Morning Guys

  Looking at the tutorial for the follow me mode, once its set can you just place the phone/ipad in your pocket and the drone will follow you  or do you have to have the controller on you as well ? seems difficult to use it if you have to have the full controller on you !! was hoping i could use it with someone carrying the phone...

  Steve

It really is unclear ground. It is recommended that the controller is still manned but yes as long as the phone maintains a gps signal the p3 should follow the phone running the go app. Well that's my understanding. Maybe I'm wrong lol

The follow me mode work only with remote controller plus mobile device with GPS module, so once you activated it you also need to keep mobile device and remote controller connected with cable

DJI should make some sort of puck you could use for the follow me.  A side accessory so it can act like a lily.  Or... is the lily a stronger follow me style drone

arock387@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-26 16:25
DJI should make some sort of puck you could use for the follow me.  A side accessory so it can act l ...

Yes, this is great idea!

Nicola90s Posted at 2016-2-26 13:15
Yes, this is great idea!

It is a nice idea, but currently you have to have your GPS enabled  device and the controller with you for follow me mode to work.

Would be awesome if Follow Me mode worked with the Apple Watch as the beacon.

FailureEngineer Posted at 2016-2-27 09:01
Would be awesome if Follow Me mode worked with the Apple Watch as the beacon.

Not really possible, the Apple Watch has no GPS receiver, it uses the one in your phone, and even that is very ordinary.

The Follow Me mode relies on the phone or tablet attached to your RC unit to obtain a GPS location of where you are, which it transmits to the aircraft so it can follow you. So you must have both the RC unit and the phone/tablet with you while you are moving. In addition, GPS reception can be very patchy so you don't want to put the RC/phone/tablet in a car or in your pocket while moving, otherwise the aircraft may lose you. And the GPS reception in the phone/tablet is nowhere near as good as that in the aircraft. The aircraft GPS receiver is purposely designed for the job, can receive US and Russian satellites and has a decent antenna. Your phone/tablet GPS receiver is a huge compromise and therefore you need to keep it out in the open if Follow Me is going to work as you expect..

How good if the remote itself have GPS module so we dont depends on phone's GPS. Based on my experience, the phone's GPS is not fast enough to lock location and always lost GPS signal.

anandharaj Posted at 2016-2-27 13:28
How good if the remote itself have GPS module so we dont depends on phone's GPS. Based on my experie ...

It probably would not work that well, as you usually have a phone or tablet on top of the RC unit, thus partially blocking reception.

A better method is to use a Garmin GPS and tether it to your phone. That way you get a much better GPS receiver.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-27 13:54
It probably would not work that well, as you usually have a phone or tablet on top of the RC unit, t ...

I agree. I bought a cheaper wifi-only iPad mini WITHOUT cellular/GPS.  It works fine for everything except follow me.  However, you can buy external GPS receivers and tether them via bluetooth.  For IOS at least they need to be WAAS enabled and not just a cheapie GPS unit.   They are typically used inside real aircraft by pilots as even the built-in units on iPads etc don't work inside a plane. I use a Garmin GLO unit myself, it is smaller than a cigarette pack.  Once paired, I tested it by putting the remote controller on the ground and walked off while holding the GPS unit.  The aircraft followed me without any problems, out of shot of the controller.  I didn't go any great distance, and I'm not sure what the range would be, as it is a bluetooth (short range) signal and still has to tether the GPS and RC.  I think it is currently 10m/30ft but bluetooth 4.0 is expected to be 4 times that.

Another advantage is that the external units also have GPS/GLONASS satellite coverage, and update the location more frequently than the internal GPS.

The Litchi app. will allow you to just carry your mobile device with you if the Litchi Magic Leash is installed on the mobile device. I have used them and they work just fine.

mjlstudios@yaho Posted at 2016-2-27 12:04
The Litchi app. will allow you to just carry your mobile device with you if the Litchi Magic Leash i ...

That's the one I heard about where you just use the phone with gps. Still advisable to have the controller manned though ;)

mjlstudios@yaho Posted at 2016-2-27 23:04
The Litchi app. will allow you to just carry your mobile device with you if the Litchi Magic Leash i ...

It appears that Magic Leash does connect two devices, and probably via the cellular service. So it means it should work wherevever you can obtain cellular service. Someone else may know more.

Yes, it uses GPS+3g for the connection. Still is a very good option, as it follows correctly and you can still manouver to get closer, avoid obstacles.

I use Autopilot, and it can follow multiple devices provided they're in the same Airspace (basically a network), including OTHER drones. You can use any normal device as well – iPads, iPhones, etc. Autopilot will also support non-GPS devices provided you hook up an external GPS device to it, such as a bluetooth GPS module. Airspace works in either ad-hoc mode (no external connectivity, basically peer-to-peer with the local devices) or network mode (all information is shared between devices via the internet, requires all devices to have internet access obviously).

Ah! So this is why my Follow Me didn't work the other day? My iPhone 6 is usually in Airplane Mode when I fly my drone to avoid phone calls interrupting...