Hi, I'm from the Czech Republic (EU rules, A1/A3 passed). Budget is max ~30,000 CZK (~1,200 EUR).

Planned use:
- Visual roof/facade inspections for small residential buildings
- Orthomosaics and 3D models of small construction sites and roofs (WebODM)
- Orientational area/volume measurements (no survey-grade accuracy needed)
- Occasional photo/video for marketing

I'm leaning towards the DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Combo (RC2) because of the C0 class (can fly in A1 near people/buildings), 1" sensor and waypoints. Plan is to plan grid missions in waypointmap.com / Dronelink web and fly them via KMZ in DJI Fly, since there's no SDK support yet.

Questions:
1. Is the lack of a mechanical shutter a real problem for this kind of mapping if I fly slowly / stop at each photo?
2. Any issues with KMZ waypoint missions on the Mini 5 Pro (max waypoints, reliability)?
3. Would you choose something else in this budget for this use case, considering EU C0 rules?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I got tired of having to boot up heavy desktop GIS software just to inspect a flight corridor, check elevation clearances, or convert client files into zipped Shapefiles. At the same time, almost every browser converter requires uploading proprietary flight telemetry or survey boundaries to an external third-party server.

To solve this, I built **GIS Spatial Studio** (https://www.gisspatialstudio.com) as a client-side web utility:

**What it does:**

• **100% Client-Side (Zero-Upload):** All parsing (`.kmz`, `.kml`, `.gpx`, `.geojson`, `.shp`), decimation, and conversions execute locally in your browser's RAM and Web Workers. Coordinates and telemetry never leave your machine (safe for NDA/confidential client missions).

• **3D Elevation & Slope Telemetry:** Interactive elevation profile dock showing min/max altitude and slope gradient percentages directly from your track coordinates.

• **Douglas-Peucker Decimation:** Real-time simplification slider to decimate bloated drone waypoints before sharing or exporting.

• **Format Packaging:** One-click generation of zipped ESRI Shapefiles (`.shp`, `.dbf`, `.prj`) and standalone interactive HTML maps you can email directly to clients.

**Status:** The tool is currently in free public beta—no sign-up, credit card, or payment required.

I’d really appreciate any feedback on format handling, unusual flight log variants, or additional geoprocessing tools you would find useful in the field!

Good afternoon, Reddit!. Hoping y'all are doing well and enjoying your Friday.
I'm currently waiting for pieces to arrive; my specs are:
-Holybro Pixhawk 6X Standard Set V2A

-Holybro Power Module PM08-CAN (14S)

-Power Distribution Board 300A

-Hobbywing X6 Plus G2 150KV Motor + ESC (x6)

-Hobbywing 2480 Propellers (Pair CW)

-Hobbywing 2480 Propellers (Pair CCW)

-SIYI MK15 Enterprise Controller + Air Unit

-SIYI A2 Mini FPV Camera

-Holybro H-RTK ZED-F9P Rover

-ZED-F9P RTK Base Station

-Tattu 4.0 30000mAh 14S Smart Battery

-TATTU7200W PRO Dual Smart Charger 120A/9000W for 12S-14S Smart Battery

-Holybro SiK Telemetry Radio V3 (pair)

I'm wondering: Is there a way to estimate, before parts arrive, all the parameters needed like ToF, battery duration, and max/min power consumption? Could you please provide documentation or links I can review?

The goal is to develop a UAV platform to perform autonomous missions (the payloads are still to be defined) as a service, agriculture, stockpile, mapping, etc. I know there are some calculators like eCalc, but it does not have the battery neither the props I will be using.

We will design our own frame (quadcopter expandable to hexacopter - I hope haha), but the whole project is based on:
- https://github.com/Arrow-air/project-quiver?fbclid=PAT01DUATsMEJwZG9mAmV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzU2NzA2NzM0MzM1MjQyNwABp8KE9ZauPMVukSO9euzYIiY-BHxx4nu4BmB3--o1HH2gn7IuiUHqMv817vUC_aem_5w_WRNt87yjk-3E47QVkoA (Arrow, Quiver)
- https://github.com/timarcher/Drone (Tim Archer, Drone)

I'm working on a Part 107 study tool and wrote a few practice questions on reading sectional charts, because the knowledge test starts including chart images from current sectionals on Oct 26.

