Autopilot revisited...

Donnie Frank · Jun 17, 2017

Disclaimer: I'm starting this as a new thread, as the last time Autopilot was discussed was Nov. of last year. And the issues discussed in that thread had nothing to do with my issue.

My rig:

* Inspire 1, v2.0. FW v1.08 (Controller v1.6).
* iPad Air 1 with the A7 processor - iOS 10.3.2
* iPad Air 2 with the A8x processor - iOS 9.1
* Latest version of Autopilot: v4.0.149.

I have been flying a construction site biweekly to make this video:

I fly this site every other week. This video is just a preliminary mock up. Anyway...

Until last week, I have been flying this site for months with no issues. Last week Autopilot crashed in the middle of the routine. The app just closes, and the bird just hovers....hmmmm... Because Autopilot lacks a feature to start in the middle of a routine, I was forced to start over again. So I did. The app crashed again about halfway through the routine. I attempted a 3rd time with the same results.

The only thing that has changed from the previously successful flights, is the weather. It has gotten hotter. iOS hasn't updated for a while. Autopilot (as far as I know) hasn't updated for a while.

Upon feeling the iPad, it felt very warm. I considered the possibility it was overheating, but the iPad doesn't crash. The app does. The DJI Go and DJI GS Pro apps (which are infinitely less CPU intensive) run perfectly.

In an effort to eliminate the iPad as the culprit, I borrowed a friends Air 2 (with an A8x processor). I flew the mission successfully, but unfortunately, had the wrong video settings. The X3 was still in DCI mode, 24/FPS from a shoot the night before. Argh! So I went back the following day to shoot UHD 30/FPS, and the app crashed again...and again....and again. Like the Air 1, the Air 2 felt very warm. And, like the Air 1, all the other apps worked perfectly.

I tried shutting down and restarting both iPads and then re-running the missions with the same, crappy results.

I have ordered an Air Pro, which is due to be here in a couple days. And I have sent email to Autoflight Logic, but don't expect to hear an answer, but instead, a bunch of questions.

I'll reiterate that the only thing that has changed - and I mean the only thing - is the weather. I've been flying in roughly mid 70's or cooler weather. Temps hit mid 80's last week.

I have purchased a 10' USB/Thunderbolt cable. If I have to keep the iPad in the car next to the air conditioner to get through the summer, I will. I can (and do) utilize FatShark goggles for exposure, color and telemetry data.

I'm including a screen shot of the waypoints. Anyone else experiencing this??

D

red_raven · Jun 17, 2017

Donnie Frank said:
Disclaimer: I'm starting this as a new thread, as the last time Autopilot was discussed was Nov. of last year. And the issues had nothing to do with my issue.

My rig:

* Inspire 1, v2.0. FW v1.08 (Controller v1.6).
* iPad Air 1 with the A7 processor - iOS 10.3.2
* iPad Air 2 with the A8x processor - iOS 9.1
* Latest version of Autopilot: v4.0.149.

I have been flying a construction site biweekly to make this video:

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I fly this site every other week. This video is just a preliminary mock up. Anyway...

Until last week, I have been flying this site for months with no issues. Last week Autopilot crashed in the middle of the routine. The app just closes, and the bird just hovers....hmmmm... Because Autopilot lacks a feature to start in the middle of a routine, I was forced to start over again. So I did. The app crashed again about halfway through the routine. I attempted a 3rd time with the same results.

The only thing that has changed from the failing flights from the previously successful flights, is the weather. It has gotten hotter. iOS hasn't updated for a while. Autopilot (as far as I know) hasn't updated for a while.

Upon feeling the iPad, it felt very warm. I considered the possibility it was overheating, but the iPad doesn't crash. The app does. The DJI Go and DJI GS Pro apps (which are infinitely less CPU intensive) run perfectly.

In an effort to eliminate the iPad as the culprit, I borrowed a friends Air 2 (with an A8x processor). I flew the mission successfully, but unfortunately, had the wrong video settings. The X3 was still in DCI mode, 24/FPS from a shoot the night before. Argh! So I went back the following day to shoot UHD 30/FPS, and the app crashed again...and again....and again. Like the Air 1, the Air 2 felt very warm. And, like the Air 1, all the other apps worked perfectly.

