Can't finish successfully winding waypoint mission while taking photos continuously on Mini 3
Hi
I've created simple but winding 4 waypoints route and tried taking photos continuously (2s interval - JPEG only) with no luck. Mission always fails with off route error - drone is flying uncontrollably while taking photo - it looks that drone controll thread is blocked by waiting for photo confirmation - when photo is finished then I see that drone tries to get back on route, but sometimes it is too off and error message appears...
https://app.dronelink.com/damian-grocholski/mission/Hglq0wNOxSXIkVaE5CQz
https://app.dronelink.com/damian-grocholski/mission/Boo3sFwHa0aMs8oM9kiu
When I fly the same waypoint mission with continuous photo disabled - all is fine and smooth.
Comments
21 comments
Check the DL article. Usually the speed is set too fast when you get a drone too far off-course error but there are other possibilities. What device are you using ? If you want to share the plan someone can take a look at it and see how it’s set up.
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052533153-Why-does-the-drone-fly-off-course-or-make-jerky-movements-during-certain-mission-plans
I've shared in first post 2 example mission runs when it failed. This is the latest plan (i've changed there only photo capture settings for some testings - path and speeds are not changed - 5 km/h)
https://app.dronelink.com/damian-grocholski/my-first-project/plan/Zcztsmf2CnEZGp19sori
I'm using Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S device.
I think that this is not device problem, becouse without photo capturing this plan runs smooth. When I enable 2s photo capture interval then I can see clearly that drone is flying in straight line and it is correcting course only when photo capture is ended (busy circle on capture button disapears). It looks like photo capture thread is blocking drone virtual joystick thread...
Both those links give a page invalid message
I see that sharing is not possible on my Basic subscription, but I see that plan should be public available - link to the plan is working?
Maybe individual sessions are only private and links are working only for me...
Damian Grocholski. I was able to access the second plan you sent but I don’t see it as being the issue.
The DL software is constantly sending commands really fast to control the drone and if the processor is busy processing the photos the mission may continue but only with the last command which was sent until the photo is processed. This is why when you run it without capturing photos it works. I checked the benchmarks on that device and they are at about 690 at best which is not high. Even enough it will work with most apps DL is a resource intense app which means it needs a fairly powerful device to run everything well. I’m sure this is something you may not want to hear but I’ve seen this many, many times over the last 3 years and it’s almost always the device. Also you should add a camera command to set the file format to JPEG as the warning at the top of card recommends. If it was set last to both JPGE + RAW in the DJI Fly app then all settings stick across apps so that’s what the format will be. Even if was set to JPEG only I’m guessing the live feed freezes up for a second or more. Processing power is very important when using the DL app. Do you have a newer device to try ?
Only other thing to check is if there are any other apps still running on the device. I’m not talking about the DJI app, any other app which is still running in the background may be using up processing power which can slow down everything. Go into the device settings under Apps and check to see if there are any apps still running and if so force stop all of them. All apps regardless of what they are they should always be properly force closed so all processing power can be used with DL app. Then power down the device and restart it. A fresh boot with no other apps still running may help.
I was capturing only to JPG. So if I understand this well - mobile device is processing captured photos on drone? Like sharing processor power remotly to drone? I thought that image capturing and processing is done only on the drone, so mobile device only waits for capture confirmation from drone... Yes - I see that live view freezes for second when capturing photo (same is happening on DJI Fly app) - but I thought that this is happening becouse drone camera is switching for internal drone process for capturing photo and can't be shared for live streaming simultaneously....
