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Flying points in Litchi and setting up a camera for photogrammetry (tutorial)

Published on
05.06.2023

Creating a mission in Litchi and setting up a drone camera for photogrammetric work

There are many applications that provide route creation for drones in photogrammetric work. For a number of reasons, we recommend that our students in the Aerial Surveying with Drones course use the Litchi program to build routes. In the classes at the drone pilot school of Dmytro Slediuk, we analyze the nuances and life hacks of working with this program. The purpose of this article is to remind you of the sequence of actions for creating routes and setting up a drone camera for photogrammetry. In the process of creating this article, we used the DJI Mavic 2 PRO quadcopter as an example.

Building a route in Litchi.
Setting the properties of waypoints
  1. Set the flight altitude at the first point
  2. Arrange all waypoints of the drone's route based on the distance between flights
  3. Adjust the drone's turning radii at waypoints within 9-12 meters
Route properties
  1. Set the drone's direction as "Auto-tuning"
  2. Completion of the action: "Returning Home"
  3. Path mode: set "Radius turns"
  4. Cruising speed: around 40km/h (recommended)
  5. Maximum flight speed: set to the maximum
  6. Save the route.
Setting up a drone camera for photogrammetric work in the Litchi app
(We remind you that the camera can only be set up when the drone is turned on and the remote control is connected to the tablet)

Setting the exposure of the drone camera
  1. Set the shooting mode to Photo
  2. In the camera's Exposure Settings, select Aperture Auto - Mode A
  3. Fully open the diaphragm
  4. Set the exposure compensation from -0.3 to -0.7
Setting the shooting mode
  1. Set the image format to "JPG"
  2. Set the shooting mode: "Interval" and the shooting frequency of 2s
  3. Lower the camera vertically downwards
Launch the drone along the route
  1. Launch the mission for execution from the selected route point
  2. After gaining altitude, do not forget to start interval shooting
Notes on the features of the Litchi app

DJI is constantly changing the algorithm of interaction between the drone and applications for its configuration and control. In this regard, it is possible that after launching Litchi, the application does not see the drone. In some cases, it helps to pre-launch the DJI GO 4 app and launch Litchi without closing it.

We recommend using IOS devices to work with the Litchi app. In our experience, Litchi is more stable under this operating system. In addition, in IOS, it is possible to switch between different applications to control the drone, while the Android OS requires changing with standard programs for the remote control every time, as for a USB device.