Good morning. I've tried everything I know - so far, unsuccessfully - to get my Mini 3 Pro to follow my RC plane. I thought some in-flight video of my plane from an above/behind perspective would be interesting.


My plane is an Eflite Apprentice, so it's pretty large - about 59" wingspan and 42" long. The plane is bright - almost blinding - white, so it stands out clearly against the brown dirt road runway. I've tried hovering my Mini 3 at different altitudes and at different angles relative to the plane, and with the sun in different locations relative to the drone and plane. My Mini 3 will lock onto a person walking or a car/truck, so I know it works in some cases.

It seems to sort of lock onto the plane, letting either Spotlight or POI work. However, when I try to switch from Spotlight to Active Track, it gives me an error message. I should have taken a screenshot of it, but did not. It's something along the lines of "Can't switch subject. Subject must be a person or vehicle."

Any ideas how to get it to follow my plane? Thank you in advance for your help!

Like you said. It will only switch to active track only for person or vehicle. An rc plane isn't a vehicle. Even if it will follow a rc plane, the drone will lose sight very fast and stop following. I hover my drone 10 feet, lock on my rc monster truck. It thinks the rc truck is a vehicle so it follows it. But once the rc truck goes forward. The drone isn't fast enough and the rc truck will go out of frame and lose sight. So if it it can't even fast enough to follow an rc monster truck, no way your drone will be able to follow an rc plane even if dji release firmware to allow it. The drone ain't faster enough.

Hi, FortMaceo. Thank you for reaching out. Tracking an RC Plane is not recommended as ActiveTrack is programmed for tracking a person or vehicle/boat only. Thank you for your kind understanding. In addition, ActiveTrack for DJI Mini 3 Pro will work under the following conditions:
If a person is set as a tracking subject, the distance between the aircraft and the subject should be 4 to 20 m, and the altitude is 2 to 20 m. (Note: The recommended distance is 5 to 10 m and the recommended altitude is 2 to 10 m.)

If a vehicle/boat is set as a tracking subject, the distance between the aircraft and the subject should be 6 to 100 m, and the altitude is 6 to 100 m. (Note: The recommended distance is 20 to 50 m and the recommended altitude is 10 to 50 m.)

If the aircraft starts to follow the subject, but the distance between the aircraft and the target is not in the range of the abovementioned distance or altitude, the aircraft will automatically fly into the supporting range. If the aircraft flies within the range of recommended distance and altitude, you will have a better experience of tracking.

Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.  

Lieutenant Posted at 5-30 00:07
Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.

This made my day Imagine this in practice

Lieutenant Posted at 5-30 00:07
Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.

This is just crazy enough to work. Thank you for the suggestion.

Its just too small an object, even if it could, it would lose it pretty quickly too.

Lieutenant Posted at 5-30 00:07
Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.

And if this doesn't work, try to glue a Playmobil to your plane!

hi,  how long before activetrack losses an object?  

In many use cases, objects can go invisible to drone for longer periods of time, e.g. minutes. Could this be configurable, e.g. 1 minute ...

thnkas

fanscfdc5ef8 Posted at 11-17 08:37
hi,  how long before activetrack losses an object?  

In many use cases, objects can go invisible to drone for longer periods of time, e.g. minutes. Could this be configurable, e.g. 1 minute ...

I don't think this is time dependant, but rather whether it is able to reaquire the target when and where it appears again.
Eg, if you follow a bike along a road and it goes behind a bush, it may disappear momentarily, the drone continues for that short time on the same trajectory and speed and picks it up again at it reappears the other side.
But if you follow a car on a road and it goes into a tunnel, the drone isn't smart enough to guess when and where it will reappear at the other end and the target is lost.
Manually tracking a human pilot may know where the tunnel ends and continue there at the same speed. Then there is a chance of continuing. But the drone will just come to a stop, not knowing where to look.

Lieutenant Posted at 5-30 00:07
Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.

Lieutenant Posted at 5-30 00:07
Stick a large picture of someone's face on top of the plane and see if that works.

I have seen this before...