Updating DroidPlanner (v0.14.2). This one will be nice for everyone doing survey/mapping missions.
The update
The new version has the following updates ( v0.14.2 over v0.12.3):
Droidplanner v0.14.2
- Fixing the problem of working with big polygons
Droidplanner v0.14.1
- Fixing a small bug in the Survey Dialog
Droidplanner v0.14.0
- Drag-and-Drop waypoint editing
- Slide to remove waypoit
- Click to edit waypoint
- Adding a lot more info to the Survey Dialog
Droidplanner v0.13.1
- Fixing layout problem in Survey Dialog in smaller screens
Droidplanner v0.13.0
- Survey dialog in mission planning
Now let me go to the two big improvements individually.
Survey Dialog
As I stated on the start this is a nice feature for everyone working with surveys. I would like to thanks Brandon for helping with the development of this feature.
There is a new dialog in the polygon mode into the planning screen. It was designed to help users generate survey missions, by calculating survey parameters using camera specs.
You can add your own camera by creating an XML file with it's specifications. If there is feedback I can do a wiki about it on GitHub, but for now here is some info.
Waypoint Editor
The best way to understand this is just giving it a test run. Here are the main points:
- Drag-and-Drop waypoint editing (to re-sort your mission)
- Slide to remove waypoint
- Click to edit waypoint
More info
For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links.
And as always if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app (via the app google takes a 30% cut).
If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.
Comments
Arthur and Brandon, sounds prefect!
Maybe you can implement some radio button switch to decide between flight speed, camera time interval or how far apart your pictures should be in distance. This would provide flexibility for setting up and analyzing different survey scenarios.
You are right there might be some problem due to velocity changes. However, since I assume that many are using some CHDK interval script it would be a great feature. With this you can set up a survey scheme very easily and secure.
The advantage of automatically (also as a selectable option) adding an RTL point at the end would be security because if would further reduce possible human error when adding it manually.
@Arthur @Thorsten just a small correction: my impression was that if Arduplane runs out of waypoints it will just circle around the last waypoint. Might have been changed in newer firmware versions.
@Torsten
The next release of Survey will tell you either 1) how often to take pictures (in time) if you're using an intervelometer or 2) how far apart your pictures should ben distance i, regardless of time. Option 2) is the prefered method, since you probably want a different interval as your aircraft's velocity changes (eg. upwind v. downwind legs). Picture frequency can be inverted to conversely tell you vehicle velocity if you set a particular interval.
@Thorsten
I just wonder if it's best for the user to specify flight speed or camera time interval. If you can open an issue on github I'll get to work on that ASAP.
To set RTL when the mission ends just add an RTL waypoint via the normal waypoint editor. But the default (at least for planes) when you don't have more waypoints in a mission is to set RTL.
Arthur that's great!
Concerning speed: It would be perfect if you could implement another slider for a user specified interval and calculate speed based on this user input. This should be in the typical range of about 1..10 sec maybe in 0.1s steps. Since one can easily set or determine the interval of one's camera this would be a perfect add-on to your survey dialog. It would also allow for flight time estimates, which would be perfect! For example if flight time would be too long for your battery or if on the other hand there if some flight time/battery left one could play with the overlaps to optimize the survey.
Additionally, it would be good to have an option of setting RTL at the end of the mission.
@Thorsten:
There is another developer working on that switch, keep a watch for newer versions. For now you can just create an XML file for your portrait camera, take a look at the github issue I posted.
About setting of flight speed it isn't so hard to code it. But it's hard for me to integrate it because in the app I don't know nothing about people cameras settings.
Hi Arthur,
will it be possible to implement a switch for camera orientation (portray/landscape) and some automatic (estimated) setting of flight speed according to the CHDK interval timing set?
Best wishes,
Thorsten
Hi Arthur,
Cheers for the update. I agree with Ricardo, if DroidPlanner could control the antenna tracker that would be amazing. I would be happy to help fund your ground station by giving you $50 towards it if you could look into it.
If anyone else was interested in Arthur looking into a DroidPlanner antenna tracker and wanted to help fund his research I’m sure he would appreciate it.
Ricardo, i have had the RFD900 connected to an asus transformer android tabled with an FTDI/USB cable, should work with OTA as well. Been testing it with DroidPlanner and Andropilot.
Best
-S
thanks, i'll still have an old notebook for field, but for sure there'll be a much smaller android-based satation.
the lcd is for fpv. sure it's not essencial, but its very useful in case of any fail. i already had gps failure mid-flight, and the video helped a lot bringing it back safe to home location on stabilize mode.
i read the second link, believe you don't need to add any option to show the video on droidplanner. only a few tablets have av-in, and as long it is for failures, it's good to run the video right on a simple tv, that doesn't have any operational system. also, it's too much information for a 7" or 10" device. if someone needs video with information overlay, just add the lightweight minimosd before the transmission, and everything is fine.
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