7 ms·

DJI drone flight log viewer

107 points by NKosmatos 3y ago

MrGilbert 3y ago
That’s one of these programs where I'm thinking: "Why didn’t I build it?". Well, obviously because I don’t have a drone. Kudos, nice tool! I wonder if there are more such opportunities…
- wongarsu 3y ago
  It's also at risk of some teenager with a drone making an open source competitor because they are annoyed that there's no Linux version.
  - guepe 3y ago
    Ahah I actually once looked for such tool AND even started writing one. Raising two kids got the better of me!
    - tough 3y ago
      Maybe one of your kids will keep the torch when he or she's a teenager, closing the open source cycle
  - foobarbecue 3y ago
    An open source competitor to what? You mean like Ardupilot or QGroundControl?
- NKosmatos 3y ago
  This program should be part of the main DJI software suite or something that you could download from the drone manufacturer. I, as a drone owner, should have full access to all the telemetry data for my own analysis and archiving purposes.
  - stavros 3y ago
    I'm 100% with you, but if that's what you want, don't buy DJI.
    - wearsshoes 3y ago
      DJI is pretty great with telemetry, logs are stored locally and on the cloud with many ways to access your data. Not so great with privacy due to governments having a tight watch on drone flight, making it very likely your flight data is monitored.
      - stavros 3y ago
        It's not just that, all their stuff is locked down hard, you can't mod anything and you can't fix the bugs they refuse tom
  - yardie 3y ago
    That data is available as part of the API. I use other flight control software like Litchi that gives me a lot of control. Even allows me to create and import a flight plan for semi-autonomous flight.
    - hackernewds 3y ago
      this seems illegal
      - Filligree 3y ago
        Absolutely not. It’s illegal for the common person in America, but there are plenty of locations where it wouldn’t be, especially with a drone license.
      - wearsshoes 3y ago
        This is completely legal in the US on both recreational and commercial licenses, so long as you have visual line of sight to the drone and the ability to regain direct command of the drone via RC (and are following all other flight rules). It is commonly used for video work, such as programmed aerial timelapses.
- gaudat 3y ago
  Well, I have a DJI gathering dust here because of drone flight rules that seeds me to drive a couple hours before I can fly it. Last time I recorded video with the drone I am suprised there is a SRT file bundled. Turns out that is the telemetry data in plain text recorded at 10 Hz. It should be trivial to write a script that transform it into KML or some GIS-friendly format. And I am sure I do not need any shareware for this...
- suddenclarity 3y ago
  I believe it's from 2016 and by far predating the Mavic series which made drones common among regular people. So if you're looking for similar opportunities, you probably need to jump on the next trend before it goes popular.
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  I'm curious -- what about this strikes you as a novel "opportunity?" To me, reading your post is a bit like seeing someone say "wow, a chair! Why didn't I build that? I wonder if there are more opportunities?" Like, yeah, build a table... or a different chair...? I built an online flight log analyzer about 10 years ago ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBCBC2oJ70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBCBC2oJ70 , https://github.com/foobarbecue/afterflight https://github.com/foobarbecue/afterflight ) . When DJI hit the scene I used some a DJI log decoder someone else wrote to get my Phantom logs into the system, but never integrated the converter with the website. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution and the follow-through that matters.
  - MrGilbert 3y ago
    I think you are right. Somehow, in my mind, I'd like to find a niche where I can start building something (software-related). Something that is of use, and which solves a problem people are willing to pay for. Not a "get rich in two months"-scheme, but something sustainable. I have no problem with commitments, but it’s the problem to solve that I'm currently lacking. Apparently, this tool does it. I think there are not many tools like that on the market (I might be wrong).
    - dylan604 3y ago
      As is often heard, necessity is the mother of invention. Most of these niche ideas come from people that are active in whatever space the nice product serves and yet has no product. It takes the timing of someone with the need && the know-how of how to make the product. Just having the need for a product part of the equation. Having someone recognize what the solution would be, the time available to create that solution, and an overall understanding if the effort would be worth it all aligning.
wongarsu 3y ago
> Access 300+ flight data points logged every 1/10 of a second > View over 200 data points collected every 1/10 of a second during the flight Is there some significance to these numbers (20 seconds and 30 seconds of data) or is that just an attempt at "big numbers sound good"?
- defrost 3y ago
  I wondered the same thing and looked a little at the DJI Drone family which seems pretty large and broad in application. The generic data channels number easily less than 50 - time, X,Y,Z, axis velocity, battery life, yaw, tilt, pitch, etc. I dare say some of the special domain applications generate more channels of data from mounted instrumentation - all logged to a common DJI family log format - for extraction on landing or broadcast during flight etc. The 200 channel Vs 300 channel thing is likely just poor copywriting from looking at max channels in two different application areas.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    There's also (probably) detailed logs from the collision avoidance sensors, as well as GPS. Even the relatively small Mini 3 Pro has six cameras and a downward-facing IR distance meter, the larger ones (Mavic 3) have even more cameras and ultrasonic short-distance sensors. At least from Reddit reports, the amount of data that these flight logs gather is more than enough for the customer support to determine a warranty case without sending the drone in (if that's even possible because the drone crashed into water and got lost). On top of that come RTK and ADS-B receiver data, and the really large ones (Matrice, Agras) add more engines, payload status (weight, flow rate), multi-battery health, RF quality and other data channels. To be honest, it's amazing just how many features modern drones carry while still allowing sometimes well over half an hour of flight duration.
