Hi all,

New here & thought I should reach out to you all as a last life line to nail down the true facts regarding how the Mavic Air's Active track modes handle elevation changes.
Have gone over all kinds of forums + YouTube trying to sort out the facts ... but the picture over how it works is unfortunately pretty diverse so it's hard to draw any conclusions.

My prerequisites:

Drone on firmware 01.00.0620
RC on firmware 01.00.0200
DJI GO 4 v4.3.25 (Android)
All sensors (front, back & bottom) calibrated through DJI Assistant 2 v1.2.5
All Obstacle detection ON (even those under the Advanced setting menu) & tested with/without APAS

My findings:

Active track in Trace mode:

The drone will trace downhill (even below RTH altitude) but will NOT trace uphill ... on a distance of approx 0,3-0,5 meters from ground it will stop & the otherwise green trace square will turn red in DJI GO 4 with an additional message on screen that the drone is to low.

Active track in Profile mode:


The drone will trace downhill (even below RTH altitude) and it WILL also trace uphill ...


As a side note I have also tested the Active track Trace mode possibility through Smart Capture started from the RC and my findings there were ...

Active track in Trace mode through Smart Capture:

The drone will trace downhill (even below RTH altitude) and it will also trace uphill.


Above total scenario/behaviour are rarely described ... have found one or two that describe my findings but the vast majority claim beyond any doubt that the active track trace mode make the drone tag along uphill and are really disappointed that the drone doesn't follow downhill instead of just maintaining the highest altitude.


So ... what's the correct behaviour, do I have some kind of bug ... or have DJI changed the way it works through firmware changes (as most forum discussions & YT-clips dates back to mid 2018)?


Can in a way see some kind of logic in my experianced Active Track behaviour (from a minimized crash risk perspective)...


-In the Active track Trace mode you can send out the drone pretty far (on a unattended distance/altitude) & with no sensors on the top the drone can follow uphill & hit obstacles from below without any warning.


-When it comes to the Profile mode it will always be the most risky as no sensors are on the drone sides ... so DJI let it climb & decend with the tracked object.


-Smart Capture's Active track trace possibility ... well, the drone will always be near you (like max. 7 meters away) so hopefully the crash risk is mitigated by that.


So ... how is this Active Track function actually intended to work (with all the latest & greatest firmware)?


And last ... some arial pics just for fun

Hi, thank you for sharing these deep insights of yours for the DJI Mavic Air also the awesome images provided. Please note that DJI Mavic Air doesn't support Terrain follow as of the moment. Thank you for your continued support!

DJI Gamora Posted at 10-17 11:53
Hi, thank you for sharing these deep insights of yours for the DJI Mavic Air also the awesome images provided. Please note that DJI Mavic Air doesn't support Terrain follow as of the moment. Thank you for your continued support!

Hi there,

Yeah I know that the special mode Terrain Follow isn't implemented in the Mavic Air ... but I still wonder how the Active Track Trace mode should work, & especially how it handle elevations.

The manual doesn't explain & Mavic Air owners seems to have different behavior. I recon that it needs to be a right & wrong here compered how the function was designed or?

I I know for a fact how it should work I can take that into consideration & along the line avoid crashes.

Nice shots.

Wow. this night shot, can you tell me the ISO please and Aperture you were using?

basejumper Posted at 1-1 12:19
Wow. this night shot, can you tell me the ISO please and Aperture you were using?

ISO200 with a shutter on 2sec. & the fixed aperture that the Mavic Air have on 2.8

The raw file then processed through Adobe Lightroom.

slup Posted at 1-2 13:10
ISO200 with a shutter on 2sec. & the fixed aperture that the Mavic Air have on 2.8

The raw file then processed through Adobe Lightroom.

Thank you very much.

I was wondering about the aperture, but now knowing its fixed I understand.

Cheers

Thanks for sharing.