I bought a spark and trying to figure out how I can plot a course using the waypoints can someone help
waypoints
- Thread starter Shane
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Hello from the Mid-West, Shane.
You'll have to research for a third party app like Litchi or Autopilot to work with the Spark on a waypoint mission.
The Spark itself can't do it.
Welcome to the Forum .
You'll have to research for a third party app like Litchi or Autopilot to work with the Spark on a waypoint mission.
The Spark itself can't do it.
Welcome to the Forum .
Depending on what you want to do with waypoints, I have not had success finding an app that will do mapping. I believe autopilot might do points of interest based on waypoints but not mapping. I can not confirm that. I can confirm that Drone Deploy and Litchi will not fly waypoint missions with Spark. I hope someone else has bettter news.
AltitudeJunkie
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Yes, you can save the route until you save another one, then it is gone........ Some one might find that usefull I supose??
Pix4d is 150 USD per month to use. At that point I stopped trying to figure out if it works with Spark, or any other drone for that matter.
Vilco
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A guy on the italian FB group is making mappings using Autopilot, which unluckily is for iOS only. The big downside of the Spark is that one can't send to it the whole route complete with photo commands, so it must be constanlty driven by the RC which means that one has to keep near to the Spark in order for it to fly the mission, while with phantoms and mavic one could lose the connection between RC and AC and the AC would go on executing the mission. In Europe that is a major PITA, uinless one resorts to some FCC-enabling modded app.
He's just started using the Spark for this, so here are some pictures of one of his first works. First, the 3d rendering:
https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=329cae51edd6edbf8aee3a6fdecff6fe&oe=5B62EB65
then another point of view of of the same rendering after applying the textures:
https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=d08aa04ec9bc597d410e61f49704e9d1&oe=5B2E5883
I don't know how much autopilot is but it should be way cheaper than 150 $/mo
He's just started using the Spark for this, so here are some pictures of one of his first works. First, the 3d rendering:
https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=329cae51edd6edbf8aee3a6fdecff6fe&oe=5B62EB65
then another point of view of of the same rendering after applying the textures:
https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=d08aa04ec9bc597d410e61f49704e9d1&oe=5B2E5883
I don't know how much autopilot is but it should be way cheaper than 150 $/mo
AltitudeJunkie
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I believe Capture is a free flight planning app, but yes the Mapper and other applications do have a price. Didn't know if you could use it for way point flights or not. BTW it does not support the Spark, so disregard the suggestion.
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
Hello from the Mid-West, Shane.
You'll have to research for a third party app like Litchi or Autopilot to work with the Spark on a waypoint mission.
The Spark itself can't do it.
Welcome to the Forum .
Litchi is a great app and I use it all the time but it does not yet support waypoints for the Spark. Autopilot supports waypoints for Spark and has some extensive waypoint planning tools. I am currently trying it out with my Spark. I have tried a simple waypoint mission but was not successful as AutoPilot thought I was in a No Fly Zone. I was outside the zone but autopilot gave me error messages and abandoned the mission but kept flying past a waypoint until I aborted the mission. I will be trying it again in another area as it has lots of features that I want to use (like 360º panos at a waypoint) so I am not giving up on it. As noted in another post it is iOS only and does not support Android.
Autopilot runs the mission on the iOS device and doesn't upload it to the AC as Litchi does so if you lose connection, it will stop and hover. This means that planning missions that would be out of range of the RC will not work. You can enable LCMC (Lost Connection, Mission Continuation) which allows the mission to complete when it looses connection but with less features. I have not tried it so can't talk about any experiences with it.
Chris
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GearHead83
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This is contrary to everything I've read thus far. Litchi does not support waypoints with the Spark because it uses the official DJI API as the framework (which also does not support waypoints for Spark). The reason Autopilot waypoints work with the Spark is because Hangar used their own proprietary API to build their app.
Far as I know, only Autopilot does Waypoints with the Spark and works well - a number of videos out there. But Autopilot is only for iOS (Apple)
Litchi has it, but not for Spark.
Litchi has it, but not for Spark.
I did use Autopilot to fly one simple mission, and at the completion, the drone stopped and would not respond to control.. I was using the remote.. was pretty sure I'd be picking pieces up off the ground when the batteries ran out, but I was eventually able to get the DJI app to connect and take control and land the drone...
Chrislaf
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That is not very comforting news! How far out were you on your mission? Was it possible it was too far and the drone lost connection? From what I have read the waypoint mission must be within signal range of the drone since the mission is stored on the iOS device. There is an option to enable LCMC but then not all options for the mission are available.
I haven't had a chance to re-try an AutoPilot mission away from an area where it thinks I am too close to an airport. I really want to be able to use AutoPilot as it provides many customizable features that aren't available otherwise.
I use Autopilot for waypoints and I love it. I REALLY like being able to create the waypoints in Google Earth Pro on the PC with a big ol' monitor and then export that to the iPhone 8 Plus that I fly from. It just feels roomier than creating a mission on the iPhone.
I wrote up a HOW-TO here
A few caveats:
1. - You can create the waypoints on Google Earth Pro, but not things like Subject Focus, meaning what the drone's camera will point at during the mission.
2. - It will not import altitude information from the waypoints you create in Google Earth Pro. You'll adjust the altitude for either the mission as a whole or the individual legs, inside of Autopilot after the import.
3. - When you import the mission into Autopilot, it has the mission layout backward, so what you've labeled waypoints 1 through 10, for example, will show up as 10 through 1. Very easy fix, pointed out by user 'scoobi' - "You can easily reverse waypoints order, tap on the Waypoint Reference icon once (orange teardrop icon with three other teardrops in the middle of it). Then tap on the bubble "Tap for options.” A pop-up will appear: select "Reverse Waypoints.” Et voilà!"
I will not tell you that Autopilot is easy or intuitive. But the time you spend in its Flight School learning how to take advantage of what it can do will open up a whole new world of cinematic possibilities.
Chrislaf
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mick,
Thanks for the tips. I use Earth Pro too but didn't know about the Reverse Waypoints option so I will have to try that next time.
AutoPilot seems to be much more picky about nearby airports than either GO4 or Litchi. When I tried it, it gave me a warning about being in a restricted area. It started the waypoint mission but then just kept flying past the second waypoint. I aborted the mission and manually flew it back without problem. I fly in this area with Litchi a lot and use GO4 before flying to note any warnings. GO4 did warn about an airport in the area and said to fly with caution. For the record, I was not breaking any Canadian laws and was well away from the regional airport (more than 20Km).
I haven't used Autopilot since that one time I tried it but am very excited to use it - just have to find an area far away from any airports. I have used Litchi for waypoints a few times but Autopilot's features blow away the ones in Litchi. I'm going out to British Columbia with the family in the summer and am looking forward to bringing my Spark and using Autopilot.
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