dji PHANTOM 4 PRO User manual

Quick Start Guide
DroneDeploy
Learn how to use your new DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone with
DroneDeploy mapping soware
DJI PHANTOM 4 PRO

2
Introducon
In this guide, you’ll learn how to use your new DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone with
DroneDeploy mapping soware to help you gain mely insights about your elds.
With broad compability across mulple devices and with common farm soware,
it’s easy to integrate aerial data into your exisng workow to make beer
decisions around the farm.
Here are just a few ways growers are using drone mapping throughout the year:
As a DroneDeploy user, you’ll also gain access to specialized tools from industry
experts, many of which are free, that can be installed from the App Market and
used directly within the DroneDeploy interface.
Disease and
pest detecon
Drainage and
irrigaon planning
Variable rate
prescripons
Crop damage
assessment
Ecient
crop scoung
Stand and
plant counng
Now that you have your drone, follow this easy, step-by-step approach to start
ying, capturing and analyzing aerial data of your farm. You can also watch our
Zero to Hero video guide at support.dronedeploy.com/docs/onboarding-with-
dronedeploy.

3
Contents
1 — Inial Setup ....................................................................................................... 4
Unbox and Assemble Your Drone .........................................................................................4
Set-up Your DroneDeploy Account ......................................................................................4
2 — Pre-ight Checklist.......................................................................................... 5
Register your drone .................................................................................................................5
Become a Part 107 cered remote pilot ..........................................................................5
Comply with airspace restricons ........................................................................................5
3 — How to Fly ......................................................................................................... 6
Learn to Fly Manually ..............................................................................................................6
Plan Automated Mapping Flights .........................................................................................6
4 — Time to Fly!........................................................................................................ 8
Pre-Departure Checklist .........................................................................................................8
Onsite Pre-Flight Checklist ....................................................................................................9
During Flight .......................................................................................................................... 10
5 — Map Processing and Analysis ...................................................................... 11
Make a Map ............................................................................................................................ 11
Explore Your Map & Take Acon ....................................................................................... 12
6 — Need Help?......................................................................................................15
Our Support Team is Here to Help .................................................................................... 15
Where to Learn More .......................................................................................................... 15

4
1 — Inial Setup
Unbox and Assemble Your Drone
Follow the instrucons in the Phantom 4 Pro manual
to set up your drone.
Install “DJI Go 4” app and Firmware.
Install the “DJI Go 4” app onto the mobile device
you will be using when ying your drone. This can be
downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App
Stores by searching for DJI Go 4.
Open the “DJI Go 4” app and follow the instrucons
to register and acvate your drone with DJI. In the
course of this acvaon process, turn o “Beginner
Mode”.
To use DroneDeploy, your drone needs to have
the latest version of the DJI rmware installed.
Follow these instrucons to make sure you’re on
the latest version of the DJI rmware and update
if needed: support.dronedeploy.com/docs/rmware-
troubleshoong
Set-up Your DroneDeploy Account
Sign up for DroneDeploy at www.dronedeploy.com/
signup.html and create your username and password.
You can change your plan by navigang to “Sengs”
from the dashboard.
Download the DroneDeploy app from the App Store or
Google Play onto the mobile device you will use when
ying your drone, and log in with your new account.
DJI Go 4
DroneDeploy

5
2 — Pre-ight Checklist
Register your drone
The FAA requires every new drone to be registered.
Go to federaldroneregistraon.com to complete the
5-minute registraon form.
Once you receive your registraon cercate, clearly
mark the registraon number on your drone.
Become a Part 107 cered remote pilot
Flying your drone to help you make decisions about
your crops is considered a commercial acvity,
governed by FAA Part 107. This rule requires that
commercial operators obtain a remote pilot cercate
before ying commercially.
Study for and schedule your remote pilot cercaon
test here: www.catstest.com/airman-tesng-exams/
uas-knowledge-test.php.
Comply with airspace restricons
Drones have the potenal not only to cause harm
to the people and property below them but also to
interfere with manned aircra operaons.
Check out knowbeforeyouy.org or install the free
Airmap app in your DroneDeploy account to make
sure you comply with any permanent or temporary
ight restricons in your area. Be safe out there!

