RC Pro Mini 3 Pro Beta test flights - More Observations
Mini 3 Pro with RC Pro controller running v4.5.0(240) | Kernel 4.5.0
These are my observations after running two beta test flights:
• Telemetry and video feed works fine although moving objects on screen like histogram has slow refresh rate as others have reported.
• Switching from video to photo using controller buttons does not work, must do it manually using a screen tap. It works the other way from photos to video though.
• ran a pano function for a horizontal 180º pano and then for a 360º pano and both worked and completed successfully with the M3P going into RTH immediately on completion. Photos were saved to SD card but I have not stitched the files into the panos yet to see whether or not they worked.
• the selection of the pano option in the photos menu caused an error that completely froze the Mini 3 Pro. It became completely unresponsive to stick commands although I could change from photo to video by tapping the screen but still the drone was completely unresponsive. The only way to get control back was to switch the mode switch on the controller from N to S. Once I did that I had control back. Getting control back is documented somewhere on this site. I am not sure how to do a screen shot on the RC Pro controller but the error that appeared on the screen was something to the effect of "Cannot stop task - voltage alarm". It appeared briefly and every time I tapped the pano button.
• Cine mode worked and my new settings that were adjusted in the recent firmware update were recognized (horizontal speed 1 m/s). The display reports it as Tripod mode.
• Flight logging did not occur on AirData even though I have an AirData 'token' in my Dronelink account and with previous drones flight logging to AirData occurred immediately or when I got home to my WiFi network. Where are the flight logs for Dronelink stored on the RC Pro and can they be recovered and uploaded to my AirData account manually?
A question for further development: Is it possible to turn off the save to the JPEG + RAW feature and have the files just saved as RAW/DNG or is this hardwired into the firmware of the drone?
Overall, the two flights I did went well and were relatively problem free. I look forward to the eventual release of the final version and am very excited about a Dronelink version for the Mini 3.
Chris
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Update Re: Flight Logging
Still no automatic flight logging in AirData but I did find that DAT logs are stored in a folder called 'MCDatFlightRecords' on the mSD card in the RC Pro. I had tried the .txt files located in the Android>Data folder on the internal storage but AirData didn't recognize any info from them.
There is still some info missing from the .DAT files like the 'plane name', battery info, and weather info. Also, signal map reports a very poor signal (purple) although I had no problems with signal throughout both flights.
Pano stitching was successful so the panos worked.
Chris
Ran a couple of OTF Mapping missions today. Here are my observations.
•You need to go into DJI Fly and switch over the firmware to the Mini 3 Pro if you have previously flown with another drone. I had flown my Mavic 3 earlier in the day and when I went to fly the Mini 3 Pro with Dronelink it did not recognize the drone until I realized that I needed to switch over the firmware. In Fly you choose your drone from the menu and there is the prompt for the firmware switch. This is an additional step but I can see why it has to be done in Fly first.
•My RC Pro is correctly displaying the aperture @f1.7
•AirData did not report my remaining battery info correctly although the display in Dronelink appears to have been accurate.
Chris
Can you report the log file issues to Airdata?
Can you not select JPEG in DJI fly?
I haven't had a chance to run a test of the recent build of the beta but if I still have the same issues with AirData, I will report the log file issues to them.
With regard to the JPEG + RAW, that is something in DJI Fly unique to the Mini 3. If you want to just save RAW images and NOT JPEG images, you can't as it automatically saves the JPEG copy of the RAW image. My Mavic 3 does not do this, so I don't know why this is unique to the Mini 3. I suspect that it won't be able to be turned off so that only RAW files can be saved until DJI releases some firmware to allow the disabling of JPEG files being saved along with the RAW files. Regardless there is probably not much Dronelink can do about this.
Chris
Confirming flight logs from DL Beta build 244 isn't recognizable with either AirData UAV repository or the phantomhelp tool. Logs from previous MSDK v4 however is fully supported. My best guess is this is a flaw in MSDK v5.
Flight logging providers are probably going to have to update their servers to support the new format.
Thnx Jim for reply. But but flight logs from MSDK v4 works flawlessly, how is that a change in format when using the same aircraft w MSDK v5? Some kind of different there is with both AirData UAV and phantomhelp tool making the new flight logs unrecognizable.... Mini 3 Pro flight logs from DJI fly app repository works without obstacles. Only change is that logs via MSDK v5 seems altered due to my findings....
MSDKv5 was a complete rewrite and is not backwards compatible with v4 (which is also why most of our competitors don’t even support it yet). We were able to add support relatively quickly because of the way Dronelink is architected to handle multiple drone vendors (MSDKv5 is essentially seen as a new vendor). Having said that, the logs are generated by the SDK and DL really has nothing to do with them, other than just uploading them and handing them off to third-party flight logging services. You would probably be better served asking those services why they can’t read the new format and when they will be able to.
I have been able to import the DAT files into AirData but not all the information is there. As I reported above, I had to input some of the information manually into the log file.
I hope to get out soon to test the latest beta release.
Chris
I had very good luck running a mapping job this morning using the 244 build. I re-ran a mapping mission I completed 10 days ago and this mission ran seeming perfectly without any app crashes. I am processing the imagery now but I am encouraged by what I experienced today. A few details below:
-DJI Mini 3 Pro
-N1 Controller
-Motorola Moto G Stylus running android 11
-Obstacle sensing turned off
-Shot only Jpeg not Jpeg+RAW
-DJI Fly app was closed
-Slowed mission speed down to 6 mph
-Video worked just fine
-No app crashes
-Drone seemed to be a bit of course at times, not sure how well it stuck to the original flight plan however the tolerances were 30' vertically and 75' horizontally (not sure if this contributed)
-Mapping results are pending but so far I am optimistic
Thanks for all of your hard work on improving this capability!
How is it working for you guys now?
It's not working for me on my DJI RC Pro - went to the link https://www.dronelink.com/download
Downloaded it from Firefox -
Also side loaded it too, was able to log in and it worked well.. All the issues start when it connects to the drone. It gets really glitchy, it will get caught in a loop of connecting and disconnecting.. Can load the missions from my desktop all loads well onto the DJI RC Pro too until it's time to connect to the drone.
Is this because of the latest firmware update ?
Thanks..
The download page does not host links to the beta. For that:
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033520874-How-do-I-join-and-test-the-Beta-app-
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