Cetacean
 Captain
Flight distance : 2528264 ft
United States
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Aloha Adeolu,
Without Internet, you are at a serious disadvantage but the problems can be solved. However, the precision and efficiency will be hard to match the precision and efficiency you can get when Internet is available. How do you access this Forum if you have no Internet or is the farm where you want to map in a different location? If, at the end of the day, you have Internet, then there are a lot more options available to you.
DJI uses GPS / GLONASS for precision flying, but the flight maps are only available through the Internet. There is a way to save maps so they can be used when there is no Internet, but I do not know if that would be available to you. In most cases, you have to keep the DJI GO 4 app open between an Internet available location and the planned flight area that has no Internet. Possibly a big problem for you.
Because the Mavic Pro uses GPS / GLONASS, the Waypoints Mode, of the Intelligent Flight Modes, will allow you to fly a manual grid to map the farm. The plan you develop for the mapping project will depend on how many acres you need to map. DJI Waypoints does allow you 99 waypoints though, so there are resources available.
DJI also can save the waypoints pattern as a mission in the DJI GO 4 app, but you cannot edit that pattern. If you started with a higher altitude and very few waypoints, you will have a better overview of the farm. If the wind is calm and you are not near any manned commercial flight areas, you can get up to 500 meters for a view that will make those of us who are surrounded by manned aircraft jealous.
By creating a high altitude map of the farm, you will have a very good resource for your more detailed maps as you lower your altitude. Starting at the high altitude and taking photos will be a very helpful planning tool. Using photo editing software will allow you to choose waypoints based on landmarks and / or vegetation (even furrow patterns). If the farm is large, work a little at a time and use the smaller parts to build the whole map.
In this process, you should record videos in the highest resolution you can process with your computer software. The DJI GO 4 app does allow you to record video and shoot photos at the same time but the photos will have to be .jpg. For better photos, you will have to wait until you have developed your detailed flight pattern at a lower altitude and run just photo missions with
the best available photo format.
There is also the Litchi app that is an alternative flight software based on DJI GO 4 that does allow you to plan a flight pattern on a computer using Google Earth for the GPS / GLONASS waypoints. But to implement the flight, it requires an Internet connection and that may be a problem for your plan.
However, the Litchi app ($30 US) can allow you to plan a pattern that you can then try to duplicate with the Waypoints Mode in the DJI GO 4 app. The planning with the Litchi app can really help you work around problems that you will see in the field before you get in the field. Unless you get Internet at the farm location, you will have to think of the Litchi app as only a planning tool.
Your mapping project is going to be a challenge, but it can succeed. You will have to really think through every part of the project and figure out how to use your resources to solve the problems you encounter - and DJI offers you a lot of resources right off the shelf. Starting at a high altitude will really help you get an overview of the project area that you can use at the farm even when there is no Internet. The overview will be much better than Google Earth.
Here on the Forum, you will have access to a lot of help in figuring out any problems you encounter. For example, we will offer suggestions on antennae orientations for the different types of flying you will be doing while mapping, i.e. straight up will be different from way out.
Keep us posted on the project!
Aloha and Drone On! |
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