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Be careful with Waypoints

Yup.

Just click the C1 button and set a couple more way points in between in order to generate the "curve". Same thing applies to height and lateral plane. As an example, in order to trace the above path as close as possible, i would have set a total of 4 to 5 way points instead of 2.

To be safe, just keep clicking C1 and setting way points in order to trace the route you want... :)
 
Thank you @damoncooper and @Frank Tan for posting. Very valuable info!
well, there's a caveat though... DJI requires a minimum distance between way points before they can be set. Not sure what the distance is, but i think it was like 5m or something like that. This probably means that you cannot set 2 way points within 5m or each other even if it is for altitude changes only between the 2 points. Anyone tried this?(i.e 2 way points at the same location, but different altitude, just for ascend or descend)
 
Be careful with Waypoints. Flight path between two waypoints is a straight line, even if you flew the original flight around or over obstacles (ie a hill).

Illustrated:

View attachment 3692
This is so very important info - thanks. I nearly had a fatal crash with my Phantom 2 Vision + due to the fact that I did not remember the flying path the Phantom takes from start to the first waypoint. It will be the same here - straight lines between waypoints and gradually increasing/decreasing of altitude.
Watch out.
 
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I think waypoints it the best feature from last update.Doing this on "DJI" way,which means settings waypoints on the first flight you can be sure it is a safe route.As said here make enough waypoints.Did use waypoints last weekend and explore my route.By setting waypoints with C1 is fast and within 5 minutes or so the entire flight was set.Saved it and I did spend 2 more flights with recording films and stills.Works great when you are not familiar with the surroundings.Google maps is great ,but setting a flightplan with this is rubbish.
 
This discussion is what is behind DJI's design decision to plan your waypoint route in the air. I fly the actual route I wish to fly the mission, inserting waypoints as I climb and descend. I have a number of 400V pole-mounted power lines crossing my normal test area so I plan to hope over the lines with several extra waypoints. As stated by @Frank Tan there needs to be a minimum of 5m horizontal distance between each waypoint.
 
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The real advantage of waypoints are:

- to get close to tragets farer away instead of being 100m over them because you are afraid hitting something when flying manual

- to follow fast targets on known paths like cars, trains where you dont have time to correct heading
- get really smooth!! circles you dont get with manual yaw stick


However most of this you cannot do with DJI GO app.

1. the 500m radius is rediculous, try to follow a train with this or even a bicycle :eek:

2. flying the mission before - forget it you will probably loose connection behind a tree or not be able so see how near you are over trees ----> you will stay much too far away of everything because on the tablet you cannot estimate the distance and with the eye - ever estimated correctly the distance of the trees behind? :oops:

3. I think there is a additional speed limit also in DJI GO for waypoints?

I understand why DJI did this with their P3S now in kiddies pricerange as everyone can afford a drone now but most are too stupid for it, there will be casualties soon. Unfortunately Inspire Pilots do suffer under kiddies restrictions as DJI does not spilt the Firmware/Software. We pay enough so they should do so!

So how to make safe waypoints?

Waypoint planning over far distance is a lot of preparation. You have to know real ground altitude and hight of trees or buildings in the area.

Lets say your starting point is in 510m alt. On your path the terrain will go up to 560m in 1000m distance. There are up to 30m high trees. A safe waypoint must be at least set 85m at this point - in real it will be only 35m high just over the trees. You have to do this calculation for each waypoint! And you have to consider obstacles in the path. Its a lot of work but its possible and the only way to stay near a POI which you could not do manually from the same distance.

Also be aware of handytowers and research powerlines 100 KV+ in the area. You can find them here: Stromnetz

Also even if your last waypoint is far away set a back path anyway - it will return on this path even if there should be a connection lost and avoid less controlled failsafe mode (depending on FW and app). Like on the waypoint path you can adjust speed and always know where it goes, while in RTH mode you have to wait some time to be sure it points in your direction, depending on rth alt this can take some time and you never know sure. In the worst case you think to get it home faster but actually drive it more far away.
 
@Machoman 500m is a perfectly acceptable limit as most regulated nations have this as the maximum permitted limit. UK is max distance of 500m or VLOS which ever is less. If you risk losing the connection when pre-planning a mission then there is no point planning to put your aircraft there in automatic or manual mode. I agree that the speed should be at least 10 m/s and we argued strongly for this during the beta.
 
Feel free to accept it - its your life. Some people also obeying 30 in a village :p

PS: You risk loosing the connection each time you start no matter how far you go. Just fly over a RC frequency jammed house in Bulgaria.......oh I forget RC jammers are not allowed in most regulated nations
 

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