Video Modes Combo Idea

Timmytimetravel · Sep 22, 2015

Welcome to tower love. When I heard what it was capable of with solo I sold my iPad and bought my first android device. I've only scratched the surface. But I've flown a mission being an actor where the solo flew from one field to another over trees starting out of my sight circled me, did a dronie. It was meant to land but ended up rtl through the tops of some trees (early fw before you could easily set it) whilst I ran for the tablet / controller on the ground a fair distance away !!! Lesson learned. I'd learn how to fly manual and have your controller also synced and on you when you start out. Pause button is your friend

I have fpvlr now and looking forward to trying some more autonomous missions from home now I have some field experience.

Triple check your rth heights and obstructions on your route but do it. What a blast !

Maddog · Sep 23, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
Welcome to tower love. When I heard what it was capable of with solo I sold my iPad and bought my first android device. I've only scratched the surface. But I've flown a mission being an actor where the solo flew from one field to another over trees starting out of my sight circled me, did a dronie. It was meant to land but ended up rtl through the tops of some trees (early fw before you could easily set it) whilst I ran for the tablet / controller on the ground a fair distance away !!! Lesson learned. I'd learn how to fly manual and have your controller also synced and on you when you start out. Pause button is your friend

I have fpvlr now and looking forward to trying some more autonomous missions from home now I have some field experience.

Triple check your rth heights and obstructions on your route but do it. What a blast !

Thanks Triple T!
I learned to fly a Syma X5C then the X8C before I got the Solo. Made sure I could make them do anything I wanted before moving to the Solo. It's easier to fly in manual than either of the Syma's.

The biggest problem I have now is the screen on my mini3 isn't bright enough even with a sun shade, to see the camera feed well.

Timmytimetravel · Sep 23, 2015

I have a sunshade for my tab s 8.4 and still have issues as well. I find I have to stand with my back to the sun and use my body as a screen shield (hopefully I'm flying away from the sun (usually am for some reason, subject matter in Good lighting Etc) or take off in a clearing but then stand in a tree shadow. I do have some fpv goggles on order for the last two months, hopefully they will ship soon. That will sort it if no other options on a given sortie....

Maddog · Sep 23, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
I have a sunshade for my tab s 8.4 and still have issues as well. I find I have to stand with my back to the sun and use my body as a screen shield (hopefully I'm flying away from the sun (usually am for some reason, subject matter in Good lighting Etc) or take off in a clearing but then stand in a tree shadow. I do have some fpv goggles on order for the last two months, hopefully they will ship soon. That will sort it if no other options on a given sortie....

Let us know how that works. I was also thinking about connecting a small 4" or so monitor to the controller HDMI port if I could find one bright enough to see the video feed.

Timmytimetravel · Sep 23, 2015

Maddog said:
Let us know how that works. I was also thinking about connecting a small 4" or so monitor to the controller HDMI port if I could find one bright enough to see the video feed.

The price of little video monitor / recorders from the likes of video devices , atomos etc are dropping in price. Some of them are designed for steadicam use and called high bright or specify high nits and are sunlight readable . That would be the go for that idea. Probably work well. I tried the hdmi feed from the controller . Much better unchoppy video and lower delay compared to wifi tablet

JonW · Sep 23, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Yes it can, and a lot more.

Leviathan18, Your prayers are answered with Tower. No... Really.... It can do everything you asked for and quite a bit more. It can not only automate between two points, then an orbit, then two more points, but between many points, and the orbit again, etc. it also has a function called "spline waypoints" that I have learned to love, that allows you to set the Solo up to follow curved lines, rather than just straight lines between points. And a ton more, like mapping and 3D modeling. Can you tell I love Tower?

It currently only runs on Android. It is shy on documentation, and therefore is intimidating to start, but once you get going it is really, REALLY, amazing. And it is made by, and supported by 3DR.

Several on the forum here use it and you can get questions answered here. You can also look for useful information about "DroidPlanner" and "MissionPlanner" which are OSX/PC based applications that are similar in many respects (especially "mission" functions). They are great by themselves for looking at log files, but work similarly with regard to "missions" and so much of the info is transferable.

You can get started here.

Tower | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology

Earldgrayjr, can you set your waypoints in tower by flying the solo to the points and entering them or do they need to be placed in the app and then flown? I think you work in film production so your needs should be similar to mine. I was under the impression that tower missions were programmed in the app only and then applied to the aircraft but if you can in fact set points by flying the aircraft to them and choosing your framing then that is a pretty awesome feature.

Timmytimetravel · Sep 23, 2015

JonW said:
Earldgrayjr, can you set your waypoints in tower by flying the solo to the points and entering them or do they need to be placed in the app and then flown? I think you work in film production so your needs should be similar to mine. I was under the impression that tower missions were programmed in the app only and then applied to the aircraft but if you can in fact set points by flying the aircraft to them and choosing your framing then that is a pretty awesome feature.

