UPDATED WITH PRIORITY LIST -- Request: Display current drone-specific safety-related settings
I'm new here, this is my feature request, and I see that apparently I can't submit response comments to my own feature request post for some reason, so I'm updating the original post as the next best thing.... My response to Jim's request for a prioritized list is in the UPDATE section below.
ORIGINAL POST:
There are many drone settings that are not currently settable by Dronelink and generally these are not displayed by the Dronelink flight app -- instead the comment is typically something like: "whatever drone-specific items are set in the DJI Fly app will be retained and will be in effect when flying with Dronelink (even though they aren't visible for things you might want to check/verify before flying)".
There is a class of settings where that reasoning does not hold up -- safety-related settings.
If I want to confirm before a a Dronelink flight how my obstacle avoidance is currently set, or how the emergency prop stop is currently set, or what type of RTH mode is set, etc., I should be able to see the current settings for all that easily within Dronelink without needing to exit Dronelink, then open the Fly app to check settings, then close and force stop the Fly app, and then restart Dronelink (a very clumsy and inefficient sequence when getting ready to fly).
I'd propose that you create a "Safety Info" panel that displays the current settings of anything/everything that DJI shows under their safety settings, including the advanced safety settings.
You could argue that this is a slippery slope since there are so many DJI settings that Dronelink does not display, where do you draw the line on what to display... Well, consider that safety items are in a special class that deserve special attention because of their importance to, well, safety --- safety of people and equipment. Just focus on displaying these types of settings for now - the importance of this subset of info is self-evident.
To be clear, I'm not requesting to be able to set these things in Dronelink (though that might be nice someday) --- I simply want to be able to SEE the current state of these settings without the need to open any DJI apps.
FWIW, my current interest would be focused on Mini 3 Pro and Mavic 3 Enterprise, but I think there is a general need for this across all drone types.
UPDATE (in response to Barry and Jim):
"Many of those things (e.g. RTH ) is visible in the interface." .... "Exactly"....
Not sure "many" or "exactly" are good word choices, since at least 2 of the 3 things I mentioned above, at best, are currently NOT visible, as far as I can tell (if they are visible and I just have not been able to find them, my apologies, and please advise where they are --- and, I did watch Barry's suggested video, and while it's the best mobile app gui/settings overview I've seen, it showed nothing to address the settings I'm pointing out here --- and, I have also personally been through all the settings in the mini 3 pro version of the app).
So, to repeat and to be clear, this is what's needed in order of priority (imo):
NOTE: items 1 and 2 are regarding the Mini 3 Pro and other drones with similar settings, and item 3 is unique to M3E I believe.
1) the current emergency prop stop setting is not visible (ie, down sticks to kill versus kill via auto flight controller decision only), and
2) the current obstacle avoidance setting (ie, none, brake, bypass) is not visible (yes, I understand obstacle avoidance is not active during missions, but it is active during manual flight I believe), and
3) the current mode for RTH (unique to M3E I believe) (by this, I do not mean RTH altitude as you seemed to assume... I mean the intelligent fastest RTH path mode (that risks collisions) versus the safer RTH via preset altitude mode (this is a settings CHOICE in the Mavic 3 Enterprise I believe and should be visible in dronelink (I can't say yet whether this is currently visible or not since I have not yet used the M3E dronelink app, but I'm including it here in case it is missing, as I suspect it is given the above cases).
So, you asked for a prioritized list of what to add that's missing. The above list is that prioritized list, and by the way, these are the same items I described in my initial post.
Again, the motivation for this request is to make important safety-related settings visible within dronelink, even if they are not settable by dronelink, to avoid the clumsiness and inefficiency of needing to first open Fly to get the info, then close and force stop Fly, then finally open Dronelink.
Knowing that these settings do not get changed by Dronelink is NOT the point -- that much is understood. This is about the operator being able to easily know/verify what these current settings are before flying. As is, it forces operators to be constantly dependent on opening the Fly app for basic pre-flight information.
Thanks.
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Many of those things (e.g. RTH ) is visible in the interface.
Watch this (should start at the relevant part) to see what is already covered https://youtu.be/KtmKGix60eI?t=655
Exactly. If there are missing ones you would like to see, please list them here in the order of priority for the feature request.
For me it would be the Obstacle avoidance, (bypass, brake or off).
On rare occasions it will start up with APAS, not joystick and not allow the mission to run. On very rare occasions it switches from joystick to APAS during the mission and pauses it. Most of the time I wait about 10 seconds and start or resume the mission without an issue. Sometimes they only way is to open DJI app and switch it to brake then back to DL. Not sure why it still does this but If it had the ability in the app to change it that would be easier than switching apps in order to get it to run or finish a mission. I’m sure it’s a DJI thing and you have no control over this but it has been this way since I starting using DL. It would be helpful. Ahhhhh…. the technology age. 🤪
UPDATE (in response to Barry and Jim):
"Many of those things (e.g. RTH ) is visible in the interface." .... "Exactly"....
Not sure "many" or "exactly" are good word choices, since at least 2 of the 3 things I mentioned above, at best, are currently NOT visible, as far as I can tell (if they are visible and I just have not been able to find them, my apologies, and please advise where they are --- and, I did watch Barry's suggested video, and while it's the best mobile app gui/settings overview I've seen, it showed nothing to address the settings I'm pointing out here --- and, I have also personally been through all the settings in the mini 3 pro version of the app).
So, to repeat and to be clear, this is what's needed in order of priority (imo):
NOTE: items 1 and 2 are regarding the Mini 3 Pro and other drones with similar settings, and item 3 is unique to M3E I believe.
1) the current emergency prop stop setting is not visible (ie, down sticks to kill versus kill via auto flight controller decision only), and
2) the current obstacle avoidance setting (ie, none, brake, bypass) is not visible (yes, I understand obstacle avoidance is not active during missions, but it is active during manual flight I believe), and
3) the current mode for RTH (unique to M3E I believe) (by this, I do not mean RTH altitude as you seemed to assume... I mean the intelligent fastest RTH path mode (that risks collisions) versus the safer RTH via preset altitude mode (this is a settings CHOICE in the Mavic 3 Enterprise I believe and should be visible in dronelink (I can't say yet whether this is currently visible or not since I have not yet used the M3E dronelink app, but I'm including it here in case it is missing, as I suspect it is given the above cases).
So, you asked for a prioritized list of what to add that's missing. The above list is that prioritized list, and by the way, these are the same items I described in my initial post.
Again, the motivation for this request is to make important safety-related settings visible within dronelink, even if they are not settable by dronelink, to avoid the clumsiness and inefficiency of needing to first open Fly to get the info, then close and force stop Fly, then finally open Dronelink.
Knowing that these settings do not get changed by Dronelink is NOT the point -- that much is understood. This is about the operator being able to easily know/verify what these current settings are before flying. As is, it forces operators to be constantly dependent on opening the Fly app for basic pre-flight information.
Thanks.
The last release seems to be from 5/15 (version 4.6.0 - 5/15/23). Is there a timeline for the roadmap releases and what will be on each future release? Yes - there is a "vote count" on enhancement requests, but this does not correspond with the release contents. Looking for the true product "roadmap" here.
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033214054-What-is-on-the-Dronelink-product-roadmap-
Thanks Jim. When I looked 11 days ago (the day you responded) I saw the road map items in column A. This seems to be gone now. Am I mis-looking at something? Thanks.
The 4.7.0 beta ended so the column changed to green (released).
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