- dayjaby 3y ago
  As a flight pilot engineer you have to find a sweet spot and balance logging too much and too little. Writing logs to an SD card has huge costs that come with it, that's why you don't want to log too much. Logging too little and you can't debug issues later on properly. PX4 also has lots of "topics" logged at around 1/10, e.g. hover thrust estimate every 100ms: https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/logger/logged_topics.cpp https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/l...
codetrotter 3y ago
Main page says trial is 7 days. License page says 14 days. Either way, the option of a trial is nice. Also I think this software is Windows only.
- wongarsu 3y ago
  > Flight Reader can be installed on any computer running Windows 8.1 (or higher). It can also be run on a Mac with Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion (free for personal use). You'll need to install Google Earth if you'd like to view the KML files generated by Flight Reader. Yeah, most people would call that Windows only
  - codetrotter 3y ago
    At least to me it is. I don’t want to install Windows in a VM on my Mac to run one piece of software. Nothing else that I use regularly needs Windows, and I do not enjoy using Windows and do not want to use Windows. But most of the world does of course run Windows. So I’m not in the main group of people this software was for. That’s fine.
mschuster91 3y ago
Side note: I'm a bit envious at just how relaxed drone flight rules are in non-European countries. No way the flight in the last screenshot of the page was done under VLOS conditions.
- NKosmatos 3y ago
  You mean about the height/distance data visible? I know that in Europe VLOS is defined as 121m (400 ft) height and 500m horizontal distance from the operator.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    At least the German Federal Aviation Office defines VLOS as "practical" VLOS - e.g. in severe fog, once you can't see the aircraft any more, you're not covered by VLOS any more even if the drone is only 2m away [1]. [1] https://lba-openuav.de/onlinekurs/lehrmaterial/wichtige-definitionen-und-begriffe/ https://lba-openuav.de/onlinekurs/lehrmaterial/wichtige-defi...
    - amelius 3y ago
      What if there is a building or a tree between you and the drone?
      - mschuster91 3y ago
        Not allowed as well. There is a provision for BVLOS when the pilot has one or more "observers" (colloquially, a spotter) that have both VLOS to the drone and a clear line of communication with the pilot ([1], section UAS.OPEN.060 - there's no clear definition but I'd guess a phone call or radio works out), but if you're flying solo no chance of operating in BVLOS and additionally, the EU has transmission power limits in place that limit the effective range to 2km in theory - in practice, I hit link quality warnings at 500m over some huge farm field with clear sight so YMMV. There are (as always) hacks, but if you get caught using that you can end up with serious criminal charges. In any case, flying with a spotter is always a good idea, particularly with smaller drones or in areas where other people are present that may interrupt you. A spotter can take care of dealing with that. [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02019R0947-20220404 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...
jarofgreen 3y ago
There is also https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ and https://airdata.com/ https://airdata.com/ - that's just links, not a recommendation.
- NKosmatos 3y ago
  phantomhelp is from the same guy that has the flightreader app. Since you upload your .txt log files it might not be "acceptable" by many privacy concerned users. The airdata one looks good and is a bit more professional, worth another look for sure. Thanks for the recommendations, that's why we have HN comments, to help each other :-)
petrosilius 3y ago
Nice such a tool appears up here. There is still lots of unsolved problems in the open source space of drones. We are currently developing a open source flight log database & plotting tool for ardupilot logs (graphs, maps, stats, images using PostgreSQL, FastAPI, Next.JS) covered by the german prototype fund (sorry german only link) : https://prototypefund.de/project/searchwing/ https://prototypefund.de/project/searchwing/ Source is here: https://gitlab.com/searchwing/development/groundstation/flight-data-service https://gitlab.com/searchwing/development/groundstation/flig... Maybe this is also helpful for others.
- moochmooch 3y ago
  This is cool, is there a docs website available?
  - petrosilius 3y ago
    Not yet, as its work in progress, but we want to push a initial docu how to set up our current progress this week.
yeldarb 3y ago
How does this compare with the data you get from Airdata? When I was working on an aerial georeferencing project[1] I found that the on-device flight logs didn’t contain all the info in the serverside logs (eg heading, gimbal orientation, GPS coords, altitude) [1] https://github.com/roboflow/dji-aerial-georeferencing https://github.com/roboflow/dji-aerial-georeferencing
- FlightReader 3y ago
  Here are some differences: - There are no mandatory monthly/yearly fees - Flight logs are not uploaded to the Internet - Many more data points are exposed - The generated logs/reports are customizable
konraditurbe 3y ago
The SRT logs from DJI are a god send. I wrote some software that helps me deal with importing videos and photos from multiple action cameras and drones, and it uses DJI's SRT files to sort out the location of a video. https://github.com/KonradIT/mmt https://github.com/KonradIT/mmt
webdoodle 3y ago
I wonder if there is a Law Enforcement/Intelligence version of this, so they can download and analyze drones from potential criminals and intelligence services.
mig39 3y ago
Check out also https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ which is free. And https://airdata.com https://airdata.com which has a free tier. It can also sync automatically with DJI and third party apps (I use Litchi).
- FlightReader 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing my free log viewer! Flight Reader also syncs automatically with DJI.
gbertb 3y ago
great stuff! very useful

