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New Missions and Planning for DJI drones!

I was able to play around with the different features, and actually was having fun with each one. I really like the simplicity of the platform, and I know there are some features that will be added soon. The most common features that some of us are getting used to is the ease of rotating the flight grid, capture mode, and flight course mode just to name a few. And I also like the idea that the drone follows the pattern in forward flight instead of flying sideways of backwards, as experienced with DD or GS Pro.

Keep it up, and I cannot wait for the final version.
 
dronelady said:
it looks awesome. will it be available on android?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, we're currently iOS-only, now also available on the app store. However, we do plan to release Android / Crystal Sky versions in the later part of the year. Our effort is to deliver a great experience on one platform first and then extend that to other platforms.
 
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R.P..R said:
I was able to play around with the different features, and actually was having fun with each one. I really like the simplicity of the platform, and I know there are some features that will be added soon. The most common features that some of us are getting used to is the ease of rotating the flight grid, capture mode, and flight course mode just to name a few. And I also like the idea that the drone follows the pattern in forward flight instead of flying sideways of backwards, as experienced with DD or GS Pro.

Keep it up, and I cannot wait for the final version.
Click to expand...

Great to hear! We aim to keep the platform simple yet powerful, and will continue to improve with your constructive feedback. Many thanks for your support!
 
@HammerMissions looks like a great product! Haven't requested product yet, but will be sending soon.
I've been experimenting with DroneHarmony and in the initial stage of UgCS.

Some early questions:
Start Point: Having the ability to specify the "start point" vs allowing the grip or pattern mandating would be nice feature (not sure if that's already in your program). This was a difficulty in Maps made Easy... at least for me.

Image Overlay: For construction, development or Ag projects where the streets or land pattern doesn't match the current map (google, etc), any plans to allow drone aerial image capture of area and using GPS metadata to overlay as a hybird map to ease the visual placement of pattern?

Tower Inspection, does it include ability to strike out objects to avoid... such as a microwave / uplink... the Radome hardware. Would pattern include the exclusion of the radome and vicinity in front to avoid possible RF interference and damage to aircraft.

Hardware supported... looks like it supports I1, I2, M210. Does it support RGB & Thermal images? The M600Pro with different Zenmuse or RoninMX with a high resolution Camera: GH4 or A7Riii.
 
@HammerMissions Visited the Web site, is the Free Apple App Store the correct version or is there a separate version to download by requesting via PM and email ?
 
dougcjohn said:
@HammerMissions looks like a great product! Haven't requested product yet, but will be sending soon.
I've been experimenting with DroneHarmony and in the initial stage of UgCS.

Some early questions:
Start Point: Having the ability to specify the "start point" vs allowing the grip or pattern mandating would be nice feature (not sure if that's already in your program). This was a difficulty in Maps made Easy... at least for me.

Image Overlay: For construction, development or Ag projects where the streets or land pattern doesn't match the current map (google, etc), any plans to allow drone aerial image capture of area and using GPS metadata to overlay as a hybird map to ease the visual placement of pattern?

Tower Inspection, does it include ability to strike out objects to avoid... such as a microwave / uplink... the Radome hardware. Would pattern include the exclusion of the radome and vicinity in front to avoid possible RF interference and damage to aircraft.

Hardware supported... looks like it supports I1, I2, M210. Does it support RGB & Thermal images? The M600Pro with different Zenmuse or RoninMX with a high resolution Camera: GH4 or A7Riii.
Click to expand...

@dougcjohn Many thanks for your questions! Please find our responses below:

Start Point: We suppose you are referring to reversing the flight path in a grid-mission i.e. starting from the other side of the grid? If yes, we do support this feature.

Image Overlay: Yes! We have this feature planned for the upcoming release in 2 weeks.

Tower Inspection: Yes, you can freely define any obstacles on the map, as long as they don't intersect with the mission path.

Hardware Supported: Yes, we support I1,I2,M210 (single camera at the moment), RGB and Thermal Images. We do support different Zenmuse cameras, but not RoninMX, GH4 or A7Riii.

