3d mapping training for yuneec h520 & starting in 3d mapping

[Wingman]

Hi guys,

I am trying to find some good online training for doing 3d mapping on h520.
Unfortunately there are not so many of them. The best I think may be from UAVcoach(Mapping and 3D Modeling 101) but there is one problem, they have at least 1/3 of the course talking about DJI and 3DR solo flight planning software. I do not have these drones and I am not really interested listening about what software of these drones can do and paying for this time of the course. I'd rather take training for doing it with no specific drone at all or with yuneec H520.

I still believe that course is good but if there is any specific to Yuneec H520 or non specific to any drone I'd rather take it comparing to the one from UAV coach.

There are some on site full day training in Brisbane for 3d mapping but their prices are very high(from $1200 to $1500 AUD for 2 day course). And it is not that I do not have this kind of money to pay I just do not believe that you can get some extensive knowledge from 2 days training.

Is there anything else good that can be done online for a reasonable price up to $250-300?

Also I am sure some of h520 owners doing 3d mapping already. Where did you get the knowledge how to do it with h520? What subscription level are you using with drone deploy for example? And what did you do for practising doing it on a real building?

Unfortunately I cannot practise it on my house. It is in high density residential area, all covered with trees and not far away from a helipad.

I may get a permission from my partner's friend to practise it on their house on an acreage in low density area but I have to wait at least 10 days till my partner comes from overseas where he is doing some drone jobs for real estate.

 

[claudius62]

Yes, see here : 3D Maps Using DroneDeploy
And some videos :

 

[Haydn]

Mate I'm sure we could work out a day...
Just call me and we can discuss your needs.
Haydn

 

[Wingman]

Yes, see here : 3D Maps Using DroneDeploy
And some videos :

Thank you Claudius. These videos provide some help(I watched them all many times) to some degree but they either do not describe the whole process or in a language I do not know. Basically a flight planning part is clear as it is all can be done using DataPilot. What is not clear is to what to do next after you get a set of images. Also it is not clear what clients for such a job may want from me as drone pilot, what kind of reports and files they usually ask for. I want to understand all that.

I have found that Pix4D has a great training academy resource on youtube(watching it now) that explains how to use their Pix4DMapper but Pix4D starting price is $350 USD per month which is higher than plans offered by drone deploy for example.

I think I would go with Pix4D trial just because I have a resource on how to use it in great details but before I sign up for it I just need to find what and where I can practise it. And of course I will still need to know what are normal clients expectations for the outcomes but I will keep looking for some guides on it and I hope I can find eventually.

 

[Wingman]

Mate I'm sure we could work out a day...
Just call me and we can discuss your needs.
Haydn

Thank you Haydn. I will give you a call about it as soon as I sort some other things out.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Wingman,

If you have not already, you might check out Commercialdronepilots.com.

There are several sections including survey and mapping. You might find some existing discussions helpful in your quest for information and real world situations.

Jeff

 

[claudius62]

Hello,
A very stupid question about taking pictures. Should they be programmed in 16: 9, 3: 2 or 4: 3. Or Datapilot programs the mode all by itself without being anything to do?
Thank you

 

[arruntus]

Hello,
A very stupid question about taking pictures. Should they be programmed in 16: 9, 3: 2 or 4: 3. Or Datapilot programs the mode all by itself without being anything to do?
Thank you

In theory, the bigger the footprint, the better. This means taking fewer pictures, increasing the distance between passes and therefore taking less time. So 3:2 is the format that has more resolution.

I believe that DataPilot determines the camera mode, I have not tried the new update and before there was no possibility to change the size or aspect ratio. They have also eliminated the possibility of tilting the camera for the missions survey, which I don't understand. I imagine they will put it back because to eliminate the possibility of making oblique flights is to limit photogrammetric flights to the minimum expression, without counting circular flights.

 

[10-8]

In theory, the bigger the footprint, the better. This means taking fewer pictures, increasing the distance between passes and therefore taking less time. So 3:2 is the format that has more resolution.

I believe that DataPilot determines the camera mode, I have not tried the new update and before there was no possibility to change the size or aspect ratio. They have also eliminated the possibility of tilting the camera for the missions survey, which I don't understand. I imagine they will put it back because to eliminate the possibility of making oblique flights is to limit photogrammetric flights to the minimum expression, without counting circular flights.

Before flying a mission, you can go into camera settings and choose your own settings for the mission; color, aspect ratio, etc..