I have ordered an Air Pro, which is due to be here in a couple days. And I have sent email to Autoflight Logic, but don't expect to hear an answer, but instead, a bunch of questions.

I'll reiterate that the only thing that has changed - and I mean the only thing - is the weather. I've been flying in roughly mid 70's or cooler weather. Temps hit mid 80's last week.

I have purchased a 10' USB/Thunderbolt cable. If I have to keep the iPad in the car next to the air conditioner to get through the summer, I will. I can (and do) utilize FatShark goggles for exposure, color and telemetry data.

I'm including a screen shot of the waypoints. Anyone else experiencing this??

D

View attachment 14301

When overheating occur ios devices makes some kind of downclock and you have less processing power. Autopilot needs quite alot of juice and therefor it crashes.
Have you tried to close all background apps? Also turn off background app usage in ios settings. And there must be a way to cool the thing down?

Donnie Frank · Jun 17, 2017

red_raven said:
When overheating occur ios devices makes some kind of downclock and you have less processing power. Autopilot needs quite alot of juice and therefor it crashes.

That makes sense. Hopefully, the iPad Air Pro with its A9 processor, will fix this issue.

red_raven said:
Have you tried to close all background apps? Also turn off background app usage in ios settings.

There's a setting called "Background app refresh." I DID find a couple things running. One of them included Autopilot. There is an option to turn off "Background App Refresh." Should I turn this off? Or does Autopilot need this?

There's a note that states, "Refreshing only happens when connected to WiFi or cellular." I'm connected to neither when I fly these missions.

red_raven said:
And there must be a way to cool the thing down?

As I stated earlier, I have purchased a 10' Thunderbolt cable so I can keep the iPad in the car near the AC vents during flight. I will do this as a last resort. This is a paying client, so I need to get this working one way or another.

Thanx for the help.

D

red_raven · Jun 17, 2017

Donnie Frank said:
That makes sense. Hopefully, the iPad Air Pro with its A9 processor, will fix this issue.

I gave up on iphone6 plus and now fly only on ipad 9.7 with A9 64bit or iPhone 6s plus also equipped with A9 and I have no problems at all. On the iPhone 6 I had completely useless video feed because of great amount Og lagging and also overheating occurred with all its glory....

Donnie Frank said:
There's a setting called "Background app refresh." I DID find a couple things running. One of them included Autopilot. There is an option to turn off "Background App Refresh." Should I turn this off? Or does Autopilot need this?

There's a note that states, "Refreshing only happens when connected to WiFi or cellular." I'm connected to neither when I fly these missions.

This is the settings I was telling you about, but you're right it won't matter at all if you're not connected.

But if you double press the home button, and swipe all the apps away, you've closed what's running in background. That has done good for many.

Donnie Frank said:
As I stated earlier, I have purchased a 10' Thunderbolt cable so I can keep the iPad in the car near the AC vents during flight. I will do this as a last resort. This is a paying client, so I need to get this working one way or another.

Thanx for the help.

If you have old fashioned travel cooling box, they had those little boxes you'd put in the freezer and then into the box as a platform to keep this box cool....

Mount one on the back of the device, doesn't hurt to try.
D[/QUOTE]

Donnie Frank · Jun 17, 2017

red_raven said:
I gave up on iphone6 plus and now fly only on ipad 9.7 with A9 64bit or iPhone 6s plus also equipped with A9 and I have no problems at all. On the iPhone 6 I had completely useless video feed because of great amount Og lagging and also overheating occurred with all its glory....

This is a great relief. My iPad Air Pro 9.7" should be here by Monday. You can bet the first thing I'm going to do is download the Autopilot app and do a test flight.

red_raven said:
This is the settings I was telling you about, but you're right it won't matter at all if you're not connected.

But if you double press the home button, and swipe all the apps away, you've closed what's running in background. That has done good for many.

