There features were promised to us even before the actual release of inspire 1. Now we are in 8th month, where are thoses features? Not to mention its newsletter on April stating that these will be available in a few months time.

Has DJI abandoned Inspire 1 completely?

They have been beta testing a new release for a month now - no word on when the testing is due to be completed, nor what changes there will be in the release when it is made publicly available.
It could just be bug fixes, it could be a full GS and Nav package - no-one outside the NDA restricted beta test group and DJI knows this and they are not telling anyone.

For some ludicrous reason, DJI believes that their customers don't need to know just what is happening with their investment, what progress is being made on fixes and new functionality nor what plans are in place for the future. First principles would clearly indicate that engaging with and clearly communicating to your user base is what breeds customer loyalty and enthusiasm for the brand.

When it actually arrives, I hope it's awesome and takes us all to the next level of capability - but it's frustrating to be kept in the dark by an organisation you spend $$ to be associated with.

Hi,

I am a Sydney drone 'pilot', and have enjoyed the amazing Inspire 1 for months and months now all around Australia (600 flights - no crashes), and overcoming my own pilot maturation has far exceeded the pace of technological adolescence that you refer to with DJI. The kind of level of complaining I ONLY read about on this forum would be justifiable for something in the 20-30k hobby range, not something so COST EFFECTIVE as an inspire! I just don't get it. Having said that, my experiences with anything of a technological nature has been through Camzilla in Sydney, who have been nothing short of beyond amazing with both customer service and knowledge. (man did I go into this game blind!)
Regarding the Way point / GS system (Navi-mode navigation / hot point / point of interest) I have been testing this for over 2 months now. I am not a 'beta tester' nor do I have access to some hidden world of DJI secrets - It's out there and has been growing in both reliability and popularity away from this site! Just do some research! I was even able to present to a bunch of scientists (reliably) waypoint and automated image capture which was flawless on the Inspire 1. "Look mum - no hands!"
DJI SDK firmware is publicly downloadable from DJI, and full ground station support has absolutely no interference with standard GPS mode (the small switch on the left - switch back to P and it is a killswitch / failsafe  for any autonomous flight). this has been the case even 2-3 months before I even knew about it.

Besides the hand held gimbal mount, If the inspire was at the end of its shelf life according to development resources, I would have NO problems - they have certainly NOT sold me short. Black magic control / mount / gimbal would be nice, but so would an S900 or two...

You are not going to get a Groundstation tie to the pilot app anymore, but exactly the same promise from DJI hasn't changed, its just through 3rd party developers. but hey, those who are desperate - I just wanted to say that if you really needed it now, it's been available for the inspire for a few months now, and is very reliable...

Tim




There is a few programs that do it, but I have been testing from its infancy stage: Ultimate Flight V3 (not v2) which an amazing programmer called Ken argo has been developing for months.
A few days ago when DJI released another Ground Station SDK firmware upgrade to the inspire and phantom 3 series, the waypoints are even more rock solid and for me have worked 100 percent of the time.

Minmim81 Posted at 2015-7-31 14:26
Hi,

I am a Sydney drone 'pilot', and have enjoyed the amazing Inspire 1 for months and months now a ...

Hi Tim,

Sorry, just to clarify, are you running s third party app that provides waypoint functionality, or is this from DJI?

Thanks

Guys, let me clear up some things!!!

I'm a beta tester but I wont tell you anything about what's in the next package. If you want to know sign up for beta.

What you have to know: Go to forum - SDK. You can see that a new SDK Mobile has been released which supports GS and Autopilot functions, also ORBIT POI. This means, anyone with SDK can develop a program for any platform which will use these functions.
BUT it doesn't mean that these functions will be available directly from DJI. Firmware supports it.. But DJI has to make a compatible software for it. If the make it via DJI Pilot or they develop a new app for it is a mystery.

I know your agony, mine is the same. I need autopilot for photogrammetry. Manual flights can do well, since the I1 is a super stable platform. BUT - some jobs require multiple flights over a time period, and its impossible to do it manually!!! I know there are some developers which are working on such functions, but I don't want to pay extra money for something that supposed to be free, officially supported by DJI. I love what 3rd party developers do, but If I crash my I1 because of a software bug, they wont pay  me the repair cost.


I hope soon DJI will deliver what they promised.....

lethbrp Posted at 2015-7-31 15:14
Hi Tim,

Sorry, just to clarify, are you running s third party app that provides waypoint function ...

