Table of Contents

1. Package includes 3
2. Quick overview 4
3. Hardware 5
a. Plane 5
b. Remote control 6
c. Battery 8
d. Charger 8
4. Preparing the drone 9
a. Assembling the drone Error! Bookmark not defined.
b. Power up 9
5. Software 10
a. Install DroStation software 10
b. User interface 13
c. Connecting the drone to the PC 14
d. Mission planning 15
∙ Open DroStation on your PC. 15
e. RTK setup 21
RTK Base Station Setup 21
Figure 2: Base RTK setting 21
Figure 1: Base mode 21
Figure 4: Correction 22
Figure 3: Camera Control 22
Figure 5: Logging 23
Figure 6: Position 23
RTK Rover Setup 24
Figure 8: Camera Control 24
Figure 7 24
Figure 10: Logging 25
Figure 9: Correction 25
Figure 11: Position 26
6. Flying the drone 26
a. Environment 26
b. Checking the status 27
c. Calibration 27

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 d. Mission execution 30
7. Data Collection 33
a. Collecting images 33
b. Collecting RTK data 33
Figure 5: Download RTK data 34
c. RTK post processing 34
d. Processing a map 42
8. Maintenance 42
a. Battery 42
b. Drone 42
9. Troubleshooting 43
a. Flight errors 43

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1. Package includes

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 Extra cables
2. Quick overview Remote
Controller

Hardware

Diagonal size 420mm (Without propeller)

680mm (with propeller)

Battery pack

Weight 7.8Kg

Battery 12000mAh (Li - po)

22.2V (6S)

Radio Link Range Km

Cameras(supplied) SONY A6000 (24.7Mp)

Cameras(optional) Parrot Sequia

Camera Gimble 1 axis (Roll Stabilization)

Software

Flight planning & control software DroStation

Image processing software

Telemetry Pix4Dmapper, Pix4Dbim
antenna
Operation
Drone
Maximum Cruise speed 15ms-1

Wind resistance 8ms-1

Max. flight time 1 ½ hrs

Max. flight range 12Km

Takeoff & Landing Vertical

Ground control points Optional

Mapping

GSD 2.87cm @ 120m altitude

Coverage 0.6km2 (60ha) @ 120m altitude

GPS Accuracy 0.5m without RTK

3-7cm With RTK

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3. Hardware
a. Drone

Propeller

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 b. Remote control

Remote

Figure shows the

essential parts of the
remote controller of
the Visio-X UAV.
i. The Power On/Off
switch is to turn the
remote controller on
and off.
ii. Flight mode switch
is used to select the
flight mode of the
drone.

iv. Control sticks on the left side are to control the throttle and yaw of the drone and the
right control stick is to control the roll and pitch.
v. Speaker is to announce important events to the user.

Figure 1: Remote
controller Mode
switch
First, place the mode
switch to the top
(Manual mode)
before turning on the
Drone. After setting
up the drone, you can
switch the mode to
Stabilize.

Caution: - Don’t put the drone into Auto mode while setting up.

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Flight telemetry screen

You can enable the telemetry data screen by pressing

and holding the page button for two seconds. The flight
telemetry screen gives you the necessary information
and status alerts of the drone. The flight data screen is
shown below.

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 c. Battery

The Hornet drone contains a 10000mAh Li-po battery with 22.2V (6S). There is a connector in the
battery, which is used for charging the battery as well as powering the drone. The battery is chosen
to deliver the maximum power output, with a minimum weight added to the total weight of the
plane.

d. Charger

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Charger Datasheet - https://www.pololu.com/file/0J525/iMAXB6ACmanual.pdf

4. Preparing the drone

a. Preparation

i. Take the drone out at the required location

ii. Switch the power of the remote on
iii. Check whether the Welcome screen has the name Hornet
iv. Place the drone on the launching pad

b. Power up

i. Connect the battery.

ii. Lock the battery.
iii. The transmitter should be switched on before turning the drone on.
iv. Switch the power switch on.
v. Note: If you’re turning on indoors, (either for a testing or a training) be mindful to remove the
propeller.
vi. You will hear the boot tone at first.
vii. After about 5 more seconds, you will hear two ‘beep’ sounds. This means the system of the
drone has no problem.
viii. To fly the drone, hold the safety switch for 2 seconds. If the status bulb lights up in green,
then the drone is ready to fly.
ix. If the GPS is not locked, the status bulb will blink in blue.

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 5. Software
DroStation is a very user-friendly software tool which can be easily installed and operated in both
Windows 8 and Windows 10 operating systems. Majority of the operations are automated to make it
easier for the user to operate.

a. Install DroStation software

To install the DroStation, your computer must have the following minimum specifications.

i. OS: Windows 8 / 10
ii. Free RAM space: 400 MB
iii. HDD space: 300 MB

Steps in installing the software

i. Download the “DroStation Installer.exe” file from the website and double click on the file to
run.
ii. Choose the destination folder in which you desire to install DroStation.