Hope this helps! Looking forward to learning more.
 
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HammerMissions said:
@dougcjohn Many thanks for your questions! Please find our responses below:

Start Point: We suppose you are referring to reversing the flight path in a grid-mission i.e. starting from the other side of the grid? If yes, we do support this feature.

Image Overlay: Yes! We have this feature planned for the upcoming release in 2 weeks.

Tower Inspection: Yes, you can freely define any obstacles on the map, as long as they don't intersect with the mission path.

Hardware Supported: Yes, we support I1,I2,M210 (single camera at the moment), RGB and Thermal Images. We do support different Zenmuse cameras, but not RoninMX, GH4 or A7Riii.

Hope this helps! Looking forward to learning more.
Click to expand...
Great to hear the Image Overlay... that would be a PLUS!

Start Point: actually 1 step further... If the grid (exp: rectangle) ran N-S rows, most programs will provide 2 start points, meaning 2 of the 4 corners. If you wanted an area near one of the other 2 corners, the grid would change to E-W rows. I like to initiate liftoff at times (trees or power lines near takeoff pt) and not rely on autonomous liftoff, it would be convenient at times if you could start from a Start Point & Altitude not associated to part of grid pattern... and would also be the End Point or battery swap landing point. Example: an Ag field and wooded sections near field and there is only 1 lane accessing property. The position or lay of field doesn't want to put the start point in the lane where you're parked. Yes, you could manually take off from lane and initiate the program; drone would fly to start point, but the return to land: battery swap or completion wants to go to the grids End point.... possibly on the other side of field.

Tower Inspection: Could you expand on that... "don't intersect with mission path". If you're doing a spiral upward or downward on a tower and 20 ft down from top is a Radome at the 9:00 position. It could be housing hardware & transmission that could knock the drone out of sky by passing through the "beam" of transmission/uplink.

You'd want to exclude the ft of radome and the column projecting outward representing the "beam" with a prescribed additional safety cushion air gap from the flight mission.
 
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@HammerMissions this probably isn't high on your discussion agenda yet, but any ball park projections on the cost of the product? Not to compare, but DroneHarmony was a free beta for a bit and received a lot of positive support until beta expired and monthly cost entered the equation. That discouraged a good proportion to continue use of product.

Are you envisioning cloud storage, or other associated services at additional costs?

The PC controlled console module, will that be part of the package or optional?
 
dougcjohn said:
@HammerMissions this probably isn't high on your discussion agenda yet, but any ball park projections on the cost of the product? Not to compare, but DroneHarmony was a free beta for a bit and received a lot of positive support until beta expired and monthly cost entered the equation. That discouraged a good proportion to continue use of product.

Are you envisioning cloud storage, or other associated services at additional costs?

The PC controlled console module, will that be part of the package or optional?
Click to expand...
My error... just now noticed the pricing plan within the App.
Pro - 5 Drones @ $19.99 and Ent - Unlimited Drones @ $79.99 per month.
Will you offer a discount for a annual plan?
 
Played with program last night... simulation mode.
I did notice the "start point" of take off is separate from the pattern start point... Great!
It's an interesting product to experiment with and examine.
I do look forward to your updates and new features as you develop.

What is the intended "value separation" of the product compared to other 3rd party?

few minor questions...
Where is the option to change metric to imperial? Shows Meters & KM.
I didn't locate within the main setup sectioin and didn't see within mission profiles.

Does a manual exist yet on the whole product?

Where are the Waypoints (WP) in certain missions (waypoints, vertical inspection, etc) aiming camera to by default? Not sure what I'm doing differently, but at times I place a CP and all WP set as group and other times I need to select for each WP. The "Curved Flight Path" option, works nicely but a few times it had a message of something to the effect: Need to turn on curved options to allow Curved flight. (don't recall exact msg) and I could not activate the Curved Flight slider or find a option to turn on curved flight.

