Image acquisition questions

I have been using Pix4D Capture Pro for several months and have a few questions. When setting up a mission, I set all parameters, and the speed of the double grid was set to 30 mph. When uploading the mission and starting the Mavic3E, it will fly at 22 mph. I flew four maps this weekend, and it flew at 22mph every time. The mission time listed is also wrong because of that.

What determines the speed of the mission? Not the slider in the mission editor.

Also, after a battery change, the timer starts over.

After I set up the map’s boundary on the remote controller, the software shows a flight direction. Is this flight direction optimized for the shortest time? Rotating the map does not make changing the flight direction very convenient. Your mission planner in Pix4DCloud has a slider with a plus and a minus. It is easier to see the difference in mission when using the plus and minus.
I have seen some strange in mission time changes when using the + and - in the mission planner, especially with very large maps. A one-degree change can add 50% of mission time. Change it one more degree, and it is back to normal.

Last question: Why does the software make the drone fly to the end of a leg, stop, rotate, stop, and then start the new leg? It seems to take a lot of extra time. DJI makes the drone turn and keeps on flying.

Just wondering about these questions as they impact the efficiency of using my Mavic3E

Hi @petermorssink,

Thank you for your post.

  • The slider marks the desired speed, but sometimes the SDK limits it for other reasons during missions. About the time calculation, it’s a known issue because the SDK doesn’t notify about the speed limit at the time of that calculation. It is most commonly limited by the available shutter speed at mission start, which is significantly slower than the advertised 0.7 seconds for most of the situations and it’s usually only known during the configuration for the mission.
  • This is a known issue, and the project stopped before finding a fix. It wasn’t considered that critical since it doesn’t happen all the time, but yes, I understand it can be a bit weird when it does.
  • Not sure about the issue. The default flight direction is just oriented towards North (0Âş). The mission can be rotated without rotating the map, clicking inside the mission. The only mission that is “optimized” is the Orbit/Cylinder since it always starts the in the closest point to the drone. The plus and minus for orientation is only available in mission planner, yes, sorry.
  • The turning strategy causes the last and first images of a line to be a few meters off the corner and sometimes not properly aligned. In some situations, this can mark the difference between a good model or a bad model. We prefer to ensure the correct acquisition of the images in every possible situation.

  • In general, the software is optimised for image quality and to provide the best possible reconstruction, even though sometimes the flights are not as efficient as it could be, but we tried to find a good compromise between both.

Let me know if this helps you and if there is anything else we can do for you.

Daniele

Daniele,

Thank you so much for your answers! I am just wondering about the flight direction. Why point it north? Most of us need the most efficient flight time. Less flight time is helpful in so many ways. I usually play with the direction so to see the difference in flight time.

Thanks again!

Peter

Hi @petermorssink,

The flight direction is oriented to the north as a default option. Recalculate the most efficient flight time can take up many resources. White this might be fine with most iOS and Android mobile devices, the resources available for processing such information on a controller are much limited.
To avoid lag issues and RAM issues, it has been decided that the flight orientation should not be recalculated to optimize the time.

I hope this answer helps you clarify the reasons behind it. I shared your feedback with the developers to see if any improvement can be made in the future, but I can’t promise anything.

Kind regards,
Daniele

Thank you, Daniele, for the explanation. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. Knowing there is a good reason for it helps when I create plans and wonder why the software can’t do this for me.

With the other answers, I now better understand why Capture does what it does.

Peter

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