107 points by NKosmatos 3y ago

That’s one of these programs where I'm thinking: "Why didn’t I build it?". Well, obviously because I don’t have a drone. Kudos, nice tool! I wonder if there are more such opportunities…

wongarsu 3y ago
It's also at risk of some teenager with a drone making an open source competitor because they are annoyed that there's no Linux version.
- guepe 3y ago
  Ahah I actually once looked for such tool AND even started writing one. Raising two kids got the better of me!
  - tough 3y ago
    Maybe one of your kids will keep the torch when he or she's a teenager, closing the open source cycle
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  An open source competitor to what? You mean like Ardupilot or QGroundControl?
NKosmatos 3y ago
This program should be part of the main DJI software suite or something that you could download from the drone manufacturer. I, as a drone owner, should have full access to all the telemetry data for my own analysis and archiving purposes.
- stavros 3y ago
  I'm 100% with you, but if that's what you want, don't buy DJI.
  - wearsshoes 3y ago
    DJI is pretty great with telemetry, logs are stored locally and on the cloud with many ways to access your data. Not so great with privacy due to governments having a tight watch on drone flight, making it very likely your flight data is monitored.
    - stavros 3y ago
      It's not just that, all their stuff is locked down hard, you can't mod anything and you can't fix the bugs they refuse tom
- yardie 3y ago
  That data is available as part of the API. I use other flight control software like Litchi that gives me a lot of control. Even allows me to create and import a flight plan for semi-autonomous flight.
  - hackernewds 3y ago
    this seems illegal
    - Filligree 3y ago
      Absolutely not. It’s illegal for the common person in America, but there are plenty of locations where it wouldn’t be, especially with a drone license.
    - wearsshoes 3y ago
      This is completely legal in the US on both recreational and commercial licenses, so long as you have visual line of sight to the drone and the ability to regain direct command of the drone via RC (and are following all other flight rules). It is commonly used for video work, such as programmed aerial timelapses.
gaudat 3y ago
Well, I have a DJI gathering dust here because of drone flight rules that seeds me to drive a couple hours before I can fly it. Last time I recorded video with the drone I am suprised there is a SRT file bundled. Turns out that is the telemetry data in plain text recorded at 10 Hz. It should be trivial to write a script that transform it into KML or some GIS-friendly format. And I am sure I do not need any shareware for this...
suddenclarity 3y ago
I believe it's from 2016 and by far predating the Mavic series which made drones common among regular people. So if you're looking for similar opportunities, you probably need to jump on the next trend before it goes popular.
foobarbecue 3y ago
I'm curious -- what about this strikes you as a novel "opportunity?" To me, reading your post is a bit like seeing someone say "wow, a chair! Why didn't I build that? I wonder if there are more opportunities?" Like, yeah, build a table... or a different chair...? I built an online flight log analyzer about 10 years ago ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBCBC2oJ70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBCBC2oJ70 , https://github.com/foobarbecue/afterflight https://github.com/foobarbecue/afterflight ) . When DJI hit the scene I used some a DJI log decoder someone else wrote to get my Phantom logs into the system, but never integrated the converter with the website. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution and the follow-through that matters.
- MrGilbert 3y ago
  I think you are right. Somehow, in my mind, I'd like to find a niche where I can start building something (software-related). Something that is of use, and which solves a problem people are willing to pay for. Not a "get rich in two months"-scheme, but something sustainable. I have no problem with commitments, but it’s the problem to solve that I'm currently lacking. Apparently, this tool does it. I think there are not many tools like that on the market (I might be wrong).
  - dylan604 3y ago
    As is often heard, necessity is the mother of invention. Most of these niche ideas come from people that are active in whatever space the nice product serves and yet has no product. It takes the timing of someone with the need && the know-how of how to make the product. Just having the need for a product part of the equation. Having someone recognize what the solution would be, the time available to create that solution, and an overall understanding if the effort would be worth it all aligning.

