I am aware of the tilt issue, I would try and use a double grid for coverage. As written above, I have the software for the photogrammetry, What I need, is an app to control the spark (like droneharmony, and Pix4Dcapture) so the coverage is optimal.
Spark and what software for photogrammetry?
- Thread starter MortenVR
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JoeDimwit
Active Member
I’m confused. You have a program that takes the 2D photos and stitches them together to create a 3D image, but you want another program to use to do the same thing with drone photos? The drone is just another camera.
Or, are you looking for a flight control program for the drone, to layout your flight and pictures?
Or, are you looking for a flight control program for the drone, to layout your flight and pictures?
Earthman
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I know of no mission planning or mapping software that supports a Spark for aerial mapping. I’ve looked. However, some online apps accept any geotagged photos. I think Maps Made Easy is one.
The factory setting on the Spark’s camera gimbal is limited to 85-deg so it can’t look straight down. Apparently, you can tweak this in the gimbal settings, but I’m not sure how well that works.
For scanning objects with oblique photos; i.e., “structure from motion,” the Spark should work, but I don’t do that so I don’t know what software is available.
Let us know if you learn how to use a Spark for scanning.
Profjaybee
New Member
I went through the exact same thing with the research dept for my university employer.
Started with the spark with my own money. Then quickly realised that wee thing -awesome as it is - is riddled with limitations. It's battery life in the air being chief amongst those limitations.
But, it isn't supposed to be used for what I was trying to do. But, to its credit it rose to the occasion but it's not a long term solution.
After much practice and getting my UK PfCO certificates with the wee spark I was able to provide a proof of concept for photogrammetry in architectural and built environment research.
Using my own flying skills to control the spark and djiGo4's auto camera control at 2 or 5 second intervals.
Then used autodesk's Recap photo to blend the images.
Recap exports to Revit which is a major architectural software for Building information modeling.
It was super rough, the lower quality camera, annoying collision warning system (around buildings) and 12 min battery made the process painful. But it worked.
We now have an anafi, mavic 2 pro and Wind 8 with Flir Pro Vue.
So it can be done to leverage more funding.
Upon reflection and with the "risk" of fly aways..... The UK local authorities and CAA have become paranoid with drones and fly aways + the university's draconian risk assessment protocols.... We don't use photogrammetry software to control the drone.
We control the drone and camera manually and finally selected Recap educational as our preferred software.
Everyone has their own experience but we found significantly more errors, anomalies and noise in the scans from 3 other photogrammetry providers.... All of whom have already been named.
But I'm not going to lie, Recap takes a very, very, very long time to register and process the scans in educational mode.
Where the other software took minutes Educational Recap took hours.
I approached autodesk and they confirmed that their educational users are pushed to the bottom of the processing queue if they have professional licence users using their blender.
Their professional....more expensive version.... It's just as fast as the others. But, like the others it is also more €$¥£.
Of all the drones I've used professionally... spark, anafi, mavic air, mavic pro, mavic 2 pro, phantom 2 and 4, matrice, wind 8.
I miss the spark the most (rarely used any more)
I enjoy the anafi the most.....because it's quieter
The mavic 2 pro is....in my opinion...the best
The wind 8 is awesome if you want to attract a lot of attention....good and bad attention from the "public".
Hope that helps.
Started with the spark with my own money. Then quickly realised that wee thing -awesome as it is - is riddled with limitations. It's battery life in the air being chief amongst those limitations.
But, it isn't supposed to be used for what I was trying to do. But, to its credit it rose to the occasion but it's not a long term solution.
After much practice and getting my UK PfCO certificates with the wee spark I was able to provide a proof of concept for photogrammetry in architectural and built environment research.
Using my own flying skills to control the spark and djiGo4's auto camera control at 2 or 5 second intervals.
Then used autodesk's Recap photo to blend the images.
Recap exports to Revit which is a major architectural software for Building information modeling.
