GEN II - Operational differences to first-generation WingtraOne

The article explains the main points that an operator should be aware of in order to operate the GEN II drone.

WingtraOne GEN II is the next generation WingtraOne with completely redesigned electronics. The flight planning and flying process are not significantly different, and the operator responsibilities remain the same.

The following workflows are new or different compared to the earlier WingtraOne drones:

PPK activation
Oblique flight planning
Multispectral cameras workflow
Sony RX1 RII mount

Flying GEN II requires WingtraOne and WingtraPilot version 2.1 and geotagging the images requires WingtraHub 2.1 version. All the GEN II drones will be shipped with WingtraOne and WingtraPilot 2.1, which is exclusively available to distributors till the official release.

WingtraHub 2.1 can be downloaded here.

PPK licensing

The PPK module is not a separate hardware piece in GEN II drones. As it is compatible with all the cameras, there is no need to remove and install it every time you change the camera.

PPK module-1

The color and appearance of the PPK antenna and electronics cover changes between the first and second batch of GEN II drones. Both are of equal quality.

The PPK should be activated through the license server, as you can see in the article How to activate the PPK license. Note that the RX1 camera activation license enables the PPK functionality for all the other cameras. However, there are individual PPK licenses per camera, in case you do not own an RX1 camera.

Oblique Sony flight planning

The Oblique Sony a6100 12 mm camera is our new solution for 3D reconstruction of buildings and objects. It is recommended that you fly with at least 85% frontal and 80% side overlap for an optimal reconstruction. Additionally, it is crucial to check the height of the buildings and objects in the area and fly at least 40 m above the highest one. Note that buildings and objects are not taken into account for terrain following.

The oblique camera is mounted up side down in order to provide easy access to the camera SD card.

oblique

GEN II drones are equipped with 2 SD cards. For the RGB cameras (RX1, a6100, oblique), the collected images and GNSS data are stored in WingtraPilotProjects folder in the camera SD card.

oblique_SD card

The WingtraOne SD card should also be always connected for flying and it is used for the software/firmware updates and for downloading the flight logs.

oblique_SD_drone

Oblique imagery can be processed in any photogrammetric software. However, we recommend using Bentley ContextCapture for processing the images acquired by the Sony A6100 12 mm camera as we have tested it and the reconstructed model is of high quality.

You will be able to sell Bentley licenses similar to Pix4D licenses through Wingtra. Reach out to your Sales Manager to learn more or get a trial license.

Multispectral cameras workflow

MicaSense RedEdge-MX and Altum cameras are now compatible with PPK for higher accuracy multispectral data. Both cameras come also with new camera mounts and a better software integration, which means that images are now triggered by the drone, preventing the capture of unnecessary images in turns.

Preflight checklist

In GEN II, the RedEdge-MX and Altum cameras do not need to be configured through a separate camera user interface. All the flight planning parameters can be set in WingtraPilot, as the image triggering is controlled by the drone.

In the Preflight checklist the camera check is automatically performed. Once the camera connectivity is checked, a message to calibrate the camera through the MicaSense user interface is displayed. You can either connect to the MicaSense page to trigger the calibration image (as described in the preflight checklist), or you can trigger the image physically using the button the DLS sensor (see picture below).

The button that you need to press on the DLS sensor for a few seconds is the one indicated with arrow below:

Once the calibration panel image is captured, click on the checklist item to confirm it.

Data storage

After the flight is completed, retrieve the SD card from the camera by removing the cap and pushing the SD card into the camera before pulling it. The camera SD card contains the images, which are stored in folders ("0000SET", "0001SET",...).

The WingtraPilotProjects folder, containing the GNSS data, is saved to the WingtraOne SD card.

PPK geotagging

To geotag the multispectral images in WingtraHub, you need to get the data from the 2 SD cards. Insert first the WingtraOne SD card with the WingtraPilotProjects folder to your computer and copy the folder locally, to the location you want to store your data. Then, insert the camera SD card to your computer.

Open WingtraHub and select the WingtraPilotProjects folder. All the projects will be displayed in WingtraHub. Select the ones you want to geotag and click on Next.

Then, the images need to be imported. To import the images, click on Add camera data and select the images folder. You can select the parent folder, where all the sets of images are stored. WingtraHub will automatically match the images with the right project. Note that you should maintain the structure of the camera SD card (0000SET, 0001SET,...) as WingtraHub is looking for this folder naming to correctly select all the images of a project.

Once the images are imported, the base files and location should be imported, as it is explained in the article PPK geotagging and the processing can start. Note that after the processing is completed the images are copied to the IMAGES folder in the project folder.

Sony RX1RII camera

The process for flying with the RX1 camera and processing the RX1 images is not changed but the payload is coming with a new, more reliable mount.

Although we strongly recommend purchasing full new GEN II payload add-ons, there is an option to reuse an RX1 camera from a first-generation WingtraOne on a GEN II. For this, you need to order an empty GEN II mount. Step-by-step instructions of the process will be added to the Customer Portal. In the meantime, if this is needed, contact Wingtra Support.

RX1_newMount