Is the Litchi app worth it?

R&L Aerial photography

Does the pope poop in the woods?

Josh the apple

ArgenBrewer

Very good video! Congratulations. The drone lost contact with the control at some time and continued on your own or you always had visual?

Josh the apple

ArgenBrewer Posted at 2018-2-26 11:28
Very good video! Congratulations. The drone lost contact with the control at some time and continued on your own or you always had visual?

Drone lost connection very quickly. It was 11 minutes round trip and I only had connection for the first 30 seconds or so. Regained connection when it was back within 1000 ft

Amateur Droner

Nice video Josh,
Hell I was puckering just watching...I'm still not ready for it to go out of sight yet!

DaveW

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-2-21 09:35
Thank you. Just take your time learning Litchi & start out with shorter flights erroring on the high side with altitude settings. I look forward to your missions! The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

https://youtu.be/9OQugUKxl3E

Another fantastic piece of mission planning and video fotage! Was the bord that shot the video also flying autonamously?

ghutch

Can you stop a Waypoint mission at any point, take some photographs and then have it complete the mission?

stuka75

Yo would have to have controller contact with the ac to pause and or stop mission, otherwise it will continue mission until it regains connection with controller.

ghutch

stuka75 Posted at 2018-4-1 04:55
Yo would have to have controller contact with the ac to pause and or stop mission, otherwise it will continue mission until it regains connection with controller.

Ok, sounds like it's possible as long as you have a good signal. Thanks...

ghutch

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-4-1 03:52
I know you can pause a mission & then resume. You can also manually enter control input during a mission or while paused. I have never tried to take photos during a mission as I always have the bird recording video whenever airborne but I would think it would be possible to manually snap a photo during a mission. You can test my creating a short mission & testing.

Good to know, thanks...

rsking

Can the dji go still be used if I get litchi?

Amateur Droner

rsking Posted at 2018-4-6 07:33
Can the dji go still be used if I get litchi?

Not at the same time.
You can select which one to use each time you fly.
I have an Android phone (use DJI Go app), and an iPad 4 mini (ios ) which is dedicated for Litchi flying.
I use the DJI for calibrations and FW updates.

rsking

Amateur Droner Posted at 2018-4-6 18:27
Not at the same time.
You can select which one to use each time you fly.
I have an Android phone (use DJI Go app), and an iPad 4 mini (ios ) which is dedicated for Litchi flying.

I figured not at the same time,but I wasn’t clear . I didn’t want to get litchi and not be able to use dji go if I wanted to switch between the two.
I’m kinda new to flying drones and never flew it out of my sight. Would I benefit getting litchi? Someday I hope to be able to send it farther than I can see
Thank all

Amateur Droner

rsking Posted at 2018-4-6 20:09
I figured not at the same time,but I wasn’t clear . I didn’t want to get litchi and not be able to use dji go if I wanted to switch between the two.
I’m kinda new to flying drones and never flew it out of my sight. Would I benefit getting litchi? Someday I hope to be able to send it farther than I can see
Thank all

Yes you can still use the DJI app. You can use either one, just don't have the other one running in the background.
Get use to flying it, do figure eights and flying away from you then toward where you are (at first it can be confusing).Then use the ATTI mode to know what to do in an emergency, without all the safeguards of GPS and sensors.
In GPS mode the Phantom has brakes, holds position and will just hover in place if you let go of the controls, in ATTI mode it won't do all those things.
After you have that mastered, then you can think about missions on Litchi, take it slow.
Good luck and fly safe!

Joller79 DK

Looks to be a nice app. The parrot bebop has the flightplan feature in the stock app, as in app purchase. But have to give it a try for my spark

JockyB

Great videos Dirty Bird, the only question I have is "Where do you get the great music from , for your videos ?" Absolutely fantastic.

Anonymous1

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-2-21 09:35
Thank you. Just take your time learning Litchi & start out with shorter flights erroring on the high side with altitude settings. I look forward to your missions! The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

https://youtu.be/9OQugUKxl3E

After seeing this video, I just bought the Litchi app from the Google Play Store. The one thing I want to know is if it allows me to sync my flights with DJI. I like keeping track of my flight hours.

solentlife

Kuya Kano Posted at 2018-2-21 09:32
I hear its good, HOWEVER violates the DJI warranty if you have a crash.

????

