Experiences with Phantom 3 Standard Jan 2026
I used Litchi a few years ago for a very successful Waypoint mission to video a section of our local river, including a section which was out of RC contact at the end which it managed without problem, and came home. For the past few years I have been using Pix4D Capture over a 28 Acre woodland for mapping (with Web Open Drone Map) – very successful until Pix ended support and even somehow prevented me from flying my existing projects! This site stretches my 3 batteries to the limit. Discounted Litchi a year or so ago as its grid missions were restricted to rectangles. Now I find the new Beta can manage polygons - wonderful (not sure whether it copes with concave yet?). I dived in and found a few problems, most of which I have managed to overcome. This is what I have discovered.
1. Litchi will not connect to the drone until I switch off Mobile Data. I have no idea why (but think Pix4D was similar). I now get to site, reboot my Pixel 4a Android phone (to ensure no DJI software or other things running), connect to the drone wi-fi, download my Litchi Mission (screen still showing disconnected) and switch off Mobile Data, at which point Litchi immediately connects to drone.
2. Start Mission, it downloads, but I have never managed to get it to start photographs automatically, so while it flies to first WP I manually set camera to Interval 2 sec and start taking photos. For a short mission that works fine and does a RTH at end.
3. For longer mission, requiring a battery change, I have found that with the new battery a) I have to start photos manually again, and b) have to ensure (manually) that the camera is pointing directly downwards.
4. At ‘RC disconnected’ (which I am testing by switching off the RC, as I know I will require this on my real project mission) it continues to follow WPs until the last one, when it promptly lands (my setting in DJI go is ‘throttle back’ as there is no option to ‘continue’). My solution to this (thanks to a suggestion I read on this forum) is to load my mission prepared on the Beta Hub into the original Hub, and add an extra WP after the finish back near the home point (which should work but is as yet untested).
Update - now tested. Small mission, flies completely. Second flight I switched the RC off and mission was completed to final extra WP (NOT Home, so the extra WP is important!)and then landed, third flight I switch the RC off, and after a while switched it back on again. Light on RC went green (which normally indicates connection) but it took a while longer, 20 secs perhaps,before Litchi showed the green ‘Connected’. It then finished the mission and RTH. All great for future flights.
5. I’m not sure why the WPs are not shown as WPs on the Beta Hub, as they clearly are WPs? Apart from anything else I want a count to try to keep below 99 WPs for the moment, though I think I can see how to cope with more.
I think I am almost ready to try a mission on the 28 acres, once the weather improves! Keep up the good work, developers, thanks.