Image drop-outs

After a very bad first experience with Pix4Dcapture where the drone did a proper fly-away, I had a better experience in some tests tonight.  But it wasn’t flawless.  Most missions flew fine, but twice I had a stall.  the P3P just sat at the start of the mission and did not initiate.  Another time, the drone stopped taking pictures after 1 line and I had to start doing this myself with the shutter.  At least that worked.

 

Is there anything to be done in these cases?  In fact I only knew the images stopped because I have an external VUFINE screen plugged into the HDMI on my control.  Otherwise I would not have known.  Coould be hugely problematic if you ask me!

Also, can we take raw shots in P4D?

 

Thx

PAtrice

Hi Patrice,

Besides using our latest app version (Android 3.1.0 and iOS 1.3.2), we usually recommend to make sure that:

  • The manufacturer’s app (DJI GO) is not running in the background especially after connecting the device to the drone.
    (Android) Also check that this app is not selected as the default app when connecting. If needed, force the app to stop, using the application manager of the device.
  • The appropriate drone is selected: Settings of the app: Home screen > Settings > Drone type > …
  • The latest firmware is installed on the drone. This can be checked with the manufacturer’s app.
  • The latest OS version is installed on the mobile device (ideally).

The following problems that can happen are not related to the altitude of the flight or the size of the grid:

  • The drone reaches the flight altitude but hovers in the air.
  • The mission is not uploaded to the drone, fail in the takeoff checklist.
  • The drone does not start the mission, no takeoff. So far we can see one main reason.

Sometimes there are some delays when sending the mission details to the drone through DJI SDK (what allows the communication between the two). A time-out could prevent the mission from being completely uploaded. We would suggest to try the following:

1.a. Click the Abort button to interrupt the mission or take over manual control to land the drone.
1.b. (alternatively) Cancel the mission meaning click Cancel in the takeoff checklist pop-up if the mission upload failed.
2. Restart the mission but slightly adjust the grid before, e.g. the size, in order to force the app to upload the mission details again.
3. (optional) If this does not work, restart the mission scratch, meaning close and force the app to stop, disconnect the mobile device, switch off the remote controller and the drone.

If the images are effectively captured, you should be able to see the camera icon on the flight path when being in the Map view of the app during the mission. On Android only, there is a sound and the screen blinks when looking at the Camera view.

At the moment it is not possible to capture RAW images because this image format is not compatible with our software, Pix4Dmapper. We only support .jpeg and .tif. However, I have forwarded this suggestion to our product development team.

If you need more information about the camera settings that are applied when flying Pix4Dcapture please see:
https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/203204339

Hope all this information will be useful.
Let us know if we may further help.

Regards,