How to build a stop and shoot mapping mission?
As a new Dronelink customer, it is my understanding that spending $100 only entitles me to use the so-called Map component for making mapping missions. But is there any way to manually build a stop and shoot mapping mission? I should also quickly confess that I have not finished studying the wealth of information presented in all of the FAQs, Core Concepts, and hours of YouTube videos, but I have been trying to figure things out on my own before asking for anybody's help.
For example, New Component, Command, Drone Command, doesn't appear to offer much in terms of stopping the drone at a given position, allowing for a camera command, and then resuming the flight path, but shouldn't there at least be some way in which to accomplish this after spending $100?
Just in our dooryard, I've been experimenting using the Map Component, Altitude of 20m, 12m, and 8m, gimbal pitch at -45, flying at a max speed of 2 km/hr in efforts to try and limit motion blur with moderate success. Once the ground has cleared of snow in Exeter, the (9) old cemeteries that I'm hoping to use my new MA2 often have an open area where flying is safe, but oftentimes the graves and headstones are tucked back under canopy so a lower and slower flight path in the safe-fly zone that skirts these areas is necessary. The major drawback of this low-n-slow work around method is the time spent in the air between shots. It's better than nothing; otherwise, trying to manually fly this without Dronelink will be daunting.
I thought that maybe, choosing the only option offered to the so-called Elite plan; i.e., to convert to DJI Waypoints might allow for some potential benefit, but apparently, this is not supported by several drones including my MA2.
But even it the Mavic Air 2 could ingest the Dronelink conversion to DJI waypoints, it remains unclear to me as a new Dronelink customer how to command the drone to stop at a given waypoint, take a shot, and proceed to the next waypoint.
Thank you very much for any helpful directions on how to build a stop and shoot mission.
Kind regards,
Kelly
Comments
25 comments
Hi Kelly. Hobbyist plans are one time fee for a reason. Mapping isn’t used this way for 99% of pilots who map at about 200’ or higher. They can’t put everything into a Hobbyist plan or no one would pay for a monthly business plan which is needed to perform inspections so it will stop and shot. I’d fly it manually due to the time it would take to set up this plans intricate path, at the proper low altitude and distance which can be off + or - 4m accuracy with these drones. Also get the correct gimbal pitch while avoiding the “canopy” as you said and other obstacles. Anything is possible but seems much easier to walk out there and fly manually. Unless you purchase a business Growth or Enterprise plan to run as inspection then it can’t be done. Even then it would still have all the other issues. Anything can be possible but sometimes doubtful. Good luck though and enjoy.
Converting to onboard waypoints would not help even if the MA2 did have onboard capability.
What is your goal of this project? Is it to create map with stitched together surface images or is it to select individual spots for selected still pictures? I'm guessing that your goal is the latter, so mapping wouldn't be the solution.
DroneLink works by the pilot creating waypoint which then establishes the path or the flight; the waypoint isn't a stopping point. Commands along the path are managed by markers; you can place them wherever you want along the path. You can place speed, gimble, altitude in markers. You can even place a camera command component within a marker.
You might set a marker for low speed, gimbal orientation. Place new marker very close and add camera commands. Then place another market adjacent and set the high speed. Move on to your next photo op and repeat with 3 markers. Will that solve your problem?
@Mike - Thank you for the reply and confirming my suspicions that Dronelink's Elite plan wasn't quite as elite as I first thought and can't be used on the DJI Mavic Air 2 and programmed to fly to a point and take a photo, fly to another point and take a photo, etc. Do you know what mission mapping software does and doesn't cost a fortune? Thanks again for your help. - Kelly
David Ritter - Thank you for your reply. I may play around and test your suggestions as things evolve, but to be clear, I'm not using stitching software like PTGui Pro, for example, as you previously indicated is not appropriate for survey mapping.
In answer to your question, blur is due to both the camera settings and the motion of the camera. Slowing down the speed of the drone helps considerably. In the example below, both shots were taken with nearly the same exposure settings and at about 8m AGL. The image on the top was a shot from my first attempts to use way points while the drone was flying obviously way too fast. The image directly beneath it was shot using the Map Component slowed down as I described earlier above.
The goal still is to map the (9) cemeteries of Exeter, Maine using my new MA2 and surveyed ground control points. The altitude above ground for these mapping missions is intended to be between 30 and 35 meters depending on the heights of the trees within the mission areas, flown in a crosshatch grid with the gimbal pitched at -85 for the primary overall map. As described above, there are grave stones under the margins of that canopy that will not be able to be mapped and why I started this thread.
The mapping software that I'll be using and testing will be Global Mapper Pro v23.1 and RealityCapture v1.2.0.17385. Both are predicated upon Structure from Motion processing techniques (SfM) which begin by creating 3D point clouds. By filtering out the points above the grave stones, the canopy can effectively be pulled back allowing the ortho (true or mosaic) to reveal those hidden stones along with the other stones that are out in the open.
In my dooryard tests like the one below, this would be akin to revealing the grill, porch swing, snow blower, bails of straw, and other items hiding a few feet in from and beneath the two porch roofs.
Lol. Well the term Elite is just a description of the plan and can be understood in may different ways by each individual person. DL is an incredible app which can do so much more than pretty much all other apps in the same category and price range. Also when using maps the gimbal pitch can only be set no higher the -35° pitch so probably would not work anyway.
With that said, you can try using just destination components to fly each spot, add a disengage command and take as many photos as you want while adjusting the altitude, yaw, gimbal pitch, distance, shutter, ISO etc. When ready to move on just hit resume button and it will fly to next destination spot and stop. As long as you put a disengage at each destination it will basically pause the mission until you click resume. All other manual adjustments can be made and mission resumed when ready. Maybe that will work.