Litchi is developed using the DJi SDK in full compliance with its conditions ... so why do you claim that ?

Nigel

Peterx

I want to try litchi too. If i want to use the IOC mode on Litchi,i must switch the RC in F-mode too? i think yes if i´m not wrong.

Anonymous1

Peterx Posted at 2018-9-1 07:36
I want to try litchi too. If i want to use the IOC mode on Litchi,i must switch the RC in F-mode too? i think yes if i´m not wrong.

Yes, you would have to switch from Position mode to F-mode very quickly so that you don't stay in ATTI mode long enough for the craft to start drifting in the wind. I keep my unit in F-Mode permanently to avoid being in ATTI mode for any reason. Last Saturday, we had 22mph gusts here in Jamaica, and I was hovering over a football game. I tried ATTI mode for a few seconds, and almost lost the unit. ATTI is a fun equivalent of Sport mode when you just want to dart around from one place to the next (provided sufficient obstacle clearance).

Peterx

It´s nearly as in the Go app,thanks.

Christine96

I've heard about fly aways that make me nervous. I'm nervous about using it because it's not supported by DJI. If your drone crashes while using the app I don't know if DJI will cover it under warranty if the cause would otherwise be covered.

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-2-19 16:40
Litchi is a great flight app to have in your tool bag. I can't promise you'll never have an app crash, nor is it a 100% replacement for Go as it does not include every single aircraft setting, but it is a robust product with good value & performance. My favorite part of Litchi is Waypoint Mode which allows you to program the bird to fly missions autonomously even beyond RC range. If you become proficient with waypoints you can achieve things not currently possible with manual flight.

https://youtu.be/WVi3yaWadxM

DB I love watching your videos. They're always awesome. Can I share this on my FB page?

Christine96

Kuya Kano Posted at 2018-2-21 09:32
I hear its good, HOWEVER violates the DJI warranty if you have a crash.

Yeah that's what makes me nervous about using it. That said I do have the app on my iPad mini. I'm itching to try it though. Maybe when my warranty expires or maybe I'll buy a sacrificial drone for cheap on eBay.

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-2-21 22:24
Thank you very much. With Litchi you program missions on your device or computer. No RC contact is required beyond uploading & launching a mission. The bird executes the flight plan autonomously. It's a very cool & handy app.

So is the mission uploaded to the drone?

Christine96

Labroides Posted at 2018-2-21 22:32
That gets repeated a lot on forums but it's still a myth.
Using Litchi or other 3rd party apps does not void your warranty.

I would like one of the DJI forum officials to confirm this.

Christine96

Amateur Droner Posted at 2018-2-24 17:34
Update:
I just spent three days going over my Litchi short mission (very short...5 min). I finally decided to chance it...OMG it flew smoother than ever could have flown it manually.
I was so nervous, I first read up on all the controls in the app, and then spent hours..days rechecking everything.I was so nervous I forgot to turn on the video or take a picture!!

If I decide to try it I'll stick to very short flights at first. No more than say 200' round trip.

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-9-3 15:45
Thank you@ Sure feel fresh to share them.

Awesome thanks!

Christine96

flyhigh69 Posted at 2018-2-21 04:09
The litchi app is great if you want to stake out a mission. I mean really, you can fly bird at 30mph, 200 to 300 feet up, and do 35,000 to 40k ffoot mission (round trip of course) from home point. You will loose signal but Litchi will not! It keeps the drone going. I my self have lost signal, first time i paniced, but poof signal comes back and the bird comes back safely. Crazy huh. have you watched some of these videos that are posted? Pretty cool stuff. The preflight mission planning with the waypoints is the coolest part of the Litchi app I think. And now with google Earth 3D mapping its unreal. Totally cool.

What if happens if signal loss is permanent? Will the drone stick to the mission? Does Litchi have RTH?

Christine96

Will the home point still be recorded as usual when using the Litchi app?

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-9-3 17:09
Once inititated a Litchi Waypoint mission will complete the program even if you turn the RC off. You can even program the bird to land itself automatically at the end if you choose. Because the bird is flying autonomously, you must do your research & plan your mission carefully. Birds with Obstacle Avoidance can use it during a Litchi flight but, depending on the model, this can limit your maximum flight speed to that supported by OA. I disable OA for my flights as the close building passes sometimes trigger the sensors to take evasive action.

