Pans on the 920+

[thoneter]

Can the 920+ do dual layer panoramics using the cgo4? I don't have the plus so since the FC is basically the same as the 480 the ability should be there unless the cgo4 doesn't have the ability.

 

[PatR]

I gave not encountered a Pano selection in the Plus camera function controls.

 

[thoneter]

That sucks as a pano on the cgo4 would probably be awesome. Guess I'll see how doing it manually works out

 

[thoneter]

Got a hold of the lovely tech support in CA and was informed that the cgo4 orig has a board that is removed to make it work with the st16 and the 480 FC. Don't understand why they can't do the upgrade/downgrade to the plus without removing said board but hey I'm a moron. The 920+ conversions aren't being done anymore either. So I guess you got what you got and can't get what you want.

 

[PatR]

That was made very clear, several times, much earlier in this forum. Anyone electing to buy a 920 or 920+ needed to make sure before buying one it fit their needs with the system in the stage of development it is in when purchased. It would see no further changes, ever, unless the owner found a way to make changes on their own.

I can’t think of any manufacturer that makes improvements for discontinued products unless it was recalled for public safety reasons.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

That sucks as a pano on the cgo4 would probably be awesome. Guess I'll see how doing it manually works out

Doing it manually is actually very easy to do with most UAV's that don't have this option as long as you can see the angle of your camera for the second roll. I have done it with a Q500 that you have no idea what angle the camera might be at for the second set of pictures and it turned out darn good.
I use my Autel XSP for panos and this is the method I use as it does not do auto panos either.

This is for the X-star but you should be able to use the method for your bird.
"
For the Autel XSP do not use Raw\DNG photos as they contain no Exif information.
Using the free software ICE mentioned in the tutorial video works OK but not great. I use PanoramaStudio 2 Pro, not free but works as advertised.
When taking your photos use the grid lines option in camera settings.(if you have them) This helps line up your next shot. Remember you need over lap for best results.
When taking your photos think about a clock, start at 12 oclock and work your way around taking 8 over lapping photos at 0°
Then adjust your camera down to 45° (there is a indicator that shows your angle) and take another 8 photos in the same spots you did at 0°.
You then have to take two photos looking straight down but opposite each other.
So now you have 18 photos to import into your panorama program of choice.
When you have your 360 pano saved don't forget to go into the properties of the photo and make the camera changes as instructed in the video tutorial.
Additional meta info for the image properties:
Ricoh
Ricoh Theta S
Once you are finished following the the tutorial video you can upload your photo to facebook or to Kuula

"

One of my panos from this winter
New Panorama2_InPixio

 

[thoneter]

That was made very clear, several times, much earlier in this forum. Anyone electing to buy a 920 or 920+ needed to make sure before buying one it fit their needs with the system in the stage of development it is in when purchased. It would see no further changes, ever, unless the owner found a way to make changes on their own.

I can’t think of any manufacturer that makes improvements for discontinued products unless it was recalled for public safety reasons.

Every car manufacturer keeps parts for cars that are discontinued. You can still get original parts for Studebakers. If HP discontinues their PC I can still replace the motherboard, sound card, power supply etc with any other manufacturer.

If were dumb enough to keep buying 7K drones that last 3 years with no expectation of continued service or parts then we've bought the bridge to nowhere. Just because the other guys are jumping off of cliffs doesn't mean that Yuneec needs to.

Yuneec chopped up the 920 and made it into a 920+ to sell left over product. No different than when Intel chopped the dual core processors and made them into celerons because no one wanted to pay for the high cost dual cores. The tech told me today that the 920+ was the result of a recall. Now the + owners either live with a battery warning covering the screen or hope for a 3rd party company to come up with product that Yuneec had no intention of supporting.

I suppose if you tell us how forthright Yuneec was on all of this then I've got more bridges to sell you in the north pole. Yuneec only cared about selling product that was sitting on the shelf collecting dust. They could have left the board in and updated the 920 to do smart modes. DJI has got all of this and much more going for their birds. I'm not a fan of having to comb every FB group, forum and contacting tech support while holding for 3 hours to maybe get the right answer.

 

[PatR]

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. If my aunt had balls she woulda been my uncle.

Yuneec stopped actively promoting the 920 almost a year ago. The reason for the “recall” was never made clear, although it was clear some suppliers never got paid.

In my beginnings in this forum I made it clear the 920 was better for my purpose than the 520 will likely ever be. It was also made clear people thinking about a 920 needed to fully research the 920+ to establish it would serve them “as is” because no further upgrades would be forthcoming.

You can buy parts for the 920+ with the exception of retracts all day long.

With all that out of the way, if someone bought either a 920 or 920+ with expectations it could, or eventually would, do more than it does, what’s there to say?

 

[OnTheRopes]

That was made very clear, several times, much earlier in this forum. Anyone electing to buy a 920 or 920+ needed to make sure before buying one it fit their needs with the system in the stage of development it is in when purchased. It would see no further changes, ever, unless the owner found a way to make changes on their own.

I can’t think of any manufacturer that makes improvements for discontinued products unless it was recalled for public safety reasons.

But do Yuneec say anywhere it is discontinued, I have spoken with Yuneec UK and asked them direct if it is discontinued and nobody can (or will) give me a straight answer.
It is still advertised as for sale and although I realise this may just be getting rid of stock.
Drones : Tornado H920 Plus

 

[thoneter]

Yuneec didn't sell the 520. They were sitting on dealers shelves collecting dust so they told us to buy the h+. They marketed the 520 as the 480 with longer arms, quieter motors and with smart modes.