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iii. Read and choose whether you agree to the License terms and conditions.

iv. By clicking “Install”, you can proceed to the installation.

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v. When you get the following window, you have successfully installed “DroStation” in your
computer.

vi. Click on the desktop icon created to open the DroStation software.

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 b. User interface

DroStation has mainly 2 windows, the “Planning window” and the “Flight window”.

Planning window

● The initial planning required for the flight is done in the Planning Window. The features of
drawing the mapping polygons and deciding on the pathway of the drone’s flight is given
access in this window. This process is optimized to deliver the most efficient way to fly the
drone to complete our mission.

● The software is switched to the Flight Window after the planning process is carried out
completely.

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Flight Window

● The process in the control of the flight is done in this window. After the initial phase of
planning is done, we execute the flying process in this window. This window handles the
process from arming the drone until the landing.

● The instructions for handling the software is given in the later sections with instructions on
how to use the software.

c. Connecting the drone to the PC

i. Use the USB cable provided to connect the drone to the PC. It is a micro USB – USB cable of
which the micro USB is connected to the drone and the USB is connected to the PC.
ii. Open the DroStation software, select the proper COMport and click “Connect”.
iii. Software will take a few seconds to establish the connection.
iv. Connect the telemetry to the PC, as shown below.

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 v. Select the COMPort from the top right corner of the Flight window.

vi. Check whether the Baud rate is at 57600.

vii. Click the “Connect” button at the top right corner.

d. Mission planning
● Open DroStation on your PC.
● On the main window, click on “Draw Polygon” button. Then, choose whether to use “Single
Polygon Mode” or “Multi Polygon Mode”.

Single Polygon mode

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 i. If you choose “Single Polygon mode”, you will enter the Single polygon mode, where only
one polygon is drawn.
ii. Then draw the polygon on the area to be mapped. If you have a polygon file available with
you, you can load the file by simply clicking on “Planning” without drawing a polygon and
then selecting a polygon file.

iii. After drawing a polygon, click on the “Planning” button and select the parameters relevant
to your mission. Here, you are required to choose the drone you’re using, the grid mode and
the mission parameters. After selecting all the necessary parameters, click “Accept” and
your mission will be displayed on your map.

iv. After clicking “Accept”,

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v. To obtain the waypoint information, click on the “Show WP Info” button towards the bottom
right of the Main window.

vi.

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Multi Polygon mode

i. If you press “Multi Polygon Mode”, you will enter the Multi Polygon mode where you can
plan multiple missions with a Main polygon and several sub polygons.

ii. This will add an additional panel on the right side, which is the Multi mission panel. You can
draw the main polygon after clicking the “Draw Main Polygon” button. After drawing, click
on the “Add” button to add the polygon to the list.

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 iii. To draw the sub - polygons click on the “Draw Sub Polygon” button, draw the sub polygons
and add them one by one to the list.

iv. You can now select each polygon from the list, edit them or delete them as you wish. After
everything, click on the “Done” button to finish drawing polygons.
v. If you want to add new markers to an already drawn polygon, select the polygon from the
list, click on “Continue Drawing” and add new markers. Then, click “Done” to finish adding
markers.
vi. To delete an existing marker, simply right-click on the relevant marker and click on “Delete
WP”.
vii. Further, you can add any previously saved polygons through the “Load Polygons” and save
the current polygons through the “Save Polygons” button.
viii. Now, you can select any of the polygons drawn and plan a mission for each polygon.

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ix. To exit the Multi Polygon Mode, click on the “Exit” button.

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 a. RTK setup

RTK Base Station Setup

Figure 1: Base mode

1Hz

Figure 2: Base RTK setting

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Figure 3: Camera Control

Figure 4: Correction

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Figure 5: Logging

Figure 6: Position

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RTK Rover Setup

Static

1Hz

Figure 7

Figure 8: Camera Control

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Figure 9: Correction

Figure 10: Logging

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Figure 11: Position

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 6. Flying the drone
a. Environment

The performance of VisionX drone is sensitive to weather conditions. The wind, rain and high
temperatures can affect the performance. Therefore, the operator must be on alert for these
conditions.

● Since the drone is not recommended to be flown in winds faster than 6m/s, checking
predicted weather conditions prior to the flight must necessarily be done.
● Flying in rainy weather is not recommended due to two main reasons. First one is that the
light conditions for aerial photography will not be favorable and the second one is that
there’s a possibility that it may damage the drone.
● Flying in high temperatures above 40 oC is not recommended due to the damage it can do to
the battery and the effect that can do to the performance.

The operator must see that all the environmental conditions are favorable for the flight before
proceeding to the next steps.

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 b. Checking the status

● The number of satellites connected should indicate to be more than 6 satellites.

● No AHRS or EKF errors should be shown.
● No compass errors should be present.

c. Calibration

Preflight calibration (Not Mandatory)

● Keep the drone at a steady position (perhaps on a table).

● Click the preflight calibration button.
● Click “Start”

● Then you will receive the following window.