6
3 — How to Fly
Learn to Fly Manually
Although DroneDeploy automates
mapping ights, it’s important to have
the skills to take over and y manually
if necessary.
Review your DJI Phantom 4 Pro
manual and pracce ying manually to
familiarize yourself with the drone.
Plan Automated Mapping Flights
The DroneDeploy app makes it quick
and easy to automacally y your drone
to capture imagery needed for mapping.
To plan your rst ight, open the
DroneDeploy app and click the
“Plan” buon.
If you are planning in a locaon other
than your current locaon, click the
magnifying glass icon at the top le of
the screen to search for the area you
want to map.
To change the area you want to map,
either tap and drag the center of the
map to move the enre area, or tap and
drag the circles on the corners of the
ight plan to dene the map perimeter.
If you want to add addional points,
tap and drag the faint circles on the
straight lines.
In the sidebar, you will see adjustment
sliders for the altude and direcon of
ight. Adjust these as needed based
upon the goals of your mission, and
save your ight plan.
To change the overlap of each image
captured, tap the “Advanced” text at
the boom of the sidebar.
We recommend the following
sengs for agricultural mapping:
• 400  for most crop scoung
and large-area mapping (greater
than 60 acres. Standard 60%
overlap should be sucient in
early stage or highly variable
elds, but up to 85% overlap
may be required for closed
canopy, late-stage elds where
the crops are uniform.
• 200-250  for maps that will be
used for stand analysis and plant
counng. If you plan to use an
app to generate a report, check
the imagery requirements to
make sure you capture imagery
at an appropriate resoluon.
Standard 60% overlap should
be sucient, but higher overlap
will reduce the likelihood of map
stching failure.
Don’t have a good connecon
out in the eld? You can also plan
ights on your your computer and
then sync them to your mobile
device for oine ight.
Have a shapele or KML le
dening the eld perimeter you
want to y? Install the KML /
Shapele Uploader app and then
upload your le when on the ight
planning screen.

7
 

 
Filter
Plan a new
ight
Copy or delete
Open and close drawer
Search for
address
Adjust
altude
Adjust ight direcon
Change overlap sengs Save
Installed ight apps
will appear here
Install apps
Figure B. Flight Planning
Figure A. Dashboard

8
Pre-Departure Checklist
The last thing you want is to get out to
the eld and realize you’ve forgoen
something important. Use this checklist
to make sure everything is ready and
you have everything you need before
you leave the house.
• Review your ight area on a map for
any potenal obstacles and to plan
your take-o locaon and baery
swap locaons (if applicable).
• Provide advance noce to any
personnel within the intended ight
area that you will be ying.
• If you planned your ight on the
computer, open the DroneDeploy
app on your mobile device to make
sure that your ight plan has synced
to your mobile device.
• Check knowbeforeyouy.org/air-
space-map or the Airmap app on the
day of your ight to make sure there
are no ight restricons or advisories
that apply to your planned ight area.
• Use a weather service to check the
forecast. Avoid ying during
precipitaon. New pilots should not y
in winds >10 mph, experienced pilots
should not y in winds >15 mph.
• DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone and remote
control with latest rmware installed
• At least 4 propellers (two with a
black stripe and two with a silver
stripe).
• Sucient fully charged baeries to
complete your mission (and carrying
a spare is usually a good idea).
• Fully charged mobile device with
latest version of the DroneDeploy
and “DJI Go 4” apps.
• 16 GB Micro SD card with sucient
space to hold mission photos.
• Cable to connect mobile device to
remote control (make sure you have
the right type of cord for your
mobile device).
4 — Time to Fly!
Once you have planned your ight, it’s me to go out and y! Follow
these checklists to make sure you y safely and eciently.

9
Onsite Pre-Flight Checklist
When you arrive at the site, follow
these steps:
• Visually inspect the area for any
power lines, trees or other obstacles
that may interfere with your ight.
Verify the locaon of the sun and try
to keep it at your back (you won’t be
able to see the drone if you’re staring
into the sun). Also try and keep the
wind to your back - if the drone dris
on takeo, it will dri with the wind.
For best results, y between 10 am -
3 pm, and avoid spoy cloud cover.
• Review your planned take-o
and landing locaon. Ideally, this
locaon should be at, open and
large enough to not require a highly
precise landing.
• Review power supply on your mobile
device.
• Plug your mobile device into the
remote control using the appropriate
USB cable.
• Turn on the remote control by
pressing the buon once unl the
power lights light up, then pressing
the power buon a second me and
holding it down unl all the power
lights are lit.
• Open the “DJI Go 4” applicaon on
your mobile device and make sure
the drone is not in “Beginner Mode”.
• Aach the propellers to the drone
by matching the black strip with the
motors with the three black dots
on top, and the propellers with the
silver strips to the motors with no
black dots on top. Follow the arrows
embossed on the propellers and turn
them towards the direcon of the
arrow with the lock on top.
• Make sure the SD card is inserted
into the drone.
• Insert the baery into the drone (it
only ts one direcon) and power it
on the same way as you would power
on the remote control.
• Make sure that the ight mode
toggle is in the “P” posion to
indicate automac ight.
• Turn on the drone. The “DJI Go 4”
app should recognize that the drone
is connected. Make sure there are
not any warnings showing on the
“DJI Go 4” app, then close the “DJI
Go 4” app.
• Open the DroneDeploy app.
• Check for the drone’s status in the
boom le of the screen. You should
see a green light with the status:
“Drone Connected”.
• Open your ight plan from the
Dashboard.
• Click the airplane icon to iniate pre-
ight checks.
• Click the checkmark icon to begin
ight. The drone will take o when
you tap on the checkmark icon.