Thanks Mike for your reply. Good to know of the -35° limitation. I think your original suggestion to fly cleanup along the margins manually will likely come into play at some point.
As you might have guessed I'm not very much familiar with defined mapping apps, I was just looking for a solution to what I thought was your goal. I look for ways to work with what I have. Taking pictures along a route is an approach I would take, I think. I don't know how DroneLink defines waypoints for mapping; just waypoints for a path mission.
Looking at one of your photo comparisons I agree it looks more like introduced horizontal motion blur, but I wouldn't discount a focus issue. I also noticed that the better picture has a file size of 7 MB while the other is 5 MB. The better picture is also later in the morning when I suspect there was better lighting. The second one had and EV of +0.7 which should have allowed for a little more exposure yet the shutter speed was still 1/80. Unless real close, a shutter speed of 1/80 would handle some movement; this is just from regular photography experience.
I agree with Mike that it sounds like your best alternative is to use Destinations. You can automate the shots by adding a List of commands to the Achieved components. After you create the first one and set its altitude, you can duplicate it as many times as you like and place the copies anywhere you like on the map. Then, the mission will fly to each Destination, take the shot, then fly to the next -- like an Inspection except you have to set each location individually. And, you can save that component in your repository to reuse on other missions.
Roger Harris - Thanks Roger, I look forward to trying this out!
The only issue I can think of is the approach path needs to be lined up directly to the object when it gets to the destinstion. Otherwise if taking auto camera captures it may not be centered. Make sure to use mission preview and make sure it is straight and at proper gimbal pitch. Unlike paths which can be curved to line up it only goes straight from last point. Just something to think about.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean, Mike, but when I've done something similar, I just set a drone heading (relative to North) in the Destination. After you get the first instance set up, you can run a preview to check its heading, altitude, and gimbal pitch before duplicating it, so all the instances will be the same. If you need to change the heading at some point in the mission, you can just change it and duplicate that instance to add more instances with that same heading.
I know. It’s a recommendation. He is trying to take photos of Gravestones in old cemetery at low altitude. I doubt their all lined up perfectly.
An idea just occurred to me. Do you need these to be high-quality photos? If not, an alternative would be to fly the drone over the headstones while taking 4K video and then just frame grab whatever you need from the video. No need to line up the shot perfectly.
You could, but you'd probably get better results just using the mapping function. (Or, for users who don't have that function, by figuring out what speed and shooting interval you need to shoot while moving along a straight path, then figure out how close together parallel paths have to be to get side-to-side overlap). But I think the OP was asking for a way to stop and shoot, presumably to avoid motion blur?
So many ways to do it but for me I’d fly manually. 😎 It would not be worth all my time figuring out how and setting it up and hoping it’s all good. Use those piloting skills to your advantage.
Thank you all very much for your thoughts and great suggestions. This is very much appreciated. In my case Mike, I will definitely try flying manually in order to develop my piloting skills. I also want to try what you, Roger, and Barry has suggested in order to develop my understanding of Dronelink. And yes, Roger and Barry, the image quality should be as good as possible. Screen grabs from limited video test were found to be inconsistent and generally poorer quality. Stop and shoot, it is reasoned, may improve image quality. Will post test results here as soon as I can figure out the proper commands and sequencing to duplicate a Map mission (just one leg) flown as a stop-n-shoot.
🤙🏼
Just a follow up / post mortem report. While mapping my third cemetery I got too close (flying manually) to a tree which had catastrophic consequences. Totally my fault.
The gimbal and forward port arm will need to be replaced, and hopefully the nothing else. Any pointers will be very much appreciated.
Sorry to hear that. Trees are the natural enemy of drones!
Well done for owning up to that, BTW. So many people won't admit when they make a mistake, which means they never learn.
Did you have anything like DJI Care? If so they should cover it, even though it was your own fault.
I just had the shell on my P4P replaced for stress cracks (which happens regularly on these, unfortunately). I gave it to these people and they were pretty quick and very reasonable on the cost.
https://djinyc.com/
Thank you Barry for the referral. I've just reached out to them and await to have a conversation with them. Wonder if they could replace the 1/2" sized sensor camera during surgery with the 1" camera like what's used on the MA2s(?), probably not, but won't hurt to ask :)
Thank you also for the kind words regarding my mea culpa. The last thing I would want is for somebody to think my crash was related in anyway whatsoever to Dronelink, which it was not.
In answer to your question, no, DJI Care was not purchased. Given the clarity of hindsight, it becomes another lesson learned the hard way.
Well, in fairness, I bought DJI care twice and never used it. LOL.
I suspect it will be a no on the camera swap but...it never hurts to ask.
V. Kelly Bellis, I don't where you're based, but here in the UK i have an insurance policy with a company called coverdrone, not only does it cover the drone for loss or damage, but it also gives some third party cover
Thanks for the suggestion Martin. I had considered purchasing insurance, and may consider it further, but our income level makes things more difficult since I retired 4 years ago. We live in Hancock County, Maine, USA.
Barry Houldsworth - Thank you again for pointing me to DJI's Camrise Service Center in Englewood, NJ. The entire process was very smooth and fairly priced. My badly wounded MA2 left Ellsworth via UPS 2-day ground on Wednesday the 25, arrived at Camrise on Friday, was informed of the estimate (and I authorized service) on Monday the 2nd, and it arrived back in Ellsworth yesterday. I'm told that I will need to perform magnetic and IMU calibrations which I'll complete this weekend.
V. Kelly Bellis
Glad it worked out!
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