Not official yet but we all know it's coming. DJI Have held some event somewhere, still trying to find out where, but it's now in news sites and drops on the 7th

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/03/dji-phantom-autopilot-upgrade/

*Edit, was announced at the IFA 2015

Cool, looking forward to the 7th !

HFI Posted at 2015-9-3 11:36
Cool, looking forward to the 7th !

What I have seen about the waypoint flying is you have to fly the route to program the course. Would have been way better if it was programmed through the app.

Finally!  Great news, but also a little disappointing that Follow Me is only going to be on the Phantom 3 & not the Inspire.  This was one of the modes I was really looking forward to.  Wonder why it wasn't implemented...

DJI's response on Follow Me from the Facebook thread on the release:

The current implementation of “Follow Me” is not optimized for larger systems, such as the Inspire 1, which require a higher standard of caution in operation. We are constantly evolving our products and are looking for new ways to make it easier to capture professional quality footage with our cameras.

Our SDK is also open for developers to design additional intelligent features in flight and camera orientation.

Dave R Posted at 2015-9-3 12:16
Finally!  Great news, but also a little disappointing that Follow Me is only going to be on the Phan ...

Yeah just read that. If the waypoint flying is pretty clunky to setup I'll only really be interested in POI, it "may" make it a little easier when flying solo.

Well that's kind of annoying to have to fly every route manually before the waypoints can be set but that might give DJI an "out" if people try to claim that POI crashed their aircraft.

one more link:

http://www.cnet.com/news/dji-pha ... omous-flight-modes/

It will be a clunky and basic implementation.
We will need to look to 3rd parties for proper flight planning apps.

iSkyUnmannedSys Posted at 2015-9-3 18:39
What I have seen about the waypoint flying is you have to fly the route to program the course. Wou ...

Wrong... Whats different about this waypoint system from the vision waypoints is that now in order to set waypoints.. the craft have to be in the air already..... You dont have to fly the route manually first to ste the waypoints... That would defeat the entire perpouse of a GS...

All that wait for a somewhat disappointing implementation. Let hope the speculation is wrong and they come up trumps

Official facebook announcement

https://www.facebook.com/DJIglobal/posts/723421077763768?fref=nf

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 22:04
Wrong... Whats different about this waypoint system from the vision waypoints is that now in order ...

Because it's not a proper GS - just a hack implementation of waypoint to waypoint nav, based on current craft position. No sign of a proper flight planning / spatial course plotting solution.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 20:10
Because it's not a proper GS - just a hack implementation of waypoint to waypoint nav, based on cu ...

You are still able to set waypoints... This is more of a security implemetantion rather than a downgrade.. If you want to set waypoints... DJI wants to make sure you at least know how to start the craft on your own before being able to set the points..... I welcome this update... Learn how to fly...

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 13:10
Because it's not a proper GS - just a hack implementation of waypoint to waypoint nav, based on cu ...

Which is why I was saying it's clunky and waste battery time. Having watched a video of how it works it takes some time to plot a flight path.

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 22:13
You are still able to set waypoints... This is more of a security implemetantion rather than a dow ...

Completely irrelevant and nothing to do with security.
I am able to fly quite well and safely thank you very much.

Autonomous navigation requires / assumes some form of flight planning functionality.
This is just a location logging and replay function - no planning, no ability to plot against a map, no ability to program camera movement and activation.

This will be fine for people making youtube clips, but it's far from the level of a professional tool. We will have to hope for a decent 3rd party solution I suppose.

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 13:13
You are still able to set waypoints... This is more of a security implemetantion rather than a dow ...

What's learning how to fly got to do with it. Waypoints are nothing to do with avoiding the need to learn to fly the aircraft. I think you've missed the point.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 20:24
Completely irrelevant and nothing to do with security.
I am able to fly quite well and safely tha ...

It's the same as the vision plus then....  This is waypoint system not a full GS...  But yeah now i see your point.. Then again this is waypoints not a full scale GS...

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 22:49
It's the same as the vision plus then....  This is waypoint system not a full GS...  But yeah now  ...

And one might reasonably believe or expect that a product like the Inspire would have some more professional functionality in terms of flight planning.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 13:58
And one might reasonably believe or expect that a product like the Inspire would have some more pr ...

You would have thought. It's a start I guess, just not very efficient with battery usage and time on a site. Will have to see how it works out for survey work and grid patterns when we get to try it out, but from the face of it you may as well just fly the pattern anyway and not bother marking the waypoints. Unless you want to fly the exact same pattern more than once.

Agreed, will severely limit duration of any nav flight.
Will make commercial use in feasible.
Lipstick on the pig that is DJI GO.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 15:16
Agreed, will severely limit duration of any nav flight.
Will make commercial use in feasible.
Lipst ...

I'll probably not use the new features too much to be honest. Just hope they have fixed the horizon drift if anything.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-9-3 20:58
And one might reasonably believe or expect that a product like the Inspire would have some more pr ...

Agreed and let me apologize... I now see  and understand your point of view and i have to agree 100%.  What DJI implemented is nothing but pathetic.... It's actually a downgrade from the waypoint system in the Phantom 2 Vision.... Smh.