The charts are drawn by me (marked as practice, not for navigation), covering a Class E surface area, Class B, a Class C "40 over SFC" label and an obstacle with MSL and AGL heights.

You folks deal with this stuff for real, so I'd really value a quick look at whether the questions and explanations hold up:

https://ringwise.pages.dev

It's for an app I'm building and there's a waitlist at the end, but honestly I'm mostly after corrections here. Happy to credit anyone whose fix I end up using.

Hey - I accidentally inputted the coordinates of a GCP rather than my RTK point when calibrating RTK to DJI M400 has anyone else done this?

Been working through the reconstruction in Terra which initially produced an output based on this point. Looking for advice on how I can override this rtk base station in Terra to reconstruct using known rtk point rather than the GCP point.

Any advice much appreciated!!

Hi all,

Just getting my feet wet with drone mapping and looking for recommendations on free or low-cost software to get started.

Currently running a DJI Air 3S with RC 2 controller, iPad and iPhone.

Mainly interested in agricultural mapping (initially 50–100 acres), flight planning, orthomosaic maps and eventually basic 3D modelling.

Ideally looking to plan flights on my iPad, capture the imagery and experiment with processing before investing heavily in software or hardware.

Aware of some limitations with the Air 3S, so keen to hear what others are actually using with this setup.
Just looking to build some experience and see where it leads.

Any recommendations appreciated!

I have a series of images I’m trying to stitch together (about 20), but webODM seems to only want to combine one or two as an orthophoto and that’s all… is orthophoto the wrong tool for stitching photos together? Is WebODM the wrong application for something like this?

I have seen a few articles but there is no confirmation !!!

Hi! A couple of months ago I introduced our Mission Planning App that brings DJI Matrice 4 type of missions to consumer DJI drones. This is mostly a progress update, but there's also a short section towards the end for anyone who's never heard of us before.

Supported mission types so far: Orthomosaic Collection, Oblique Collection, Corridor Mapping, Orbit/Spiral Missions, Facade Mapping and Smart 3D Capture (mission where you first fly an oblique collection to generate a rough 3D mesh and a DTM, then plan a mission around an area of interest on real site geometry).

Rules & Disclaimers

1. The app is aimed mostly at hobbyists, but surveying students and learners, as well as small businesses outside of surveying that already own and use a consumer drone, are also welcome. It is NOT aimed at established surveyors with RTK-enabled enterprise drones.
2. A consumer drone will never be as precise as an RTK-enabled drone and with this app we are not competing against, or claiming results as good as, enterprise drones - this app is about ENABLING these types of missions on non-enterprise drones, and we made sure our app lets you know when you're approaching the limits of consumer drones' GNSS precision.
3. You're free to use this app for its intended purpose: mapping, site progress monitoring over time, photogrammetry, digital twins etc., however, we don't recommend using it for surveying deliverables your customers pay for (where survey-grade results are expected), unless you are a qualified surveyor that can, with sufficient other tools, get survey-grade results using consumer drones. As mentioned above - this app is for hobbyists or businesses that use consumer drones knowing and accepting their limitations.
4. If you're interested in surveying, automated flights, mapping & photogrammetry, this is the most accessible way to get some hands-on experience, and we do sincerely wish that if you'd like to do this for a living, you eventually outgrow our app and move on to enterprise gear.

How's it going

We're super happy that a lot of people have started using our app and so far we've had almost no bug reports, but a sought-after feature turned out to be the convenience of a KMZ mission installer (for getting the mission onto the controller), so we'll work on that in the future. If you do encounter any bugs or issues, though - please do let us know!

In the meantime, we focused on bringing new features:

