When is ground point photo taken.

In one of your posts you say "we automatically record an image at the landing point after the completion of every mapping mission.".

My standard practice has been to take control of the drone as soon as the message comes up that says the mission is finished and get ready yo take control.

Clearly (seeing as the drone may be half a km or more away) I am taking control too early.

At what stage is the ground control image taken (when the aircraft is above the takeoff point but still at its "come home" altitude)?

Is their a message to say the photo has been taken or do you have to listen for an audible sound from the controller?

I normally start flying close to shade (trees) so I don't want the aircraft to start descending too far before I take control.

Wouldn't it be better to take the ground reference photo at the start of the mission in case, for whatever reason, the pilot decides to abort prematurely but perhaps when the mission is essentially complete (eg. as a result of unhealthy interest from a wedge tailed eagles as happened to me a week or so ago)?

Ian Grierson March 29, 2016 03:06

Official comment

The image will be taken when the aircraft lands while still under automated control. I don't really know what will happen if you are manually landing it. It very well might not be taken. The idea behind the automated landing is that the pilot can adjust the flight as desired to land safely while still being able to receive automated flight event messages from the aircraft.

You can see that the image is taken when the image count is incremented by one at the time of landing.

We take it at the end because the barometer tends to drift as the aircraft warms up and capturing it at the end gives us the takeoff location and the drift in one shot. If you are concerned about it you can certainly take your own ground reference image by tapping the top half of the camera preview area with two fingers before taking off.

Tudor March 29, 2016 18:55

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3 comments

In my case, landing under program control is a risky business. The area is highly uneven and whilst takeoff is from a small board (30cmx30cm) I wouldn't trust the system to land back on it safely. So I catch the drone and turn off above the ground.

Just to clarify your advice - is it correct that after loading the mission but before starting, I can do a single tap with two fingers on the top half of the preview to take a photo?

Is there any audible or visual feedback to say this has been done successfully?

Ian Grierson March 30, 2016 10:36 0 votes

You can manually direct the aircraft while it is landing to get it back where it needs to be.

Any time you take a picture you will see the image count go up by one if there is a valid flight loaded. You will also see the camera preview screen go dark for a second like it does any other time an image is taken.

Jay March 30, 2016 15:37 0 votes