DJI GS PRO, Maps Made Easy.

[Deltadave]

Ok, so I've searched threads for my answer to no avail, so here is my situation.
I've had pretty good luck with DJI GS Pro. It's easy to plan missions, set all the settings and away it goes. All I have to do is change batteries when it lands itself.
Now I've mounted a non DJI camera on my I2. It's not connected to the aircraft, I've attached an external power source. So when I try to launch GS Pro the only thing keeping me grounded is it does not detect a DJI camera. I have used the twist lock camera mount for a fabricated camera mount. I really don't want to hang the X5S for the extra weight.
Does anyone know a work around to disable the camera sensing requirement?
I also have Maps Made Easy downloaded but their instructions are dated and not very easy to navigate off youtube.
All problem solvers are welcome with some input.
Thank you.

 

[Dave Pitman]

Your non-connected camera has it's own capture triggering too I'm assuming.

No interest in GS Pro so no help there.

I know Map Pilot can use non-dji cameras, so maybe it could be used without a camera connection at all (as far as it is concerned.)

Litchi can also be used to program grid missions and it likely doesn't care if you have a camera connected.

 

[Deltadave]

Yeah, I made a little progress with map pilot. I already think it sucks cuz it's even difficult to create a flight grid. The display moves around when you try to create a grid. Gotta keep erasing over and ovet. The YouTube demo has someone going over it on an office pc. Not the same. Nothing like what I have. Not sure where it goes from there, but I'll get it figured out.
Thanks.

 

[Dave Pitman]

Yeah, I made a little progress with map pilot. I already think it sucks cuz it's even difficult to create a flight grid. The display moves around when you try to create a grid. Gotta keep erasing over and ovet. The YouTube demo has someone going over it on an office pc. Not the same. Nothing like what I have. Not sure where it goes from there, but I'll get it figured out.

Hmm. I'm not sure what you mean by the display moving around. It's pretty straight forward in my experience. And, Map Pilot missions are only available on ios smart devices so the office PC thing must be another application, maybe Drone Deploy.

 

[R Martin]

Yeah, I made a little progress with map pilot. I already think it sucks cuz it's even difficult to create a flight grid. The display moves around when you try to create a grid. Gotta keep erasing over and ovet. The YouTube demo has someone going over it on an office pc. Not the same. Nothing like what I have. Not sure where it goes from there, but I'll get it figured out.
Thanks.

Try Pix4D Capture. Its free and does not require that you use Pix4D processing software. Creating a grid mission is as simple as drawing a bounding box area the area of interest and setting the parameters (which once set usually do not change). If you do try it, you have to shut down the GO or GO4 app before starting it. They do not play well together.

 

[Mavic Mac]

Try Pix4D Capture. Its free and does not require that you use Pix4D processing software. Creating a grid mission is as simple as drawing a bounding box area the area of interest and setting the parameters (which once set usually do not change). If you do try it, you have to shut down the GO or GO4 app before starting it. They do not play well together.

FYI _ Just d/l the Pix4D Capture app and got this message


Your 15-day trial includes full access to Pix4Dmapper and other Pix4D software in the cloud.
Ready to get started?

Do you know if that means after 15 days it won't be free any longer ?

 

[R Martin]

FYI _ Just d/l the Pix4D Capture app and got this message


Your 15-day trial includes full access to Pix4Dmapper and other Pix4D software in the cloud.
Ready to get started?

Do you know if that means after 15 days it won't be free any longer ?

My knowledge is based on pasted experience. I used it for two years without any of the rest of Pix4D suite without charge. I have not used it for over a year now though. I would contact them and make sure. I honestly don't have an answer to your question. They might have started charging for it. I do know that Pix4DMapper is expensive (without a govt discount it will be around 8-10K for the software and at least 600.00 a year for maintenance/updates/support).

 

[Mavic Mac]

My knowledge is based on pasted experience. I used it for two years without any of the rest of Pix4D suite without charge. I have not used it for over a year now though. I would contact them and make sure. I honestly don't have an answer to your question. They might have started charging for it.

Thanks

 

[Deltadave]

Try Pix4D Capture. Its free and does not require that you use Pix4D processing software. Creating a grid mission is as simple as drawing a bounding box area the area of interest and setting the parameters (which once set usually do not change). If you do try it, you have to shut down the GO or GO4 app before starting it. They do not play well together.

Yes, I have used Pix4D and love it.
What I am attempting is compatible with the camera which is disconnected from any aircraft input.

 

[Deltadave]

Hmm. I'm not sure what you mean by the display moving around. It's pretty straight forward in my experience. And, Map Pilot missions are only available on ios smart devices so the office PC thing must be another application, maybe Drone Deploy.