wongarsu 3y ago

> Access 300+ flight data points logged every 1/10 of a second > View over 200 data points collected every 1/10 of a second during the flight Is there some significance to these numbers (20 seconds and 30 seconds of data) or is that just an attempt at "big numbers sound good"?

defrost 3y ago
I wondered the same thing and looked a little at the DJI Drone family which seems pretty large and broad in application. The generic data channels number easily less than 50 - time, X,Y,Z, axis velocity, battery life, yaw, tilt, pitch, etc. I dare say some of the special domain applications generate more channels of data from mounted instrumentation - all logged to a common DJI family log format - for extraction on landing or broadcast during flight etc. The 200 channel Vs 300 channel thing is likely just poor copywriting from looking at max channels in two different application areas.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  There's also (probably) detailed logs from the collision avoidance sensors, as well as GPS. Even the relatively small Mini 3 Pro has six cameras and a downward-facing IR distance meter, the larger ones (Mavic 3) have even more cameras and ultrasonic short-distance sensors. At least from Reddit reports, the amount of data that these flight logs gather is more than enough for the customer support to determine a warranty case without sending the drone in (if that's even possible because the drone crashed into water and got lost). On top of that come RTK and ADS-B receiver data, and the really large ones (Matrice, Agras) add more engines, payload status (weight, flow rate), multi-battery health, RF quality and other data channels. To be honest, it's amazing just how many features modern drones carry while still allowing sometimes well over half an hour of flight duration.
dayjaby 3y ago
As a flight pilot engineer you have to find a sweet spot and balance logging too much and too little. Writing logs to an SD card has huge costs that come with it, that's why you don't want to log too much. Logging too little and you can't debug issues later on properly. PX4 also has lots of "topics" logged at around 1/10, e.g. hover thrust estimate every 100ms: https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/logger/logged_topics.cpp https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/l...

codetrotter 3y ago

Main page says trial is 7 days. License page says 14 days. Either way, the option of a trial is nice. Also I think this software is Windows only.

wongarsu 3y ago
> Flight Reader can be installed on any computer running Windows 8.1 (or higher). It can also be run on a Mac with Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion (free for personal use). You'll need to install Google Earth if you'd like to view the KML files generated by Flight Reader. Yeah, most people would call that Windows only
- codetrotter 3y ago
  At least to me it is. I don’t want to install Windows in a VM on my Mac to run one piece of software. Nothing else that I use regularly needs Windows, and I do not enjoy using Windows and do not want to use Windows. But most of the world does of course run Windows. So I’m not in the main group of people this software was for. That’s fine.

mschuster91 3y ago

Side note: I'm a bit envious at just how relaxed drone flight rules are in non-European countries. No way the flight in the last screenshot of the page was done under VLOS conditions.