I've been testing Litchi Pilot beta with similar waypoint missions with 2s photo interval and didn't noticed any problem with drone flying off course. But Litchi Pilot beta has very poor functionality currently. Dronelink was first app with Mini 3 support out of beta, so I've chosed it :)
First of all I want to be clear I’m not bashing any device. Some get upset when I mention their device isn’t powerful enough to get the best user experience with the DL app. I’ve seen this a lot over all the time I’ve been using DL. As far as the Litchi app it is a very basic app and doesn’t require as powerful device just as when using the DJI Fly app. It is explained in DL’s first FAQ in their help articles about requirements. The processing of the photos is to the SD card and it needs to read and write as fast as possible to the card. A faster SD card will help in the processing but I’m guessing you’re using a V30 SD card minimum. Even then when it triggers you will see the button spinning in the app while it’s processing the photo which means it is still using up some resources as well. You probably know the DL software is using what is called Virtual Stick which sends constant commands really fast to the flight controller in real time just as a pilot would do manually. So a clear constant connection along with a fast processing device will make a difference in the way any app works. As you stated even when using the DJI app Fly app there is a second or so delay in the processing which causes the screen to freeze up even for a short time. This is normal with any device but more prominent with slower processing devices. So when using DL it will be more important to have more processing power. I’m am curious when you start video capture is the live feed sometimes not completely smooth, freeze up even briefly or stutter at times ?
Just to to give a comparison my iPad 11 Pro, M2 has a single core benchmark of just over 2500 and one of the most powerful devices out there. When I capture photos in JPEG with either app it takes about one second and my screen pauses are so brief it is barely noticeable. My iPad Mini 5 which is over 4 years old still works great and has a benchmark of about 1300 and it takes a just a slight amount more time and the screen pauses on the live feed are a bit more noticeable but nothing to cause issues. I don’t use my old iPhone 8 Plus but it has a benchmark of about 1050 and it’s on DL’s list of low performance devices and it’s higher than yours at 690. So you can see what difference it makes having a more powerful processing device. Sorry it’s not better news but I’m fairly confident it’s the devices performance which is the issue. Did you go into the settings and see if any other apps are still running and if so did you force stop them all ? It’s not necessary for the DL app to connect and work but from a Standpoint of resources needed it’s always best to have nothing else running while using DL. Can’t hurt to check and if any other apps are still running in the background and if so force close them and then try again just to see if there is any difference. I know it’s a lot of info but all you can do is eliminate anything which could be causing more issues and go from there to see of it helps. Good luck.
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025829933-What-are-the-system-requirements-Supported-drones-and-devices
OK, but I still don't understand why high performance mobile device is important for photo capturing process on drone and why this capturing may have impact on virtual stick controller with DL and not with Litchi Pilot... I'm using V30 sd card in drone, images aren't captured to my mobile device but to drone sd card - right? Or DL is downloading that images?
I haven't noticed any shuttering with video recording on drone.
I'm always stopping all background activities before drone flight.
I can’t explain specifically how the software works when it’s capturing photos but as you can see I have no problems just as the majority of other pilots. The commands are being sent constantly very fast to keep the drones speed constant, the heading and altitude correct, stay on a POI or any of function while it’s still capturing. So while all of this is being done really fast even the button is spinning which tells you it is still sending the capturing of the photo and continues until the photo is read and written to the SD card which means it is using at least some resources. It may not seem like much but obviously a more powerful processor works without issues. As I explained which you may have missed is any of those other apps like Litchi don’t take anywhere near the power to run them. It’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Toyota. Lol. Check that link I sent about requirements. A “resource Intense” app meaning more processing power with a modern hardware device which has been released with the last year maybe two. Sorry if I wasn’t helpful but maybe Jim can explain specifically how his software works and why this happens when capturing photos. Not much more I can do to help sir. I’m sure if you upgrade to a much better device you won’t have this issue. If there is something with the app which I doubt I’m sure they can look into it. Good luck.
I don’t have the Mini 3 but the app works the same. I just ran your exact plan with my MA2 and the iPad 11 Pro and no issues. I even ran it twice with one of them at max speed setting to 12 mph which it did run up to at a couple points along the path and down to about 5 mph on other sections. I had no drone too far off course error. The processing time was quick and the live pause which is normal with any device or app and was literally about .2 seconds. I don’t know what else you can do at this point. The device does matter when using the DL app. Unless Jim or another DL staff member responds and can explain better or finds an issue then not much more can be done.
