Ever had one of those days?

[Fred Garvin]

.....gnawing on your legs....

Close.....a bit higher up.....just a bit......

 

[Mavic Mac]

@Fred Garvin - Oh yes - I know from experience the chiggers like those dark private areas

 

[R Martin]

Close.....a bit higher up.....just a bit......

Old surveyor trick; cut the pocket liner out of the left front pocket of your pants. Easy access.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

I like the ability to plan out flights on my desktop PC with a big screen and an accurate mouse pointer .... and then have those show up on my device when I go out to fly. I hate planning flights on little screens trying to drag around polygon control points with my fat sticky finger.

hi @clolsonus,

I've been trying catching up on your adventure. I chuckled at your "fat sticky finger" comment, knowing I solved that problem. I read through the rest of the exchanges to see if anyone else had responded, before coming back here to offer a solution.

Have you checked out any of the touch screen "pens"? They can replace our fat fingers and do quite well, for my uses anyway. I will occasionally use one during a flight, if temperatures dip low enough. Can keep the gloves on and still function.

Just a thought.

By the way, good luck. Hopefully the software folks will get this ironed out sooner than later.

Jeff

P.S. Here is a link for an example of touch screen pens (stylus). Not a sales pitch, just a google search to help describe the product.

 

[adm_geomatics]

If you haven't read the forum that @Dave Pitman posted then I would encourage you to do so, but I also had some video choppiness with Pix4D. DroneDeploy says they isolated it to iOS 13 and under-powered devices, but I hadn't heard anything with Android. There is a previous thread (below) concerning their previous app version that all this started with on their new app flight interface so I think a combination of the DJI SDK/iOS 13 issue is affecting more than DroneDeploy, but their new flight UI with more information isn't helping the case. They supposedly disabled the new UI on Mini 4 and 7th Gen 10.2 iPads (what I have recently been using) and it has worked better, but considering I have always run an add-on directional antenna on the P4P and NEVER had any video issues it is still not acceptable. Scary thing is that they are still on schedule to disable the old UI next week. Their device of choice right now is the Mini 5 as the newest iPad apparently is still using the A10 chip whereas the Mini 5 is on the A12.

App slows then freezes in flight since update

Phantom 4 Standard, iPad Mini 4 Since the last update, I’m having problems with the flight planning app. During flight, the app starts slowing down while tracking the drone. Its location and status (like battery, photos taken, distance) start lagging behind. The longer the flight, the more it...

forum.dronedeploy.com

What Android devices are having the issues as well? Model and Android version please... I would like to share this with their engineers.

 

[clolsonus]

If you haven't read the forum that @Dave Pitman posted then I would encourage you to do so, but I also had some video choppiness with Pix4D. DroneDeploy says they isolated it to iOS 13 and under-powered devices, but I hadn't heard anything with Android. There is a previous thread (below) concerning their previous app version that all this started with on their new app flight interface so I think a combination of the DJI SDK/iOS 13 issue is affecting more than DroneDeploy, but their new flight UI with more information isn't helping the case. They supposedly disabled the new UI on Mini 4 and 7th Gen 10.2 iPads (what I have recently been using) and it has worked better, but considering I have always run an add-on directional antenna on the P4P and NEVER had any video issues it is still not acceptable. Scary thing is that they are still on schedule to disable the old UI next week. Their device of choice right now is the Mini 5 as the newest iPad apparently is still using the A10 chip whereas the Mini 5 is on the A12.

App slows then freezes in flight since update

Phantom 4 Standard, iPad Mini 4 Since the last update, I’m having problems with the flight planning app. During flight, the app starts slowing down while tracking the drone. Its location and status (like battery, photos taken, distance) start lagging behind. The longer the flight, the more it...

forum.dronedeploy.com

What Android devices are having the issues as well? Model and Android version please... I would like to share this with their engineers.