NKosmatos 3y ago
You mean about the height/distance data visible? I know that in Europe VLOS is defined as 121m (400 ft) height and 500m horizontal distance from the operator.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  At least the German Federal Aviation Office defines VLOS as "practical" VLOS - e.g. in severe fog, once you can't see the aircraft any more, you're not covered by VLOS any more even if the drone is only 2m away [1]. [1] https://lba-openuav.de/onlinekurs/lehrmaterial/wichtige-definitionen-und-begriffe/ https://lba-openuav.de/onlinekurs/lehrmaterial/wichtige-defi...
  - amelius 3y ago
    What if there is a building or a tree between you and the drone?
    - mschuster91 3y ago
      Not allowed as well. There is a provision for BVLOS when the pilot has one or more "observers" (colloquially, a spotter) that have both VLOS to the drone and a clear line of communication with the pilot ([1], section UAS.OPEN.060 - there's no clear definition but I'd guess a phone call or radio works out), but if you're flying solo no chance of operating in BVLOS and additionally, the EU has transmission power limits in place that limit the effective range to 2km in theory - in practice, I hit link quality warnings at 500m over some huge farm field with clear sight so YMMV. There are (as always) hacks, but if you get caught using that you can end up with serious criminal charges. In any case, flying with a spotter is always a good idea, particularly with smaller drones or in areas where other people are present that may interrupt you. A spotter can take care of dealing with that. [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02019R0947-20220404 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...

jarofgreen 3y ago

There is also https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ and https://airdata.com/ https://airdata.com/ - that's just links, not a recommendation.

NKosmatos 3y ago
phantomhelp is from the same guy that has the flightreader app. Since you upload your .txt log files it might not be "acceptable" by many privacy concerned users. The airdata one looks good and is a bit more professional, worth another look for sure. Thanks for the recommendations, that's why we have HN comments, to help each other :-)

petrosilius 3y ago

Nice such a tool appears up here. There is still lots of unsolved problems in the open source space of drones. We are currently developing a open source flight log database & plotting tool for ardupilot logs (graphs, maps, stats, images using PostgreSQL, FastAPI, Next.JS) covered by the german prototype fund (sorry german only link) : https://prototypefund.de/project/searchwing/ https://prototypefund.de/project/searchwing/ Source is here: https://gitlab.com/searchwing/development/groundstation/flight-data-service https://gitlab.com/searchwing/development/groundstation/flig... Maybe this is also helpful for others.

moochmooch 3y ago
This is cool, is there a docs website available?
- petrosilius 3y ago
  Not yet, as its work in progress, but we want to push a initial docu how to set up our current progress this week.

yeldarb 3y ago

How does this compare with the data you get from Airdata? When I was working on an aerial georeferencing project[1] I found that the on-device flight logs didn’t contain all the info in the serverside logs (eg heading, gimbal orientation, GPS coords, altitude) [1] https://github.com/roboflow/dji-aerial-georeferencing https://github.com/roboflow/dji-aerial-georeferencing

FlightReader 3y ago
Here are some differences: - There are no mandatory monthly/yearly fees - Flight logs are not uploaded to the Internet - Many more data points are exposed - The generated logs/reports are customizable

konraditurbe 3y ago

The SRT logs from DJI are a god send. I wrote some software that helps me deal with importing videos and photos from multiple action cameras and drones, and it uses DJI's SRT files to sort out the location of a video. https://github.com/KonradIT/mmt https://github.com/KonradIT/mmt

webdoodle 3y ago

I wonder if there is a Law Enforcement/Intelligence version of this, so they can download and analyze drones from potential criminals and intelligence services.

mig39 3y ago

Check out also https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ which is free. And https://airdata.com https://airdata.com which has a free tier. It can also sync automatically with DJI and third party apps (I use Litchi).

FlightReader 3y ago
Thanks for sharing my free log viewer! Flight Reader also syncs automatically with DJI.

gbertb 3y ago

great stuff! very useful