Today I flew my DJI spark with the remote control in ActiveTrack mode for the first time.
I really wanted to try it without the remote but after hearing how it can't go beyond 100m of home point I figured it wouldn't work. The remote made everything feel more trustworthy compared to the just the phone. I flew on 5.8ghz with no OTG cable, and only had Bluetooth turned off on my iPhone 7plus.
I have to say I'm impressed! I set it to follow my car around my neighborhood in Phoenix AZ and it never lost track one time. I know I had it pretty high and I didn't drive too fast, but it made me really nervous to be driving while having it track me especially so far away from the home point, but it performed perfectly.
Winds: 7mph gusting to 14mph
Temperature: 110 degrees
Max distance: (from home point) Just over 2000ft with no warnings and max distance not enabled in settings)
Max speed: 20mph
At the end of the video I pulled over because a "just enough battery to return home" warning automatically initiated RTH with 30% left (started ActiveTrack with 60% battery) Because I didn't want it to fly 2000ft to where I started, I deactivated RTH and landed near my SUV manually.
Overall it was awesome! My favorite feature that no one is talking about is the ability to control the distance/height/left-right using the sticks in slow cinematic movements. There was a tree that was going to get in my way, so I just climbed over it with no problems.
I have attached the full video of the flight.
My workflow:
Downloaded original to iPhone from spark. Then added music and text in iMovie. Then uploaded to YouTube directly using share function in photos app.
I haven't checked the quality on a computer, so am hopefully it's 1080p.
Let me know if you have any questions about my flight.
been thinking about doing this im just so scared about trees and stuff on the side of the road. how closely does it follow the exact path of the car or does it cut corners?
Really cool! I did a much shorter test having it follow my car (also an Audi ) but didn't go very far on a private road. I didn't realize you can control it with the RC while it's in active-track mode, that's a game changer!
Here's my quick video, this was with no manual inputs:
It appears that you were able to take still images (that you posted), at the same time as you were recording video (that you posted on YouTube). Wondering how you did that?
I read this "limitation" 100 meters is in BEGINNER MODE, if you turn off this option, you can ACTIVE TRACK all distance you want (without remote). Can somebody confirm this?