Labroides Posted at 12-11 12:56
Getting a waypoint function is not getting an SDK.
What kind of waypoint functionality has DJI delivered anyway?
Do the waypoints and route programming upload to the drone or are they relayed to the drone with virtual sticks?

Do the waypoints and route programming upload to the drone or are they relayed to the drone with virtual sticks?
Is the drone able to autonomously continue a way point mission if signal is lost or is it a virtual sticks kind of waypoint ability?
Yes to all…

hallmark007 Posted at 12-11 12:49
That should not be half or 50%. 95% are just looking for waypoints its about 5% that require or are looking for SDK….

I did not dare to put more than 50%.

hallmark007 Posted at 12-11 13:14
Do the waypoints and route programming upload to the drone or are they relayed to the drone with virtual sticks?
Is the drone able to autonomously continue a way point mission if signal is lost or is it a virtual sticks kind of waypoint ability?
Yes to all…

Then that's a start, but it's still not helping anyone that needs DJI to release an SDK.

Labroides Posted at 12-11 12:56
Getting a waypoint function is not getting an SDK.
What kind of waypoint functionality has DJI delivered anyway?
Do the waypoints and route programming upload to the drone or are they relayed to the drone with virtual sticks?

Its proper waypoints not virtual, but you missed my point, the guy said no to SDK and no to waypoints yet the waypoints have arrived, so is he also wrong re SDK too?

Whether it's <50% or 95%, my understanding is there's a percentage of those who requested SDK actually want nothing much more than Waypoints anyway. I am already quite grateful that DJI finally added Waypoints to the non-enterprise Mavic3 series, while reserving SDK for the enterprise models. DJI simply cannot, and will not give everything that the customers request, otherwise one can simply buy the lowest and cheapest model and then start requesting DJI to add every single feature from the more expensive models.

The point of Dji used to be to provide the most and best drone package they could, however it seems others are arguing in favor of them intentionally removing features to upsell their pricier drones. A flagship drone for $2,000 - $5,000 depending on the package should not be more limited than their prior models that are half the price or less. The SDK doesn't eliminate the need for the Enterprise level, it just gives those a bit lower in the expensive consumer level some of the same capabilities. Anyone who's serious with mapping duties will get a actual RTK drone like the Enterprise ones, but they shouldn't be the only ones with those capabilities. But for those of us that just want to do a few mapping/automated missions but don't have the need for a dedicated drone to handle those jobs, it'd be a big improvement over manually flying.

Jbo Posted at 12-12 10:04
The point of Dji used to be to provide the most and best drone package they could, however it seems others are arguing in favor of them intentionally removing features to upsell their pricier drones. A flagship drone for $2,000 - $5,000 depending on the package should not be more limited than their prior models that are half the price or less. The SDK doesn't eliminate the need for the Enterprise level, it just gives those a bit lower in the expensive consumer level some of the same capabilities. Anyone who's serious with mapping duties will get a actual RTK drone like the Enterprise ones, but they shouldn't be the only ones with those capabilities. But for those of us that just want to do a few mapping/automated missions but don't have the need for a dedicated drone to handle those jobs, it'd be a big improvement over manually flying.

"it seems others are arguing in favor of them intentionally removing features to upsell their pricier drones"

nothing could be further from the truth.  

Jbo Posted at 12-12 10:04
The point of Dji used to be to provide the most and best drone package they could, however it seems others are arguing in favor of them intentionally removing features to upsell their pricier drones. A flagship drone for $2,000 - $5,000 depending on the package should not be more limited than their prior models that are half the price or less. The SDK doesn't eliminate the need for the Enterprise level, it just gives those a bit lower in the expensive consumer level some of the same capabilities. Anyone who's serious with mapping duties will get a actual RTK drone like the Enterprise ones, but they shouldn't be the only ones with those capabilities. But for those of us that just want to do a few mapping/automated missions but don't have the need for a dedicated drone to handle those jobs, it'd be a big improvement over manually flying.

Dji have released SDK on other drones but it has been slow in the case of M3. I don’t think it has anything to do with enterprise drones, there were enterprise drones when M2P was released and it didn’t stop SDK being released. Features are not being held back but certainly with M3 they were slow to appear but now it has many really good features and in its class there is nothing better out there. We probably will never know why SDK has not been released yet, but it doesn’t mean it won’t. I think if you needed or it was a deal breaker that SDK be released and early then you bought the wrong drone, if you were hoping that SDK would be released at sometime in the future to improve your use of the drone , well there is still a reasonable expectation that this will happen. But private companies are basically a law on to themselves so getting the answers is a bit like pulling teeth.

Most likely will not be buying DJI mavic drones anymore if they are playing this consumer game.  It's a lot like Apple selling iPhones now - you won't get the good stuff unless you buy the top of the line and the rest are just bleh.   DJI is going to cause a sub-par drone market by pushing customers and future drone operators to cheaper brands that aren't playing these games and provide autonomous flight features out of the box -- I was just watching product reviews on another brand that has mapping for $2k and a 60fps 4K Camera -- the truth is in post editing is where you make the final product so if I had the autonomous features and some post editing skill, I'm confident I could make the same quality video and that in my opinion is going to cause people to switch to other brands -- and I think that's going to open up the drone market to these which could in effect ruin drones for consumers if they start having fly-aways and crashes due to cheaper brands.  That's on DJI - not us -- all they need to do is announce with some sensibility that they are going to release the SDK for Mavic 3 Consumer drones and that would eliminate this whole concern - even if we had to wait a couple of months.

