Onboard DJI Waypoints
For Air3S, Mini4 Pro conversions:
1. When converting a flight plan it creates a large number of waypoints, but apparently there is no method to assign camera action to all of them. What is the point of having all of the points if the camera action need to be set manually?
2. After changing the .kmz name and replacing the temporary/dummy, the preview map does not change. Very difficult to manage several missions on the menu. Is there a way to update/convert the preview file?
3, When creating additional converted missions, can a previously converted .kmz file be used for the dummy or does a new dji mission need to be created?
Comments
4 comments
Hi H. Nelson. I will try to help answer your questions. Due to the way DJI Onboard Waypoints work there are always limitations when converting to Onboard and it will never be a one to one exact mission. So your number 1 question is explained in the DL article. Question number 2: If you mean you don’t see the thumbnail of the mission plan in the Waypoints folder so it can be seen It may be due to you not first centering the mission on the screen then saving it. Of course you can also name it as well. I’m having no issues with my Air 3 and I’ve been exporting KMZ files into the Fly app for almost two years using other apps and methods before the new DL added feature. There is also a way using the Litchi Utilities software to import any created DJI waypoints plan into the DL Web app and run the mission preview to see how it will look. Since the DJI app cannot do previews this is very handy. Question 3 is yes. As most other apps when importing most KMZ files into the DJI Fly app you need to create a dummy plan. All I do is place 2 waypoints and save it. Doesn’t matter where you place them as the imported plan will be placed at the location you created it. As I mentioned I’ve been doing quite a lot of conversions and exporting with great results so if I can help further I’ll try to clear some things up. Hope this helps.
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410621290387-Onboard-DJI-Waypoint-Missions-Convert-and-Export-to-KMZ
Thanks for your explanations. Regarding the first question I will give an example of what I am talking about. I created a small mapping mission and when converted it created 101 waypoints. Exported and installed onto the RC2 waypoint folder when it is opened in DJI Fly there are 101 waypoints showing. Since the camera must be set to take photos every (x) seconds and started manually, what is the purpose of 101 waypoints cluttering up the DJI Fly app screen? The purpose of having every point show in mapping is to have the camera action take place automatically. You set the first waypoint and then "apply to all". Question 2 is regarding the map preview image that is in the waypoint folder for each mission. We change the .kmz file, but still have the .jpg from the dummy mission. Renaming, as you suggested, works though from the organization standpoint. Thanks again.
The DJI Waypoints uses Bézier curves so there is no way to get a straight path along each leg. It must place many waypoints to get a relatively straight path. This is another DJI Waypoints limitation and unless DJI adds an option to change to straight pathing then nothing DL can do. This exporting feature was added as a basic way to do mapping and will never be one to one as I mentioned.
I don’t have the issue after saving the thumbnail where it keeps the dummy jpg but I’m using my iPad so maybe it’s different. I have no way of testing on Android.
There are plenty of optimizations that can be made to this feature, but we preferred to release it sooner rather than later to understand how many people are actually using it before we spend more resources making it better. Some people find value in where it currently is, and if there is enough people, we might be able to justify it.
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