That is exactly the next big/small thing I am hoping from solo/tower. This would give the ability to do like a dji 3 point cable cam set easily / semi easily in the air. Half the time I don't know the exact Positions until I am flying it / can see it. I've often wanted to do a 2 point cable cam then fly away. Or fly down to a 2 point cable cam and execute in same shot.

If you could drop a pin in tower which included gimbal pointing direction, then you could do it even if you burn some hover time. Or at least have the points recorded to plan into next mission / battery.

Is this currently possible ?

Also can you move a point in tower drag and drop once you set it? I've often wanted to move a mid mission point and had to delete points all the way back to that point .

Earldgrayjr · Sep 23, 2015

JonW said:
Earldgrayjr, can you set your waypoints in tower by flying the solo to the points and entering them or do they need to be placed in the app and then flown? I think you work in film production so your needs should be similar to mine. I was under the impression that tower missions were programmed in the app only and then applied to the aircraft but if you can in fact set points by flying the aircraft to them and choosing your framing then that is a pretty awesome feature.

The DJI products do that (that is the only way they can do it without 3rd party app) but I find that cumbersome. I usually walk the shot, and I am editing in my head, so I know what I want, am used to the lens etc. So I actually do it the other way around.

You could open Tower, edit a mission, fly where you want, and drop pins there, and get it done that way. Not exactly like CableCam but it would work. You can also set the waypoints to shoot if you want, but I usually just keep the camera rolling.

I had heard that they were working on a "replay" function that will do that also, but I wasn;'t that interested so didn't pay attention. Not sure if it was going to be a Smart Shot or a Tower function, but they are working on it.

Most of what I use Tower for is pretty simple, although I have set up some crazy missions just to see them work. . The fact is that I use it like a complex CableCam most of the time, just pre-setting a curved shot that is hard to do by hand (which is why I like it better than having to fly the path) and set up half orbits and things like that. Most of the time I set it up to fly, and I operate the camera while watching the shot, but the cool part is you "can" have it do some camera work, like a nice sweep up.

When I want a rail dolly shot and I don't know the height, I just use CableCam. I am now getting used to using the "sweep" function. 10 seconds is your friend

Earldgrayjr · Sep 23, 2015

Maddog said:
That's a good idea! I just need to wait until I can afford an android tablet. How many GB does the Nexus 7 need to run tower? Need wi-fi or anything else?

Found a refurbished 16 GB on Amazon for just over $100.

16 is fine

Timmytimetravel · Sep 23, 2015

How do you drop pins in tower at your current altitude / position?

Earldgrayjr · Sep 23, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
How do you drop pins in tower at your current altitude / position?

It knows the position of Solo and you can see it on a map, but you would have to give it altitude.

Sounds like a good project for somebody. Not really hard to do since you can feed waypoints to Solo, and Solo records waypoints (in the logs). It would be very possible to have it just feed what ever log into Tower as waypoints, but like I said, I believe they are working on that.

Maddog · Sep 23, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
The DJI products do that (that is the only way they can do it without 3rd party app) but I find that cumbersome. I usually walk the shot, and I am editing in my head, so I know what I want, am used to the lens etc. So I actually do it the other way around.

You could open Tower, edit a mission, fly where you want, and drop pins there, and get it done that way. Not exactly like CableCam but it would work. You can also set the waypoints to shoot if you want, but I usually just keep the camera rolling.

I had heard that they were working on a "replay" function that will do that also, but I wasn;'t that interested so didn't pay attention. Not sure if it was going to be a Smart Shot or a Tower function, but they are working on it.

Most of what I use Tower for is pretty simple, although I have set up some crazy missions just to see them work. . The fact is that I use it like a complex CableCam most of the time, just pre-setting a curved shot that is hard to do by hand (which is why I like it better than having to fly the path) and set up half orbits and things like that. Most of the time I set it up to fly, and I operate the camera while watching the shot, but the cool part is you "can" have it do some camera work, like a nice sweep up.

When I want a rail dolly shot and I don't know the height, I just use CableCam. I am now getting used to using the "sweep" function. 10 seconds is your friend

When I want a rail dolly shot and I don't know the height, I just use CableCam. I am now getting used to using the "sweep" function. 10 seconds is your friend.

Are you referring to gimbal sweep @ 10 seconds? Or something in tower?

Earldgrayjr · Sep 24, 2015

Maddog said:
When I want a rail dolly shot and I don't know the height, I just use CableCam. I am now getting used to using the "sweep" function. 10 seconds is your friend.

Are you referring to gimbal sweep @ 10 seconds? Or something in tower?

Yes. Gimbal sweep. Testing it tonight. 10 seconds is a good number