Is it possible to instruct Dronelink to stop and take the photo on a orbit mission?
I fly a DJI Mini2. I am evaluating different control software and like Dronelink. But the dealbreaker is that I can't figure out how to have the drone stop on a orbit mission to take the photograph instead of just having the photograph taken while the drone is moving.
Is this option possible and , if so, how to "check the right boxes?"
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Easy to do when orbit is programed on-the-fly.
You pause, take photos, resume, etc etc.
Best option according to me.
Thank You.... So if drone is orbiting, per the on-the-fly parameters, I can simply hit pause on app screen or pause on controller and then make any camera adjustments and gimbal adjustments (if required) take the photo then hit resume and repeat until mission is complete?
That makes sense but it sure would be nice to "check a box" that instructs the drone to pause before each photo. =)
Yep.
While in pause you can do whatever you want
Thank You!
Are you looking for the drone to stop/start automatically?
Hitting pause will certainly work and allow you to do whatever you need. However, each time you hit resume it will recalculate, fly back a little to provide an overlap and then start again. That will all take time.
If you don't need it to be an actual orbit (as in a circle) then another option would be to use facade. If you se the facade type to vertical, the start and end altitude the same, it will stop (or at least almost stop) for each picture and then move on automatically.
Thank you , Barry. Yes, I would like for the drone to start and stop automatically on a predefined flight plan. I use a control package that does that but the cost is prohibitive vs. DroneLink. The reason for start/stop is that I believe it yields sharper images than those taken why the drone is moving.
My end objective is 3D modeling of structures like an old barn.
I will certainly investigate facade and learn that technique to evaluate that method.
Facade is really designed for straight lines, but you can make a bunch of lines. Just be sure to be in vertical mode, if you are horizontal mode it won't slow down between shots.
You can check that you have it right by running a simulation and then scrolling down to the speed line to make sure it has a sort of saw tooth pattern.
That was the original idea, but since then we added spiral and circle options just for this use case. You can also set a capture speed lower than the flight speed to have the drone slow down while capturing and speed up in between captures. If that isn't enough, you can always convert a Facade into an Inspection component and it will come to a complete stop.
Always learning something new. Just looked and see the boundary face dropdown - nice!
Thank you, I will explore this option! I am finding that if I just fly slow enough the distortions from the rolling shutter on my Mini2 do not interfere with the quality of the 3D modeling. Of course not the same as having the drone stop but may be good enough for my task. And you are right, "there is always something else to learn! " =)
Dan McKinney if you use WebODM to process the photos there is a setting that compensates for the rolling shutter, and the figure you want to use for it for the mini 2 is 26
Martin Reading
A great point. Out of interest - how did you obtain the value to enter there for the mini?
over on the WebODM forum they have created a database from figures obtained by users following instructions here
https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/RSCalibration
That's interesting. It's a shame I gave away my Raspberry Pi or I would have set that up and gone through some of the cameras I have :)
It's interesting that the Air 2S and the P4P have a very similar value, and yet I find the P4P to give no rolling shutter. I guess that is the mechanical shutter taking care of it.
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