Capture app and DJI Matrice 600 (with non-DJI camera mounted)

PIX4Dcapture PIX4Dcapture Questions/Troubleshooting
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Just use the flight log for geotagging the pics before going into Pix4D, works perfect and costs $0.  This won’t work on the Sony a7Riii but simply trigger the camera with the Time Lapse app.  Only trick is finding a flight app that doesn’t need confirmation of the SD card and shutter release, which the latest Pix4Dcapture promises.

I am heading out after lunch to test the new Pix4Dcapture with my M600 with Sony a7Rii and hoping all goes well (still have to geotag in post-flight processing before Pix4D).

22

Great news everybody!!!

I flew 3 missions with my M600-a7Rii using the latest iOS Pix4Dcapture and it worked perfectly.

I even dug into the iPad and got the CSV flight log files and with some tweaking they are importing perfectly to geotag the pictures before heading into Pix4D Desktop.

It would still be easier if Airdata.com would sync to Pix4Dcapture but this workflow is pretty darn easy with the latest version of Pix4Dcapture.

4 Likes
23

We’ve been looking into M600Pro/A7Riii (or A7Rii) combination recently and im a little intimidated by the need to remove flight logs, “tweak” and so on to get the data to process. Is this a fairly straight forward workflow? 

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You don’t actually touch the flight logs if using an app that syncs with Airdata.com or similar site.  Using Pix4Dcapture on iOS, well that takes some digging to get the CSV file you need to do the geotagging.

Be careful with the a7Riii as I read it doesn’t allow apps on the camera so you will have to use mechanical means to trigger the shutter vs. software for the a7Rii.

In my work, no other camera, not even the Hasselblad, can get the high detail and quality images of the a7Rii so the extra work is justified…but be sure you need to go this “custom” route vs. an Inspire 2 for instance.

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I’ve been less than impressed with the Capture app as i’ve noticed poor RTH functionality, incomplete in-flight routes, and completed routes where no photos were saved to the card (on my p4p). My main reasoning for wanting to switch is for the higher resolution imagery which will hopefully lead to more accurate maps, and for the ability to add different sensors as time goes on, id like to get to a LiDAR sensor at some point in the not too distant future. As a surveyor I use GCP’s on the majority of my flights but im finding the images from my p4p (even at low elevations agl) the image quality is really lacking. 

So if i use litchi (for example) to create the grid pattern mission its still a simple upload to the desktop app? I would be running the app on iOS. 

 

Not to bombard you with questions but who did you go through to have the system built or did you do it yourself? 

 

Thanks

-Dustin

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I don’t do much mapping as I specialize in tower engineering with my patent-pending process but I just did 28 missions over 4 days with my M600/a7Rii using Pix4Dcapture and it worked perfect as long as you force close the app after every mission.  There are some lag issues on iOS but they are easily fixed from what I have seen.  Every mapping app has pros/cons to the others out of the 5 I have tried.

Clearly you haven’t researched aerial LiDAR and I am sure you will be surprised when you do.  You can spend upwards of $200k and still not get close to the detail level of the a7Rii.  Once you have the detail then accuracy is a function of overlap to get it very near 1X GSD without any GCP…but every project is different and most computers can’t handle a ton of pictures efficiently.

I have done everything primarily myself on both the hardware combination and software workflow via research and trial and error over the last 2 years.  The P4P is a toy and I only use my Phantom to scout for obstructions and interference before sending out my professional drone and camera.  The extra effort to geotag the pictures (and convert to JPG if shooting in RAW) are well worth it when you see the results from the a7Rii in my opinion.

I see so many people go buy a Phantom and then they try to see what they can do with it but that is backwards thinking.  First decide what you need to do and then find the tools to do it.

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We have an M600 Pro with the SonyA7r and Maps Made Easy set up.  We are able to trigger the camera manually through the Nija board when using DJI GO.

However when I uploaded to Airdata there is no record of any photos being taken.

Any ideas why?

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Adam,

What flight planning app do you use?  It appears that you do not use Pix4D as you commented that it takes a little bit of work to get the flight logs.

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tudor, the drone has no idea that a picture is taken so no thumbnails are stored in DJI GO or the flight log.  Simple physics since it is a non-DJI camera.