I have a moto g6 phone ... the main android issue I have with DD is the app saying the drone is disconnected, but meanwhile the mavic hand controller is happily showing smoothly updating numbers. Most of the time the DD app reconnects and starts updating itself, but a couple times it has never reestablished the connection (even with the drone right overhead). This is frustrating with multi-battery missions because any portion of the route after that last disconnection is forgotten and re-flown on the next battery. Last time it happened to me the final disconnection was about 5 minutes into the first flight, so 3/4 of that flight ended up getting repeated on the 2nd battery. I now have a bunch of stereo image pairs which is kind of interesting in and of itself ... the repeat images weren't taken from exactly the same place, but probably within a foot or two.

I'm sure there are tricky things with the dji api, but every planning app I've tried has had different unique issues. Our ipad mini 4 is about a year old and I had to jump through major hoops to get my university to by me this kind of hardware for our survey projects. Advice to upgrade a 1 year old device because it no longer is powerful enough is ... I don't now the right word ... a little jarring? Not sure how DD can not blink when making that kind of recommendation? I'd love to have the resources so it wasn't a big deal to upgrade the ipad each time DD rolls out a new release. Then I'd sell all my old ipads (except for one) and buy a tesla or something with the money.

My personal plan is to switch over to pix4d capture in the short term and circle back around once in a while to see if DD has sorted out their mess or not.

 

[clolsonus]

hi @clolsonus,
P.S. Here is a link for an example of touch screen pens (stylus). Not a sales pitch, just a google search to help describe the product.

I just texted my wife and she replied that we have something like this. Only question is if it's easier to just order a new one, or turn the house upside down hunting for the one we supposedly already own?

Curt.

 

[adm_geomatics]

I have a moto g6 phone ... the main android issue I have with DD is the app saying the drone is disconnected, but meanwhile the mavic hand controller is happily showing smoothly updating numbers. Most of the time the DD app reconnects and starts updating itself, but a couple times it has never reestablished the connection (even with the drone right overhead). This is frustrating with multi-battery missions because any portion of the route after that last disconnection is forgotten and re-flown on the next battery. Last time it happened to me the final disconnection was about 5 minutes into the first flight, so 3/4 of that flight ended up getting repeated on the 2nd battery. I now have a bunch of stereo image pairs which is kind of interesting in and of itself ... the repeat images weren't taken from exactly the same place, but probably within a foot or two.

I'm sure there are tricky things with the dji api, but every planning app I've tried has had different unique issues. Our ipad mini 4 is about a year old and I had to jump through major hoops to get my university to by me this kind of hardware for our survey projects. Advice to upgrade a 1 year old device because it no longer is powerful enough is ... I don't now the right word ... a little jarring? Not sure how DD can not blink when making that kind of recommendation? I'd love to have the resources so it wasn't a big deal to upgrade the ipad each time DD rolls out a new release. Then I'd sell all my old ipads (except for one) and buy a tesla or something with the money.

My personal plan is to switch over to pix4d capture in the short term and circle back around once in a while to see if DD has sorted out their mess or not.

Right there with ya, but even though the 7th Gen iPad runs the A10 I can't believe that it is under-powered with the new GPU settings and updated OS. I understand the older Mini 4 as it is hard to purchase these expensive Apple products brand new, but the M4 was released in 2015... and the Moto isn't a supported device. Supported Devices (Mobile and Tablet)

I haven't seen or heard of many (any) multi-battery issues in at least 6 months, maybe a year. One thing I would keep in mind is that you can kill DroneDeploy mid-air, copy the flight plan and cut it down to approximately where it ended the first battery. I know it's just a band-aid, but can save a butt or two when you get into a bind in the field. Especially with batteries. Also with killing DD mid-air you can switch right to another flight plan (or app) and conserve battery even further. No provider would recommend it, but I have been doing it regularly for 2 years with no issues. Just make sure the bird is in sight.

 

[clolsonus]

I just wanted to post a followup to this thread. We had a pretty successful day yesterday, so I wanted to share that experience too.

We went out with a plan to fly a 6-battery mission with our phantom 4 pro v2. DD is still failing for us on our ipad mini4, so we were setup with the pix4d capture app. Temps were around 24-25F and the wind was 10+ knots. I brought along an RC "transmitter glove" to help keep our controller warm. We were careful to keep the batteries warm. The good news is everything went off perfectly. We got in 6 good flights, completed the area, came back home with 2812 pictures to look through.

