would be awesome if we could speed up the drone during active track and have some sort of a way for the drone to descend with the subject, not sure if that's possible to implement safely but you can see how epic it would/could be.  I had to go pretty slow to allow the drone to keep up with me.  At the end I stopped as the drone was so high up in the air and radio'd my buddy to bring her down.  Enjoy

Edit:  on a side note, can one perform active track and also manually control the speed and descent sticks on the controller at the same time, kind of utilizing the active track technology to focus on the subject while the pilot controls the speed and descent.? I guess we could've tested this but didn't quite think about it until after the fact.

Very good test, thank you. And would I love to go skiing there. NG drones wll have that possibility I guess

Excellent. Nice turns..

yes you can manually changes your distance in active track and there is a slider for speed but it is relatively slow

jreynolds5 Posted at 2017-3-24 11:28
yes you can manually changes your distance in active track and there is a slider for speed but it is relatively slow

by manually change you mean the flight operator can manually manipulate speed and altitude?  I wish this thing would auto descend, it does auto ascend.  there has to be a way dji could allow the operator to override this parameter.  The Mavic has the capability with it's downward and forward facing sensors...

So your buddy had the controller? It wasn't in your backpack?

Nice footage.

Nice video!

blitzkrieg3002 Posted at 2017-3-24 11:31
by manually change you mean the flight operator can manually manipulate speed and altitude?  I wish this thing would auto descend, it does auto ascend.  there has to be a way dji could allow the operator to override this parameter.  The Mavic has the capability with it's downward and forward facing sensors...

earlier today I was using active track.....you can move left or right and up and down. and forward and backward.  when going left to right it will circle like using POI.......there was also a slider on the right that allowed me to manually adjust the speed.

4wesomeAdam Posted at 2017-3-24 11:55
So your buddy had the controller? It wasn't in your backpack?

Nice footage.

he was using active track not follow me. With active track it will follow any object you select on screen for it to follow. Follow me follows the controllers location.

Yea this why I've been asking for a tranmitter or armband. That has simple controllers for the user to control the drone (it would have to be waterproof at least). One of the current problems with active track is that it doesn't descend. It keeps the same altitude. So the subject keeps getting smaller and smaller.

I have seen a work around though. Some made foam to hold throttle down so that the drone can follow you at a lower altitude. The band or watch would be clutch. I'd definitely buy that in a heart beat.

When I first tested out ActiveTrack on the P4 over a year ago I was pretty amazed on how far away it would keep tracking the subject.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-3-24 12:34
When I first tested out ActiveTrack on the P4 over a year ago I was pretty amazed on how far away it would keep tracking the subject.

https://youtu.be/xC74_o5Z7uI

That's class. He was going at some speed as well. Good job..

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 12:17
Yea this why I've been asking for a tranmitter or armband. That has simple controllers for the user to control the drone (it would have to be waterproof at least). One of the current problems with active track is that it doesn't descend. It keeps the same altitude. So the subject keeps getting smaller and smaller.

I have seen a work around though. Some made foam to hold throttle down so that the drone can follow you at a lower altitude. The band or watch would be clutch. I'd definitely buy that in a heart beat.

that's a good idea.  do you think with this method if the drone got too low it would sense that and not crash to the ground with its bottom sensors?

blitzkrieg3002 Posted at 2017-3-24 12:56
that's a good idea.  do you think with this method if the drone got too low it would sense that and not crash to the ground with its bottom sensors?

Yes that was the case before the last update. before I sent my drone in. I've heard they change the auto land feature so if you press down now your bird will automatically land no matter what now. But I haven't test this out with the new firmware or app. This literally a month ago. I watched a video of a guy showing how it worked. And it worked really well.

Here is the video show how it works

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-3-24 12:34
When I first tested out ActiveTrack on the P4 over a year ago I was pretty amazed on how far away it would keep tracking the subject.

https://youtu.be/xC74_o5Z7uI

They recently increased the speed for the feature. I'm pretty sure it works even better now.

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 13:24
Yes that was the case before the last update. before I sent my drone in. I've heard they change the auto land feature so if you press down now your bird will automatically land no matter what now. But I haven't test this out with the new firmware or app. This literally a month ago. I watched a video of a guy showing how it worked. And it worked really well.

Here is the video show how it works

How did you get terrain follow and active track to work at the same time?