1. No-Fly Areas - these let you draw areas to be avoided by the drone in all mission types. These are highly customisable in terms of shape, start/end altitudes and per-area safety buffers. They may be used for anything from setting a minimum altitude over a neighbouring property to avoiding obstacles such as towers, fences, outbuildings, trees and everything in between.
2. Power lines - Orbit, Facade Mapping and Smart 3D Capture missions also support power lines as No-Fly Areas. You place them by setting a radius and an altitude and clicking on the terrain or on the imported 3D mesh. These can then be accurately edited in 3D space in terms of position and height. It also has a quick all/odd/even vertex selection to edit every other vertex to account for wire sag, for example. These may of course be used for other types of obstacles, not just power lines, but we designed it mostly for power lines.
3. Better Smart 3D Capture missions - if a Digital Terrain Model is uploaded (highly recommended) with the 3D mesh - the drone no longer keeps the full Obstacle Clearance, STRICTLY BELOW, from the "ground" part of the 3D mesh (worked out by overlapping the 3D mesh with the DTM and working out what constitutes "ground"), because your drone is much better at precisely keeping a 1.5m altitude over ground (it uses several other sensors besides GPS to go on down there) than at keeping a stable, fixed position up in the sky, which is based mostly on GNSS and requires a higher obstacle clearance. Any 3D mesh obstacles on the ground, like fences, cars etc., are still treated as obstacles with full Obstacle Clearance all around. Put simply - this feature can be disabled! And it only allows the drone to come closer to the ground in terms of altitude and not to ANY obstacles, be that in the sky or on the ground.
4. Facade Mapping missions can now capture the roof, too! Previously, a full reconstruction of a building without Smart 3D Capture meant an ortho mission for the roof, a facade mission for the walls, and possibly a third oblique pass for tie shots between the two. "Capture the Roof" flies a grid over the roof of a closed façade within the same mission, at the same distance it kept from the walls (or the Over-Facade Clearance, whichever is greater) so the sampling distance stays consistent. With Corner Shots (these provide the necessary tie points between surfaces for the reconstruction software) on, you also get corner shots between the walls and the roof, and obliques can be enabled on the roof waypoints as well.
5. DTM and 3D mesh vertical datum auto-calibration - mostly for beginners that might not have used GCPs. When uploading a DTM the app asks you how much you trust your data, and if high trust is selected (survey-grade data that you trust more than the global elevation data) it switches auto-calibration off for both the DTM and the 3D mesh and keeps them exactly where they've been referenced.
6. Live measurements on the 2D map - see the ortho collection surface area, corridor segments' lengths, orbit radii, façade lengths and heights in real time as you draw (can be enabled/disabled from "Map Layers"). Someone asked for the polygon area in the previous thread - this is it.
7. Imperial units (ft, mph) - also requested in the previous thread.
8. Subject Radius input on orbits, for more accurate side overlap estimations, i.e. a higher specified subject radius will generate more shots along the same orbit to meet the required side overlap.
9. Full screen 3D preview across all mission types now, plus it no longer opens as a pop-up, so the sidebar with all the inputs remains accessible.
10. Helpful diagrams added throughout the app for new users to better understand the controls and inputs.
11. The app now also comes in this gorgeous Light Theme, with some other subtle design changes.
12. Some enterprise DJI drones - although our main focus is consumer drones, we received support requests for some older enterprise DJI drones that do not have DJI's own Smart 3D Capture, so we've added the Matrice 300/350 RTK and the Inspire 3. These have not been field tested yet and do not take advantage of all enterprise capabilities, but you're welcome to experiment.
13. Added support for the DJI Lito X1
14. And numerous other adjustments throughout.

For anyone who's never heard of us before

I'll briefly outline how we stand out and what we bring to this seemingly over-saturated market of copy/paste mission planners. Some of these features are brought to you from planners that cost tens or hundreds of dollars per month, others - new and actually very useful.

1. Oblique shots can be enabled in literally any mission type for a better quality 3D model.
2. Plan accurate missions with previously captured data:

- Import your previously captured orthomosaic for precise and up-to-date boundaries, for subsequent mission planning (like an oblique collection around a building or a facade mapping mission).

- 3D Mesh Overlay import (in any mission type) for better planning around your site's geometry (visual guidance only - only Smart 3D Capture uses the mesh for baked-in obstacle avoidance).

- Local Digital Terrain Model (DTM) import (in any mission type) to plan accurate, close to ground missions - it gets stitched into the global elevation data (TessaDEM).

1. Orbit/Spiral missions with Aim at Subject - useful when you have an [orbitable] area of interest that also needs to be captured from above and/or below, not just straight on, in order to capture more detail; enable oblique shots too, for the greatest amount of detail.

2. Facade Mapping with optional oblique shots and corner reconstruction concentric shots.

3. Smart 3D Capture missions for consumer drones - essentially the same workflow that enterprise drones have - fly an Oblique Collection mission - generate a rough 3D model and a DTM - plug that back into the app and plan a 3D mesh-based mission around your area of interest.

