Did a down and dirty tutorial on how to use Litchi with Google Earth for pre-planning missions, it's early in the morning and only on my second cup of coffee.

Here is the Link to d/load VLM (Virtual Litchi Mission)  VLM  VLM is only available for Windows at this time.

Great info. I bought litchi ages ago but it's been a while since I used it. May give it a try.

Thanks for posting this.  I just purchased litchi yesterday and this will be great.  

So I try to run the VLM and I get the error that it cannot find google earth pro even though I am running the latest version.  I even try running google earth before running VLM and same error.
4/11/2018 8:28:19 AM - Warning - Did not find Google Earth Pro on this PC. Please Check.

Any idea?

Nevermind even though the error VLM still works anyway.  Very cool playing around with it and seems to work.  Now I need to figure out how to get the camera pointed the way I want lol.  Maybe another tutorial on litchi mission settings and stuff

Thanks for the tutorial.
I don't have Litchi but I did try out the elevation measurement in Google Earth. Worked great.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-11 07:59
Nevermind even though the error VLM still works anyway.  Very cool playing around with it and seems to work.  Now I need to figure out how to get the camera pointed the way I want lol.  Maybe another tutorial on litchi mission settings and stuff

This is the easy way. Remember the Height of Object is always the elevation you want to fly above or the same elevation as your POI, the POI is always considered 0. Height of Object can not be a negative number. Example, enter 10 for the Height of Object, enter 50 for Distance, click calculate the resulting number is a positive number (Looking Up) just put a - (Negative) in front of it and this would be the degree you would enter as the Interpolate number to keep your subject in frame when planning a mission. You can always have the camera pan from waypoint to waypoint be increasing the the degrees from -90 to 0 or visa versa 0 to -90 as you fly from waypoint to waypoint.
When using the calculator it doesn't matter what measurement you use as long as they are the same.

Calculate Angles

QuadKid Posted at 2018-4-11 14:02
This is the easy way. Remember the Height of Object is always the elevation you want to fly above or the same elevation as your POI, the POI is always considered 0. Height of Object can not be a negative number. Example, enter 10 for the Height of Object, enter 50 for Distance, click calculate the resulting number is a positive number (Looking Up) just put a - (Negative) in front of it and this would be the degree you would enter as the Interpolate number to keep your subject in frame when planning a mission. You can always have the camera pan from waypoint to waypoint be increasing the the degrees from -90 to 0 or visa versa 0 to -90 as you fly from waypoint to waypoint.

Calculate Angles

Excellent thank you for this.  You are the reason I got Litchi watching your tutorials.  I have tested it out a couple times today and it works great.  So easy to just upload the mission and it does everything.  This has taken the MP to a whole new level.  Now I will be planning missions for other areas out here I want to get footage.  This is so cool.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-11 14:06
Excellent thank you for this.  You are the reason I got Litchi watching your tutorials.  I have tested it out a couple times today and it works great.  So easy to just upload the mission and it does everything.  This has taken the MP to a whole new level.  Now I will be planning missions for other areas out here I want to get footage.  This is so cool.

Thank you, we are all here to continue our education, the more we all learn the better pilots we become.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-11 07:29
Thanks for posting this.  I just purchased litchi yesterday and this will be great.  

So I try to run the VLM and I get the error that it cannot find google earth pro even though I am running the latest version.  I even try running google earth before running VLM and same error.

Let me know how it goes, itching to buy it but worried about getting issues

Suren Posted at 2018-4-11 19:38
Let me know how it goes, itching to buy it but worried about getting issues

So far has been working great.  Have not been able to test much due to weather and work though.  Hoping this weekend I can go to a lake near here and do some testing with missions.  I will let you know.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-12 07:27
So far has been working great.  Have not been able to test much due to weather and work though.  Hoping this weekend I can go to a lake near here and do some testing with missions.  I will let you know.

Thanks. I hear that it also has a VR function so then I do not have to buy Dji Googles but can use any

Suren Posted at 2018-4-12 08:49
Thanks. I hear that it also has a VR function so then I do not have to buy Dji Googles but can use any

Yup saw a youtube video on that but I do not have any goggles so have been unable to test out   would love to though.  

