Valid gimbal pitch range for actions in Litchi app

General Discussion
1

I have software used to generate waypoint missions to capture 360 degree panoramas. While the highest upward angle for the interpolated gimbal pitch is/was 0 (zero) degrees, I used to be able to set the “Tilt Camera” action to +20 degrees. Today, when I tried to execute one of these missions, with the Litchi app and my Mavic 2 Zoom, I got an error stating that the valid range for the gimbal pitch is -90 to 0 (zero).

Is this a change in the 12/2025 update of the Litchi app?

1 Like
2

Mavic 2 Zoom uses the DJI onboard engine which if I remember correctly does not allow going over horizon for gimbal tilt actions. Perhaps you were doing that using the Litchi engine (drones like Mini 2 etc)?

3

I was previously using my Mavic 2 Zoom to capture panoramas using a +20 degree “Tilt camera” action. The Mavic 2 gimbal did not always behave correctly, but it did allow me to specify “Tilt camera” angles up to +20 degrees. I don’t recall there being a firmware update for the Mavic 2 but there was a 12/2025 Litchi app update. That is why I am asking.

4

I have just checked the code history, and no it is not a recent change. The older Litchi apps have always (since at least 2020, but probably even earlier) limited the gimbal pitch angle to [-90,0] for waypoint actions with the onboard engine to prevent SDK errors when uploading the mission as historically it would lead to upload failure.

5

Here is a snapshot of the message. Does this look like it comes from Litchi or the DJI SDK? Or, is the SDK trapping an error and returning this message to the Litchi app?

I am 100% certain that I have captured many panoramas using my Mavic 2 Zoom, with missions setting the “Tilt camera” action to +20 degrees. It’s just been around six months since I have done one.

Capture
Capture1277×802 59.5 KB

6

I should have said: I am 99% certain…

It was the “gimbalpitchangle” column that I was setting to +20 degrees and not the “Tilt camera” action. The “Tilt camera=20” is what produced that error message. I am rewriting some code and came upon some notes where I explained to myself the limitations. You were correct and thanks for looking into it. Now on to some more testing…

7

If it’s of any interest, we could probably release a new update that removes that restriction for onboard gimbal pitch waypoint actions. I have tested on mavic 2 zoom/pro and it does let you go above 0 for that specific drone, but for phantom 4 it won’t for example (even with extension on).

8

At this point, I don’t need that restriction removed because I have worked around that limitation. However, it does seem that if one can successfully set the gimbal pitch angle at a waypoint to +20, that one should also be able to set the “Tilt camera” value to +20 (as long as the MSDK supports it).

With all of the recent drones having various positive gimbal tilt limitations, the best solution would be to incorporate those limitations in the new Mission Hub depending upon what drone is selected. For example, if one selected the Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom, the upward gimbal limit would be set to +20. If one selected the Mini 5 Pro, the upward limit would be set to +80. This would be for either the gimbal pitch at a waypoint or the “Tilt camera” for those drones that support it.

9

The below is valid only for the old Litchi for DJI Drones app, using onboard waypoint engine:

  1. Litchi itself controls the gimbal in real time for Interpolate/Focus POI, and doing it that way lets us go above 0 degrees pitch
  2. for waypoint actions, they are executed onboard the drone by DJI firmware, historically they did not allow angles above 0 degree pitch
  3. because of 2), Litchi for android also limits any waypoint action’s gimbal pitch angle to 0 max to prevent upload errors. For iOS, we show an error message instead (don’t ask why there are differences!).
  4. some later drone models’s onboard engine may actually allow above 0 degree for actions as I found out yesterday when testing Mavic 2 Zoom (and disabling Litchi’s own limits).
  5. the new Hub already did allow various max gimbal angles for newer drone models. If you refresh the app, it now does it for older drone models too :slight_smile:
10

Cool. Thank you. I understand.

If you did update the original Litchi app to support upward “Tilt camera” angles for those drones that support it, that would be great. Very low priority though.

11

We will release the update. It’s likely we won’t be able to update Litchi in the google play store beyond 31st may due to new google policies and DJI does not seem interested in updating the older SDK so there’s that too..