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First Impressions (not a review) > DJI GROUND STATION PRO app
5507 22 2017-1-5
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Dronie.dk
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First Impressions (not a review) > DJI GROUND STATION PRO app

So DJI released and updated GS Pro app which enables you to create WayPoint Routes (without flying them first), Virtual Fence and 3D Map Area.
I have no practical use for "Virtual Fence" where you can setup an area in which the drone can not fly out off. 3D Map Area can be done better with other 3rd party apps for now, so I tested out the "WayPoint Route" today.
Here's my initial thoughts - Positive and Negative:
NEGATIVE:
1) UI: Very DJI'ish interface, meaning you don’t always know what a button will do, weird navigation system, small buttons in the advanced section, takes some trial and error to figure out. Some icons do nothing although they look like buttons,
2) Manual is presented on screen in a very small window that can not be made full screen?!?! Why, DJI. This is one of those DJI things where it's hard to believe they had anyone testing the app before release.
3) Video “Tutorials” are very simple with no extra explanation, tips or guidelines. Looks like they where made in a rush.
4) If you think you can plan a route away from your current location and find the flight area on map, and then select "New Mission” (both for Waypoint Route and 3D Map Area) - the app will move the map back to your current location, and you have to start over and find the flight area on the map again.
5) You can not sit at home and create a WayPoint Route/3D Map Area on the map - it always starts with current position as first WayPoint, so you’ll HAVE TO BE on the actual flight location to create a WayPoint Route. Once on location you can fly the Aircraft to a specific point and use that as first WayPoint, but it HAS to be there physically - No option to create the flight route at home beforehand. DJI Support claimed to have forwarded my request to be able to pre-plan a flight route, so let’s see if it’s implemented in a future version.
6) In "Virtual Fence" and "3D Map Area” mode - The Delete button for your waypoints only removes a SELECTED point. But in WayPoint Route, you can delete points one by one by repeatedly pressing the Delete button. Of course this is not be a big issue, but it shows the UI of the app is not well tested and lacking a uniform workflow - which is to be expected of any DJI product in general.
7) 3D Map: You can select Course Angle. You won’t know what it is until you find it in the manual, and after reading “The angle of the main path” you still might not be 100% sure what it does? At least I didn’t. Then you select the angle - and for some very odd reason 0% starts at EAST going round 360°. Where’s the logic in that, when the rest of the world uses NORTH for 0°? Maybe there’s a perfectly good reason for this that I'm not smart enough to figure out. But if you do, please let us know in the comments.
8) If Signal it lost, RTH can not be performed. Aircraft will finish mission and then RTH.
9) To adjust camera settings, you need to EXIT the GS PRO app, go into the GO app and adjust your camera settings, then go back into the GS PRO app. Also, it has to be in Manual mode (not Auto). Forcing users to leave the app controlling a drone in the air is just weird - especially when it's your own product - and potentially a risk.
10) GS PRO app had trouble recognizing my X5R with 12mm - I could not get it to accept "12mm" or "12" as input for the lens type.
11) If you have to fly in the cold battery temperature is very important - GS PRO does not provide batt. temp. info. Again, you'll have to exit the app, go into the GO app, and then back.
POSITIVE:
1) You can find settings for Metric/Imperial + Calibrate Compass (Not IMU), choose stick mode.
2) At the End of a mission you can choose between RTH/Hover/Land. Hover is set as default.
3) For Each (Way)Point you can: set the aircraft Heading + Rotation + Gimbal Pitch Angle (set with 1° interval)
- For Each Point you can "Create WayPoint Actions": Gimbal Pitch Rotation/Hover/Photo Capture/Start Recording/End Recording/Aircraft Rotation/Gimbal Pitch Rotation
3) You can save a WayPoint Action and "Copy to All WayPoints", "Copy to Preceding" or "Copy to Succeeding Points".
4) LAT/LONG easily selectable with high precision.
5) Speed/Altitude can be selected with high precision - it's not obvious, but press and hold M/S or Meters and you can select with +/- in 0.1 intervals for both.
6) Rename and Save Missions.
7) 3D Map: you can select Overlap percentage for Front/Side
8) If a mission is too long to be done on one battery, it can be resumed after a battery change - Again, DJI gives you absolutely no instructions on how to do this in the Manual. Come on DJI, you can do better.
9) Option to Pause/Resume a mission.
10) It's easy to select and change a WayPoint Route and change a flight route and you're not limited to flying in a square area.
Impressions:
Bit of a mess UI wise and instructions and ease of use could be much improved. Feels and acts like a v. 1.0 so there's hope it will improve. For setting up a simple WayPoint Route the app is great as you don't need to fly the route first. Just remember to set your camera settings first and hope they don't reset if you change batteries.
/T