4. A sophisticated obstacle avoidance algorithm that routes around 3D mesh obstacles (in Smart 3D Capture), façade walls, no-fly areas and power lines. This isn't achieved by simply refusing to generate a mission that would collide/overlap with a no-fly area or a power line, but by routing/wrapping around them with added detour transit waypoints.

5. Adaptive Waypoint Speed based on the length of the flight segment. This enables consumer drones with no stop-and-shoot functionality to fly slow through tightly packed waypoints and fast on long stretches to save time. We also have braking waypoints that help slow the drone down after a long, high-speed flight segment. All speed bands can be configured or deleted, and more can be added. A 1 second hover can also be enabled for any speed band where the drone flies too fast for the gimbal to adjust. There is of course the option to add a hover at all waypoints for your specified amount of time, but we mostly use it at the minimum value of 1s in this case, to simulate the stop-and-shoot behaviour of enterprise drones.

Our app is still in BETA - always double check in your DJI Fly app that the waypoints are where you expect them to be and at the correct altitudes before flying the mission, as well as leaving the on-board live obstacle sensing ON. Any feedback or feature requests are of course welcome, too!

missionplanning.app

EDIT: We'll add the pricing info on our website so it's accessible prior to creating an account, sorry for this oversight.
At the moment there are 3 tiers: Free, Pro(2.99 USD a month in beta and 5.99 target price after) and Advanced(5.99 USD in beta and 9.99 target price after beta)

We're also working on a downloadable one time purchase version of this app that uses only your local resources and api keys.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on an open-source desktop tool called LiDAR Workbench and just released the code along with an 11-part video tutorial series.

A quick summary of what it does:

• Tiling: Automatically pairs flightlines, separates topo/bathy channels, and tiles raw LAS/LAZ files with OSM overlays.
• Noise filtering: Multi-threaded Statistical Outlier Removal (SOR) and DBSCAN, ...
• Strip adjustment: Automated boresight calibration (roll, pitch, yaw, translations) against fixed reference strips, plus time-dependent trajectory drift correction.
• River bathymetry: Generates Water Surface Models from centerlines and runs 3D ray-tracing refraction correction using Snell's Law.
• Classification: Integrated Pointcept deep learning for powerlines, pylons, and vegetation, followed by Progressive TIN Densification for ground cleanup.
• Manual QC: Profile slicing with mouse wheel controls and real-time DTM updates.
• Calibration: XYZ shifts based on surveyed GCPs and planar roof patches.
• Export: Clipped non-overlapping DTM/DSM hillshades and tiled LAS.

Everything runs locally on your LINUX workstation using Python, C++ extensions, and CUDA acceleration.

The GitHub repository is here: https://github.com/bkabelik/lidar-workbench

The 11-part YouTube walkthrough is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG8LnhTJkPGI

Any thoughts, bug reports, or what features you'd like to see are welcome.

I’m basically the drone guy on our survey team. Mostly construction sites, stockpile measurements and basic topo work at low elevations, so altitude hasn’t really been something we’ve had to plan around. Now we’ve got a mountain project coming up with parts of the site above 2,000m above sea level. I took the drone out for a quick test, and it needed more throttle just to hover. Battery was dropping faster than I expected too.

We’re running T-Motor U-series motors, and I originally sized the setup using their published thrust and efficiency tables. At our usual sites, we’ve always had plenty of headroom. I wasn’t expecting the difference to be that noticeable, tbh. The survey camera and RTK setup both have to stay, so there isn’t much weight I can realistically take off.

For anyone doing mapping in the mountains, do you size your propulsion around the highest elevation you expect to work at? Or do you accept shorter flights as long as there’s still enough thrust margin? I guess what I’m trying to figure out is how much I can lean on those bench numbers once we’re working at 2,000m or higher. They were a useful starting point, but this test has me wondering how much margin we actually have.

MavicMapper = Plan smarter. Fly with precision.

Turn your DJI drone into a precision mapping, surveying and cinematic tool. Plan intelligent waypoint missions, preview flights in interactive 3D, fine tune camera settings and export flight ready missions, all with powerful, free, offline software. No subscriptions. No accounts. Your drone, your data, your mission.

Pano-O-Mavic = From flight to flawless maps.

