Tower app

[z3r01]

the tower app beta has live view, you can also auto take off and land from within the tower app, and the tower app also has a pause button on the beta

 

[SkyDoctor]

Well clearing all waypoints is deleting the mission.

If you want you mean is that you want to delete the mission off of the Solo, then you have two options:

1. Clear all waypoints in Tower and then upload what is now a blank mission to the Solo.

2. Switch to Acro mode and fly your Solo at full speed into a brick wall.

When you clear waypoints from Tower for android, and tap on the three dots in the upper right of the Editor screen and tap (Import from file.) The mission is still stored there. How do you delete this from your device not from the drone?

 

[KRVer]

When you clear waypoints from Tower for android, and tap on the three dots in the upper right of the Editor screen and tap (Import from file.) The mission is still stored there. How do you delete this from your device not from the drone?

If you are tapping "Import from Device" and are seeing some files, they are files that are stored on your Android (you can save multiple mission files). By default, they are on your Device Storage (not your SD Card) in the "Tower/Waypoints" folder.

If you are just wanting to clear waypoints from your drone, erikgraham was correct -- all you need to do is clear waypoints from your current tower mission and then upload that to your drone.

 

[erikgraham]

When you clear waypoints from Tower for android, and tap on the three dots in the upper right of the Editor screen and tap (Import from file.) The mission is still stored there. How do you delete this from your device not from the drone?

Got it. Delete from phone/tablet, not drone.

So to delete it from your device you need to use an Android file manager. Or you can connect the android to a mac or PC and browse your files with that, then delete the ones you don't want. Off the top of my head I don't remember exactly which folder the mission files are stored in, but it's pretty easy to find, it's probably mentioned on 3DRs tower support page, and of course there is always Google. Anyway, the point is that you don't delete the mission from inside Tower... use a file manager.

 

[SkyDoctor]

If you are tapping "Import from Device" and are seeing some files, they are files that are stored on your Android (you can save multiple mission files). By default, they are on your Device Storage (not your SD Card) in the "Tower/Waypoints" folder.

If you are just wanting to clear waypoints from your drone, erikgraham was correct -- all you need to do is clear waypoints from your current tower mission and then upload that to your drone.

How do you get into the Tower Waypoint folder to delete these files. I'm new to android platform.

 

[erikgraham]

How do you get into the Tower Waypoint folder to delete these files. I'm new to android platform.

Connect to Mac or PC, or download one of the many free Android file managers (if it doesn't have one on it already)

 

[RichWest]

How do you get into the Tower Waypoint folder to delete these files. I'm new to android platform.

I believe all android systems have a file manager of some sorts.... look in your available apps. My waypoint files were located in the following directory....sdcard/tower/waypoints

 

[KRVer]

I believe all android systems have a file manager of some sorts.... look in your available apps. My waypoint files were located in the following directory....sdcard/tower/waypoints

There should be an app in Apps named something like My Files or File Manager...

 

[David Weston]

Anyone have any experience with the "Change Speed" feature in the beta? Curious as to whether you can fly max speed between 2 WP's (55mph) and also not lose ALT!!

 

[KRVer]

Anyone have any experience with the "Change Speed" feature in the beta? Curious as to whether you can fly max speed between 2 WP's (55mph) and also not lose ALT!!

Good question, David. I've flown "rabbit" speed (max from Solo app) in Tower many times with no altitude issue but never bumped up the speed in Tower to its max - I might run that test later today.

 

[David Weston]

Just did my 1st test flt with the Ios app update. I like how I can change performance speeds while in the air, don't think I could do that before. Maybe, not sure. More to explore But, I am becoming a TOWER junky, so many really cool things to do. Been analyzing the tlogs in MP, watching how SOLO points, adjusts from a WP to a flyby when an ROI invoked. Watching how precise the structure scan corkscrews are, and the app is just rock solid!! Never a glitch, burp, hesitation. Going to do speed changes between WP's next. I love it. Not to say throw caution to the wind. Planning, checklist, all part of a successful mission. Have a gimbal/Tower test planned already. Hopefully Tuesday will be on the flight line. As for speed, not interested in max speed, just curious. Speed kills..