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 13:24
Yes that was the case before the last update. before I sent my drone in. I've heard they change the auto land feature so if you press down now your bird will automatically land no matter what now. But I haven't test this out with the new firmware or app. This literally a month ago. I watched a video of a guy showing how it worked. And it worked really well.

Here is the video show how it works

Wow that's awesome, that pretty much shows how capable this drone is.  Hopefully someone from DJI views this and can come up with a better way via firmware so that people don't have to "rig" the drone in such a strange way to achieve something that should be built in standard.  

Great job. Thanks for sharing.

FF6022 Posted at 2017-3-24 13:51
How did you get terrain follow and active track to work at the same time?

Terrain follow is active track

blitzkrieg3002 Posted at 2017-3-24 14:16
Wow that's awesome, that pretty much shows how capable this drone is.  Hopefully someone from DJI views this and can come up with a better way via firmware so that people don't have to "rig" the drone in such a strange way to achieve something that should be built in standard.

Here is the problem.... There is just too much danger flying that low. The video I post shows you a man watching down a stair case. But in real life on the slopes. You have tons of people on the mountain. The drone can't avoid everyone. So that's most likely why don't program it like that. You'd probably here waaaay more accidents

You should check out the Staaker drone. That probably has the best follow feature of any drone right now. I'd post a video. But I don't want to disrepect dji's forums.

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 14:31
Here is the problem.... There is just too much danger flying that low. The video I post shows you a man watching down a stair case. But in real life on the slopes. You have tons of people on the mountain. The drone can't avoid everyone. So that's most likely why don't program it like that. You'd probably here waaaay more accidents

You should check out the Staaker drone. That probably has the best follow feature of any drone right now. I'd post a video. But I don't want to disrepect dji's forums.

No doubt I hear you.  I would never expect to fly a drone like that in bounds.  but in the back country/side country in a proper scenario it would be awesome.

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 14:31
Here is the problem.... There is just too much danger flying that low. The video I post shows you a man watching down a stair case. But in real life on the slopes. You have tons of people on the mountain. The drone can't avoid everyone. So that's most likely why don't program it like that. You'd probably here waaaay more accidents

You should check out the Staaker drone. That probably has the best follow feature of any drone right now. I'd post a video. But I don't want to disrepect dji's forums.

Nice one staaker...but this should be easy to implement in mavic...the staaker controller strapped on your arm use internal barometer to transmit elevation of the subject and gps coordinates but with mavic and a phone with barometer you could achieve the same if the programmer will implement the function in mavic firmware...

daivatam Posted at 2017-3-24 16:30
Nice one staaker...but this should be easy to implement in mavic...the staaker controller strapped on your arm use internal barometer to transmit elevation of the subject and gps coordinates but with mavic and a phone with barometer you could achieve the same if the programmer will implement the function in mavic firmware...

I guess in my opinion if your going to do it. You want to be easily controllable and as quickly as possible. You want it on the users wrist not in their pocket. Skiing or water rafting, and kayaking. You have water around you. You don't want your phone to get water. The utter thing I was talking about. You want the buttons to be able to be used when even wearing gloves. You can't use most gloves with your cell phone screen. Just some ideas to think about.

Watch this video of a guy kayaking and using active track. He doesn't fail in. But you can feel the fear of the water lol

Nice.....what a beautiful place to ski....where is that?

jeebs-9 Posted at 2017-3-24 13:29
They recently increased the speed for the feature. I'm pretty sure it works even better now.

Indeed it should.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-3-25 20:14
Indeed it should.

Nice, i'll have to test it with the new speed increase is it a setting you have to manually adjust?  any thoughts of having the Mavic descend with terrain follow in the future implemented into the firmware?

For me the following option is fundamental in a drone. This is something that DJI should improve, that the dron follows you more closely descends and ascends according to the terrain. And not only that it descends if not that it follows you more quickly, that maintains a good distance of recording at all times. Currently this is not so and I do not think I can improve much.
I hope that in the next MAVIC PRO take this into account, put some more sensor in the bottom and solve this.
Currently the Mavic is very limited in this subject, and it is fundamental to follow you closely in any type of descent either sky, mountain bike ... etc ..

I think the Mavic should be superior to the Phantom. And put all the technology in this drone that basically because of its size for me should be at the forefront in technology over other DJI, and currently it is not.

a greeting

Great footage!

Question - What did you do with your remote control after you enabled Active Track? Just shut it down and put it in your jacket?