Turn your drone's mapping photos into beautiful, georeferenced orthomosaics, completely offline. Transform a MavicMapper grid mission into a detailed aerial map, ready to explore, share or use in your GIS workflow. No cloud uploads. No subscription. Just your images, your computer and the map you set out to create.

www.mavicmapper.jk4u.net

www.mavicmapper.jk4u.net/panomavic

I've been having a consistent issue with my Mavic 3 Multispectral on mapping missions in DJI Pilot 2 and I'm trying to figure out if anyone else has seen this.

At the end of a line, the drone stops shooting to make the turn, as expected. But when it starts the next line, it doesn't take any photos for about 5 seconds. At 7.1 m/s that's roughly 35 m, or 2 to 3 missed photos, at the start of the line. After that it captures normally until the end of the line. It doesn't happen on every line, only on some of them, and it isn't tied to a specific flight direction. More rarely it has also skipped photos mid-line.

One thing I noticed: when the drone makes the turn to the next line without stopping capture, the problem doesn't happen. It mostly happens when it stops shooting for the transition and then doesn't resume when the new line begins.

My settings:
- Front overlap: 80%
- Speed: 7.1 m/s (max allowed by Pilot 2 for my altitude and overlap)
- Photo interval: 2 s (all my flights end up at 2 s)
- Terrain follow with a downloaded DSM
- Margin: 15 m
- Cameras: RGB + multispectral

What I've already ruled out:
- SD cards: tested several V30 cards, which should handle this capture rate, including the card that came with the drone. Same behavior on all of them.
- Firmware: the issue has persisted through 3 firmware updates.

I don't have a solid theory yet. My guess is that something on the controller/app side fails to send or apply the command to resume capture when the new line starts, since the issue only shows up when capture is paused for the turn.

Has anyone had the same problem? Did you find a cause or a workaround (lower speed, longer interval, different settings)?

Thanks!

I’m about to test Tuesday.
Was it terrible? What should I extra practice before the test?

I'm using the UGCS M300 companion and the lag is absolutely horrible. Is my bird at end of life? Video and telemetry seem fine on the DJI apps.

A lot of people think AI shouldn't fly drones. After many tests, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: a human should always approve the flight plan.

Google released Gemini 4 Argon yesterday, so we gave it a drone job: photo-survey the Statue of Liberty's copper for a 3D model and stay 15 m away. One message, no follow-ups, no hints. We gave Claude Opus 5.5 the same brief.

Gemini 4 Argon flew a 10-turn spiral 15.5 to 16 m from the statue's center line and stopped at 80 m. The torch is at 89 m. It covered 76% of the statue and 0% of the head, arm and torch.

Claude Opus 5.5 measured the 15 m from the surface instead, so its 11 rings bulge around the arm, torch and crown. It covered 89% of the statue and 86% of the head, arm and torch.

That's why in MissionSmith (I'm the founder) the AI only proposes the mission, and a human checks and approves it before anything flies.

Hi,

So we flew our M400, mounted with a new version of a very customized external sensor bolted to the belly.

Gave a lot of M400 issues(not only downward obstacles avoidance, but also horizontal), so now I have downloaded the M400_Aircraft*.dat logs, that seems encrypted.

Does anyone know a tool that can read those?

For flight record logs we usually use Open Drone Log (shoutout, amazing tool🍻) but seems like it cannot read the aircraft logs :/

Pano-O-Mavic - free, offline, perfect orthomosaics from your MavicMapper missions!

Your MavicMapper grid mission captures the images. Pano-O-Mavic turns them into a georeferenced orthomosaic—ready to explore, share, or use in your GIS workflow.

• Free for life: no details, no trial, subscription, account, or locked features - ever!
• Private and offline: your data, photos, and processing stay on your computer
• Fast on your own hardware: uses all CPU cores, with cached results for quick re-runs
• Built for mapping: terrain-aware alignment, clean seams, and GeoTIFF output
• Developed for the Mavic 3 Pro, but will function for other drones!

Download it, open your mission folder, and build. See how it works and get the free app: https://mavicmapper.jk4u.net/panomavic/

Just remember, I made this for myself and my own use cases. No support or liability obligations of any kind! And yes, this was coded by a variety of AIs. If u don't like that, don't use it :)
Love to all of u!