability to change the camera settings inside the AFL app should be high priority for the next update. On bright sunny days it's difficult to get the right exposure even with a sunshield....difficult to judge the exposure on the IPad mini under these conditions. Histogram is really important to get this right.

Why not flip back to GO to set / check? I'd rather see a kickass waypoint implementation first

 

[infocus]

Flip back to DJI control is not a good option....takes time & flight time. It's required to have the histogram on screen all the time in AFL, especially when flying in changing lighting conditions (full sunshine/ clouds/ alternating). If one could judge about proper exposure on sunny days from the iPad's display, we wouldn't need the histogram.

 

[Redtazdog]

I now fly a Inspire using an IPad Mini 2 And want to have follow mode and better gps than what the
RC has built in so what would be the best options, Bluetooth gps used with the ipad mini 2
or upgrade to the the Ipad Air 2 or other device with cell and gps ?

Another thing I'm concerned about is when in follow mode will the Autoflight program change/adapt to the real altitude of AC to ground when the target is going up and down on logging roads ?
I have launched at the bottom of a 600 ft mountain and because of the 400 ft ceiling I could not
go to the top even though I would have only been 150 ft above ground at all times.
.
I did some more reading and found that it will adapt to changing altitude when calibrated correctly
and using follow mode
Now back to the first question
Bluetooth gps used with the ipad mini 2
or upgrade to the the Ipad Air 2 or other device with cell and gps ?

 

[chip chipman]

Hi Joel, welcome to InspirePilots forum. Great question which others would benefit from by asking themselves. Click on the Search Forums on the second line at the top. You can then enter a few keywords or phrases for what you are looking for. There are options for restricting the search to certain sub-forums and with other parameters like relevance. However, you may find that it is worth paying regular visits to follow the discussions. The important rule is to at least check if the subject has been raised previously before you raise a new thread. You will find there is a lot of knowledge and experience available from members so there is never a dumb questions, just a dumb answer.

As I mentioned in a former post concerning resetting gimbal/ camera and having to flip back and forth between DJI pilot to get a reset, I still am getting a more or less random response with trying to force it under" more". Most often nothing happens. Autuoflight: more suggestions?

 

[Hangar]

Flip back to DJI control is not a good option....takes time & flight time. It's required to have the histogram on screen all the time in AFL, especially when flying in changing lighting conditions (full sunshine/ clouds/ alternating). If one could judge about proper exposure on sunny days from the iPad's display, we wouldn't need the histogram.

We understand, and would love to do everything all at once, but at this point I think more people would be upset if we did this before Waypoint.

or upgrade to the the Ipad Air 2 or other device with cell and gps ?

The iPad Air 2 (with barometer) is the best user experience that we have found so far.

I still am getting a more or less random response with trying to force it under" more". Most often nothing happens. Autuoflight: more suggestions?

Tapping Reset Gimbal FPV under the More menu never works for you?

Side note: check out the PC Mag review of Autopilot!

 

[Busch]

Was out testing this sweet peace of software. Easy to use, great overview over settings - simply love it! Thanks for all the hard work put into it!

 

[chip chipman]

We understand, and would love to do everything all at once, but at this point I think more people would be upset if we did this before Waypoint.


The iPad Air 2 (with barometer) is the best user experience that we have found so far.


Tapping Reset Gimbal FPV under the More menu never works for you?

Side note: check out the PC Mag review of Autopilot!

Rarely if at all. Though I forgot to mention that I'm not using DJI GO. Is that version mandatory to get the reset to work?

 

[Hangar]

Rarely if at all. Though I forgot to mention that I'm not using DJI GO. Is that version mandatory to get the reset to work?

It is not mandatory to use GO, but I would be interested to see if using GO first causes Autopilot (the SDK) to wake up in the same way it does with the video previewer.

 

[IrishSights]

@autoflightlogic, I haven't tried this but if the timelapse is set in the GO app and an orbit is done in Autopilot will it take 12 mp stills around the orbit?

This would be really good for building 3D models rather than taking 8 mp frame grabs from the 4K video.

I reckon the DJI orbit would do it as it's all in the one app. I can't test as I'm still on older firmware.

 

[Scotflieger]

It is not mandatory to use GO, but I would be interested to see if using GO first causes Autopilot (the SDK) to wake up in the same way it does with the video previewer.

If you need or wish to keep records of you battery data (highly recommended for CAA PFAW and similar), you will need to access the DJI GO app before and after you fly with Autopilot. Also Autopilot does not write to the DJI Flight Records so you need to log you own flight times (take off, landing, flying time). Accessing the Autopilot flight logs is a torturous process. I'm told a convenient flight log is a low priority for Autopilot Logic unless users demand it.

 

[Scotflieger]

@autoflightlogic, I haven't tried this but if the timelapse is set in the GO app and an orbit is done in Autopilot will it take 12 mp stills around the orbit?

This would be really good for building 3D models rather than taking 8 mp frame grabs from the 4K video.

I reckon the DJI orbit would do it as it's all in the one app. I can't test as I'm still on older firmware.

You are correct that timed exposure is available in all DJI GO app Intelligent Navigation and standard modes.

 

[Hangar]

@autoflightlogic, I haven't tried this but if the timelapse is set in the GO app and an orbit is done in Autopilot will it take 12 mp stills around the orbit?

You can just turn on Continuous Photos in Autopilot.

Also Autopilot does not write to the DJI Flight Records so you need to log you own flight times (take off, landing, flying time). Accessing the Autopilot flight logs is a torturous process. I'm told a convenient flight log is a low priority for Autopilot Logic unless users demand it.

We are asking DJI to allow us to write to the GO flight logs. Convenient logs is not low priority, it is just below Waypoint, which everyone is demanding