New DJI Smart Controller

The issue is actually BOTH Pix4D and DJI’s fault.

It’s DJI’s fault in that, as a rapidly growing tech conglomerate, they’re behaving like Apple and drip-feeding updates to the enthusiastic customer base whom will buy their products regardless. I’ll admit, I only realised this after being sucked into buying the Dumb Controller myself. It’s running an unnecessarily old version of Android and DJI has deliberately released it at less than half of its potential. I suspect they’re waiting to recoup R&D expenses via market saturation before they bother updating it or even acknowledging that it’s a piece of crap.

Pix4D is responsible for not adapting Capture to suit the smart controller. I’m sure DJI released the API early in development and Pix4D simply made the decision not to bother developing for the controller because they knew it wouldn’t be viable. The APK works perfectly fine, but the app doesn’t recognise connection with the drone. This wouldn’t be that difficult to fix for a savvy developer.  I can tell you now that I’ll be moving over to the first mapping platform that’s compatible with the controller. At the very least, Pix4D should offer some sort of roadmap.

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Sono tre mesi che ripetete che non possedete lo Smart controller.

Aspettate che siamo noi utenti a fare una colletta per comprarvelo o che DJI ve lo regali ?

Considerato tutti i soldi che prendete da chi ha acquistato la licenza, direi che siete molto poco professionali…

 

 

You’ve been repeating for three months that you don’t have the Smart Controller.

Do you wait for us users to make a collection to buy it for you or DJI give it free to you?

Given all the money you take from those who bought the license, I would say that you are very unprofessional …

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It’s absurd that 4 months have gone by with absolutely no progress on this issue. Despite our collective interest, you haven’t even considered purchasing a smart controller? We’re getting into prime mapping weather and I have no means of surveying my clients with my M2Pro… Can we expect ANY progress in the next month, or should I just not use your software anymore and use that cash to buy a regular M2 controller?

Hi Gerald. I can understand the frustration at getting the controller and not being able to use with Pix4D capture. The reality is that we receive a ton of different feature requests and we have to balance the demand for all of them. I will check with the developers though to see if there has been any progress and report back any updates. 

SInce Pix4D can process images regardless of what application was used to collect it may be worth asking if anyone has found a workaround with another flight planning app. Has anyone tried using another application to collect the images beside Pix4D Capture?

Hi Holden,

Does Pix4D have a user feedback solution like UserVoice, whereby the paying customer base can actually make feature requests and vote on what’s most important to them? I haven’t seen it actively promoted anywhere and it should be a staple of every customer-centric software company, especially the ones receiving tons of different feature requests.

Hi Matt. Yes, we do! linked below. 

https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/hc/en-us/community/topics/115000042043-Product-feedback?sort_by=recent_activity

Also with regard to the smart controller, the developers said that the smart controller itself poses problems.

https://forum.dji.com/thread-178124-1-1.html

There is not a hard date but it could be Q3 or Q4 potentially. 

Holden, the issue is that there is no way to do image acquisition with the Mavic 2 while using the smart controller. The only drone-related app that works on the Smart Controller right now is DJI’s own, which cannot be used to plan out grids and take pictures at a defined interval over the land. And just as I can still use Pix4D to process images once taken, I can also use Agisoft Photoscan, DroneDeploy, or even DJI Terra…

Let’s hope this article is true…

https://dronedj.com/2019/05/06/dji-rumors-smart-controller-mavic-2/ 

 

EDIT:

The SDK for the Smart Controller is live now. Hopefully this means Pix4D will utilize it…

https://dronedj.com/2019/05/18/dji-sdk-smart-controller-litchi/

Any update on this? I’m trying to find a mapping solution for our new smart controller

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Any update on this? I’m trying to find a mapping solution for our new smart controller to!

Hello,

As reported by Gerald, the SDK for the Smart Controler (which enable third-party app like Pix4Dcapture to implement support) has been released very recently by DJI and I shared this information with the Product Owner. So far it is not in our pipeline to implement support for the DJI Smart Controller.

Best,

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Honest, but very disappointing in response, after almost six months of waiting

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Wow, after six months of a fair amount of people asking for support for this controller (not to mention how many people that are following this thread and just not replying to it), and DJI providing the SDK, Pix4D is just going to ignore everyone’s request and refuse to support the Smart Controller?

Well I’m giving up on Pix4D then, I’ll find another mapping solution for the Smart Controller. DroneDeploy actually likes to support DJI products, I’ll talk with my contacts there.

I spoke with “Mike” at Drone Deploy yesterday. He tells me they aren’t doing anything to develop Smart Controller function, either. 

It would seem all of us who purchased DJI’s flagship controller are being ignored. What a tactical blunder on my part. 

Looks like I’ll have to go back to flying manual missions (circa 2014), or buy a regular remote controller, to do my job.

What I really can’t believe is DJI’s own Pilot App still isn’t available for the Smart Controller. 

Oh, and Pix4d can’t buy a Smart Controller on their own? Really?

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The Pilot App is available for the Smart Controller, I use it with my M2ED, it is pre-installed on there and shows up when you connect to an enterprise Mavic 2, but it isn’t compatible yet with the M2P or M2Z for some weird reason even though it’s essentially the same drone. 

Ryan, the Pilot App is not on my Smart Controller for my M2P. 

It actually is there but won’t show up until you connect a Enterprise device. It’s really weird how DJI did it. When switching between my M2P and M2ED the remote actually restarts and when it is restarted the Pilot App is there instead of the Go 4 app.

That is rather odd. Why would DJI disable their own Pilot App on their own aircraft, when the M2P is essentially the same hardware as the M2E? I’d hate to think they are crippling a drone that cost nearly $2K complete, the M2P, as a way of driving people to buy the M2E…that would really tick me off. 

hi,
It is a shame that nothing is done to find a solution and more now that the SDK is already available. Has anyone found an alternative? can someone from pix4d confirm if we are near or far from a solution?
I feel cheated with the smart controller and completely detracts a brilliant drone.

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io come soluzione al problema ho comprato un controller normale e da li faccio fotogrammetria…