 

[KRVer]

As for speed, not interested in max speed, just curious. Speed kills..

OK, did a little testing with this today and can't give you a conclusive answer because, due to safety reasons, I wasn't able to run this up to 55mph where I was at AND someone in a private plane was flying VERY low to the ground in my area -- very strange and very unusual here but it freaked me out hearing and then seeing a plane that low -- looked to be somewhere between 300-400 feet and I was running this test at 330' -- unsettling and I thought it best to bring the bird in.

It APPEARS, however, that yes, the Solo will lose altitude above 33mph even with Tower -- which makes sense, because I believe this is primarily a physics thing with the airframe pitch rather than the sensors not knowing that Solo is losing altitude.

The Test:
Set two waypoints in Tower at 330' altitude approximately 1000' apart from each other.

Run 1:​

• • Speed set to "Rabbit" in Solo App. AGAINST the wind.
  • Maximum Horizontal Speed Achieved: 33.4mph
  • Maximum Vertical Deviation: +1.4'
  • Lowest altitude during run: 330.4'

Run 2:​

• • Speed set to "Rabbit" in Solo App. WITH the wind.
  • Maximum Horizontal Speed Achieved: 33.4mph
  • Maximum Vertical Deviation: +.7'
  • Lowest altitude during run: 329.8'

Run 3:​

• • Speed set to "45.0" in Tower App (the highest Speed setting available in my Tower App -- I'm unclear what units are represented here). AGAINST the wind.
  • Maximum Horizontal Speed Achieved: 37.5mph
  • Maximum Vertical Deviation: -4.3'
  • Lowest altitude during run: 325.7'
    (this was near the end of the run before Solo starting slowing down to stop at the waypoint at which time it corrected itself back up to 330')

As you can see, Run 3 was only beginning to go above 33mph but was definitely also beginning to lose altitude which it did not recover until after Solo slowed down.

AUGUST 23, 2015 EDIT -- I take my above conclusion back -- more info gathered -- see my post further along this thread...

THIRD TOWER TIDBIT - Will Solo lose altitude when flying a fast Tower Mission?

I suspect that Solo, flying a pre-programmed mission, places a priority on maintaining altitude rather than reaching the maximum speed I had asked for.

 

[David Weston]

Interesting. The units are in Meters/Sec. I did a conversion but only up to 25m/s (55mph)
mph
1 meter per second equals 2.236936
2 4.473872
3 6.710808
4 8.947744
5 11.18468
6 13.42162
7 15.65855
8 17.89549
9 20.13242
10 22.36936
11 24.6063
12 26.84323
13 29.08017
14 31.3171
15 33.55404
16 35.79098
17 38.02791
18 40.26485
19 42.50178
20 44.73872
21 46.97566
22 49.21259
23 51.44953
24 53.68646
25 55.9234

Approx 35mph is more than enough for what I would like to do and I am enjoying Tower flights more and more as I get into the details. I also recently had a Piper Cub/tail dragger type, open doors fly right over my house as I was setting up for a flight at I estimated 350', could've been less at about 70mph. Sending SOLO miles away at 400' is taking a huge chance and a real possibility of killing someone or more. If I would have hit that guy head on chances are he was going down. I don't/wont fly out of LOS anymore.

Good job on the test!! I learned something.

 

[erikgraham]

Interesting. The units are in Meters/Sec. I did a conversion but only up to 25m/s (55mph)
mph
1 meter per second equals 2.236936
2 4.473872
3 6.710808
4 8.947744
5 11.18468
6 13.42162
7 15.65855
8 17.89549
9 20.13242
10 22.36936
11 24.6063
12 26.84323
13 29.08017
14 31.3171
15 33.55404
16 35.79098
17 38.02791
18 40.26485
19 42.50178
20 44.73872
21 46.97566
22 49.21259
23 51.44953
24 53.68646
25 55.9234

Approx 35mph is more than enough for what I would like to do and I am enjoying Tower flights more and more as I get into the details. I also recently had a Piper Cub/tail dragger type, open doors fly right over my house as I was setting up for a flight at I estimated 350', could've been less at about 70mph. Sending SOLO miles away at 400' is taking a huge chance and a real possibility of killing someone or more. If I would have hit that guy head on chances are he was going down. I don't/wont fly out of LOS anymore.

