If so, how did that go?

Hey,

I'm having a trial of Pix4Dmatic and Pix4Dcloud to test the workflow.

For good datasets, I've been happy with the results, but I am now trying a challenging dataset to see how it handles it. I have run the same dataset through an online service called Biodrone, which processed the map perfectly.

The problem I'm having in Matic is that there are several uncalibrated camera positions on the map. I made some adjustments in the calibration tab and when reoptimizing, which helped a bit. I am now trying to use markers (MTP) to point out high-contrast elements in the terrain to manually calibrate them.

Is this the purpose of the MTPs? If yes, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

https://preview.redd.it/u85r2cmqn74e1.png?width=2292&format=png&auto=webp&s=d61cf85c72b39986ec4172b7ee05fe89ada605f7

https://preview.redd.it/g704mamqn74e1.png?width=924&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c47bd30aa66be62eb7c3dd2b4760e0703f3d6a2

I live Atlanta GA, been a UAS pilot for almost 5 years with approx over 500 flight hours under my belt. Roof inspections and real esate photograpghy and was hire to go to 9 states to videography of the cities for a music video. Looking for a company that is hiring in the surveyor and mapping, use of Lidar, photogrammetry, thermal, law enforcement accident reconstruction or even 1st responder, not picky just want a company that will give me the best training. . Willing to start from bottom and I can relocate, if it is worth the move. Want to purchase a M350 RTK, so I can also practice on my own time to become proficient. I have the money, just dont want to spend blind without a sense of direction and learn how to maintain, calibrate, clean etc, while I work with a company willing to teach me to be a true professional as my new career. My house closes on Dec 18th.

Thanks in advance!

Hello all, i'm looking for some advice. Have been mapping (normal rgb ortho and multispectral) for years, haven't done much with elevation / DSM, but need to dial that in now.

My setup is:
- Mavic 3m (has RTK antennae, but I haven't used it)
- Trimble Catalyst DA2 with precision subscription (2cm accuracy)
- Have used pix4dFields in the past, but it doesn't allow for GCP use. My laptop can't handle Pix4DMatic, so I've been processing on OpenDroneMap Lightning / Cloud. It seems legit, and good priced.

- Goal -
- Map to create DSM that will allow me to tie into some other work we have going on at sites
- Surface water drainage, relate topography to NDVI, Plan where to put groundwater monitoring wells etc.
- I don't have an exact spec on how accurate I need to be, but want to be as accurate as possible, i'd like sub 10cm accuracy for "z"

-Details-
- Flight areas range from 100 acres - 500 acres
- Mapping with GSD of 5-10cm/pixel depending on the site
- Marking out Large Orange "X" GCP with Spray Paint along the perimeter of the flight area (i'm doing RM roads, and flying the quarter section for example. Not really walking into the centre of field if can avoid it for the time it takes, but am adding some GCP interior when easily accessible.
- Record centre of GCP with Catalyst - reporting less than 2cm horiziontal and vertical accuracy
- proper overlap - usually 70% front 70% side overlap.
- Catalyst configuration: GNSS Output: NAD83(CSRS)v7 (EPOCH:1997) Geoid: Canada CGG2013A (NAD83) as recommended by manufacturer.
- ODM doesn't accept that exact EPSG, so was using EPSG:26913 for GCP, but I can't see that making much difference. I'm not necessarily comparing to anything outside this map. i.e. only rarely would i need to match a professionally surveyed feature.

Once I get the DSM output, I load it into QGIS, and then I load in my GCP point file. I check the DSM elevation at each GCP and compare to the Trimble Catalyst elevation for each GCP and some "check points" that were not used as GCPs.

When i do this, I find many of DSM elevation values within 0.05m of the Catalyst elevation, but some are off by up to -0.15m to +0.38m .