So the things that have given us trouble recently are (1) trying to fly in bitter cold temps of +5F. (2) the drone deploy mission planning app versus our ipad mini 4.

We had to hike in about a 1/2 mile through deep snow, so the kids sled really helped. It was hard enough just to walk through the stuff without lugging a 35 lb case. It was way too windy for our makeshift cardboard landing pad, but fortunately the snow had a nice 2" crust on the top which easily supported the drone (just not me.)



Here is an overview of the sort of areas we were attempting surveying ... forested, fairly steep (localized steep), snowy/icy.



And a little selfie ... we are out standing in our field. (that's an old farmer joke)

 

[adm_geomatics]

I just wanted to post a followup to this thread. We had a pretty successful day yesterday, so I wanted to share that experience too.

We went out with a plan to fly a 6-battery mission with our phantom 4 pro v2. DD is still failing for us on our ipad mini4, so we were setup with the pix4d capture app. Temps were around 24-25F and the wind was 10+ knots. I brought along an RC "transmitter glove" to help keep our controller warm. We were careful to keep the batteries warm. The good news is everything went off perfectly. We got in 6 good flights, completed the area, came back home with 2812 pictures to look through.

So the things that have given us trouble recently are (1) trying to fly in bitter cold temps of +5F. (2) the drone deploy mission planning app versus our ipad mini 4.

We had to hike in about a 1/2 mile through deep snow, so the kids sled really helped. It was hard enough just to walk through the stuff without lugging a 35 lb case. It was way too windy for our makeshift cardboard landing pad, but fortunately the snow had a nice 2" crust on the top which easily supported the drone (just not me.)

View attachment 2163

Here is an overview of the sort of areas we were attempting surveying ... forested, fairly steep (localized steep), snowy/icy.

View attachment 2164

And a little selfie ... we are out standing in our field. (that's an old farmer joke)

View attachment 2165

Did you update DroneDeploy yet? They released 4.3 last weekend. It seems to be working better for others.

 

[clolsonus]

Did you update DroneDeploy yet? They released 4.3 last weekend. It seems to be working better for others.

Yup, upgraded to v4.3.0 the day it came out and it's still no go. Tech support suggests I uninstall and reinstall, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet. I forgot my basic apple tech support 101 ... if the app fails restart it. Still failing? reboot. Still failing? reinstall the app. Still failing reinstall the os. Still failing? you probably aren't cool enough to be running an apple product.

 

[adm_geomatics]

Yup, upgraded to v4.3.0 the day it came out and it's still no go. Tech support suggests I uninstall and reinstall, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet. I forgot my basic apple tech support 101 ... if the app fails restart it. Still failing? reboot. Still failing? reinstall the app. Still failing reinstall the os. Still failing? you probably aren't cool enough to be running an apple product.

I think I mentioned before that you might need to restore it in iTunes. Maybe that was to someone else... iOS seems to have these issues with niche apps. Oh, and iOS 13.3.1?

 

[clolsonus]

I think I mentioned before that you might need to restore it in iTunes. Maybe that was to someone else... iOS seems to have these issues with niche apps. Oh, and iOS 13.3.1?

iTunes? the only thing I use this ipad for is operating our P4Pv2. I have no music or any other apps on there other than what came with it, and I ignore/don't run any of them ... just dji go, pix4d capture, DD, and the app store to see if there is a new DD version yet to try. I think it's on iOS 13.3.1 ... whatever was the latest that it nagged me to install.

 

[clolsonus]

Hi Chasco, one more quick follow up. I found time to completely remove and reinstall the DD app on the ipad mini 4 here, and at least I'm able to log in now, so that's movement in the positive direction. Not sure when I'll have a chance to go out and do a serious multi-battery mission test. I had an annoying screw up with the android version of DD flying our mavic yesterday. Flew through the whole first battery without reporting any images taken, even though I pulled the SD card after the flight and verified I had 400+ images there. But when I sent it out for battery #2, it re-started the plan at the very beginning, but this time was able to see the images were being taken. So I guess for next time, if the in-mission image counter isn't going up, might as well abort and come home and try again.