Good job on the test!! I learned something.

Droidplanner (the precursor to Tower) was always metric. I got used to it and have never switched to imperial, but I assumed it was possible. Maybe not if your editing Params. Remember when that probe crashed on Mars a few years back and the problem turned out to be a goof up in the code somewhere converting from metric to imperial? If NASA and the European Space Agency can make such a rookie mistake, I can see it cropping up in Mission Planner, Tower, Solo App, or any other GS software we might use. I'm sticking with metric for drone related stuff - just to be safe.

On that pilot flying under 500 feet, he was breaking FAA regulations right? If he had hit your drone, crashed and killed himself or someone else it would have been his fault. He should not be flying that low over people's homes. Having said that I fully support what you said about flying Solo far away at 400. Regardless of the rules and regulations, these guys are used to having the air to themselves. As frustrating as that is, we should stay out of the way. They are the big fish, we are the little fish.

 

[Tracy]

I get small Cessna aircraft flying over my neighborhood in Deltona Florida and I'm pretty sure they're under 400' high. I had to bring my solo down and put it away one day. Just too close for comfort. I'm about 8 miles away from Sanford Airport. Also, one day I had a helicopter that wasn't more than 200' high flying over the neighborhood too. (I was not flying my Solo that day) He did 2 passes. It wasn't police or care flight. I couldn't identify it, but it was a pretty nice helicopter. The tail rotor was shrouded . Maybe I should start reporting.

So no run 4 with the wind. To bad.
On a separate note, we should all start reporting planes flying under 500 feet. It's unsafe and it's against FAA rules. Turn the tables on all these pilots who want us out of "their sky" but who flaut the rules themselves - with much greater potential damage and

 

[KRVer]

Interesting. The units are in Meters/Sec. I did a conversion but only up to 25m/s (55mph)

That's what I thought too but it wasn't the case upon actual testing. I ran another mission with a speed change to "23" (approximately half of my max "45") and those flew at 33mph - virtually no change from "Rabbit" in Solo App - perhaps the speed change did NOT happen on that mission?). FYI, I've got my units set to "Imperial" in Tower rather than "Auto".

OT (Off Topic):

I also recently had a Piper Cub/tail dragger type, open doors fly right over my house as I was setting up for a flight at I estimated 350', could've been less at about 70mph. Sending SOLO miles away at 400' is taking a huge chance and a real possibility of killing someone or more. If I would have hit that guy head on chances are he was going down. I don't/wont fly out of LOS anymore.

Yes, the more I fly quads, the more aware I am of air traffic in my vicinity and I'm really quite surprised by the number of aircraft I've seen that appear (from my perspective) to be flying lower than they should be.

I particularly noted this when camping at a Southern California beach this summer. Our campsite was on a bluff about about 100' above the beach. In the days we were there, I saw a few planes that were flying over the populated beach - not the water - that were easily no more than 200' above the beach. A number more I saw flying this low over the water but definitely closer than 500' from the people on the beach. At least this low you can hear and see them coming but it is scary to think about what could happen.

One more quick story: In the early 90s, I was in a small rented 2-seater helicopter doing a video shoot for a private college. We did a few orbits of the college campus at 500' (the lowest my pilot would take me because we were over a populated area), got the shots and headed back to the airport. When we were almost back, the pilot turned to me and said, "You've paid for an hour, we've still got some time, wanna go have some fun?"

He then took me to an undeveloped area where he flew probably no higher than 75-100' above a snaking river as he followed it's path. It was cool, but this is the same type of terrain that one of today's quads would love to be flying - I hope that pilots today are being made aware that when they're down that low, even legally (which I'm not entirely sure he was), they need to be extra alert.

 

[erikgraham]

I get small Cessna aircraft flying over my neighborhood in Deltona Florida and I'm pretty sure they're under 400' high. I had to bring my solo down and put it away one day. Just too close for comfort. I'm about 8 miles away from Sanford Airport. Also, one day I had a helicopter that wasn't more than 200' high flying over the neighborhood too. (I was not flying my Solo that day) He did 2 passes. It wasn't police or care flight. I couldn't identify it, but it was a pretty nice helicopter. The tail rotor was shrouded . Maybe I should start reporting.