When I look at the ODM quality report, the GPS accuracy (Drone) can be quite low, which is understandable with the non-RTK enabled drone and should not be used in processing when using the GCP workflow, but the GCP accuracy is good I think (Example below)

I guess i'm just looking for advice - does this procedure and workflow seem reasonable? What can I do to improve accuracy?
Thanks!

example quality report

Hi, is there any chance that you can also disable the uncalibrated cameras in pix4dmatic like in pix4dmapper? Thank you!

Has anybody here made a fixed wing mapping drone, and have any pointers? I've seen some really neat 3D printed fixed wing designs, but they don't seem like they're really meant for a camera payload. With the Wingtra costing in the $20k realm from what I can tell, it's a bit unapproachable for someone who just wants to make some fun maps.

I'll note that I've built my own FPV drone, so I love the idea of getting my hands dirty and DIYing this--I'm no stranger to electronics and whatnot.

Would love to hear any advice or tips!

Hello! We are thinking of purchasing a L2 LiDAR with RTK connectivity for construction inspections and measurements and relative accuracy will be really important to us. We intend to fly as low and slow as needed to obtain a better relative accuracy if that will make a difference. I see that the raging accuracy stated in the DJI website is 2 cm @ 150 m. Is that the relative accuracy at 150m? If so, would flying at around 50m significantly improve relative accuracy? Thank you!

Hi folks,

I’m looking to buy a high-precision drone for mapping and need advice. Ideally, I’d like a complete, brand-new solution, but I’m working with a limited budget. I’ll be using the drone in Argentina, and I think PPK functionality would suit my needs better than RTK.

I came across this deal: Autel EVO II Pro RTK V3. It seems like a solid option, but I’ve read about some issues, including RTK connection interruptions and firmware quirks. Specifically, when flying PPK, the SD card reportedly needs formatting with each battery change because the firmware can’t log PPK data incrementally.

Another option I’m considering is a second-hand DJI Mavic 2 Pro with a Topodrone PPK Upgrade Kit. The upgrade kit costs around USD 2,000 and has good reviews. For the base station, I’m leaning towards CHNAV, though I haven’t been able to find pricing information.

Logistically, I’d purchase in the US, ship to Miami, and have a relative bring the kit to Argentina.

What do you think of these options? Is the Autel EVO II Pro RTK V3 worth it, or should I explore alternatives? Any suggestions on affordable base stations or better setups would also be appreciated.

Thanks so much

Hello i want to measure my gardens ( garden designer) with a drone.

i do this already , but i have a dji mavic 3 Pro and work with polycam.

i would like to know what the better solution is.

i heard about:

• Dji Mavic Enterprice with a RTK Module
• a very expensive Dji Terra (solutions?)

are there alternatives?

• Accouracy would be +/- 5cm

How to fix this data that is flying? We don’t know how to solve this one. Open for comments and suggestions. Thank you.

I'm having some trouble with terrain following on our M350 with P1 camera, without RTK base station. Bottom line it flew at 155' AGL rather than 200' and I can't figure out why. This is new equipment for us.

I created a DTM from lidar that our local jurisdiction had flown. The data looks fine.

I understand that Pilot 2 wants elevation data relative to the ellipsoid.

Here are the steps I took to generate the raster dtm relative to the ellipsoid:

1. I downloaded the lidar DTM
2. Reprojected it to WGS84 in QGIS.
3. Converted the Z values to meters.
4. Adjusted the Z values to the ellipsoid. (-22.55 meters in this area)
5. Imported the DTM into Pilot 2 and created my area mission.

Everything appeared fine to me in Pilot 2. I set the AGL elevation to 200'.

When I flew the mission it appeared to me that the aircraft was not 200' AGL but I'm not exactly sure what numbers Pilot 2 is reporting on the controller. I see values for elevation and elevation above sea level. The aircraft was well above the tree cover so I carried on even though I wasn't seeing elevation numbers that made sense to me.

After processing the project it appears that the mission was flown at approximately 155' AGL rather than the 200' specified. It worked fine but I don't like that it didn't perform as expected.

