How to change the starting point in DJI Pilot 2 mapping mission

The first thing you will learn once you start flying the Mavic 3E (or M300) are the flaws of DJI Pilot 2. The biggest flaw is the inability to change your starting point of the mission. In this video I show you how to set the starting point almost exactly where you want it. Spoiler alert, it must be done in the original layout. You can not change it on the fly :( Until DJI takes out the JV team and puts some real programmers in charge of Pilot 2, you will have to learn to deal with multiple short comings. Shame on DJI for producing such a great drone but an entry level mission planning app!

[@heinrichaerialsolutionshas837]

Great info!! Maybe a 3 min version of this would be good to release too!

[@giannifantauzzi9357]

Thank you for this helpful guide!

[@EVOlutionHTC4g]

I never realized this is why I was having this issue! Thanks for putting up this video.

[@dhruv_EnTech]

Thank you very much for this video - have been looking around for the answer everywhere.

[@leonbotha3773]

Thank you very much for this video - very helpful to me (saved me much grief !!)

[@hummingbirddronesoperation5013]

Id really like to see the route automatically be optimized for the best efficiency

[@matthewhayden1056]

Great info . Thank you.

[@Isaac-fv6tt]

You can now change the start point in DJI Pilot 2 in the Advanced Settings tabs when editing the flight plan.

[@alwaystravelling100]

Possibly one of the best tutorials re flight mission setup. Well done. Do you know if they have updated things??

[@DroneMappingTools]

I actually need to take this video down. Because with the update to pilot too this is no longer relevant. They did fix that.

[@djiacademy]

Latest version of Pilot 2 now has an option in Advanced Settings to set your start point.

[@plaenog]

Thanks for the tips. What the...what the heck is DJI thinking, lol.

[@EVOlutionHTC4g]

DJI seemed to corrected this issue with their latest firmware update, but in doing so, they created other issues you can read in the forums.

[@wakefulonesees]

Thanks! The only issue I had was the drone skipping photos along the first flight line. It happened a couple times, I had to fly those areas over. Also: I purchased my equipment from Drone nerds. I was having trouble getting my network rtk working, no one there was able to help. They kept passing me off on another tech, then DJI. I fixed it myself. Test mission yesterday worked, running a large mission today.

[@DroneMappingTools]

HI Jules, I have never had that problem with my M300 or M3E. Skipped photos was the plague of the Phantom 4 Pro and I am so glad that is no longer an issue for me. Please feel free to share what your issue(s) was AND how you corrected it in case others have the same problem.

[@wakefulonesees]

@@DroneMappingTools as far as the missing pictures, I believe an update took care of it. The only thing I can figure out with the network issue was: power down both the controller and the Drone after setting it up. The instructions just say to power down the Drone. Have any experience with mounting a magnetometer on your M300?

[@eparustefan]

It is so annoying when you do pv's inspection mapping because you need to respect the panel angle and to start from bottom to top and sometimes you can t play with the angle but with the form of the polygon until it just put the start when you need it :))

[@inve]

Great video, thank you! Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it specific to the Mavic 3 enterprise because for the Mavic 2 you could use third-party software to handle all the mapping route. Yes?

[@DroneMappingTools]

This is specific to the Mavic 3 Enterprise. The Mavic 3 (regular) does not use DJI Pilot 2. However, it is worth noting that UGCS can layout a mission for the Mavic 3E / 3T and export a DJI Pilot 2 file. Also DroneLink now supports the Mavic 3E but i have not tested that yet. UGCS is the most robust software on the market and It most likely always will be. I use it for all Lidar missions and any other complicated mission. But for simple 20 acre to 50 acre flights, I want to use something simple and easy like Pilot 2. BUT the folks at DJI have left numerous problems within the app as I highlighted in the video.... any why???? wish I knew.

[@GaryRuiz]

Have you tested this theory with changing the course angle to all angles other than 0, 90, 180, 270? curious....I do all my mission planning on the controller to save time and haven't messed with any of this. As I change the course angle to accommodate not flying over peoples' yards and in lanes of traffic, I notice that Start Point moves all over the map. Now I'm going to test all kinds of different setups. Thanks for posting. Matrice300RTK

[@DroneMappingTools]

HI Gary, I have flown alot with Pilot 2. When folks fly a small area (ie 10-50 acres), I do not think there are really any issues. But once you get into very large areas (ie 2000+ acres) that is where you really start to have problems. Such that I had to figure out what was going on and how to obtain the results that I needed based on the circumstances. 2 things I wish that we could do with ease 1) simply tell Pilot 2 where I want to start (ie click on perimeter in the area I want to start) and 2) be able to start the mission at a specific waypoint (like you can in DroneDeploy). This is such a need especially when flying a larger mission and you have some type of unusual problem. I need to be able to tell P2 that I want to start at waypoint 17 for example. There was a major FW update 3 days ago and I have not flown yet since then (been raining non stop). Heading out into the sunshine (cold, but sunshine none the less) so I will see if there have been any major updates to the P2 app.

[@DroneMappingTools]

Gary, one other thing that I did not include in the video, if you edit the mission in the field with drone connected, then you lose the ability to "force" your start point. DJI really needs to fix this. However if the start point, direction etc, is absolutely critical, then flying with UGCS will give you complete control over all of this. A more complex setup, but complete control none the less.

[@MisterDroneBelgique]

Hi, is it a way to have always the drone heading forward during the mapping ?

[@DroneMappingTools]

I would assume you are referring to the 3D mission where it flies facing one direction for the cross-hatch oblique missions? I know of no way to change that. If flying a small area it is no big deal but if you were flying at a much longer distance I would see where having the forward camera (for M300) would be beneficial.

[@ISawGold]

This should have been a 30 second video.

[@gppictures5464]

I know that you are not covering RTK, how ever I have found another major failing with the DJI Pilot 2. It turns out that the Mavic 3E Pilot 2 does not support the D-RTK 2 in mode 3, so you can't establish any ground control points, what a conn. Don't buy the Mavic 3E with the D-RTK 2 for mapping, waste of money.

[@gailpacheco8098]

Funciona en modo 5 para enlazar con la DRTK, yo la uso asi sin problemas