 

Matt, I am using Pix4Dcapture as I said in my previous post.  There is no “Easy Button” but it can be done.

30

Anyone one have experience on what kind of accuracy the Field of View add-on has? We are looking at an M600 with Ronin-MX gimbal with Sony A7RII camera. We use both Pix4D capture and Map Pilot for flight planning, depending on the job. We would like seamless integration into these planners. We are also looking at adding Loki RTK to the setup to accurately geotag the photos if the GeSanp by Field of View doesn’t get the accurate GPS data we need. Thanks!

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Hi Kevin -

 

I use a M600p Sony a7rII Ronin MX GeoSnap package. It works great. Expect a 1m-2m geolocation with the GeoSnap express.

 

Regards,

Connery

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Thanks Conenry - So we are better off spending a few grand more to get triggering and RTK accuracy geotagged from Loki. 1-2m will obviously still require quite a bit of control for accuracy.

 

33

I guess. I typically lay out 5-10 control points and 3-5 check points on my sites ranging in size from 5 acres to 100 acres. I use propeller aeropoints, so control is rather quick.

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Thanks. We do the same, but have found some of the terrain to be labor intensive and therfore expensive, even with aeropoints. RTK/PPK would allow a lot less control. We always use control though.

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Yes - good point. Well if you go that route please let me know how it works out. Here’s my email: ckoski@cpasurvey.com

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Me too!

 

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Julie, 

It’s been 2 years since this post was created, what update can you give us on the development of the M600P support? 

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Dustin, as I said here and other posts, Pix4Dcapture is working as good as anything else and as far as DJI makes possible. What problems are you having because it has been fully functional for a while now.

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Adam/Dustin

I have an M600 Pro and was looking at either the Sony A7r ii or iii and was going to go the Mapsmade easy route with ninja and grimsy.  I too use propeller GCPs along with other control points.  I have been using propeller as well as pix4d for volume and other similar BIM projects with P4 PRO 2 and Inspire-2 x4s or Matrice 210/X4s combos.

The 600 Pro I use for the FLIR portion of the certified thermal inspections.  I partner with a friend who has m600 pro/lidar/RTK setup for multiple large object scanning projects.  However, I am interested and have several large object modeling projects coming up.  I want to use the Sony A7r ii or iii in addition to the lidar setups we use.  I use maps made easy with P4PRO2 when decent quality is needed for basic construction sites.  I was looking at the maps made easy and then manually flying obliques as I do for scene reconstruction.  So, I agree with you about the quality of the A7r.  If Pix4D is working via capture (what gimbal are you using for the Sony, which Sony are you using, is iii working?)  I was originally going the lighter grimsy T3/ninja board route, but now you have me wondering about using Ronin or?  So to give me flexibility for modeling/reconstruction as well as mapping, what would you choose now?  which gimbal setup and camera (Sony A7r iii or ii).  Basic any update to the above discussion?  Thank you in advance.  Ideally I would like to have flexibility to use multiple SDK based capture packages be it Pix4d Capture, Drone Deploy, or GS Pro 2.  I simply love how the 600 fly and how good the Sony images are.  I also have the need or customer requirement of a 6 rotor craft so 600/Sony is perfect, now which model, which gimbal.  Thank you

40

Hello Douglas,

Thank you for sharing your projects/questions on the community.

From a Pix4Dcapture point of view, I would suggest you have a look at our supported drones and camera webpage.
You will see that the DJI Matrice 600 Pro is not officially supported on Android or iOS. However on iOS, the DJI M600 is officially supported and as it is close to the M600 Pro in term of specifications, it should work properly using Pix4Dcapture but we can not make any guarantee about it.

Then, using the iOS version of Pix4Dcapture, you will have the ability to implement a custom camera. The custom camera option allows users to plan and fly missions with the correct overlap even if the camera is not included in the database of Pix4Dcapture. You can have a look at the procedure on how to add a custom camera here.
The important step is to define the time-lapse directly in the settings of the camera, and then apply the same value for the Min. triggering interval [s] in the application. If not, the camera will not take any picture as it cannot be controlled by Pix4Dcapture.

If you do not know which custom camera to use yet, be sure that it will have the ability to set a timelapse.

Best,