How to Use DTED Cockpit Crosshair on Skydio X2

To determine the coordinates of an object using DTED Cockpit Crosshairs:

Step 1 - Load a DTED dataset onto your drone

Step 2 - Select Begin Flight

Step 3 - Select the Device settings menu and the Controller Tab

Step 4 - Select On Screen Display and toggle On Cockpit Crosshairs

Step 5 - Launch

• • fly using the Manual skill
  • X2 will display the real-time coordinates of the ground-level position at the center of your crosshairs using terrain data

[note text="If this is your first flight after inserting the SD media card with the DTED maps, select the Review menu to prompt the file transfer to the X2 internal storage."]

To generate and load a DTED dataset:

Step 1 - Navigate to https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov and create an account

• • this is one way to generate DTED maps, there are other sites available.

Step 2 - Select the Polygon tab

Step 3 - Click on the map and set the coordinates points around the area to define your dataset

• the area will be highlighted in red
• edit or delete any of the point’s coordinates

Step 4 - Select the Data Sets menu tab at the top of the page

• • scroll down and expand Digital Elevation
  • expand the submenu SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission)

Step 5 - Select the type of data required for your use case

• • there are four choices to select from
  • select the info icon for more information about each data set and how they are derived
  • Expand Digital Elevation and SRTM and SRTM 1 Arc Second Global

Step 6 - Select the Results button

• • results may generate multiple scenes 
  • Select DTED 1 Arc-second (XX.XX MB)
  • When the download is complete, the DT2 file will be saved to the designated download folder.
  • Skydio supports Level 2 with a file extension of .dt2 and a resolution of approximately 30 meters
  • the dataset cannot exceed 150 MB in total

Step 7 - Select the scene that you want to download and the download icon

• • create a new folder and title it DTED
  • add the downloaded file to the DTED folder

Step 9 - Access the SD media card on your computer

• • using an SD card reader
  • drag the DTED folder onto the SD media card
  • safely eject the SD media card

Step 10 - Insert the SD media card back into the Skydio X2

Step 11 - Power on the drone

Step 12 - Select the Review menu to prompt the file transfer to the X2 internal storage

• • the transfer will fail if there is not enough storage on the drone to import the files, and no files will be imported

If all files successfully transfer to the drone:

• • the dataset files inside the DTED folder on the SD media card will be gone
  • DTED coordinates will display when the Crosshair Coordinates in toggled on

• • DTED maps will persist across flights and power cycles
  • loading a new DTED dataset file will overwrite the previous maps
  • logging out of the controller will delete the DTED maps