Generally speaking, no matter which software I use to fly my bird, I make sure it's the ONLY software actively running.

red_raven said:
If you have old fashioned travel cooling box, they had those little boxes you'd put in the freezer and then into the box as a platform to keep this box cool....

Mount one on the back of the device, doesn't hurt to try.

Yep...using a cooler with ice in on my list. I'll just leave the cooler in the car. Like I said, I purchased a 10' Thunderbolt cable. Once I hit "Launch," I don't need the iPad for anything. I can set it in the cooler. I get all the information I need in my goggles.

Thanx again for your help.

D

red_raven · Jun 17, 2017

The thing is that autopilot does its job a little different than the other apps. While the others send the mission and upload it to the aircraft before engaged, autopilot uses your ios device to run the whole process, therefor it won't do the mission in case of a app crash and it also requires alot more resources by doing so.

What we benefit from it.... I really don't know, except I'm pretty sure that the reason for more functions available in autopilot than any other app is that they use their own flight controller code not the same as dji go uses. I'm guessing that's made possible by this...

Donnie Frank · Jun 18, 2017

red_raven said:
The thing is that autopilot does its job a little different than the other apps. While the others send the mission and upload it to the aircraft before engaged, autopilot uses your ios device to run the whole process, therefor it won't do the mission in case of a app crash and it also requires alot more resources by doing so.

What we benefit from it.... I really don't know, except I'm pretty sure that the reason for more functions available in autopilot than any other app is that they use their own flight controller code not the same as dji go uses. I'm guessing that's made possible by this...

Yessir...I am well aware of what goes on under the hood. I can expand on that. You can set up Autopilot to upload missions to the flight controller, thus relieving the iPad from it's FC dutes. But, of course, you lose a bunch of functionality that way.

A caveat of using the iPad as the FC is you can't lose signal to the bird. Most of my mapping missions I use GS Pro. So I can set the controller down and enjoy a nice beverage if I wish. HA! But with Autopilot, I use directional signal boosters to insure the bird is receiving 100% signal throughout the entire mission.

Gregg Smith · Jun 24, 2017

FYI I'm on the Beta test group for Autopilot and they just released a new test version that will incorporate Checkpoints so that you can configure longer missions where you insert checkpoints so that if you can't complete with a single battery you can run the mission to the checkpoint, have it RTH, change batteries, and then return to the checkpoint to continue the mission.

Autopilot - Beta Test Update
Added a new map item: Checkpoints - A mission can be started the last designated checkpoint - Actions can also be added to checkpoints: Pause, Disengage, Auto-Land, Return-to-Home - Checkpoints are intended to help with pre-planning long missions, and swapping aircraft batteries

Donnie Frank · Jun 24, 2017

Gregg Smith said:
FYI I'm on the Beta test group for Autopilot and they just released a new test version that will incorporate Checkpoints so that you can configure longer missions where you insert checkpoints so that if you can't complete with a single battery you can run the mission to the checkpoint, have it RTH, change batteries, and then return to the checkpoint to continue the mission.

Autopilot - Beta Test Update
Added a new map item: Checkpoints - A mission can be started the last designated checkpoint - Actions can also be added to checkpoints: Pause, Disengage, Auto-Land, Return-to-Home - Checkpoints are intended to help with pre-planning long missions, and swapping aircraft batteries

That's good to know. So far, my missions have been under 11 minutes, so I've been good.

I'm presently thinking of beta testing the new DJI-ish Interface. This is great, because now I can set up WB and other settings without having to visit the DJI app first. But I hate betatesting...especially on the client's dime. HA!

Donnie Frank · Jun 24, 2017

Hey guys;

So I flew my mission with my new iPad Air Pro, and it worked flawlessly. I also noticed a clear difference in its response to commands. One flight does not a good test bed make. I'll keep you guys in the loop for next week's mission.

