UgCS w/ Phantom3: "Undo" function? Batttery change includable in planning? / Copy tracks

Posted by Jerome Chladek on March 25, 2016 at 8:18am

Hi

I recently started using UgCS with a Phantom 3 and must say that I am very happy with UgCS performance!

However, I have a couple of questions and some suggestions as to what add to the program for the UgCS team:

  1. An "UNDO"-button! It happened a couple of times already that I accidentally changed a track or even deleted it and since any changes are immediately saved, these changes were final. An "UNDO"-button would thus be very much needed!
  2. Is there any possibility to include an option in any route calculation to accommodate for battery changes? With friends we tried to do an area scan of an area which could not be scanned on just one battery. I had to create several area-scan-tracks to get the whole area covered. This takes time and also overlap from one route to the next will not be perfect as the overlap in one single route. It would be great if one could mark a bigger area and UgCS automatically includes landing points were one could change the battery in between! If there is really no possibility for this, it would be great if it could be included in one of the next updates!
  3. Copy route settings: Can you copy the settings from one route to the next? E. g. camera angle or overlap. You just need more time when you have to set the same settings every time... And also: can you change the default settings for the different route types?
  4. Camera mode: In the area scan options, you can specify in track and cross track overlap. So I would suppose that the camera trigger action is automatic when due to the in track overlap. However, the camera only triggers when I explicitly set "Set camera by distance" or "Set camera by time". So it would be great if you could have the camera trigger automatically depending on the set overlap! Or did just not set the settings right?
  5. What exactly is the true focal length for the Phantom 3 camera? In the payload settings the Phantom 3 camera is listed with a true focal length of 2 mm. When you check the EXIF data of pictures we took with the Phantom 3 however, focal length is stated as 3.61 mm.

Maybe I am just a little confused and get stuff wrong since I am just a Drone and photogrammetry beginner ;) But anyways, it would be great to get feedback on these question!

Thanks

Jerome

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Replies

  • Alexey Dobrovolskiy August 12, 2016 at 9:51am

    Hi,

    I was wrong with answer on 3rd question.

    Camera trigger initiated by autopilot in waypoints only. So you can set flag "Additional waypoints" in Photogrammetry tool and use action "Set camera mode", camera will be triggered exactly in waypoints. 
    But if you use "Camera by distance" or "by time", this is controlled by ground station. So depending on different factors this will be not very precise. 
  • Alexey Dobrovolskiy July 20, 2016 at 3:58am

    1. Agree. "Undo" will be implemented in future versions.

    2. Yes, in UgCS you can use "Set camera attitude" action with Tilt = 90. 

    3. This command will be executed by autopilot, without interaction with smartphone/ground station.

  • Rega DH July 17, 2016 at 11:33pm

    Hi there,

    I had several flights trial with V2.9 on Phantom 3. In general all flights were as planned.

    1. And agree to Jeromee that UNDO is needed.

    2. So far I have to manually set the camera downward for image capture. Will there be feature to set the camera downward by Mission Planner?

    3. Lets say I "Set Camera By Time" with 5sec interval. Please advise whether image capturing will be done every 5sec by command that already sent to drone (controlled on board in drone during flight), or by command every 5sec that been set and sent by smartphone (controlled on/by mobile apps of smartphone during flight and need continuous link between remote/apps to drone).

    Cheers,

    Rega

  • Alexei Yankelevich March 25, 2016 at 10:39am

    Hi Jerome,

    thank you for your questions

    1. Undo button is on our roadmap. 

    2. for next UgCS 2.9 we introduce feature that will allow to calculate long route and fly it step by step selecting new start point every time and then returning drone home for battery exchange;

    3. Coping route (entire route) is also in the roadmap;

    4. In 2.8 we introduced new option "auto" for trigger by distance/time actions. It is checked by default. It means that route planner automatically calculates required distance/time using defined overlap and GSD values.

    5. well, looks like it is a bug in a profile configuration. True focal length is awaited by the algorithm. I'll check it more and will come back  to you later in this post.  

    Also if you use Phantom 3 then I suggest to monitor updates of our UgCS for DJI android application. We are transferring to new SDK from DJI and a lot of issues are resolved.

    • Jerome Chladek > Alexei Yankelevich March 27, 2016 at 8:51am

      Hi Alexei,

      thanks for the quick reply. Sounds great, already looking forward for the updates then!

      Concerning the "auto" triggering: Do I need to explicitly set the "Set camera mode" and "Set camera by time" or "Set camera by time" with the checkmark set on "auto" for it to trigger automatically? Or should it already trigger with only the area scan itself set?

      Thanks!

      Jerome

    • Alexei Yankelevich > Jerome Chladek March 27, 2016 at 10:11am

      It is enough to add "Set camera by time" with checked "Auto" flag to areascan. Also check that "Actions in every point" (attribute of areascan) is ON.

      In general the idea behind our route editor is pretty simple. Tools like areascan, waypoint, perimeter, etc. define trajectory. Actions like "Set camera by time" define what to do at a specified route element. Flag "Actions in every point" defines whether to repeat actions in every generated point for comlex route elements that emit multiple waypoints during route calculation.

    • Jerome Chladek > Alexei Yankelevich March 28, 2016 at 1:57am

      Alright, thanks! So we will try this soon, I'm already looking forward to this!

This reply was deleted.