2017-1-5
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Donnie Stugots
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Is this a free app?  can it be used with the Inspire 1 or is for the I 2 ?  Thanks , I have heard of this but never followed through on what it is or does .  Thanks for you input on this .

donnie
2017-1-5
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Dronie.dk
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Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-1-5 06:38
Is this a free app?  can it be used with the Inspire 1 or is for the I 2 ?  Thanks , I have heard of this but never followed through on what it is or does .  Thanks for you input on this .

donnie

Yes it's free - and supports both P3/4 and inspire 1 and 2 etc.
2017-1-5
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Cougar1
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GS Pro is not currently supporting Inspire 2 or P4P.

From Website: GS Pro is compatible with the following DJI aerial platforms and flight controllers:
Phantom 3 Standard/4K/Advanced/Professional, Phantom 4/Pro*, Inspire 1/Inspire 2*
Matrice 100/600/600 Pro, A3, N3, and Mavic Pro,
Compatible cameras: Phantom 3 Standard/4K/Advanced/Professional, Phantom 4/Pro, and
Zenmuse X3, X5, X5R, X4S*, X5S*, and Z3

*Coming soon
2017-1-5
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Donnie Stugots
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Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-1-5 06:38
Is this a free app?  can it be used with the Inspire 1 or is for the I 2 ?  Thanks , I have heard of this but never followed through on what it is or does .  Thanks for you input on this .

donnie

Thank you

donnie
2017-1-5
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Dronie.dk
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Cougar1 Posted at 2017-1-5 07:08
GS Pro is not currently supporting Inspire 2 or P4P.

From Website: GS Pro is compatible with the following DJI aerial platforms and flight controllers:

Sorry about that...missed the DJI signature "Coming soon"
2017-1-6
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Mark Guille
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Only currently on IOS, Android "Coming soon"?

Mark G.
2017-1-6
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Robin UAV
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@Mark It will probably never be available for Android. Look at the previous Ground Station app, the one for 2.4GHz Data Link, it was never available for Android devices and the same thing was written: "Coming Soon".
2017-1-6
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Arrow1969
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You can alway us this manual  https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/groundstation_pro/GS_Pro_User_Manual_EN.pdf
2017-1-6
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MAR
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Thanks for this run down. I staggered thru a couple of flights with it today.  I've been using Autopilot for professional mapping so I am used to jumping back and forth with the GO app for various settings.  One thing you might be able to help me with is waypoints.  I dropped in a 13 min mapping flight for one hundred images and the app said it could only handle 99 waypoints.  I can take upto 320 images with a 2sec shot interval with Autopilot.  Any ideas around that one please???
2017-1-9
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tdf66
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I wonder why the drone stops on each waypoint? I couldent find a way to disable this
2017-1-13
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limafilho
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it's frustrating that in "WayPoint Route", the drone stops on each waypoint...
2017-1-25
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manleypv
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MAR Posted at 2017-1-9 03:25
Thanks for this run down. I staggered thru a couple of flights with it today.  I've been using Autopilot for professional mapping so I am used to jumping back and forth with the GO app for various settings.  One thing you might be able to help me with is waypoints.  I dropped in a 13 min mapping flight for one hundred images and the app said it could only handle 99 waypoints.  I can take upto 320 images with a 2sec shot interval with Autopilot.  Any ideas around that one please???

Any updates on 99 waypoint limit? I need more than that too.
2017-3-5
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lolders
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limafilho Posted at 2017-1-25 03:08
it's frustrating that in "WayPoint Route", the drone stops on each waypoint...

probably so it can be as accurate with its GPS coordinate and get the best exposure without blur?
2017-3-6
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Dr Jon
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Perhaps the word "PRO" is highly inaccurate? But for a free app you can't complain.

There are other APP's that do exactly the same and more for a few $$ and you can program these off line and even create templates and drag to new locations when ever you want them.  
2017-3-6
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fans0ce27cb7
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I flew our new Inspire 2 for the first time today. First time flying a drone in fact. I updated it to the latest firmware and had no issues. I flew it for 2 battery cylces, so about 40ish minutes total. I used the GS Pro app and it seemed to work fine with the inspire 2 and the x5s. I did a total of 3 3D map missions and everything worked perfectly.