10
During Flight
When the ight begins, the drone will
automacally take o, rise to its ight
altude, and then commence ying the
ight plan and taking photos.
• Maintain visual line of sight with the
drone at all mes as it ies.
• If a baery swap is needed, click the
“Return to Home” buon to bring the
drone back to its point of take-o.
Turn the drone o, swap the baery
Signal
Altude
Speed Return drone to home
and turn it back on. Then, go back to
the dashboard in DroneDeploy, nd
the ight, and click “Connue”.
• You can take manual control of a
ight at any me by moving the ight
mode toggle to the “S” posion.
Figure C. Automated Flight

11
Make a Map
• Once your ight is complete, take the
Micro SD card out of your drone and
put it into your computer (you may
need an Micro SD card adapter to do
this). Then login to your account on
www.dronedeploy.com
• Find your ight plan - the icon should
be blue with the text ‘Upload’ - open
the plan to begin the process. and
click the upload buon.
• Keep the Terrain vs Structures buon
on the “Terrain” seng.
• Click on “Select Photos”, and then
select all of the photos from your
ight on the SD card. Make sure to
only include photos taken as part of
your mapping ight. Photos of the
horizon or of unrelated scenes can
confuse the processing soware.
• Select your uploading and processing
opons. For most crop mapping,
use the middle processing opon,
but if you plan to use your map for
plant counng, stand counng or
measuring volumes, we recommend
the highest quality opon.
• Leave your computer on, with the
DroneDeploy tab open (if you change
tabs some web browsers limit the
bandwidth and computer resources
for the tab which will cause uploads
to fail).
• Once the upload is complete, you
may close the tab and shutdown your
computer.
• You’ll receive an email from
DroneDeploy leng you know when
your map is complete.
 
 


Set quality
5 — Map Processing and Analysis
Recommended for poor
internet connecons
Figure D. Uploading and Processing

12
Explore Your Map & Take Acon
• Easily apply dierent plant health
algorithms to help highlight variaon
in crops. We suggest you use the
VARI index, an algorithm similar
to NDVI, but intended for visual
spectrum (Red Green Blue or RGB)
imagery. Like NDVI, VARI uses red,
yellow and green coloraon to
highlight areas of poor, medium and
strong plant health.
• Use annotaons and measurements
to mark areas to ground-truth, then
take your map out into the eld with
you to take notes. You can even add
photos to your comments!
• Connect other members of your team
by sharing your map and comments.
• Want to make prescripons or
esmate damage? Combine plant
 


 
Export the
selected layer
Turn annotaons &
measurements on/o
Data layers
available
health algorithms with management
zone and grid tools to measure
health and unhealthy acres. Even
export a shapele that can be
imported into a Farm Management
System and combined with other
data such as topography, soil, or
historic yield data to make a variable
rate prescripons.
• Export maps in a variety of formats
or leverage tools from the App
Market to generate specialized
reports, including:
»Stand analysis
»Plant count
»Crop damage assessment
»Annotaons report
Figure E. Explore Your Map on Any Device

13

   



 
Turn grid view on/o
Turn zones on/o
Set algorithm – VARI
recommended
Camera type
Set slider values

   



 

   



 
Figure G. Grids Figure H. Management Zones
Figure F. Expanded Plant Health Menu

14
Locaon marker of
idened problem
Delete
annotaon
Ground-truth your map and add
comments and photos describing
what you nd
Select your
tools:
- Locaon
- Distance
- Area
- Volume
Figure I. Ground-truth and Take Notes

15
6 — Need Help?
Our Support Team is Here to Help
If you run into any problems, please contact our support team via email or chat,
and they will respond to you as quickly as possible.
Chat
Use the chat icon in DroneDeploy to chat with a support representave
from 7 am - 7 pm CST, Monday thru Friday.
Email
[e-mail]
Submit your support quesons 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Our support team is available to respond to your quesons from 7am -
7pm CST, Monday thru Friday.
Prefer to troubleshoot yourself? Check out our troubleshoong guide at hp://
support.dronedeploy.com/docs/troubleshoong.
Where to Learn More
That’s it for this guide — so get out there and make your rst map! As you gain
experience with your drone, don’t forget to keep learning. Check out training
videos, documentaon and support at support.dronedeploy.com.
Happy ying!
The DroneDeploy Team
DroneDeploy

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