Pix4DCapture and Zenmuse XTR not communicating?

PIX4Dcapture
1

Pix4D Capture App

I was flying the DJI Zenmuse XT (radiometric) on the DJI M600 Pro today. The drone and camera firmware was up to date and there were no warnings in the DJI GO app. In the Pix4D capture app with the correct overlap (90%) and Zenmuse XT selected as the camera type, all preflight checks were green and there were no warnings. However, when the Drone would start the mission, about halfway to 3/4 of the way through the mission we would get an error that SD card was not recording data and the app could not detect if data was being written to the SD card. The drone would then automatically quit the survey and return home. We inspected the SD card and it was installed correctly, it could store images taken in the DJI GO app, but no images were saved from the mission. we tried 3 different missions and the same errors occurred each time.

Help, please!

Thank you!

2

Hi Francis,

Could you confirm that the Zenmuse XT camera was selected in the (iOS) General settings of the app?

The issue you are mentioning could be related to the Picture capture fail issue that some other users are experiencing. As mentioned in the community post, we recommend formatting the SD card before the mission, switching to the camera view to see if the video feed is working and “blinking” when the image is captured. There is also an SD card memory indicator in the telemetry menu of the Pix4Dcapture app that can be used as an indication if the images are actually captured. 

Since we do not expect this issue to be systematic for every mission we recommend to abort the mission and plan/fly it again. 

Also, have a look at this article as it might answer questions related to the configuration you use: (Android, iOS) Pix4Dcapture and DJI Zenmuse XT.

Best,

3

Hi Blaz,

We have gone through all the app, camera, drone and iOS updates for the Zenmuse XTR sensor, DJI M600 drone, and iPad Pro. The XTR works normally in the DJI Go app with no warnings and saves images and video to the SD card. However the Pix4D app still shows no image transmission from the video feed and does not save any images to the SD card. The Pix4DCapture app is set to 90% front and side overlap (because we are using a 19mm lens length at 150ft AGL) and is on safe mode and the second to slowest speed.

 

Is this an error others are having and is Pix4D working on it? Are there other autopilot apps that can trigger the XTR and then stitch the imagers in Pix4D desktop?

 

Thanks,

 

Francis

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Here is the SD card error with the Matrice 600 Pro

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Here is the same Zenmuse XTR sensor and SD card mounted on the Inspire 1.

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For our vineyard health assessments, we would like to fly the Zenmuse XTR simultaneously with the MicaSense RedEdge on our Matrice 600 Pro platform. So it would be fantastic if this error could be fixed by July!

 

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Additionally, we also received the following question via the ticketing system:

“Since we are trying to stitch thermal imagers, we were using the second to slowest setting (safe mode) and had 90% Overlap. it is possible that we had more than 99 waypoints but I did not count. Should I also close the DJI GO app before starting the mission? would closing DJI GO mean that I would have to reconnect to the drone to take over manual flight?”

To ensure that none of your questions fall through the cracks, please allow me to address each one individually. 

  1. Video feed on M600.

There are also other users reporting that the video feed is not working as expected on M600. I would invite you to have a look at this community post for more information: DJI Matrice 600 with X3 Camera & Pix4dCapture. To sum it up, this is a known issue and it is not expected that the video feed will work with M600 drone. As users report the same issue while using other apps we suspect that it is a firmware related thing.

As you already noticed, the video feed works on Inspire series although there are some users reporting a bit of a video lag. 

  1. Images not captured

Since the video feed is not working on the M600 series I would recommend you to use the SD card memory to see if the images are actually captured. 

I would also recommend you to try to use another drone for image acquisition as the issue might be related to the specific drone or configuration. 

  1. 99 waypoints

The latest status is that the mission will be uploaded even if the mission exceeds the 99 waypoints. This is why I do not expect that the missing images issue is related to this.

For example, if the mission has more than 99 waypoints, we only send 99 waypoints to the drone at once, and when reaching this limit the drone will stop and return back home. It is possible to pause or take manual control while the drone is in the air and resend some more waypoints (until 99) to complete the mission.

  1. DJI Zenmuse XT and other apps 

I am not aware of other apps that would support automated mission planning with Zenmuse XT camera. Maybe some users know more on this topic?

Best,

8

Hi Francis Hourigan, was your issue resolved?

I too get same issue with the ZENMUSE XTR with pix4d capture. 

When i checked image, i found for some time image was recorded and later it recorded randomly. 

Did you have same issue like mine. the red dots were the image location.

What is the resolution of your zenmuse xt?

 

1050×732 1.25 MB

 

 

3458×1902 1.45 MB

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I would really apericate if you can share your email address.