Tower & Circle vs Structure Scan

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Was out this morning flying missions with Tower and wanted to fly a circle of a large commercial building. Unfortunately, the circle command only goes allows for a circle of about 164'. I could have drawn WPs around the building and designate the building as a POI, but without the gimbal as each WP is reached there is noticeable jerk as it changes direction. I then decided to try the 'structure scan' option with only 1 'step'. That seemed to do the trick and below is the result with no gimbal and no post stabilization. Interesting note on the Structure scan feature is you can program how many times you want it to go around the structure and put in a change of altitude between each step. This essentially will do a cork screw maneuver around the structure. Other than the 'tilt' of the video from not having a gimbal, I thought it did a decent job. This is with the Peau 4.35mm non fisheye lens, 1080p 60fps.

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The command also allows you to put in the # of circles you want to fly and have an increase in altitude between each circle, producing a corkscrew effect as it rises. Now, how long before we hear 'DJI has this in beta!'
 
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That is very, very cool! It's exacly what I have been looking for!

Thanks and good job!!
 
That is very, very cool! It's exacly what I have been looking for!

Thanks and good job!!
Sure David. It was the first time I had used it and see that it will be another powerful feature with the Gimbal. Something else for DJI to try and catch up to.
 
That is awesome. Are you flying the beta? It looks pretty good with the FPV window.
 
Was out this morning flying missions with Tower and wanted to fly a circle of a large commercial building. Unfortunately, the circle command only goes allows for a circle of about 164'. I could have drawn WPs around the building and designate the building as a POI, but without the gimbal as each WP is reached there is noticeable jerk as it changes direction. I then decided to try the 'structure scan' option with only 1 'step'. That seemed to do the trick and below is the result with no gimbal and no post stabilization. Interesting note on the Structure scan feature is you can program how many times you want it to go around the structure and put in a change of altitude between each step. This essentially will do a cork screw maneuver around the structure. Other than the 'tilt' of the video from not having a gimbal, I thought it did a decent job. This is with the Peau 4.35mm non fisheye lens, 1080p 60fps.

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The command also allows you to put in the # of circles you want to fly and have an increase in altitude between each circle, producing a corkscrew effect as it rises. Now, how long before we hear 'DJI has this in beta!'
That's the great thing about open source. It will outpace them all.
 
Sorry my typing was so bad. I just looked at my reply. Typing on a phone with big fingers is a hazard for communication. ha
 
That is awesome. Are you flying the beta? It looks pretty good with the FPV window.
Yep, Flying the beta Tower. I actually like keeping the view in the little window during missions.
 
Was out this morning flying missions with Tower and wanted to fly a circle of a large commercial building. Unfortunately, the circle command only goes allows for a circle of about 164'. I could have drawn WPs around the building and designate the building as a POI, but without the gimbal as each WP is reached there is noticeable jerk as it changes direction. I then decided to try the 'structure scan' option with only 1 'step'. That seemed to do the trick and below is the result with no gimbal and no post stabilization. Interesting note on the Structure scan feature is you can program how many times you want it to go around the structure and put in a change of altitude between each step. This essentially will do a cork screw maneuver around the structure. Other than the 'tilt' of the video from not having a gimbal, I thought it did a decent job. This is with the Peau 4.35mm non fisheye lens, 1080p 60fps.

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The command also allows you to put in the # of circles you want to fly and have an increase in altitude between each circle, producing a corkscrew effect as it rises. Now, how long before we hear 'DJI has this in beta!'
Structure scan is useful for generating a 3D model of a structure. For example:

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(He refers to Droidplanner 2 in this video. "Tower" is Droidplanner 3. They changed the name)

The results he gets in this video aren't great, but I've seen some amazing examples. I just don't have the time to dig them up right now.

For more info, and some links to stitching software check out this link (it's out dated - very old, but should still give you an idea). http://diydrones.com/m/blogpost?id=705844:BlogPost:1704884

And here is the best stitching software as of the last time I messed around with it a year ago. http://memento.autodesk.com/about
 
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Very cool and dji will only be able to do cheap copies of solo features for so long, soon wel be doing things they can only dream of until they spend another grand or two on the next phantom or the one following it. I'd rather spend the money and help with the testing now and have a jump on everybody who's going to be disappointed they bought something else or mad they returned solo for yet another uninspired phantom remake.
 
Very cool and dji will only be able to do cheap copies of solo features for so long, soon wel be doing things they can only dream of until they spend another grand or two on the next phantom or the one following it. I'd rather spend the money and help with the testing now and have a jump on everybody who's going to be disappointed they bought something else or mad they returned solo for yet another uninspired phantom remake.
To be fair, you could generate 3D models using still photos from a DJI Phantom or Inspire1. But Tower's Structure Scan makes it so much easier and quicker to capture and generate high quality models.

But to your point about innovation, history is on 3DRs side. Follow Me, sophisticated mission planning, Smart Shots, cool mapping features, flir cameras on drones, sonar, optical flow, 3D scans, and so much more have always been innovated first on the 3DR/DIY/Open source platforms. DJI is no slouch and it's not like the Solo has all those features I listed, or even all the features of a P3 (optical flow/sonar), but based on past history, innovation is going to come to 3DR and PixHawk much faster. I know the DJI guys are not going to like that. I'm not saying drones like the Inspire1 aren't awesome, but I'm pretty confident we are going to see the cool stuff on the Solo (and other 3DR drones) first.
 
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