Autopilot - The Forgotten Modes

Oyibo VFX · Aug 12, 2019

filippus · Aug 13, 2019

Sparkforum?

koffe · Aug 13, 2019

filippus said:
Sparkforum?

Yeah, why not? I for one run Autopilot with my Spark

Oyibo VFX · Aug 13, 2019

Me too

DavidBlezard · Aug 14, 2019

So autopilot is an app to fly the Spark versus using DJI Go?

koffe · Aug 14, 2019

I think all DJIs, but the new Mavic2

DavidBlezard said:
So autopilot is an app to fly the Spark versus using DJI Go?

Oyibo VFX · Aug 15, 2019

DavidBlezard said:
So autopilot is an app to fly the Spark versus using DJI Go?

Yes and no

If you just fly, stick to DJI GO4.
If you do anything else, Autopilot is the better choice
But I'm testing Dronelink at this moment and that is VERY promising

Chrislaf · Aug 15, 2019

Oyibo VFX said:
Yes and no

If you just fly, stick to DJI GO4.
If you do anything else, Autopilot is the better choice
But I'm testing Dronelink at this moment and that is VERY promising

I use and fly with AutoPilot with both of my drones (Spark and Phantom 3 Standard) and love it especially for Follow/Track missions, but there haven’t been any recent updates in a while and support from Hangar is basically non-existent. Seems to me like they are letting it die which is a shame since it provides some unique features that other software does not.

Lately, I have been testing out Hammer and it too has many unique features. It is has become my go to App for autonomous flight and has been rock solid stable.

I’ll have to take a look at Dronelink.

Chris

Oyibo VFX · Aug 15, 2019

I not heard of Hammer but sure have look.
Autopilot has stopped updating their app a year ago. They fully focus on vertical scans and orthophotography because of the financial economics.
But Autopilot does what it needs to do so I'm OK
Still my #1 for waypoint missions and of course AirSpace.
But I'm getting into Dronelink so time will tell
For mapping, I prefer SiteScan EE which is free

Chrislaf · Aug 15, 2019

Oyibo VFX said:
I not heard of Hammer but sure have look.
Autopilot has stopped updating their app a year ago. They fully focus on vertical scans and orthophotography because of the financial economics.
But Autopilot does what it needs to do so I'm OK
Still my #1 for waypoint missions and of course AirSpace.
But I'm getting into Dronelink so time will tell
For mapping, I prefer SiteScan EE which is free

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I still use AutoPilot, but lately it has not been as reliable, likely because it has not been updated in so long.
Don’t do much mapping basically because you need high end software to assemble the images and usually they are lots of $$$ and I am only a hobbyist. Did look at Sitescan but it seems like you need an account with them.

Hammer does have mapping but again taking all the images and making them into a ‘map’ requires specialized software.

Chris

Haggi · Aug 15, 2019

Me too, looking at Dronelink.

Team | Dronelink

(Guys behind Autopilot and Hangar's new project)

ajkm · Aug 17, 2019

Chrislaf said:
I still use AutoPilot, but lately it has not been as reliable, likely because it has not been updated in so long.
Don’t do much mapping basically because you need high end software to assemble the images and usually they are lots of $$$ and I am only a hobbyist. Did look at Sitescan but it seems like you need an account with them.

Hammer does have mapping but again taking all the images and making them into a ‘map’ requires specialized software.

Chris

Watch Oyibo VFX's YouTube video on mapping etc. Not as difficult or expensive as you think.

Chrislaf · Aug 17, 2019

ajkm said:
Watch Oyibo VFX's YouTube video on mapping etc. Not as difficult or expensive as you think.

I have watched some of his videos not the mapping ones specifically and he does do a good job. When I get some time I may watch the mapping ones. I have used AutoPilot and Hammer for mapping missions and everything went fine. As I mentioned earlier I don’t really do much mapping. Just was trying it out as an extension of doing panos which I do lots of. Mapping is similar to panos in that you are taking multiple images and stitching them together to create a larger image, however most pano software has trouble with mapping shots as there are no projections that specifically cover mapping. I have tried specialized software on a trial basis but to purchase it usually is lots of $$$ and as a hobbiest it’s not practical for me.

Also, the Spark is not really suitable for mapping as the gimbal only goes to -85 degrees so the software needs to tilt the Spark to get a -90 degree shot.

Chris

ajkm · Aug 17, 2019

One of his videos shows mapsmadeeasy - this has an interesting pricing arrangement on a sliding scale depending on how many points are being used. It’s often possible to keep this low enough not to cost anything at all.

Chrislaf · Aug 17, 2019

ajkm said:
One of his videos shows mapsmadeeasy - this has an interesting pricing arrangement on a sliding scale depending on how many points are being used. It’s often possible to keep this low enough not to cost anything at all.

Thanks for the tip. I might look into it and maybe try it out. I have always wanted to do mapping as a kind of unique view of an area-one that a pano can’t capture.

Chris