D

Oyibo VFX · Jun 24, 2017

I also use the Autopilot beta version's. My Mavic crashed three weeks ago (dunno why) when doing my own construction videos.
I used an iPhone 6S Plus and an iPad mini 3. And that had serious limitations. Now I use an iPad Pro and that is totally different. Specially with the Inspire

Donnie Frank · Jun 24, 2017

Oyibo VFX said:
I also use the Autopilot beta version's. My Mavic crashed three weeks ago (dunno why) when doing my own construction videos.
I used an iPhone 6S Plus and an iPad mini 3. And that had serious limitations. Now I use an iPad Pro and that is totally different. Specially with the Inspire

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Kewl...glad to hear you're having the same results I am.

Here's my construction video. This is like week 25. This is only a test video to sync up the footage. I'll add graphix, titles and do better color correction in the final version.

D

greytail · Jul 15, 2017

I have had similar experience with my Inspire 1 v.2 Pro and an iPad Air. It happened with a Waypoint mission. It seems to have been aggravated by the fact that I had the "Subject" in Joystick mode and I was moving the camera around with the right joystick trying to frame my shots while flying the waypoints. I also had a full frame live video display playing on the iPad screen..Then all of sudden the App was gone! Luckily, I realized what to do and pushed RTH and my bird came home, all the while recording the video of what happened! I filed the crash with Hangar and they promised to send me an invite for their Beta, but I haven't received it yet, so I have gone back to Litchi.

I have a couple of questions: I I replaced by iPad Air with an iPad pro 9.7 with 128GB memory will this crash problem likely go away? I understand that Autoflight uses a lot of resources. Secondly, I guess I will have to purchase another hood for the iPad Pro, right?

Donnie Frank · Jul 15, 2017

greytail said:
I have a couple of questions: I I replaced by iPad Air with an iPad pro 9.7 with 128GB memory will this crash problem likely go away? I understand that Autoflight uses a lot of resources.

It should. Programmed camera movement is more resource-heavy than manual camera movement. I extrapolated this conclusion from the fact that I fly 2 waypoint missions for this particular client. One missing is fully autonomous, the second is partially autonomous with manual camera movement. Even if the first mission crashed Autopilot, the second mission did not. This was very consistent behavior. The purchase of an Air Pro solved all crashing issues.

greytail said:
Secondly, I guess I will have to purchase another hood for the iPad Pro, right?

I don't know. I don't use the hood. I use goggles for FPV. I only use the iPad for telemetry data, and stand under the shade of my car's hatchback. That said, the dimensions of the Air 1 vs. the Air Pro are almost identical. The Air Pro is slightly thinner. So the hood should work.

greytail · Jul 15, 2017

Is a IPad Pro, just with Wi-Fi okay or do I need one with the cellular data chip?

greytail · Jul 16, 2017

"So I flew my mission with my new iPad Air Pro, and it worked flawlessly.

Please can you answer my question. Did you buy an iPad Pro with cellular or just wifi?

Oyibo VFX · Jul 16, 2017

Mine is with cellular

greytail · Jul 16, 2017

I thought so, I am wondering if Autopilot relies on the GPS chip which is only in the iPad cellular versions. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the Waypoint crashes when you try to use the APP with a non cellular iPad?

Oyibo VFX · Jul 16, 2017

BTW, just noticed that Autopilot (and DJI GO4) not really like iOS 11. Will reinstall iOS 10 on my iPad but keep it on my iPhone 6S Plus

Donnie Frank · Jul 16, 2017

greytail said:
Is a IPad Pro, just with Wi-Fi okay or do I need one with the cellular data chip?

I really wrestled with this decision. Ultimately, I purchased the WiFi edition. The price difference between the two was too profound to justify cell service to my iPad. If one plans ahead, it's pretty easy to cache the day's map data. Plus, I often shoot in remote locations where there's no cell service. Plus, I would have to update my data plan AND pay an extra fee for the iPad. At the end of the day, I just couldn't justify essentially doubling the $480 cost of the iPad Pro for cell service I *might* find convenient once or twice a month. My business partner has a WiFi hotspot, so if we have to, we can connect to it.

So far, in a month of ownership and roughly a dozen shoots, I haven't regretted my decision.