If All WP are set to CP1, then attempt to aim a few to a different CP2. get a msg "Setting a CP for this WP will delete the overall CP set for the entire mission" It does proceed to work correctly, but the msg is a little confusing... with the "...delete the overall CP set" Thought at first it meant all WP to CP would be deleted.

Action Points (AP): These seem to be separate from flight patterns. If lay down several AP's, how is route determined to follow and AP options: 1 option is to select the action... take photo. Is there an option to direct camera to CP? In simulation mode, it appeared to travel to the nearest AP's first. Can a route be specified?

AP, WP or various trigger points. What sets the drone behavior: stopped or moving for photo.

You're on a great path... please continue!
 
dougcjohn said:
Great to hear the Image Overlay... that would be a PLUS!

Start Point: actually 1 step further... If the grid (exp: rectangle) ran N-S rows, most programs will provide 2 start points, meaning 2 of the 4 corners. If you wanted an area near one of the other 2 corners, the grid would change to E-W rows. I like to initiate liftoff at times (trees or power lines near takeoff pt) and not rely on autonomous liftoff, it would be convenient at times if you could start from a Start Point & Altitude not associated to part of grid pattern... and would also be the End Point or battery swap landing point. Example: an Ag field and wooded sections near field and there is only 1 lane accessing property. The position or lay of field doesn't want to put the start point in the lane where you're parked. Yes, you could manually take off from lane and initiate the program; drone would fly to start point, but the return to land: battery swap or completion wants to go to the grids End point.... possibly on the other side of field.

Tower Inspection: Could you expand on that... "don't intersect with mission path". If you're doing a spiral upward or downward on a tower and 20 ft down from top is a Radome at the 9:00 position. It could be housing hardware & transmission that could knock the drone out of sky by passing through the "beam" of transmission/uplink.

You'd want to exclude the ft of radome and the column projecting outward representing the "beam" with a prescribed additional safety cushion air gap from the flight mission.
Click to expand...

First off, many thanks for all the amazing feedback! We aim to assimilate all the information into useful features within the month.

Start Points: We understand what you mean. This is currently possible in simulation only (with the movable home location). In reality, this can be done by adding an action point along with the standard grid mission and Hammer will link the 2 missions together. We'll add the ability to define any one of these action points as a battery swap point in the upcoming versions.

Tower Inspection: Hammer currently supports vertical inspections which are more suited for building/facade/waterfall inspections i.e. vertical structures with a horizontal profile as well. We're actively thinking about supporting spirals / circular flights around a vertical structure as well. With regards to the obstacle avoidance, Hammer currently avoids obstacles when 2 or more missions are linked together in 1 flight and there is an obstacle in the flight path from one mission to another. We will publish a guide on this with visualisations very shortly.

We have a set of user-guides available with visualisations, for all missions and features supported in Hammer:
Missions Gudes: Mission Guides – Medium
Feature Guides: Feature Guides – Medium

Hope this helps!
 
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dougcjohn said:
@HammerMissions this probably isn't high on your discussion agenda yet, but any ball park projections on the cost of the product? Not to compare, but DroneHarmony was a free beta for a bit and received a lot of positive support until beta expired and monthly cost entered the equation. That discouraged a good proportion to continue use of product.

Are you envisioning cloud storage, or other associated services at additional costs?

The PC controlled console module, will that be part of the package or optional?
Click to expand...

We offer a range of missions - mapping / waypoints / search and light painting, completely Free of charge. These are available for anyone, from recreational pilots to commercial pilots, to use as we aim to support the industry as much as possible.

With regards to monthly pricing, this is tailored towards commercial missions (for e.g. roof, vertical inspections, thermography) and aims to scale with the size of organisation so that everyone can benefit from them. The monthly pricing helps us continually improve the product month over month and provide high quality support for our customers. Having said that, we do recognise the cost-sensitive nature of the industry and we're actively looking into pay-as-you-go pricing and yearly subscriptions to make the pricing even more flexible in the future.

And yes, the PC/desktop planning module will be available later this year as a part of the package.