Be careful though voicing your concerns, you might get called an "anti-dji troll" here for speaking your truth like I did.  I put up a 55 minute video that clearly discusses what lack of SDK means for the DJI Mavic 3.  I got called a troll for doing that here on the forums, but if we don't speak out as a community and raise awareness, then we'll continue to be persuaded by DJI to buy the $4k - $5k drones just to get features that the SDK should provide us.

No. The SDK would not affect my choice of drone.

I am already starting to look at Anafi for my next purchase based on how DJI is treating this matter.

An SDK would be a nice addition for the Mavic 3, glad to still have my M2P though. For those of us who upgraded, having the same options available in "the latest and greatest product" is something that's generally expected.

WolfsDragoons Posted at 3-22 21:16
An SDK would be a nice addition for the Mavic 3, glad to still have my M2P though. For those of us who upgraded, having the same options available in "the latest and greatest product" is something that's generally expected.

I will not be purchasing a Mavic 3 (would prefer the Cinema) until DJI releases SDK and Litchi releases an update.  Why?  I do all my mission planing in Google Earth and fly the mission using Litchi Virtual Mission.  This way I can fly the mission from my office and know exactly what will be in the field of view throughout the video.  I can also check that I will not be running into anything during the flight.  The advantage of this is that I can create a number of missions prior to arriving at the site.  Once I am at the site, I can sequentially run each mission.  Litchi Virtual Mission is a huge on-site time saver.

Don

Labroides Posted at 2022-12-11 12:56
Getting a waypoint function is not getting an SDK.
What kind of waypoint functionality has DJI delivered anyway?
Do the waypoints and route programming upload to the drone or are they relayed to the drone with virtual sticks?

Yes, the waypoints upload to the drone. Continue after signal loss is one of the options. The Waypoints are completely editable, even after saving and running. Using enough waypoints, one could easily do mapping. Check some of the tutor videos for more info.

Mobilehomer Posted at 3-23 08:31
Yes, the waypoints upload to the drone. Continue after signal loss is one of the options. The Waypoints are completely editable, even after saving and running. Using enough waypoints, one could easily do mapping. Check some of the tutor videos for more info.

This is nice and all, but the SDK would be very useful for things like Mapping (photogrammetry) with Dronedeploy and Dronelink, or even Litchi and my Mission Planner to Litchi Converter (as a very cheap alternative).

Waypoints are nice, but having SDK + Waypoints would be much nicer.

Yaros1 Posted at 4-3 03:47
This is nice and all, but the SDK would be very useful for things like Mapping (photogrammetry) with Dronedeploy and Dronelink, or even Litchi and my Mission Planner to Litchi Converter (as a very cheap alternative).

Waypoints are nice, but having SDK + Waypoints would be much nicer.

Yep, all the other DJI drones with on-board waypoints have continuation support from the third party apps. I would think the M3 SDK would also.

hallmark007 Posted at 2022-10-4 11:29
Would a trade in for an enterprise not be a much better option, drones for specific actions instead of hoping for jack of all trades drone that dji seem to be moving away from.

So. I own both the M3 and the M3E
The M3E does not have features that the M3 has. And when I asked about them I got the "buy the right drone for the task" answer.

I mention this because there's no need for either drone not to have the features the other does unless there is a technical limitation. Some of this is that DJI have limited the M3E or the M3. 'Now,' you might say, 'you have both, so you have no grounds for complaint'. Except I don't have a car, so when I take my drone with me, it's in the bag on my bike or scooter. I can't take both with me.

CuAnnan Posted at 4-3 13:00
So. I own both the M3 and the M3E
The M3E does not have features that the M3 has. And when I asked about them I got the "buy the right drone for the task" answer.

If they both had the same features then there would be no need for two drones. We also don’t know or at least I don’t know if constantly stuffing features and software into these small drones if it will be detrimental to how they preform or if to many features will just water down the overall experience. I buy the M3 I expect good video and good photography if adding other features I don’t need or want effects what I’m most interested in then I don’t want this.

The fact you don’t have a car is your own choice and has little to do with what I was discussing.

They also said the same thing about the Mini 3 Pro then announced it was coming. Just hang in there.  Boycott? Those other manufacturers scare me. I trust DJI drones. Maybe I’m biased with about 10 years of flying since the original phantom but I won’t boycott yet I will ge slightly frustrated until they do release it.  

They get their feelings hurt when more intelligent people find a way to make additional money with their products without paying DJI.

DJI has made that abundantly clear by only releasing SDK for Mavic3 Enterprise, which costs twice as much and you need to be an Enterprise customer for. They’re looking to entice new enterprise customers that use better mapping software like Maps Made Easy and Drone Deploy, to switch their fleet to M3E.

They already have the SDK, it would require extremely minimal work to simply release it. The SDK for Mavic 3 Enterprise is literally identical minus a few characters changed in the code.