I have been watching Litchi tutorials all day and reading forum comments regarding installation on the P4P + (crystal sky).  I am trying to decide whether to buy the app.

This is amazing info.  Thank you.  None of the tutorials mentioned the altitude of existing terrain and structures which is obviously pretty important!!  Without this calculation you would probably always fly way to high just in case.

I am quite new to this so might get a bit more experience before I buy but thanks again for a great tutorial.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-12 09:05
Yup saw a youtube video on that but I do not have any goggles so have been unable to test out   would love to though.

My son has a set. If i get a good review about the app gonna give it a try.

Suren Posted at 2018-4-12 09:07
My son has a set. If i get a good review about the app gonna give it a try.

I will say for me it is $22 well spent.  The ability to create your waypoints ahead of time makes it super efficient.  I have not tired it;s other features like active track but from what I have seen from others is far more reliable than on the DJI GO 4.  Also you can start/stop an orbit while tracking just by the press of a button, am pretty sure DJI GO 4 cannot.  You should really check out the guide on it.  https://flylitchi.com/help  It will truly take me a while to get the full use out of everything.  

SparksBird Posted at 2018-4-12 10:24
I will say for me it is $22 well spent.  The ability to create your waypoints ahead of time makes it super efficient.  I have not tired it;s other features like active track but from what I have seen from others is far more reliable than on the DJI GO 4.  Also you can start/stop an orbit while tracking just by the press of a button, am pretty sure DJI GO 4 cannot.  You should really check out the guide on it.  https://flylitchi.com/help  It will truly take me a while to get the full use out of everything.

Thanks browsed through it and it looks very interesting, I bookmarked the page in the event i decide to buy this app.

Litchi is a very dependable App IMO, right now it is lacking support for the Mavic Air, developers are waiting for DJI to release the SDK to Litchi to support MA.

Great tutorial, going to bookmark this lol Thanks for sharing this, it will come in very useful

Suren Posted at 2018-4-12 10:32
Thanks browsed through it and it looks very interesting, I bookmarked the page in the event i decide to buy this app.

Nice tutorial QuadKid!
Suren,  the Litchi app  is my go to app, I use the DJI Go app only for updates and calibrations.
The Litchi app does not have all the warnings, issues, fluff, and uses less power to run.
I have had no issues (only operator issues...like not checking everything 2 or 3 times), and thinking by changing to imperial measurement, that everything would automatically change...wrong, RTH stayed in meters. That caused a problem because I was 4 miles from an airport, told them I would be at  no more than 120 ft.  I set my P3S at 120 ft, but that 120 became 120m (393 ft), I was in panic mode.
You will be happy with the app! Just read everything, then double check everything.
It is worth every penny to me.

Amateur Droner Posted at 2018-4-18 22:13
Nice tutorial QuadKid!
Suren,  the Litchi app  is my go to app, I use the DJI Go app only for updates and calibrations.
The Litchi app does not have all the warnings, issues, fluff, and uses less power to run.

Thanks for the reply. Tell me if I buy this on Ios and create an account there would I need to buy it for the Android has well, I sometimes switch phones from iPhone to S8 given the battery life of the phones.

Suren Posted at 2018-4-18 23:07
Thanks for the reply. Tell me if I buy this on Ios and create an account there would I need to buy it for the Android has well, I sometimes switch phones from iPhone to S8 given the battery life of the phones.

Unfortunately yes, Android & IOS have to be purchased separately.
I dedicated my iPad 4 mini to flying my drone on Litchi, and my Samsung Note 3 for DJI Go to update and calibrate.
I don't have both apps on the same device (I ran into a problem with DJI running in the background causing issues) so I separated them and everything works fine, of course I had a few operator errors. I just went back to the Litchi web site went through all their stuff, and then followed advice from experienced pilots on here!

Amateur Droner Posted at 2018-4-19 06:40
Unfortunately yes, Adroid & IOS have to be purchased separately.
I dedicated my iPad 4 mini to flying my drone on Litchi, and my Samsung Note 3 for DJI Go to update and calibrate.
I don't have both apps on the same device (I ran into a problem with DJI running in the background causing issues) so I separated them and everything works fine, of course I had a few operator errors. I just went back to the Litchi web site went through all their stuff, and then followed advice from experienced pilots on here!

Thanks for the info