 

[Graham]

They have also eliminated the possibility of tilting the camera for the missions survey, which I don't understand. I imagine they will put it back because to eliminate the possibility of making oblique flights is to limit photogrammetric flights to the minimum expression, without counting circular flights.

The camera angle can still be changed in waypoint flights, but not in survey. Like you, I don't understand why this change has been made.

 

[arruntus]

Before flying a mission, you can go into camera settings and choose your own settings for the mission; color, aspect ratio, etc..

So the mission survey no longer governs the parameters of the camera and we can set them manually?

 

[claudius62]

Information on the altitude of the Survey grid. By default it is 50m. and that is the altitude for all waypoints within the grid.
If I take off from the altitude point 323 meters and that I have to join the grid must the highest point is 361 meters is 38 meters + high as the takeoff and I want to keep this height 50m. I have to put 50 + 38 = 78 meters in Altitude. Exact ?.
But if I put 78m, I have a ground resolution of 2.29 cm / px while the ground will be below 50m which gives it a resolution of 1.47 cm / px and the angle of the photos may not be the even between the two.
If I put 78m., I have 122 photos and if it is 50 m. we go up to 292 photos. The meter is not at all the same.

 

[Tuna]

Information on the altitude of the Survey grid. By default it is 50m. and that is the altitude for all waypoints within the grid.
If I take off from the altitude point 323 meters and that I have to join the grid must the highest point is 361 meters is 38 meters + high as the takeoff and I want to keep this height 50m. I have to put 50 + 38 = 78 meters in Altitude. Exact ?.
But if I put 78m, I have a ground resolution of 2.29 cm / px while the ground will be below 50m which gives it a resolution of 1.47 cm / px and the angle of the photos may not be the even between the two.
If I put 78m., I have 122 photos and if it is 50 m. we go up to 292 photos. The meter is not at all the same.

It's a bit hard to understand what you're asking. Do you mean you're flying over uneven ground? i.e. you take off from a location with a ground height of 323m above sea level, but there is a location in the survey area that is 361m above sea level?

 

[claudius62]

A little drawing.

 

[OnTheRopes]

I was I think about to ask the same question. If a mapping mission needs all photos to be taken at the same distance from the ground, but you are on undulating ground or on a hillside, how do you achieve this?

 

[claudius62]

We can not. The whole circuit will be at the same altitude. Be careful to manage the height of the ground.

 

[Wingman]

I may be wrong but in DP you can set up either Resolution or Altitude. Does it mean that if I set my survey with some specific resolution it should change a drone altitude based on each point elevation to keep that resolution during the whole mission?

 

[arruntus]

I may be wrong but in DP you can set up either Resolution or Altitude. Does it mean that if I set my survey with some specific resolution it should change a drone altitude based on each point elevation to keep that resolution during the whole mission?

No, it doesn't do ground tracking, at least for now. I hope he does at some point.

If you set the altitude of the mission, which will always be the same, this altitude corresponds to a specific GSD (not resolution) that is calculated. If you set up a particular GSD the height is calculated and the entire mission is done at that height.

How are these calculations done? It depends on the focal length of the camera, the size of the sensor and the resolution of the camera. A formula is applied and either the height or the GSD is obtained which is what we are talking about now.

 

[Wingman]

On the other hand, if there is difference in elevation over some area you cannot have the same resolution over one single image. With 20 megapixel image and 3:2 aspect ratio we will have roughly 5400x3700 pixels image. At 2cm/pix ground resolution(50 meters altitude) it will be 108x74 meters area on the ground that this image represents. Over that distance the difference in elevation in the image can be quite big and it means you will have different resolution in different parts of the image.

 

[Wingman]

No, it doesn't do ground tracking, at least for now. I hope he does at some point.

You are right, a lot of things missing from DP apart from camera angle.

It is such an easy task from programming point of view to do it in the right way and I am surprised why it has not been done yet. If DP using google maps they have elevation shown for each point(I am sure all other maps have it too). And we have a drone altitude from GPS. All they need to do is to add AGL parameter to the survey settings. Lets say it is there and it is set to 50 meters. Then all they need to do is to get an elevation from the map at each point, subtract it from a drone altitude and correct the result of this simple math operation to 50 meters telling the drone to ascend or descend depending on this simple math. We do not even need the altitude to do these corrections, even simpler to add whatever is set up in an AGL field of DP to each point elevation on the map and then correct the drone altitude.

However as I mentioned above we will still have a problem with a ground resolution over one single whole image where elevation is different over roughly 110x75 meters area on the ground(calculated for 20 megapixel image and 50 meters AGL).