Problem for take survey pictures (iOS, custom camera)

I used DJI M600 Pro+ sony a6000 to do survey job. DJI GS Pro can plan mission and take survey pics correctly. When I used Pix4D capture, It passed the checklist and camera is “ready”, also the M600 Pro Drone can fly along the planned route , but no pic is taked during flying.  Any suggestion?

Hi Yetao,

the drone is supposed to fly with a non-DJI camera, even if the default camera is removed. It should follow the flight plan but the camera is not triggered because there is then no connection between the camera shutter and Pix4Dcapture, therefore it would require a timer to trigger the pictures. On iOS, we added a custom camera feature which 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 how to add a custom camera on our support website.

It should solve your issue here.

Best,

Hi Gaël ,

Thanks for your reply. We have added sony a6300 as a custom camera. During the fly mission, the camera is not triggered. But DJI go pro can trigger the camera.

Rgds,

Hi Yetao,

In the procedure on how to add a custom camera, there is an important step which is to define the time-lapse directly in the settings of the camera, and then applying the same value for the _Min. triggering interval [s] _in the app.
If not done, the camera will not take any picture as it cannot be controlled by Pix4dcapture.

Will Pix4d record flight data so we can export GPS data in this case?

Hi Tim,

To answer your question, the flight data are still recorded and usable using a custom camera with Pix4Dcapture.

Pix4Dcapture is adapting the speed of the drone so that the overlap desired with the custom camera can be achieved. However, it is impossible to get the precise GPS position of the pictures taken. A similar time-lapse is defined in Pix4Dcapture custom camera setting and in the custom camera itself but there is no way to perfectly synchronize these two time-lapse.

Some cameras have a GPS integrated module that can record the position of the image otherwise it has to be retrieved using the flight data. in any case, we recommend having GCPs for all projects where accurate results are needed.

Yes Tim, I do this every time and while it has many steps, it works perfectly as Pix4D just needs to get “close” with geotags…as long as you have good overlap so the matching and orientation works.

 

As I said in another thread, the Front Overlap % function does not work with a custom camera setup and the trigger interval has no effect on flight time either.  A relatively simple bug in the code that hopefully will be fixed soon as of right now the use of a custom camera means the drone flies at 1 speed only.

@Adam Jordan is it the thread you are talking about? Let’s keep the chat there. The issue is currently under investigations.

We aren’t really discussing it here but it certainly has to be brought up in all threads about using a custom camera.