I've repeated test with profiling enabled and I think that it has confirmed my suspicion that DL thread/s is/are beeing blocked when photo capturing is going on drone... It can be something with Mini 3 specific or DJI SDK5 impelmentation... Look at this video:
https://youtu.be/5ODty-3J73E
You can see that DL is really resource consuming when virtual joystick kicks in (only before photo capture gets in - after that CPU usage drops down!!!!) - but there are still some idle resources available - about 200-300% CPU is idle (8 cores so 800% in top tool is full processor use). When not capturing, user cpu time get about 200-400% (only 2 times in peaks it gets above 400%), so 2-4 cores are in intense use. DL MainActivity gets regular update ticks (bottom chart). All that lasts until capture action is getting fired (it is path action placed after about 4meters after first waypoint). When capturing is done it can be seen that user processor time is reduced to 100-200% avarage, idle CPU is above 500%! And tehere is no IO or IRQ cpu usage, so nothing is blocking device. DL MainActivity stops beeing updated - look at bottom chart - almost no ticks while capturing on drone - even when camera feed is back again. Drone is going really weird off course and making spirals....
All the time screen recording is working without slowdowns and freeezes, system is responsive...
EDIT:
Regardless that Litchi Pilot Beta is Toyota not Ferrari, I think that devs there somehow has splitted main control thread from capturing - camera stream freezes the same way as in DL but in Litchi Pilot Beta all telemtry from drone is always updating constantly and all UI is responsive all the capturing time (for example I can smoothly scroll map) - I specially check that now - MainActivity in Litch Pilot Beta isn't blocked and it has ticks updating all the time. In DL, as you can see on video, telemetry from drone also freezes when photo capture is in progress (and this is not mobile device being overloaded as you can see from idle system usage and average cpu load on my video).
Ok. The thing is no one else is reporting this but maybe DL staff can take a look at it. If they can find something in the app and fix it I’m sure they will. Anything is possible. I’ll let them take over from here. Best of luck.
OK, thanks for your engagement. If there will be need for some debuging, like use of prepared apk with some debuging code enabled I'm willing to help.
Do you have another Android device you can try? Trying to understand if it is specific to this device as we have never seen the telemetry freeze while flying or capturing photos on any of our test devices.
Yes, but only older devices - newest from olds is Redmi Note 8T - I can try to run plan on it when it will stop raining...
And I will raise all waypoints from test plan about 15m higher for safety - uncontrollable drone on low altitude can cause a heart attack ;)
I've tested with Redmi Note 8T - same result. Mission is playing fine when not capturing photos or when capturing video. When I enable 2s capture interval - telemetry freezes and drone fly uncontrollable few seconds until off course appears...
I figured it would have similar result since it is far lower in performance. Only thing you can do is upgrade. There is no way for DL to test every manufacture which uses Android OS because there are so many out there but a Google Sheets list was started by DL a while ago with pilots contributions. It may help to choose which device to buy. A couple on the list indicate low performance but may not be accurate since it was during app crashes with the Mini 3’s. Best thing to do is look around for a few of those devices and if any questions just ask here and see if anyone can verify they work well. I know the Samsung devices are among the top of devices with great performance but you will pay more. Not sure what else DL can due as the app works as Jim mentioned who is the creator of DL and they have had no issues in his tests with the Dronelink DJI app and the Mini 3. If you’re not satisfied you can always request a refund from DL. Good luck.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JPhn9yKVaKiyd_k0JP8ZI7_fMJjjJcE8ybcCW93SCYw/edit#gid=0
I have update for this issue. I've bought used POCO F3 (found bargain cheap on local market - about 80 EUR). This phone in benchark is little above Samsung S21 (geekbench 6).
Tried few times infamous test plan mentioned here earlier - and always it was completed successfully without going off course and telemetry was always updating (even when video feed freezes when capturing photo)...
So it was old phone issue - but I still dont understand why - it wasn't overloaded when playing mission - CPU stats from top tool was showing moderate load all the time... system was responsive and able to record screen capture video smoothly...
PS. You can add POCO F3 phone to your spreadsheet with High performance note
Damian Grocholski, you can add it to the sheet yourself, that's the idea of the sheet, for users to add devices with their own comments
I can open it in read only mode. I've requested yesterday possibility to edit, but no one accepted it
A Simpler term would be faster processing speed so it doesn’t need to wait and catch up. This is where the benchmarks really tell the tale. Enjoy.
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