They chopped the 520 and their marketing it as the H+. Sound familiar?

It's not discontinued and if us suckers don't buy them up they'llt do just like DJI and market the next thing.

So wearing the emporers new clothes while riding the 920+ down the forum might make your aunt's balls feel better it's not gonna make me buy a 520-.

 

[PatR]

But do Yuneec say anywhere it is discontinued, I have spoken with Yuneec UK and asked them direct if it is discontinued and nobody can (or will) give me a straight answer.
It is still advertised as for sale and although I realise this may just be getting rid of stock.
Drones : Tornado H920 Plus

As a company, Yuneec has not made a public statement regarding discontinuation of the 920. That lack of corporate communication is consistent with their statements for their other platforms, which generally consist of corporate silence.

I first learned of the 920+ being dropped in back channel messages from moderators during pre purchase research of the Plus. Further research provided the same info in communications with dealers. Post purchase the same info was provided by customer service and company sales reps. To protect their jobs names will not be referenced.

That Yuneec would, and does, continue to advertise and sell off remaining inventory is fairly evident. The U.S. operation is worse than I am with updating a website so stuff stays up forever. Aside from that I don’t think they can afford not to sell discontinued inventory.

Make no mistake, I have no loyalty to Yuneec, or reason to give them any. I find their lack of official communications deplorable, and their consistent failure to deliver on time and what appears to me as a “bait and switch” release operation with the 520 to be unforgivable.

If facts be told, I’m still quite peeved with some facets f my Plus purchase. I paid full pop at Terrestrial only to learn a week later that Vertigo chopped the price, with Yuneec’s approval, by $700.00. When questioned about the price difference Terrestrial informed me Yuneec doesn’t provide price guarantees, so too bad. I also bought two extra sets of “new” crappy batteries from them at full pop. No mention was made of decayed flight time if using them and I find it hard to think they would not have been aware of it. But hey, they moved stuff off the shelves. As nobody at Yuneec or the dealer did anything to mitigate any of that I still feel I got bent over with sand in the Vaseline. There was also the issue of inability to contact Yuneec to obtain answers to questions, where I leaned on the dealer to gain CS contact and caused them to become perturbed with me for using that avenue to obtain communication with Yuneec.

OTOH, I have a perfectly functioning 920+, with no illusions it will ever be upgraded. Most makers don’t upgrade anyway, they release a new model you have to buy to obtain upgrades, so there’s no disappointment in that respect.

Theoneter,
Your last post was funny[emoji4] but it does have areas relative to the 520 and H Plus I agree with. From a personal perspective I view Yuneec as a failed company looking for ways to unload left over parts and older systems using the few employees they have left before closing up shop. Making a CES announcement they were about to release a “new” fixed wing product people were buying from HobbyKing almost 3.5 years ago made no sense to me. It was either an act of desperation or a means to trick DJI into diverting resources to release a similar type product.

 

[PatR]

Augustine,

Just as an FYI, the CGO-4 does not generate any geo EXIF data. That capability was removed when they modified the GH-4 to create the CGO-4. If you need geo data from a 920 Plus you have to use a CGO-3.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Ah OK
The EXIF data is not necessary but does help the pano program with lining up the shots better. If the info is not there the program does its best. The free program from microsoft call ICE does not do a good job at it but it does work for some. This the reason I like PanoramaStudio 2 Pro. It does what it is advertised.

 

[OnTheRopes]

Ah OK
The EXIF data is not necessary but does help the pano program with lining up the shots better. If the info is not there the program does its best. The free program from microsoft call ICE does not do a good job at it but it does work for some. This the reason I like PanoramaStudio 2 Pro. It does what it is advertised.

Out of interest when producing a pano with the CGO4, what camera settings are you using?
I ask because in manual mode, which is what I would normally use to get uniformity over the shots, there is no live view or if in DNG even a review of what you are going to get?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Out of interest when producing a pano with the CGO4, what camera settings are you using?
I ask because in manual mode, which is what I would normally use to get uniformity over the shots, there is no live view or if in DNG even a review of what you are going to get?

Maybe you miss understood. I was just posting a tutorial on how to do duel layer panos manually. I do not own a 920 or CGO4
Sorry for the confusion.

 

[thoneter]

I do a lot of 360's with my 480 and ICE. After playing around with ICE I've got it down to where it makes very few alignment errors. I use Lightroom to color correct and export as Tiff with alpha into PS. I tried Pan Studio and it is better but ICE is doable and cheaper.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

You just mentioned three different programs to get one pano. I can do all that in Pan Studio in one shot. And it is free if you know how and where to look

 

[OnTheRopes]

Maybe you miss understood. I was just posting a tutorial on how to do duel layer panos manually. I do not own a 920 or CGO4
Sorry for the confusion.

Ahh yes indeed I did misunderstand, no worries though.

 

[thoneter]

For me and me only I want good or great pans. I use PS and LR because they are Cadillac programs. I already have the Adobe products so it's not any more $ to invest. The results for me are better than Pan Studio IMHO. Project Title Flocked

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Yes I understand your point as most of us who have been into photography for any amount of time have a basket full of Adobe products all of which has a learning curve. I use them all from time to time. After three years of learning Adobe Premiere Pro CC I am starting to get just comfortable with it. I use PanoramaStudio 3 Pro and it also has a learning curve. The more I used it the better my panos were as I found out how to use all of its features to the fullest.
It really does not matter how you get to the end product as long as you are happy with the results.