the GS  functionality can only be allowed (or "switched on")  by DJI which is possible simply by installing of any of the last few SDK firmware updates, and the functionality is controlled by third party apps. With Apple, there is a very different quality control process relating to the use of the Thunderbolt enterprise API use that DJI has somehow managed to get around (that no one else has managed to do legally outside of the apple app strore), but Android developers have not been held up by this legal agreement situation, and the problem with streaming video bandwidth lag. People on hold through this issue such as the amazing looking pix4d grid automation waypoint generator for their mapping autonomy, whereas ultimate flight v3 accesses everything that the public SDK firmware already supports - which is flawless waypoint /. groundstation / orbit (which they call hotpoint). there are google groups on the testing of this, but as I said I am NOT a tester, and there is NO risk of crash IF I am ready to hit the manual override / GS killswitch on the remote at any time, which disengages ANY third party firmware to the DJI 'normal' firmware settings". Again, it is your risk to take, but no different to flying on the normal GPS flight mode through the pilot app. Just that the software is not so nice looking with its layout, and you have to load the SDK firmware update to enable the inspire (or p3s) to accept the GS functionality (on top of normal function).
I also create georeferenced mapping with pointcloud 3d geometric visualisation for archelogical purposes, so my need for automation is pretty unforgiving and uncompromising - I am satisfied with its CURRENT capabilities, I just don't think anyone knows about what people are doing with these features cause they are too busy using it in the field to be writing or sharing about it. but people like Jim Hare inspire me to actually give back to this community who help everyone on here, so I cant keep sitting on this amazing GS functionality while everyone else thinks its not doable today! very exciting to see it fly- looks like something out of the terminator with its less organic flight characteristics, and banking turn capabilities.
Can't wait for pix4d to come out, as it will automaticall create the waypoints on a grid, rather than edit each qaypoint and each action...

Minmim81 Posted at 2015-7-31 17:04
the GS  functionality can only be allowed (or "switched on")  by DJI which is possible simply by i ...

Nice to see you contributing to the forum.

There are many of us on the forum who are looking forward to the automated flight app release.  I must admit I was a little confused at first when you were saying this is available now.   What you are saying though it is available for developers such as the Autoflight Logic App that is also currently being beta tested.

If the Inspire system version that you have been testing via the Third Party developer route is as good as you say it is, then there will be many happy pilots on this forum when the app eventually gets released.

As for forum members who may be complaining about the money invested in these aircraft I have to disagree with you view.  In my humble opinion, it doesn't matter if it cost half of what we've paid for the Inspire, if something was  promised and it isn't delivered that is not right and probably breaches many sale of goods act in many countries.  It is not much to ask for,  just deliver what is promised and paid for.

thank you, and no - I am not referring to beta testing: to clarify I refer to groundstation (GS) as a now enabled and working capability and flight system within A2 / inspire 1 + p3 not a specific software called 'ground station'), but software utilising this is released and available (no not autoflight logic yet- I cant wait for them, I am on their android beta waiting list)
if you want ground station abilities (way points, orbit etc / autonomous flight) and you want this today, I downloaded and paid for an app on the Android play store called Ultimate flight v3 which was a process involving downloading the app (for about 13 AU Dollars, then following his link to update the inspire's firmware with DJI's own publicly downloadable Firmware specific to groundstation from the DJI site - which you receive upon download of the app. It simply unlocks additional (not different) systems that has been developed by DJI on the inspire (and the P3) so that such third party developers can send function to the drone regarding these automation capabilities. Such as autoflight logic (which does not have ground station yet, and is not android testing yet). Other developers have not released their apps yet, they are in beta testing - but as I said twice before: if you are uncomfortable, don't update to dji's newer firmware for groundstation - wait until they maybe incorporate it into the normal version download that you see when going through the pilot app, and also at ANY time (and this goes in the future too) if you switch the A-F-P stitch back to the P position on the remote- any third party OR autonomous flight systems are instantly disengaged and flight returns to normal, and the aircraft just sits there hovering as usual. (so for if some reason, which I have not experienced or hear of, the aircraft starts hurtling towards a tree or cliff, and you switch, it applies the same 'air'brake' that is based on your settings in the pilot app, as it would you normally letting go of the sticks, plus what ever stick imputs you then do.
And I agree with you: any broken promise is completely irrelevant to cost and is unacceptable, but I had simply noticed there to be a ground station-delay bandwagon that seemed magnetic to complaints, and that if you needed ground station to perform jobs more than time to complaining it can be done:  with by even 2 months ago, then DJI hadn't actually prevented that from being possible (if you use a third party app).
I'm sorry if this was not the DJI groundstation software answer you were hoping for - maybe they will release their own app to control their groundstation functionality that is there...
One thing many guys are waiting for prior to releasing what they have been testing is a fix on the notorious video lag that happens on EVERYTHING (in my experience) except an ipadair2 - and there is a lot of documentation on the limitations of tablet GPU performance due to the growing and now more complex app and firmware architecture. my solution is to use Zeiss goggles when vital (a pain, and cost me AU$1400 after import tax just to get them into Sydney, andf the meter of temperamental plugs are aweful) with the android tablet using ultimate flight v3 to execute and upload waypoints (as its video live feed is aweful (dji issue not developers or hardware),  and on the second controller I have the ipad air2 which provides the smoothest video with the least latency I have experienced - a stupid work-a-round I know. So maybe a promise-work-around, but waypoints definitely are rock-solid, and I love that inspire (damn it).
Hope this helps if you are stuck and really needing waypoints / GS for work or what ever.
Its minimum altitude is 10 meters, and minimum speed is 3kph, and at the moment it goes to 75km/h, I think it has 50 waypoints which I heard they are experimenting with a different system for us mappers that might need 200+ ponts, which becomes a limitation to batteries. Again waypoint numbers were determined by the DJI architecture of the A2 flight system / architecture, but its great, and for me to a point where I have experienced very accurate and reliable solution to automatically acquiring pics for stitching / 3d / video.

Am I being added to the group that believes that POI will never work on this POS???? Get it together DJI!