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Tracking - reality check
1106 13 2017-4-4
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Rusty Iron
lvl.4
Australia
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I want to get some footage of myself, four wheel driving along a beach. Having read some of the horror stories here about fly aways, I wanted to be sure I get setup for this excercise properly. So I intend to;

1. Auto take-off and make sure I have plenty of satellites and home point is set. I'm using a landing pad so there will be high definition, not just white sand, for the drone to picture.
2. Fly up and away to my preferred vantage point, which will be at around 20m high, and about 20m in front of the car. I'm trying to ensure the RC signal won't be blocked by the sides or roof of the car, and will have line of sight through the windsheild.
3. Activate the active track function
4. Get back in the car and set the RC on the passenger seat
5. Drive off and hopefully get the footage I want
6. Manually land at the end of the short drive (probably around 500m max)

I want to setup the home point properly in case I lose signal, and then hopefully the Mavic will just fly back to there.

Am I planning that right? Will I have problems if the RC is inside the car?

2017-4-4
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Dexter1759
lvl.3
Flight distance : 5253 ft
United Kingdom
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Sorry, don't have an answer, but subscribing because this would be something I'm interested in doing.
2017-4-5
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un hombre
lvl.3
Flight distance : 170830 ft
Ireland
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Looks OK and a standard procedure. If done like you said - should be without problems.

Two points, however:

- Remember that in P-mode, Mavic will be quite slow and will not be able to keep up if you will be driving too fast. I'd say 20 mph is realistic, keeping in mind that there will be wind.
- If you want your drone to track you in front of you (camera towards you, drone flying backwards) you need to enable the option in DJI GO 4 to enable backwards flying. By default it is off, I think. If doing so just remember, there are no sensors in the rear so make sure no obstacles in the path.
2017-4-5
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NavigatorNL
First Officer
Flight distance : 700768 ft
Netherlands
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@un hombre

Thanks for these tips!
2017-4-5
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SkunkWerxs
Second Officer
Flight distance : 231217 ft
United States
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Looks like your good to go, keep in mind that beach wind speed and direction can be unpredictable
especially at heights
I have never used Tracking Mode (Not enough room where I am) --- I also noticed on all the YouTube Vids that if the object being tracked is moving Fast the Mavic altitude will Climb higher to keep the object in
the Frame --- I'm in the USA East coast in the early mornings there is basically no wind --- in the afternoon
the wind blows (unpredictable) in and out off the Ocean ----- In the evening it blows in off the Ocean.
I used to live on the Beach -- missing it !!!! hope some of this info helps you      
Happy Fliying Rusty
2017-4-5
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Jason Lane
Second Officer
Flight distance : 260144 ft
Singapore
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A couple of points:

1. You might already do this, but don't forget to set the RTH height appropriately, which you should do on any flight, regardless of Active Track (eg. 20m higher than surrounding obstacles).

2. During Active Track, the Mavic's flight path can sometimes vary wildly from where you would expect it to go. I'd recommend you only use it if the Mavic will have a wide berth in case it flies off a little. If there are trees or other obstacles around, I'd put the Mavic way above their height.

3. There have been several cases where the Mavic has performed very strange and eratic movements during Active Track. Often this could be due to the Mavic losing the subject or getting confused by another object in the frame. In other cases, there doesn't seem to have been any reasonable explanation for why the Mavic did what it did. I'd make sure to keep the RC close by and you should be mentally prepared to quickly hit the Pause button in case the Mavic starts doing anything odd.

2017-4-5
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Rusty Iron
lvl.4
Australia
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Thanks very much for the responses guys. To make it a bit clearer - the beaches I will be trying this on are in places called Esperance and Bremer Bay, on the southern coast of Western Australia. They are generally wide flat beaches, with VERY white sand (hence, using the landing pad so the MP doesn't get confused if it goes home by itself) There is usually only low coastal scrub, and no trees higher than a few metres, on the beach itself. I'm going to set RTH height at 30m, which is also much higher than most of the cliffs and sand dunes. I don't want to go any higher than that, to avoid running into higher wind speeds.

Thanks again for your help.
2017-4-5
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tellus1
Second Officer
Flight distance : 105551 ft
Australia
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I have used the active track on my car worked flawlessly.

2017-4-5
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4wesomeAdam
Second Officer
United States
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The active track will loose the object / person in the sun. I call this a wash out. The subject will be shadowed out by the sun with the surrounding area and the drone will stop its tracking. I would advise conducting your flight / active track with the sun to the rear of the drone or at a time when the sun is near its highest peak. Finally, if the sun is low in the horizon and you have the drone circle you it can or will loose you to the sun if it is facing the sun, circling and trying to track you.

Have fun.
2017-4-5
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Rusty Iron
lvl.4
Australia
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tellus1 Posted at 2017-4-5 16:35
I have used the active track on my car worked flawlessly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuL8erbibY4

Brilliant! That's exactly what I want to do. Thanks very much for that.

(I like how the Mighty Triton peeled off because the Nav and the Lux were holding him up...you'll never guess what I'm driving...)
2017-4-5
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Rusty Iron
lvl.4
Australia
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4wesomeAdam Posted at 2017-4-5 16:51
The active track will loose the object / person in the sun. I call this a wash out. The subject will be shadowed out by the sun with the surrounding area and the drone will stop its tracking. I would advise conducting your flight / active track with the sun to the rear of the drone or at a time when the sun is near its highest peak. Finally, if the sun is low in the horizon and you have the drone circle you it can or will loose you to the sun if it is facing the sun, circling and trying to track you.

Have fun.

Yes, I've had a few problems with the Sun. Very nerve wracking when you're a very new droner and your baby has a fit and just stops for no apparent reason. Until you figure out what's going on and then you think "Doh! The sun, you idiot! Just don't fly into the sun"
2017-4-5
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Rusty Iron
lvl.4
Australia
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Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-5 06:05
A couple of points:

1. You might already do this, but don't forget to set the RTH height appropriately, which you should do on any flight, regardless of Active Track (eg. 20m higher than surrounding obstacles).

Some good points, thank you. In regard to point 3 - maybe I should also make sure multiple flight modes is enabled in the app, so that if it all goes pear shaped I can just hit the sport mode button on the RC. Would that just cancel everything the Mavic is doing and force it to stop and hover? Have I got that right?
2017-4-5
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Jason Lane
Second Officer
Flight distance : 260144 ft
Singapore
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Rusty Iron Posted at 2017-4-5 17:02
Some good points, thank you. In regard to point 3 - maybe I should also make sure multiple flight modes is enabled in the app, so that if it all goes pear shaped I can just hit the sport mode button on the RC. Would that just cancel everything the Mavic is doing and force it to stop and hover? Have I got that right?

Yup. I'm pretty sure you'll need to enable Multiple Flight Modes anyway, in order to access Active Track. And yes, flicking to Sport mode should cancel out of any of the Intelligent Flight Modes, although I personally find hitting the Pause button is usually easier and faster.
2017-4-5
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fans538f4694
lvl.1
Austria
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Just posted what I think is an interesting active track question here: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D402%26typeid%3D402
2017-4-8
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