I have a Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic Air. Will the RTH on the controller still work during a Litchi Mission?

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-9-3 17:19
Look at picking up a lightly-used P3 Standard. They make great Litchi platforms. What my favorite missions are flown with.

Yeah that's the model I was thinking. Thanks!

Christine96

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-9-3 17:23
You still allow the bird to initialize like normal & it records a Home Point. When in RC range you can pause or cancel a Waypoint mission or engage RTH. Once the bird flies out of range it will continue the flight to the end.

Oh now I understand. So I'm guessing the mission is recorded to the drone.

Labroides

Christine96 Posted at 2018-9-3 15:55
I would like one of the DJI forum officials to confirm this.

I would like one of the DJI forum officials to confirm this.
Unfortunately the current moderators here have no idea and I wouldn't take any notice if they did attempt to answer.
They've frequently shown they don't understand this (along with many other things).

I'll say it again as clearly as I can to explain what the real situation is.
Although the 3rd-party-software-voids-warranty thing gets repeated a lot on forums, like so much you read here, it's still a myth.
Using Litchi or other 3rd party apps does not void your warranty.

As you would expect, DJI won't cover it if the cause of the incident was the 3rd party software.
But it would be very unusual for a 3rd party app to cause a crash.
I don't think I've ever heard of any.
If your Phantom crashes and it can be shown that the cause was a DJI issue, DJI will cover it regardless of the software being used at the time.
You may have trouble retrieving the drone to prove the cause of the incident and that would be a problem, but that can happen even with DJI software.

What if happens if signal loss is permanent? Will the drone stick to the mission?
A waypoint mission will continue if signal is lost.
This is why it is important to be certain that the mission was planned properly and will be clear of obstacles.

Does Litchi have RTH?
Will the home point still be recorded as usual when using the Litchi app?
Litchi uses the RTH feature that's a part of the Phantom's firmware.
All the Phantom features/limits etc that are baked into the Phantom firmware work regardless of what software you fly with.
... including recording the home point.

Diojr

@Dirty Bird

Just out of curiosity - in what country are you flying?

By my standards, the videos you've uploaded are far from safe if not downright dangerous. Autonomous flight, BVLOS, flying over people and heavy traffic, seemingly flying too high as well. Not the way to fly your drone if you ask me, and most certainly something that will cause a fatality if flying like that becomes standard.

BigDNY

Diojr Posted at 2018-9-25 22:27
@Dirty Bird

Just out of curiosity - in what country are you flying?

I was thinking the exact same thing. At least a couple FAA rules I know of were violated in those videos even if not autonomous. Definitely a violation by going totally autonomous AND no visual line of site. Technically you should have line of site, but I know we all push that one when flying with a live feed, and the pilot needs to always be in control. Rules or not, going full autonomous seems like a really bad idea to me. You are clueless as to whether or not something has gone wrong on the other end.

RickB27

can anyone help me myoneplus 6 with android 9 is verry laggyin the live viewofte GO before app.. anyone got some surgestions how i can solve this?

David J. · 2018-10-13

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-9-3 17:19
Look at picking up a lightly-used P3 Standard. They make great Litchi platforms. What my favorite missions are flown with.

What makes the P3S better than others? I am thinking of getting Litchi, and I have a P3S, so it seems especially intriguing.

Two Wheels · 2018-10-14

I have both and love to run missions with Litchi. However, when I am just flying I tend to use Dji Go. Just my personal preference.

Diojr · 2018-10-18

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-10-13 20:04
Well I didn't ask, but I thank you for your thoughts. My flights aren't for everyone & I see I need to dust off the old Dirty Bird disclaimer.

While i can appreciate the humor i find it misplaced.

You don't get to decide who comment on your videos. Drone flight is at its very early stages and is currently undergoing heavy regulation, which might very well end up with a complete ban - mainly because people like you cannot seem to fathom the dangers of having 1-25 kg of equipment flying around over peoples heads or homes.

There are plenty examples of drones crashing and not all of them involve pilot error. If people fly like you do, one of those crashes could end up on my (or someone else's) daughter's head. Hopefully i don't have to tell you what happens if 1 kg of electronic equipment drop from 500 meters on top of a 2-year-old?

So excuse me if i don't just ignore the fact that you somehow think that your own egocentric lust for "playing around" with your drone in a completely unsafe way is okay.