Below are what I believe to be the relevant numbers that I have. We use Aeropoints for GCPs so GCP-12873609 is referring to one of our Aeropoints. I provided the elevation for one of the photos. (520.76 NAVD88)

If any of you more experience with the M350 and terrain following can point out where I made a mistake I'll be very appreciative. I imagine I made some bonehead mistake or another but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

In Pix4d NAVD88

GCP-12873609 ZUSFt: 365.561

Photo 20241130133535_0644: 520.76 (This photo was nearly directly above the GCP)

520.76 - 365.561 =155.199

Propeller Aeropoints Interface

GCP-12873609

NAVD88 height (geoid 12b) =365.561

Ellipsoid height =291.445

Adjustment 74.116

In QGIS

Lidar elevation near GCP prior to Adjustment: 365.54

Lidar elevation subsampled and converted to meters: 112.026115 (367.5386’)

Lidar elevation in meters adjusted to ellipsoid: 89.4708 (270.57’)

Expected camera elevation relative to elipsoid: 470’

Expected camera elevation NAVD88: 565

Observed camera elevation in Pix 4d (NAVD88): 520’

Observed camera elevation in Pix 4d (relative to ellipsoid): 520’ - 74’ =446’

Effective height AGL: 155’

AGL Specified in Pilot 2: 200’

Do I need RTK? I'm interested in generating some topographical maps for two ten acre parcels. What do you recommend? Thanks in advance.

Someone else flew a DD mission for me with their account and sent me the photos. Can I use my DD subscription to process these images into a map even though I do not have the project they flew on my account? If so, what does this process look like? The images are all geotagged.

We're having an issue in spatial Explorer when activating the Riegl it says LASER_SWITCH_IS_OFF. Any ideas how to solve this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

I have see a stationary setups where a 2d lidar is rotated and able to create a 3d map. but, i want to implement this on a drone.

With 2d lidar, IMU and RTK(cm level accuracy location). based on platform ros2 humble, and ubuntu22.

How to go on with this?

I want to buy this product: https://thinkrobotics.com/products/s100d?variant=48918767010109

Datasheet of the product: https://sub.cube-eye.co.kr/data/[meerecompany]%20S100D_datasheet_rev0.5.pdf

This product has two versions D100DM and D100DS. the only difference is the interface, D100DM is MIPI CSI 2. and D100DS is USB2.0. but the price difference is almost 120 USD. My question is

1. How can interface alone can create such difference in price.

2. both versions need additional power supply along with these interfaces. i was wondering which one would be easier, MIPI CSI 2 15 connected to ras pi 4 8gm or usb 2.0 connected to pc.

I am thinking about purchase of a new drone for photogrametry. I'm learning about RTK and could afford the base. But I don't understand why it needs access to Wi-Fi... does it require connecting to one of the page services? And if so what is the point of having the base?

Hey there, I've been using the L1 and DJI Terra for about a year now and have encountered an error I didn't before:

Terra manages to create a model and point cloud, which, once exported shows up in CloudCompare as a straight line. Now this has happened to lots of people I assume, but my coordinate system is cartesic, so that shouldn't be the problem. Anyways I still try to reproject/rescale the coordinates in every imaginable way, but it's a line every time.

So after two days now on and off I convert my .las to text, and what do I see? All my x and y coordinates are the same for every point, while z looks fine.

Before I go back to Terra tomorrow just to start over and probably be left with the same data, does anyone know what went wrong here?

Tl;dr: .las comes out of Terra, all x and y coordinates are the same.

So basically I have been eyeing getting into photogrammetry / orthomosaic to do some freelance small works on the side, I have seen lots of videos on YouTube on how to do this on different softwares but what I haven’t found (either because I’m blind or I’m not looking hard enough) is some images to practice myself, I’m more of a learning while doing it guy so I don’t feel confident on accepting small jobs without having actually done even one photogrammetry / orthomosaic myself before.