I think the quote part there is something I thought I deleted. I changed my mind to a stance of "let's just stay out of there way"... especially if you are only 8 miles from an airport.

 

[Tracy]

I think the quote part there is something I thought I deleted. I changed my mind to a stance of "let's just stay out of there way"... especially if you are only 8 miles from an airport.

Trust me.... I definitely stay out of their way.

 

[KRVer]

Interesting. The units are in Meters/Sec. I did a conversion but only up to 25m/s (55mph)
mph.

SOME TIDBITS ON TOWER
(Tower-v3.2.0.beta.1)

FIRST TOWER TIDBIT - Speed Change Units

OK, mystery of the unidentified "Speed Change" units in Tower solved (this makes perfect sense and was, in point of fact, a no-brainer, but I've actually tested and confirmed now...)

When adding a "Change Speed" waypoint:

• User Interface "Unit System" set to "Imperial", the "Change Speed" number is miles per hour
• User Interface "Unit System" set to "Metric", the "Change Speed" number is meters per second

With a "Change Speed" waypoint set to any particular value in Editor, you can actually change your settings back and forth from Imperial to Metric and see this number change in your waypoint. Makes sense, yes?

I flew a number of runs today with different change speeds and, sure enough, flight speed between waypoints corresponded to my "Change Speed" in miles per hour (I had User Interface "Unit System" set to "Imperial"). Voice alerts, however, are still stated in metric, even with the User Interface set to Imperial.

SECOND TOWER TIDBIT - Horizontal Speed between Waypoints

There is a parameter in Tower called "Waypoint Horizontal Speed Target" (WPNAV_SPEED). This defines "the speed in cm/s which the aircraft will attempt to maintain horizontally during a WP mission". The range of this setting is from 0 to 2000 cm/s. This translates to 44.738 mph -- thus explaining the maximum "45" "Change Speed" unit displayed in the waypoint editor.

This parameter is stored on Solo and can be set by changing the speed in the Solo App somewhere between Turtle and Rabbit. FYI, Rabbit (on Android Solo App 1.0.2) sets this parameter to 1500 cm/s, or roughly 33.5 mph.

Tower will fly Waypoint missions at whatever speed this parameter is set to (i.e. the speed set in the Solo App) until it receives a "Change Speed" event within a Tower Mission. I am not sure, but I believe that the "Change Speed" event is only temporary until the Waypoint mission is completed.

In light of the "Waypoint Horizontal Speed Target" range in Tower being limited to a high value of 2000 cm/s, it looks like Waypoint missions cannot be attempted faster than 45mph -- even though the bird itself will do 55mph in FLY:Manual.

THIRD TOWER TIDBIT - Will Solo lose altitude when flying a fast Tower Mission? (Actually, more of just an observation and partial retraction of something I posted yesterday)

OK, so while testing the "Change Speed" settings in Tower today, I ran a number of waypoint segments with the "Change Speed" setting at 40mph and then 45mph.

Fastest run I achieved in about a 1200' distance between waypoints was 37.4 mph. I don't know if this was because Solo was unable to get above 37.4mph because of the distance between the waypoints OR if the bird was smart enough to know that this was as fast as she could go with existing conditions and still maintain an acceptable accuracy on the requested/programmed altitude.

I suspect that Solo, flying a pre-programmed mission, placed a priority on maintaining altitude rather than reaching the maximum speed I had asked for.

My reasoning behind this (still uncertain) conclusion is that the top speed was achieved before Solo needed to slow down to hit the target waypoint and, although she dropped 5.2' at the maximum altitude deviation on the run, she pulled back up about a foot and completed the run only about 4' below the target altitude. This is consistent with what I observed yesterday, however, yesterday's run was shorter and I don't believe I gave Solo enough time to compensate for the altitude loss she experienced at the beginning of the run -- today's tests were a bit longer and yielded a little more insight.

HTH.

 

[rrmccabe]

1. Clear all waypoints in Tower and then upload what is now a blank mission to the Solo.

2. Switch to Acro mode and fly your Solo at full speed into a brick wall.

LOL, I like your option 1 better