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 16:18
Agreed and let me apologize... I now see  and understand your point of view and i have to agree 10 ...

It's probably for some legal reason why they haven't done this.

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 08:04
Wrong... Whats different about this waypoint system from the vision waypoints is that now in order ...

Yes you DO have to fly the entire route manually to set all waypoints, then fly the same route autonomously.  This sucks.  Including sucking up your battery juice!

After all the wait for this waypoint auto flight and now it would appear from the above posts that you have to fly the route before you can fly an automated flight via waypoints, this makes no sense whatsoever and has zero value to commercial operators.  How many batteries does DJI expect you to have to undertake this kind of stupid waypoint flying.  We need Automated flight planning with waypoints that can be programmed directly from the app.

This sounds like a total let down.  Very very very very very disappointed if this turns out to be true.

Why can't DJI just listen to its Inspire owners and commercial operators, and deliver what everyone has been patiently waiting for and which to be fare DJI did promise nearly a year ago.  I am finding it hard to beleive we have waited so long for this.  Sounds like another media promotion hype to sell the DJI name, which like the media nonensense now delivered with the Go App is simply not needed by most commercial operators.


What does it take for DJI to deliver what is expected.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-9-3 17:38
I wonder if this would work...
Hook up to a PC, fly the route in the simulator (not the IOS App sim  ...

Paul,

This is nonsense.  The simulator app doesn't even recognise maps.  

I am struggling to believe anything that DJI now tell us regarding Automated flights and waypoint flying, as they simply haven't fulfilled their original promises in my opinion.   If they were going to provide this level of technology  as was promised and expected by many  of us, this is the time for it, not in another three months or next year, but now.

GB44 Posted at 2015-9-3 17:43
Paul,

This is nonsense.  The simulator app doesn't even recognise maps.  

Perhaps one advantage of this automated flight 'lite' offering is for the single operator. Ok you have fly the route first to establish the Waypoints, but once done at least you can as a single operator concentrate on the camera control. Of course this could introduce issues of not watching the RPAS in flight, which is not ideal from a good practice standpoint.

where are you guys seeing it being flown on video, the way points mode I mean? Is it shown on the DJI website? And I still do not believe the follow me explanation. Bigger? Not much. Not complaining right now. I will not complain until I have tried what they are delivering. You know most of us post here or read the posts here for help about our problems. You guys and gals are excellent when I need your help as someone usually will answer me giving me the cure to a problem. Also YouTube is good for info. However, you guys do a great job in helping me. Thanks.

This comes out on my birthday

And why won't the Inspire 1 have the Follow Me feature????????

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 14:13
You are still able to set waypoints... This is more of a security implemetantion rather than a dow ...

Thats crap. Waypoints have to be set with time and good light conditions not with a tablet against the sun when battery is running. DJI will reconsider this when the first hits a tree with a waypoint set like this because he couldnt see exactly under such circumstances.

They say it's bigger and requires more work, something like that. Do a search on the Internet for the updated firmware or read the information from ISky at the beginning of these posts.The current implementation of “Follow Me” is not optimized for larger systems, such as the Inspire 1, which require a higher standard of caution in operation. We are constantly evolving our products and are looking for new ways to make it easier to capture professional quality footage with our cameras.

Our SDK is also open for developers to design additional intelligent features in flight and camera orientation.

Also remember they went from 32 channels to 8 now. That's also an issue to some of us......

What I'm really interested in with this new firmware is the addition of a 2.7k recording mode on the Phantom 3 Advance. It implies that DJI is doing some work on camera systems, which imho, is really needed on the Inspire 1.

If anyone has flown the P3 with the new firmware in it and have a video showing it and the pilot app please list the link to your video here so we all can see it. If anyone knows a site that has that shown on also list it here for all of us. To me there is no use in bashing DJI until we test fly the new firmware. We do not know what the final release will include nor how or what it will and will not do. You guys are better then me when it comes to this, however it just seems not right in saying anything until we test fly the new firmware. Also, I wonder if the new firmware will have problems loading? I sure hope not. And maybe by loading the updated firmware will take care of some of the problems we had loading the last firmware drop. Have now way of mowing this right now. I'll be waiting until the 7th and I hope it's released when they said it would be.

Yeahh I already complained about this in several posts and forums. My opinion on this should be clear. I disagree with any feature reduction. They should make a warning window "Make sure your crap government allows bla bla" with an option I agree dont show this again and good is. :@

Will there also be a new SDK firmware version?

ronnydsosa@gmai Posted at 2015-9-3 05:04
Wrong... Whats different about this waypoint system from the vision waypoints is that now in order ...

Sorry but actually you are wrong. You do need to fly the mission first before you set the waypoints.

I know this is not the Way Point system that every one was hoping for. But it can still be useful. You  have full control over the camera while in WP mode.Pilot can operate the camera (orientation and tilt) independently in a one-pilot set-up. You can do 360's with the craft along the whole flight if you would want. You can also save your WP mission so that on a future date/time you can redo it wihout flying it again.

I think for legal and liability reasons the old Way Point system (like we had on the Phantom Vision)  is not available at this time. That could change in the future.