I saw a quote on twitter earlier today: "Javascript is an incredible ecosystem because it shows you that just because everything is broken almost all the time, it doesn't mean you can't make things that work." I really want to replace "Javascript" with "DJI drones." I've been getting work done, but a lot of days it's not pretty, and I don't go home having completed what I had planned for (or hoped.) But yesterday was good. I completed my first 6-battery mission without a hitch. Now the big question is if I can repeat that with the DD mission planner, or if I can ever repeat it again?

 

[Fred Garvin]

@clolsonus ....looks like a valid business expense: Snowmobile!

 

[adm_geomatics]

Hi Chasco, one more quick follow up. I found time to completely remove and reinstall the DD app on the ipad mini 4 here, and at least I'm able to log in now, so that's movement in the positive direction. Not sure when I'll have a chance to go out and do a serious multi-battery mission test. I had an annoying screw up with the android version of DD flying our mavic yesterday. Flew through the whole first battery without reporting any images taken, even though I pulled the SD card after the flight and verified I had 400+ images there. But when I sent it out for battery #2, it re-started the plan at the very beginning, but this time was able to see the images were being taken. So I guess for next time, if the in-mission image counter isn't going up, might as well abort and come home and try again.

I saw a quote on twitter earlier today: "Javascript is an incredible ecosystem because it shows you that just because everything is broken almost all the time, it doesn't mean you can't make things that work." I really want to replace "Javascript" with "DJI drones." I've been getting work done, but a lot of days it's not pretty, and I don't go home having completed what I had planned for (or hoped.) But yesterday was good. I completed my first 6-battery mission without a hitch. Now the big question is if I can repeat that with the DD mission planner, or if I can ever repeat it again?

Good to hear on the mini 4! I'll keep fingers crossed. Interesting though first time I have heard of any Android issues in a while. Since it is usually a couple of versions back the bugs usually get figured out before it gets the new features. Of course it is a completely different memory kernel so it's unlikely that it's going to choke like iOS. Different problems though so they are probably unrelated.

For those of you who haven't seen the main DroneDeploy thread. The mass amount of issues started in 4.1 so there are a couple of prequel threads and now that we are on 4.3 I will move it to a new one soon.

DroneDeploy iOS Version 4.2 Bugs

@Andrew_Fraser Now that their has been an update I am moving to a new thread. My experience this morning, not good. probably the most notorius construction project in Austin right now and my DA tried to fly it with the new 4.2 version of the DroneDeploy App. 32ac Foootball Stadium, yes -...

forum.dronedeploy.com

 

[R Martin]

iTunes? the only thing I use this ipad for is operating our P4Pv2. I have no music or any other apps on there other than what came with it, and I ignore/don't run any of them ... just dji go, pix4d capture, DD, and the app store to see if there is a new DD version yet to try. I think it's on iOS 13.3.1 ... whatever was the latest that it nagged me to install.

Unfortunately you need iTunes to download any flight information produced from the flight. One of the drawbacks of using an Apple device.

 

[clolsonus]

Unfortunately you need iTunes to download any flight information produced from the flight. One of the drawbacks of using an Apple device.

On my linux desktop pc I can plug in the ipod and go navigate the deep directories and at least find all the pix4d capture flight log data. I haven't dug in to see if I can find the same for DD. I was hoping they would log the IMU from in flight so I could run the data through my own EKF, but I'm not that lucky.

 

[clolsonus]

Thought I'd share a couple more pictures. First is the 2,812 image mosaic (6-battery phantom 4 pro v2 mission, flying with pix4d capture.) The mosaic is generated with ImageAnalysis software developed in the UAV lab at the University of Minnesota. The 2nd image is a 3d surface rendering of the same data set (sparse mesh) 2,812 made my computer at home work really hard! This is officially my new biggest data set. Software tools: UASLab/ImageAnalysis

 

[adm_geomatics]

There is now a DroneDeploy v4.3 and a related bug thread started here.

DroneDeploy App Version 4.3 Bugs

I have been running (or flying) into an issue when using DroneDeploy Version Mobile 4.3.0 during Panorama missions. I only experienced this issue occasionally a few months ago, but now it seems as though 90% of panorama missions run into this issue. When I initiate the checklist right before...

forum.dronedeploy.com