FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Unlock No Fly Zones for DJI Products

No Fly Zones (NFZs) are restricted areas where a UAS is forbidden to fly. These zones have different restriction levels, and restrictions vary by region and country.

For example, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has this page about operating in the US.

DJI drones have a specific process for unlocking flying in an NFZ, which can vary depending on your drone model.

Review DJI's website for more details.

Please note that NFZ restrictions are a function of the drone. DJI periodically updates its NFZ database, but you are responsible for knowing if space is restricted before takeoff.

FieldAgent Mobile is not responsible for operating inside restricted airspace.

The app does not, and cannot, unlock flying in restricted areas.

Data Collection Best Practices

The flight plan requirements for data collection depend on the product or insight you want to produce or analyze.

Flight Specifications indicate a set of flight parameters used to create a flight plan. Please review the Sentera Product Catalog for details on what flight specs are required for the product you wish to order.

DJI Remote ID (RID)

RID support is specific to your DJI drone model and the region you operate in.

Please refer to DJI's Official Help Center.

The app must be in the foreground; why?

Always keep the app in the foreground while connected to a DJI Drone.

After uploading and executing a mission, FieldAgent Mobile requires you to keep it in the foreground while it controls a DJI drone.

What does this mean exactly?

After you plan a flight, press the Play button and launch the drone.

Then you must not:

Switch apps.
Interact with iOS notifications.
Accept phone calls.
Check your email or Slack messages.

Any activity that causes the app to become "inactive" will prevent it from communicating with the DJI drone.

If the app is inactive, it will cause:

The app will skip photos.
The app will misreport captured photos, mission duration, and drone errors.
The app can not command the drone to perform an RTH mission when flying east-facing is required. This will result in invalid imagery that will not import correctly.

Can I keep DJI GO 4 running?

No, you must close DJI GO 4 before running FieldAgent Mobile.

Why?

DJI GO 4 and FieldAgent Mobile "share" a connection to the drone.

Only one can be active at a time.

If you need to access DJI GO 4, force quit FieldAgent before opening DJI GO 4.
Before you launch FieldAgent Mobile, always force quit DJI GO 4 first.

The DJI mSDK for iOS utilizes Apple's MFI hardware protocol. DJI, not Apple or Sentera, prevents multiple apps from working correctly simultaneously.

Always have one app run or the other, never both.

If you are having issues, force quit FieldAgent and DJI GO 4. Then, only open FieldAgent.

Do Sentera cameras need GPS to take photos?

A Sentera camera must have an active GPS connection when flying a drone.

The camera displays a green LED when there is an active GPS session and is ready to take photos.

Always wait for the green light before you attempt to take off.

My Bluetooth connection to the camera isn't working.

The Sentera Double 4K and Single have Bluetooth capabilities for syncing overlap before your flight. However, there are times when the connection fails to work correctly.

Setting your overlap on the camera's SD card will allow you to bypass Bluetooth requirements.

Sentera Single

Remove the microSD card from your camera.
Connect it to your computer.
Find the file UserSettings.txt.
Open it with a text editor.
Search for OverlapPercent=.
Change the value to the right-hand side to match your desired overlap.

Sentera Double 4K

Remove the microSD card from your camera.
Connect it to your computer.
Find the file config.yml.
Open it with a text editor.
Search for OverlapPercent:
Change the value to the right-hand side to match your desired overlap.

You can now turn off the Bluetooth setting in the app's camera selection.

How do I adjust the Bluetooth requirement on my camera?

Before your next flight, you must adjust your camera settings to turn Bluetooth on or off.

From the Flight Planning screen:

Tap on the flight segment under Timeline.
Tap on Cameras.
Set Use Bluetooth to the desired value.

What does Override DJI Settings do?

When selecting a camera in Flight Planning, there is a toggle for Override DJI Settings. When enabled, the following configuration settings are applied during the preflight check.

Fetch the current camera mode and set it to .shootPhoto mode if necessary.

At this point, the configuration will stop for all Skyport cameras.

For non-Skyport cameras, the following operations are performed:

Attempt to set the camera storage location to SD Card.
Check whether custom media tagging is available for Terrain Informed Processing; if supported, we write a custom EXIF tag for TIP.
Based on available camera settings, set the camera’s photo aspect ratio to 4:3 or 3:2.
Check if the aircraft supports HD Live View and attempt to disable it if enabled.
Attempt to set the camera’s photo file format to .JPEG.
Set the camera’s white balance using either an override setting or a default value.
- Default value customColorTemperature: 55
Set the camera’s metering mode to an override setting or the default .average.
Set the camera’s exposure mode to an override setting or the default .shutterPriority.
Set the camera’s shutter speed to an override setting or the default 1/1250.
Set the camera’s exposure compensation to an override setting or a default value.
- For Phantom 4 Pro (v1/v2): N00
- For all other drones: N10
Set the camera’s ISO to an override setting or a default value.
- For Phantom 4 Pro (v1/v2): ISO100
- For all other drones: isoAuto

Override settings can be configured in app settings. This feature is reserved for internal Sentera testing and should not be used for production flight planning.

I can't export my flight plan to an SD Card?

When performing a Flight Plan Export, it is most common to save the KMZ file to an SD Card.

If you are unable to save the export file:

Check the SD Card or SD Card adapter for a lock switch.
- Ensure that the switch is set to unlocked.

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Last updated 3 months ago