Construction Progress Photos

[HawkView]

Here is a screenshot of the new Media section, with an uploaded photo selected on the Map tab to show the data.


The Media Upload can even auto-detect the flight that the photo belongs to.

What is this new "magic" your speak of?
I'm off to play with my Airdata account and find the new features. I've got to start reading their emails to me LOL.

 

[Dave Pitman]

Airdata's nice. I just hope they keep your info confidential. The founder is a nice guy, I've chatted with him a couple of times. But his roots are in big data networking for good or bad.

For grabbing the location of a photo taken by a dji drone, you can just open it up in an editor like Fastone Image Viewer (donation-ware) and there is a button that opens either Google Maps or Google Earth and pins the location...pretty sweet !! It just grabs it from the exif of course. Then the Litchi workflow to program future flights. All your data stays home as a bonus.

 

[Levitated Media]

What I have been doing is flying a new construction site when I find it, then sending an e-mail to people at the contractor, architect, civil engineer, owner, anyone else I can identify from a Google search based on the signs on site and online building department records. I send these separately rather than looking like a spam message.

So essentially are you waiting until the job site is clear...then just flying it without permission (and staying off premise) to gather your data?

 

[HawkView]

Correct, just like flying anywhere else, except no privacy concerns for a big parcel of dirt!

So essentially are you waiting until the job site is clear...then just flying it without permission (and staying off premise) to gather your data?

 

[Mike Nevins]

YOu can also use AutoPilot. It's seems to be more advanced than Lichi. I tired both initially, I had problems with Litchi, (Proabably just me), it was unstable at the time and I switched to AutoPilot. I have used it now for over a year.

 

[Stapenhillphoto]

I had a question about Litchi,
I am using an Ipad mini 4 wifi only. Can I make my phone a hotspot and connect my ipad to that?

 

[Meta4]

I had a question about Litchi,
I am using an Ipad mini 4 wifi only. Can I make my phone a hotspot and connect my ipad to that?

Yes you can ... but is there any real need to?

Your drone has a perfectly good GPS receiver that it uses for all flight functions.
The only two features that can use GPS from your tablet are:
Resetting the homepoint to the controller's current location .. and
Follow-me flight.

Unless you have a particular need for those, there is nothing to gain.

 

[BigAl07]

I had a question about Litchi,
I am using an Ipad mini 4 wifi only. Can I make my phone a hotspot and connect my ipad to that?

Yes you sure can. That's exactly how we do it on the job sites as well. Our iPads are WiFi only and when I get on site I turn on the HOT SPOT and connect it. From there I can connect with Litchi, download the mission and launch it.

Without the Hot Spot I wouldn't be able to use previously created Litchi flight plans.

 

[R.Perry]

Yes you sure can. That's exactly how we do it on the job sites as well. Our iPads are WiFi only and when I get on site I turn on the HOT SPOT and connect it. From there I can connect with Litchi, download the mission and launch it.

Without the Hot Spot I wouldn't be able to use previously created Litchi flight plans.

I guess I'm a little confused, but that is easy with me. Why would you want to use WiFi?
As for Litchi I have all my pano locations loaded into Litchi and I don't need WiFi to retrieve them, they are saved on the Tablet.
I do no use Litchi for the panos, the Inspire 2 just doesn't work with it, so I do the panos manually, about 34 photos on each pano.

 

[Meta4]

Without the Hot Spot I wouldn't be able to use previously created Litchi flight plans.

.. unless you have saved them in the Litchi app on your iPad.
I do that all the time and all my pre-saved missions are available anywhere on a wifi tablet.

 

[BigAl07]

I guess I'm a little confused, but that is easy with me. Why would you want to use WiFi?
As for Litchi I have all my pano locations loaded into Litchi and I don't need WiFi to retrieve them, they are saved on the Tablet.
I do no use Litchi for the panos, the Inspire 2 just doesn't work with it, so I do the panos manually, about 34 photos on each pano.

We program all of our sites from the Litchi Mission Hub. At some point you have to have an internet connect in order to load them into the aircraft from the internet.

 

[R.Perry]

We program all of our sites from the Litchi Mission Hub. At some point you have to have an internet connect in order to load them into the aircraft from the internet.

I got it, you are saving all your flights to the internet so anyone of your people can upload the flight, now that makes sense.

 

[BigAl07]

I got it, you are saving all your flights to the internet so anyone of your people can upload the flight, now that makes sense.

Yes sir. We just pick the correct project and load the files to the bird.

 

[R Martin]

I had a question about Litchi,
I am using an Ipad mini 4 wifi only. Can I make my phone a hotspot and connect my ipad to that?

T-Mobile has the Alcatel that works great for internet connectivity in the field. We have two of them for our Trimble GPS on RTK and the aircraft. I haven't found many areas it does not work in.

 

[Stapenhillphoto]

Thanks for all of the info.

 

[BryanD]

So essentially are you waiting until the job site is clear...then just flying it without permission (and staying off premise) to gather your data?

I think this is a great idea. So I am not judging when I ask this.... Have you had any pushback or concerns from the people you send these to? Do they ever have a problem with the fact that you were flying their site without their knowledge?

 

[BryanD]

Are monthly pics/videos pretty much the standard frequency or does that depend on the client as well?

 

[BigAl07]

Are monthly pics/videos pretty much the standard frequency or does that depend on the client as well?

It depends on the client or at least in my experience. I've got clients that want images 1x month every month no questions asked. I've got one that keeps me hanging on until they call and then they need them "ASAP". It depends on the progress of the job and sometimes they run into delays etc.

On the front end when you're negotiating etc you determine the frequency and they build that into the contract.

 

[R.Perry]

Are monthly pics/videos pretty much the standard frequency or does that depend on the client as well?

Each client is different, the folks at UC Merced want mapping twice a month, a video each week, and eight to fifteen panos twice a week. I fly the exact same pattern for the videos each week, what I capture changes based on the clients requests.
Videos are tough during the work week and must be done while most workers are at lunch.
Our company does both interior and exterior construction documentation, I only do exterior.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Each client is different, the folks at UC Merced want mapping twice a month, a video each week, and eight to fifteen panos twice a week. I fly the exact same pattern for the videos each week, what I capture changes based on the clients requests.
Videos are tough during the work week and must be done while most workers are at lunch.
Our company does both interior and exterior construction documentation, I only do exterior.

Agreed - we have a few sites around us that we see flown on Sunday mornings on a very regular basis. No workers - no people.