I have looked around and it seems like there is no flight logs when using GS Pro...is this still the case?
2017-3-9
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maxmann74
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Just a couple of thoughts here.

1. Drone Deploy can run a mission much faster as it does not stop to take the images.  Although after rendering, I do notice some "blur" in the drone deploy image vs the GS Pro image, so maybe it's good that it does stop. Would be nice if it allowed a setting to maybe have it slow down, but not  completely stop as it really adds to the mission time,  and probably takes more battery power with all the starts and stops.

2.  Why can you not EDIT a mission after it's  been run?  This should be possible, or at the  least be able to COPY an existing mission so you don't have to completely start over if you just want to tweak a few settings.

I am just trying to  create maps, not 3d stuff, so I keep my overlap settings very low.  Anyone else us GS Pro on here for non-3d mapping?

Thanks

2017-5-29
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allanart
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Cougar1 Posted at 2017-1-5 07:08
GS Pro is not currently supporting Inspire 2 or P4P.

From Website: GS Pro is compatible with the following DJI aerial platforms and flight controllers:

I think you may be referring to old info, because the Inspire-2 is definitely supported.
The DJI website (ww.dji.com/ground-station-pro) indicates as follows:
GS Pro is compatible with the following DJI aerial platforms and flight controllers:
Phantom 3 Standard/4K/Advanced/Professional, Phantom 4/Pro, Inspire 1/Inspire 2
Matrice 100/600/600 Pro, A3, N3, and Mavic Pro,
Compatible cameras: Phantom 3 Standard/4K/Advanced/Professional, Phantom 4/Pro, and
Zenmuse X3, X5, X5R, X4S, X5S, Z3, Z30, and XT.

As it happens, I tested it for the first time yesterday with my Inspire-2 + X5S in  the Waypoint Mode. I used it to fly a mission, at a fixed altitude, over a small field and then uploaded the 50+ images to Drone Deploy to create a map. It all worked as per the manual.
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Allan
2017-5-29
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Cougar1
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allanart Posted at 2017-5-29 10:09
I think you may be referring to old info, because the Inspire-2 is definitely supported.
The DJI website (ww.dji.com/ground-station-pro) indicates as follows:
GS Pro is compatible with the following DJI aerial platforms and flight controllers:

Look at the date of my post, long time ago, things change.
2017-5-29
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ersylvia
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I'm flying the Phantom 4 Pro (originally the Pro+, but purchased a regular Pro controller). I've tried both Drone Deploy and the DJI GS Pro app to create and fly planned routes. Neither of these apps are working to fly the planned route- the drone takes off, hovers, and lands. Anyone else have these issues?
2017-9-7
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fansdba07395
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manleypv Posted at 2017-3-5 18:26
Any updates on 99 waypoint limit? I need more than that too.

If it is still relevant:
I also encountered the 99 way points limit yesterday. This is tightly coupled to the setting "Capture Mode". If set to "Hover&Capture at point" each stop for a shot is counted as one way point.

A workaround is to set this to one of the other settings. The drone will fly continuously while taking pictures and way points are only set to the turning points at the border of the grid.

It would be interesting to know, why there is such a limit for way points and if there is a technical reason. Do Dronedeploy, Pix4D and others have the same limitation?
2017-11-21
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fansdba07395
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maxmann74 Posted at 2017-5-29 08:34
Just a couple of thoughts here.

1. Drone Deploy can run a mission much faster as it does not stop to take the images.  Although after rendering, I do notice some "blur" in the drone deploy image vs the GS Pro image, so maybe it's good that it does stop. Would be nice if it allowed a setting to maybe have it slow down, but not  completely stop as it really adds to the mission time,  and probably takes more battery power with all the starts and stops.

Yes, I totally agree to your point 2) It is very cumbersome to create each mission from scratch. Other mapping apps allow to easily duplicate a previous mission, edit it and fly it.

I hope my previous answer above answered your point 1)

Unfortunately I haven't come across the perfect mapping app. Would be great to get some recommendations here.
2017-11-21
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maxmann74
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fansdba07395 Posted at 2017-11-21 23:09
Yes, I totally agree to your point 2) It is very cumbersome to create each mission from scratch. Other mapping apps allow to easily duplicate a previous mission, edit it and fly it.

I hope my previous answer above answered your point 1)

Check out the new version (2.0) of Groundstation Pro. They have done quite a bit. You can now go back and edit a mission as well as copy etc.  Thanks
2019-3-31
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