It was super rough, the lower quality camera, annoying collision warning system (around buildings) and 12 min battery made the process painful. But it worked.
We now have an anafi, mavic 2 pro and Wind 8 with Flir Pro Vue.
So it can be done to leverage more funding.
Upon reflection and with the "risk" of fly aways..... The UK local authorities and CAA have become paranoid with drones and fly aways + the university's draconian risk assessment protocols.... We don't use photogrammetry software to control the drone.
We control the drone and camera manually and finally selected Recap educational as our preferred software.
Everyone has their own experience but we found significantly more errors, anomalies and noise in the scans from 3 other photogrammetry providers.... All of whom have already been named.
But I'm not going to lie, Recap takes a very, very, very long time to register and process the scans in educational mode.
Where the other software took minutes Educational Recap took hours.
I approached autodesk and they confirmed that their educational users are pushed to the bottom of the processing queue if they have professional licence users using their blender.
Their professional....more expensive version.... It's just as fast as the others. But, like the others it is also more €$¥£.
Of all the drones I've used professionally... spark, anafi, mavic air, mavic pro, mavic 2 pro, phantom 2 and 4, matrice, wind 8.
I miss the spark the most (rarely used any more)
I enjoy the anafi the most.....because it's quieter
The mavic 2 pro is....in my opinion...the best
The wind 8 is awesome if you want to attract a lot of attention....good and bad attention from the "public".
Hope that helps.
Just the answer I was looking for. I will comment later, when I can post from something other than my phone.
But really good to read of your experience and results.
Earthman
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My understanding is the default down tilt angle limit is 85-deg but you can shift the entire tilt range down in the Spark calibration settings so that the lower limit is 90-deg. However, if you do, the up tilt limit will be 5-deg less than the default, which is no big deal if using the Spark for surveying. I’m not sure one would miss the 5-deg on the upper limit.
When I read about this, I worried about the affect that “calibrating” the gimbal to look 90-deg down when the drone thinks it’s looking down at 85-deg might have on survey accuracy. This may be a question for DJI.
Finally, I recall reading that there is a mission planning app that supports the Spark and the app may allow one to use the Spark for surveys but I don’t recall which app it is.
Good luck and keep us posted on any survey results.
The sine of 85° is .9962. As I calculate the photos would be 0.38% foreshortened along the flight path (y axis) while the x axis would about normal. I believe but I'm not sure that other factors would present greater variables than 0.38%. I'd love to hear other opinions or facts?
As stated elsewhere on these pages, Drone Harmony does include the spark for photo-mosaic mapping. Any others?
I wanted to try some mapping with my spark - and came across this thread. I had not solved the 85 deg tilt problem, so thanks for that!
If it helps, Litchi can be used to create flightplans suitable for mapping. You need to use the import csv mission functionality, and some groovy spreadsheet ninjutsu to generate good csvs but I can confirm this works.
I think I wrote python scripts to generate a waypoint grid - it was crude but it worked. I could then import the csvs into litchi - export them as KMLs - check google earth with 3d buildings switched on to cross check heights against known obstacles, and fine tune them in the litchi editor.
Really cool.
If it helps, Litchi can be used to create flightplans suitable for mapping. You need to use the import csv mission functionality, and some groovy spreadsheet ninjutsu to generate good csvs but I can confirm this works.
I think I wrote python scripts to generate a waypoint grid - it was crude but it worked. I could then import the csvs into litchi - export them as KMLs - check google earth with 3d buildings switched on to cross check heights against known obstacles, and fine tune them in the litchi editor.
Really cool.
I'm using Drone Harmony right now as we speak for 2d and 3d photo mosaics. Also Drone link. There's a lots of You Tube Videos for both. Drone Link is like $20 and Drone Harmony is free for Novices. It's surprisingly simple but go through all of their tutorials. The Drone Harmony and Drone Link are both set up for Spark.
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