Hope this helps!
 
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dougcjohn said:
Played with program last night... simulation mode.
I did notice the "start point" of take off is separate from the pattern start point... Great!
It's an interesting product to experiment with and examine.
I do look forward to your updates and new features as you develop.

What is the intended "value separation" of the product compared to other 3rd party?

few minor questions...
Where is the option to change metric to imperial? Shows Meters & KM.
I didn't locate within the main setup sectioin and didn't see within mission profiles.

Does a manual exist yet on the whole product?

Where are the Waypoints (WP) in certain missions (waypoints, vertical inspection, etc) aiming camera to by default? Not sure what I'm doing differently, but at times I place a CP and all WP set as group and other times I need to select for each WP. The "Curved Flight Path" option, works nicely but a few times it had a message of something to the effect: Need to turn on curved options to allow Curved flight. (don't recall exact msg) and I could not activate the Curved Flight slider or find a option to turn on curved flight.

If All WP are set to CP1, then attempt to aim a few to a different CP2. get a msg "Setting a CP for this WP will delete the overall CP set for the entire mission" It does proceed to work correctly, but the msg is a little confusing... with the "...delete the overall CP set" Thought at first it meant all WP to CP would be deleted.

Action Points (AP): These seem to be separate from flight patterns. If lay down several AP's, how is route determined to follow and AP options: 1 option is to select the action... take photo. Is there an option to direct camera to CP? In simulation mode, it appeared to travel to the nearest AP's first. Can a route be specified?

AP, WP or various trigger points. What sets the drone behavior: stopped or moving for photo.

You're on a great path... please continue!
Click to expand...

>> What is the intended "value separation" of the product compared to other 3rd party?

3 things:

1. Diverse Planning: We support a number of missions already, and we aim to continue adding support for new missions in the future. At some point, we will open the platform for other developers to create missions specifically tailored for your operation.

2. Easy to Use: Apps that provide diverse flight planning tend to be really hard to use, because of the added complexity of managing different types of missions. We aim to keep re-designing our application so that it's always easy to use, even if you were to use it for 1 specific mission.

3. High-Precision: We understand that collecting highly accurate data is above all else. We currently support this by integrating with the drone in a way so that it has the most accurate description of the mission, and no 99 waypoint limits. Later, we plan to extend this to even higher levels of precision by integrating computer vision / AI to augment all mission planning.

Lastly, we are passionate group of designers, engineers and drone pilots, so we look forward to providing good customer service and developing strong relationships with pilots that use Hammer.

>> Does a manual exist yet on the whole product?

Absolutely, we have a set of guides available at: Hammer – Medium

We also have mission guides and feature guides available separately, and will soon be publishing safety guides.

>> Where are the Waypoints (WP) in certain missions (waypoints, vertical inspection, etc) aiming camera to by default?

Waypoints in the waypoint missions are pointing to the direction of the flight path. Camera Points can be set for the entire mission or each waypoint separately. For vertical inspection, the drone will always point orthogonally to the drawn line. We recommend going through the curved waypoint missions guide: Advanced Waypoint Missions with Hammer - Mission Guides - Medium and the vertical inspections guide: Vertical Inspections with Hammer - Mission Guides - Medium

>> AP, WP or various trigger points. What sets the drone behavior: stopped or moving for photo.

All inspections involve the drone stopping at the point, and all mapping missions involve continuous flight.

>> You're on a great path... please continue!

Thanks! We look forward to your continuous feedback.

Kind Regards,
Hammer
 
Last edited:
A quick update! we've added new functionality, made fixes and improved the overall experience of the platform. We're also now offering a 1- month free trial. If you think we're missing some missions or functionality, please do get in touch at [email protected] and we'd be happy to look into it!

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Very nice to see that the spark is included in the support of this program, Im just getting started into the commercial world of drones and would like to currently do side gigs here and there with my little spark to raise enough money to upgrade to a more enterprise friendly unit down the road. this may be just the program I need to make that happen
 

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