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● After finishing the calibration,

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 ● If you receive the following window as “Preflight Calibration failed”, please check the drone
and carry out the calibration process again.

Compass calibration

● Click compass calibration button and follow the procedure shown in the window.

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 d. Mission execution

i. After connecting the drone via USB, click on the “Connect” button on the top right corner of
the Planning Window.
ii. Upload the mission to the drone by clicking the upload button in the Planning window.

iii. You can now view the mission details by clicking on “Mission Parameters button on the top.

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 iv. Then shift to the Flight window by clicking on the “Flight Window” button on the top.

Warning!
KEEP YOURSELF CLEAR FROM THE PROPELLERS
WHEN ARMING THE DRONE.
ALWAYS USE SAFETY GLOVES AND GOGGLES.

v. Check the drone status (GPS, sensors, camera check) after which, the drone becomes ready
to fly.
vi. Enable RTK login.
vii. After selecting a suitable place, remove the safety (press and hold safety button for 2
seconds) and then check the motors.
viii. Ensure you’re in stabilized mode and arm the drone by clicking on the “Arm” button on the
top.
ix. Check if status LED lights in solid green, check the throttle and click on the “Fly drone” button,
and proceed to flying.

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x. During the flight, the path of the drone will be indicated using a purple colored line and the
locations where the photographs are taken will be indicated using green colored camera
icons.

● During the flight, you can find the parameters related to the mission by clicking on the
“Mission Parameters” button. Clicking the button again will hide the parameters panel.

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 ● You can also enable the “Camera Overlap” to show the amounts of camera overlap during
flight.

7. Data Collection

a. Collecting images

i. Switch the drone power off.

ii. Take the SD card out from the drone.
iii. You will find the images of the mission, included in the SD card.

b. Collecting RTK data

i. Connect to your RTK base and rover after finishing a mission.

ii. Stop data logging in rover first, then turn off data logging in base station.
iii. Then download .ubx file from both rover and base. (Rename them as Rover and Base for
minimize conflict).
Map Processing

i. Add processed RTK data file to the image folder.

ii. Open a new project in Pix 4D Mapper.
iii. Name the project and set the project location.
iv. Load all the images and click next.
v. Then select GPS from file option and select the processed data file. The software will add the
image georeferencing.
c. RTK post processing

i. Open the EasyRTK software, provided with the software package.

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ii. Browse and insert the file path of the Bas

e UBX file
downloaded from the base station

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iii. Browse and insert the file path of the Rover UBX file

iv. Give the antenna coordinates in Latitude, Longitude and Altitude, along with the antenna
height measures during mapping.
Note: Remember to select the MSL checkbox if the altitude from Mean Sea Level is required.

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v. Now, click on the “Convert Base File” button to convert the Base UBX file to “.obs” and
“.nav” files. The EMLID RTKCONV software will then open with the default settings loaded.
Check the settings by clicking on the “Options” button and going through.

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 vi. If all the options are checked, press “Convert” and press “Exit” after the conversion. Now,
the “.obs” and “.nav” files of the base must be added to the same folder as the base UBX
file.
vii. Now, carry out the same procedure for the rover UBX file after clicking on “Convert Rover
File” to obtain the “.obs” and “.nav” files.
viii. Now press on “Generate pos file” button and the EMLID RTKPOST software will be opened
with all the default settings loaded. Click on the “Options” button and check the following
options.

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ix. Then press “Execute” to generate the “_events.pos” file. Press “Exit” after the process. This
processing may take several seconds.

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x. Now, press on the “Generate csv file” to generate the “.csv” file required for the input of the
image processing software in generating the map.

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 d. Processing a map

i. Warning! Warning!
Save the .csv file generated from the post processing software and the images in the same
folder.
ii.
NEVER OVER DISCHARGE THE NEVER OVERHEAT.
Import the folder to a photogrammetry software of your choice and generate the map.
BATTERY, OR IT MAY PERMANENTLY
AFTER A FLIGHT, IF THE BATTERY IS
DAMAGE THE CELLS
HOT, WAIT UNTIL IT COOLS DOWN
8. Maintenance BEFORE USING AGAIN.
a. Battery

● The battery is a Li - Ion battery with 14.8V (4S).

● If the battery will not be used for over 2 weeks, be mindful to put the battery on storage
mode.
● Never short circuit the leads.
● Store in a temperature in between 20oC and 35oC.
● Use a recommended balance charger to charge the battery.

b. Drone

● Store the drone in a cool and dry place.

● Keep the drone inside the package.
● Check the propellers, motor mount, wing attachments and servo linkage before each flight.

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9. Troubleshooting

a. Flight errors

● If the airspeed is above 3m/s before flying, initiate preflight calibration by clicking on the
“Preflight Calibration” button on the main window.

● If bad compass health is indicated, initiate compass calibration.

● While checking the camera, if there’s no camera trigger, check your SD card (happens mostly
due to the improper connection of the SD card). You can trigger the camera by clicking on
the “Test Camera” button on Flight Widow.

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