I know there are paid courses that will provide you with this but since I think I got everything I need already from YouTube and this subreddit I come to ask if there is somewhere to find images to use as practice or am I doomed to pay around 300$ for a 2 weekend course?

I have been doing photogrammetry to make 3D models for ages. I'm very comfortable using RealityCapture and other 3D tools. I'm a 3D artist, but I used to be an architect.

The company I work for wants to invest in a drone at most $3,000 USD that can create accurate 3D models of large sites. Basically, we want to do this https://www.capturingreality.com/Surveying.

What would be the best drone to invest in to do this? Thanks!

900MHZ or 400mhz DJI drone used in USA? What is the protocol?

i am aware of Intel RealSense Depth Camera D456 and i am looking for something in budget but also provide competitive output.

Also would like to know your option on: https://thinkrobotics.com/products/s100d?variant=48918767042877

These depth camaras need to be compatible with ros2 and SLAM utility.

Anyone know exactly what is more stable? ha ha

I'm looking for a way to share heavy orthomosaic with customers (>300Mb files). And so I've been reading that progressive JPEG allows instant view of the image, and precision comes as the background download progress.
I'm thinking about providing such possibility for customers where they could reach their orthomosaic pictures on some cloud platform I'd provide. (either my own NAS or a cloud instance). Any idea how that could be done ?

Hello,

I'm looking for ideas or suggestions for a basic offline application that can generate an overlap heatmap with percentage values. Currently, I rely on Pix4D or Agisoft reports, but these tools take significant time and consume a lot of system resources.

Here's the scenario:

EXIF Data Available:

Image Resolution

Image Altitude

Camera Sensor Size

Focal Length

Hardware: Basic laptop for field

If such a tool exists, I'd appreciate knowing about it. If not, I’d be happy to collaborate on building one. Based on my limited understanding, tools like ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, and Python libraries should suffice for developing a solution. I'm eager to contribute to the process and learn along the way. I am not a coding guy.

Thanks in advance! #Peace

I've only used the smart oblique option a few times, mainly because It locks the speed at "as fast a possible." Which I don't like.

I saw a few comments somewhere about how to wears out the gimbal. I was just wondering people's thoughts on this or if there's some speed setting I'm missing.

Hello, I'm working with a thermal Mavic 3 Enterprise. When I want to upload the images to Agisoft Metashape, it recognizes the images as if they were from a single camera and doesn't give me the multi-camera option. I've already tried to upload only the thermal images without the RGB ones and it recognizes the thermal images as if they were RGB.

Do you know if I have to process the images with another software first? Or if I have to change some configuration in Metashape?

I’m a hobbyist that has recently joined as a rookie at a company that does mapping of rail infrastructure. I’m looking for advice or recommendations on software to draw kml files to streamline work load.

Currently they are drawing and measuring manually 200m chunks in google earth along a route that they also plan/measure manually and exporting the KLM’s to a DJI RC, then use pilot 2.

To me this seems wild and long winded and I feel like there must be a simpler solution. They’re planning to start using drone deploy but mapping wise we would still have to plan the 200m chunks in google earth to import into drone deploy

Any ideas would be much appreciated

From what I know, I think that the DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral is a good drone for agricultural land mapping and get another types of measures like temperature and chlorophyll levels. Based on your experience what drones do you guys recommend for agricultural scouting?

Thank you in advance and let's be polite!

I know this is a UAV mapping subreddit. But I was curious if anyone works on the drone delivery or been exposed to this. FAA completing new NEPA reviews for UPS and Amazon recently makes me this this will be a growing area.

https://rotorreport.substack.com/p/drone-delivery-becomes-closer-to?r=4jh2iq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

https://www.faa.gov/uas/advanced_operations/nepa_and_drones#Completed%20NEPA%20Reviews.:~:text=Completed%20NEPA%20Reviews