Waypoint flight - missing flight plan save option before flight - feature request

slawek ok

Hello, 

i bought dronelink app because of the waypoint flight option which is super cool. However, I see the app often crashing and also sometimes I can't start a flight after I successfully made its plan (idkw). My biggest issue is that I can't save the waypoint flight plan before I do the flight successfully. (later I can browse flight history and repeat it). As you guys know flying with a drone requires changing batteries and often we don't have time to repeat things. So please can you consider adding an option to save the waypoint flight plan after we finish making all the waypoints and before starting recording?

 

 

 

Regards

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Comments

9 comments

  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    I am not 100% clear either, but what I can say is we will probably be spending our dev efforts and trying to stop the app crashes from happening vs creating features that assume the crashes will never be solved. This is what is means to be part of a beta test.

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  • Comment author
    slawek ok
    • Edited

    Missions are saved once planned.
    Saved when stopped, paused or achieved.
    Which status is missing for you ?

    I was doing flight with mi Mavic 2 Zoom and android app (not beta). I had two situations when I wasted my time and batteries

    1. I was in the middle of doing the first flight to make waypoints plan and app just crashed completly in the middle of the air.  I was able to connect again to the drone but I had to make waypoints plan from the start.

    2. Second problem was when I finally made the whole waypoints plan and finished the configuration of the flight I wasnt able to start the autonomous flight. I had all the settings made and app wasnt responding. After i reopened the app I could not continue this flight.

     

    In both cases solution was to restart the app and do the whole waypoints plan again. Problem is my batteries were already less than 60% so I wasnt able to do the plan and the flight.

    I am not 100% clear either, but what I can say is we will probably be spending our dev efforts and trying to stop the app crashes from happening vs creating features that assume the crashes will never be solved. This is what is means to be part of a beta test.

    Why not both? I dont understand this approach at all. You have thousands of devices with different spec and different android versions. It is not possible to make app not crash at all. Why not give user option to just save your plan before the flight? And as I said it wasnt beta version.

    Sorry for my english I am trying my best it is my second langunage.

     

     

     

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    Apologies for assuming you are on the beta. There has been a large influx of new users joining the MSDKv5 beta for the Mini 3, and the beta is the primary version of the app experiencing crashes right now. I am moving this to bug reports. Do you have specific steps that reproduce the issue every time, or is it random? Can you provide more details about which mobile device you are using and which version of Android it is running?

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  • Comment author
    slawek ok

    I have two drones Mini 3 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom, I use two apps for them (beta and normal). 

    Saving a waypoint flight plan would also allow me to make a first flight to mark waypoints on my first drone and later on, do the planned waypoint flight with my second drone. Would be helpful when I do long shots and batteries are running out quickly. Right now I can't do it because I need to make the flight to be able to save it. 

    Below you can see which apps do I use and what device. It happens randomly don't have time right now to do tests and record it, maybe I can do it later when the weather will be fine and when I am out of the restricted flight area. 

    I really hope you will consider giving users the option to save a waypoint flight plan before doing the first flight. Can't really understand why you don't want to do it like is it very hard to implement it or something? 

     

     

     

     

     

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Why don't you plan your flights on the PC beforehand

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  • Comment author
    stéphane GARNIER

    Sure.
    I don´t understand the strategy.
    Planning on PC (or mobile) makes the mission available by both apps.
    Objective not really clear for me.

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  • Comment author
    slawek ok

    What a horrible approach to a customer... I am really disappointed guys you only look for excuses. If I face crashes more often I will consider claiming a refund request for this app as it is not useful for me. I don't ask for some fancy feature this should be a standard thing that you can save your project any time you want. I can compare it to doing graphic design project in Photoshop but you can save it only after you print it. Do you imagine this? I dont. 

    Doing a plan flight on mobile in real life is different than doing it on the website with only a satellite preview. First of all you see the real area, the objects to avoid when flying low, second satellite images are usually old and bad quality, third I dont have a laptop with me all the time (another thing with battery do worry about)

    It is your app do what you want I just wanted to give you real user feedback and I am sure not only I have issues with this.

     

     

     

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Just as a note, both stéphane GARNIER & Myself are just customers like yourself and not Employees of Dronelink

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    What a horrible approach to a customer... I am really disappointed guys you only look for excuses.

    I think there may be a misunderstanding here. As Martin Reading stated, he and stéphane GARNIER are not Dronelink employees, and I like me (I am the CEO of Dronelink), I believe they were just trying to better understand your use case and the idea behind the feature request. This was probably with an eye towards being able to suggest and alternate approach or work-around until the bug can be fixed or the feature implemented as these things don't happen instantly.

    If I face crashes more often I will consider claiming a refund request for this app as it is not useful for me.

    In that event: https://www.dronelink.com/refund

    allow me to make a first flight to mark waypoints on my first drone and later on, do the planned waypoint flight with my second drone

    Are you setting the mission up with your Mini 3 (beta) and this is the app that is crashing? If so, that is well documented here, and it will probably be some time before we can fully resolve that issue. If you are setting it up on the Mavic 2 Zoom (not beta), and that is the app that is crashing, then this is where we need steps to reproduce. Given the specs of your phone, my guess is it just doesn't have enough power to reliably run Dronelink and you may end up going for a refund in any case if you can't get a better mobile device.

    Can't really understand why you don't want to do it like is it very hard to implement it or something? 

    I never stated that don't want to implement your feature request, but rather that we prefer to fix bugs over implementing feature requests to work-around bugs if at all possible.

    First of all you see the real area, the objects to avoid when flying low, second satellite images are usually old and bad quality, third I dont have a laptop with me all the time (another thing with battery do worry about)

    These are the exact reasons we created the on the fly functions, and you are right in wanting to use them to get around these issues for mission planning. Having said that, the majority of people using on the fly functions go on to immediately run the mission that is generated, and it is at that time (mission first engaged) that Dronelink attempts to save the mission to our servers (for resuming and reuse later). If Dronelink is crashing in the middle of the setup wizard, saving the mission when it is generated at the end of the wizard will not solve this problem. So to further clarify, you are saying that Dronelink consistently crashes after the mission has been generated but before you have a chance to run it?

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