Yes, I use an iPad on my aircraft. What I mean is when I have a satellite display of my location and start to outline a grid and move points, the the whole image moves with my dragging motion instead of drawing a line. I'm sure I'm making a dummy mistake, but it should be at least as easy as competitors.
It's the Sony multispec unit and I was not thrilled with my buying experience either. You're either forced to buy a new unit already mounted on a P4 standard, with mounts and wiring installed. I don't need another P4, period. So I asked if I could purchase the kit with mounts and schematic minus the P4. I've had enough of these apart and with my soldering station and 20 years of component level repairs that it was do-able.
I made triple sure that sales understood what I needed. He either was not listening or didn't care. So I received just the sensor as sold from Sony. I called back to express the communication breakdown, but was only met with "send it back or buy another P4".
I've also spoken with Sony as they are interested in our project and discovered they failed to offer the Inspire2 mount, which is what I'm fabbing together and it appears store bought for a fraction of the price. Issue is, it is independent of the aircraft. Map pilot does see the Sony unit and I can set it to trigger at intervals
It's just not as straight forward as pix4d, which works perfectly with dji interface.
The vids go way further than I need. I just want an easy onscreen planner, launch the aircraft and sit in my lawn chair and "work".
The other multispec option is more expensive but the support is way better.
I'll work it out. Meanwhile I'm setting up a new M600/Ronin MX/ Sony A7 combo for an Ai project.

 

[MapMaker53]

Hard to tell what you are doing when placing your Map Pilot boundary points from your description. Off the top of my head... I press my finger down on the screen to set the first yellow point. Don't just tap the screen. Keep your finger in contact with the screen for a half second. Lift your finger and do that again to place a second yellow dot, and a line will be drawn. Do the same for a 3rd yellow dot and you get a triangle. You will note that there is a smaller yellow dot at the midpoint of each line. NOTE: You will need to place your finger onto any dot for half a second to activate it and drag it. So place your finger on any small dot and drag it for your 4th point. Just work slowly. Keep dragging the small yellow dots that form on the lines to create your boundary shape. When finished with your boundary, double tap where you wish your takeoff point to be. A purple dot will represent that. You can drag that takeoff location around as you adjust your grid. If you want to adjust the large boundary dots, you will need to, again, place your finger on the dot for half a second so it activates and then drag it. Same holds true for the takeoff point. Hope that helps. Took me a while to get the hang of that process through trial and error.

 

[Deltadave]

Yeah, I'm probably just pushing too hard or something simple. I got it to create 4 boundary points, but when I try to adjust them or move them around, it just moves the whole **** map like I'm searching the satellite image. I have gotten as far as creating a grid pattern over my property. The details like direction of grid, aircraft takeoff and land has yet to be found. Not like Pix4D or GS Pro, just touch the aircraft icon, ready to launch? Yes, launch, away it goes. But GS Pro does not see my external mounted camera and refused to launch until I connect a dji camera. So I was looking for a work around to fool the app and allow the aircraft to launch. I don't need processing, I'm working with a processing company. And I used up the Pix4D trial last year and loved it, now I can't use it. I understand that, it's like copyright infringement or freeloading.
So I'll keep fiddling with MME until I get somewhere. They should have a current video on mission planning from your controller and launching the **** thing. Maybe they do but with all the other clutter they have, it's not been obvious. But thank you for your input. I will certainly give it a more precise approach.

 

[jimmymac]

I think to edit a boundary point you need to tap and then hold and drag it. If I remember right. I like Maps made Easy, find it is very easy to use, but have been using for quite awhile.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yeah, I made a little progress with map pilot. I already think it sucks cuz it's even difficult to create a flight grid. The display moves around when you try to create a grid. Gotta keep erasing over and ovet. The YouTube demo has someone going over it on an office pc. Not the same. Nothing like what I have. Not sure where it goes from there, but I'll get it figured out.
Thanks.

@Deltadave: I have created a couple of documents from MapsMadeEasy's website tutorials that I'd like to share with you (attached). Having a paper copy of the guides made it easier to find answers while I was learning to use the Map Pilot app.

Keep in mind that Map Pilot was developed by using DJI's software development kit (SDK). That SDK contains data relevant to DJI's aircraft and cameras which allows Map Pilot to instruct the chosen aircraft to fly a certain route at a calculated speed at your selected altitude in order to trigger DJI's camera at the proper interval to allow the resulting images to have the desired front and side overlap.

If you use a different camera, you're going to have to guestimate what the shutter interval will be, as well as any other settings, such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

I fly a DJI Phantom 4 Pro with Map Pilot and the imagery results are very good for a free flight app. But I have to make sure the camera's settings are correct in Go 4 first before I switch over to Map Pilot for the flight mission.

You'll have to experiment with your camera to see if the results are what you expected. But I encourage you to keep using Map Pilot because it works, and the price is right.

Best regards -- Roger

 

[Deltadave]

Thank you, I appreciate that. I will certainly read it thoroughly. I did locate the pdf file of instructions and made some headway. The app sees my aircraft and the camera. When I manage to set a grid and get the take off enabled, it does not cooperate. But I'm still going through the pdf and see some steps I've missed so it's just dumb things I'm missing. It certainly isn't as straight forward as Pix4D. We're have our own processing abilities so I just need this thing to do what I say, not as I do. With some patience, I'll get this done.
Thank you for the great info,