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Active Track Danger

The processing for active track is done on the attached device, which DJI has little control over other than telling us to use a 'compatible device'. Some people dont even go to Airplane Mode, so they have emails and texts coming in, notifications popping up, and so on.The Android and iOS systems are not true 'real time operating systems' that are intended to serve one app in real time; we just have to do what we can to help them do that.

There are other modes in DJI Go that use image tracking - the dronie, spiral, and rocket for example, but in those the drone is programmed to move away. I've noticed in some reviews that they dont always work as intended.

I switched to Litchi and noticed that there is only one image tracking mode 'Track' and they do add a caution that your device needs some processing power to run it. Litchi, of course, is just another app written using the DJI API so it relies on DJI code underneath.

The best and the worst parts of these drones are the software. The functionality is amazing, but as it runs on third party devices it can never be thoroughly tested. On this forum you can read about many incidents where, according to the log, there was a problem and the drone fell out the sky. Overall, I think DJI has some work to do on safety by increasing the resilience of the OS to hardware failures and user errors. So, returning to the subject of the thread, I think DJI software should reject any attempt by the use to engage Active Track it unless the user is using a compatible device, Airplane Mode is On, the log is clean, all subsystems are 'green', there are plenty of satellites, and the image exposure is within the histogram - at a minimum.
 
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While processing power on the device is important it cannot make up for the fact there is no GPS positioning feedback from the subject.

Skydio R1 does a fantastic job at optical tracking, well ahead of dji but still not perfect.
 
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While processing power on the device is important it cannot make up for the fact there is no GPS positioning feedback from the subject.

Skydio R1 does a fantastic job at optical tracking, well ahead of dji but still not perfect.

Yes, one thing I like about Litchi is that the Follow mode uses the RC GPS feed as the target reference. It works great. I think that in all cases where the aim is to track the user with the RC, it would be much safer and reliable to just use Follow mode (or whatever its called in the DJI GO app version).
 
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Litchi Follow Me is a disaster and AT not far behind. Litchi did offer dynamic altitude with the original GO app which was nice; actually the P3 with GO is a step up in Follow from GO4 and Active Track.
 
I've always said that DJI's AT is not very good (it is better then Follow Me mode). I was "attacked" while filming for an AT demo. I was looking at the screen and all of a sudden it cam zooming in right at me. I looked up, stopped walking and it zoomed 2' in front of me.

Another terrible part about AT is its tracking speed. It _really_ slows down, to the point that it is difficult to track a vehicle even at a crawl. I find myself manually pressing the forward stick to keep it the same area.
 
Something I learned the past few days in this forum:
"Without the logs, we only can guess what happened..."
No matter what automated function you use, it does not discharge you as a pilot of the responsibility for the security of all people an property being present.
 
Guys please share this video, let's keep our hobby safe.

Sorry, but that video was pretty funny... no, it was hilarious! I can’t believe how many or those people were distracted while flying, and some deserved the resulting nose dives into the ground for putting their kids at risk like that. Definitely a good video showing how NOT to fly!
 
^c'mon mann, these people are flying for fun, it's a hobby and they are flying recreationally. you're not helping the cause by claiming the users are the part of the problem with their "risky" behavior when we all know where the problem really belongs; nobody deserves this. all you are doing is encouraging the 1,000 foot rule to go into effect.

always keep your finger on or near the pause button, i'm assuming that would work to defeat the defect until we get some sort of definitive resolution.
 
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^c'mon mann, these people are flying for fun, it's a hobby and they are flying recreationally. you're not helping the cause by claiming the users are the part of the problem with their "risky" behavior when we all know where the problem really belongs; nobody deserves this. all you are doing is encouraging the 1,000 foot rule to go into effect.

always keep your finger on or near the pause button, i'm assuming that would work to defeat the defect until we get some sort of definitive resolution.

We all fly for fun, and you are right, the more experienced of us know about the pause button. But if you watch most of them, they panicked and had to keep looking down at the controller to try to figure out how stop the drone- they clearly were inexperienced enough to not be ready and know what to do in such an emergency. It was a blooper reel of inexperienced, bumbling pilots that should have practiced more before flying near people.

It’s another one of those videos that I will show outtakes of to my school’s aviation club students who are studying to be able to get their 107 certificates ;)
 
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Litchi Follow Me is a disaster and AT not far behind. Litchi did offer dynamic altitude with the original GO app which was nice; actually the P3 with GO is a step up in Follow from GO4 and Active Track.

How is Litchi's Follow mode a disaster?
 
The functionality is amazing, but as it runs on third party devices it can never be thoroughly tested

That is so true!
 
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Litchi Follow Me is a disaster and AT not far behind. Litchi did offer dynamic altitude with the original GO app which was nice; actually the P3 with GO is a step up in Follow from GO4 and Active Track.

Yes, how is it a "disaster" and "dynamic altitude" is still there in Litchi, that is if your phone has a built-in barometer.
 
These intelligent flight mode are great, active track as well the other mode .like any man made things it can go wrong, What happen to keeping eye on your drone and pause button, try to be always prepared. Seen so many idiots Do stupid things,
 
These intelligent flight mode are great, active track as well the other mode .like any man made things it can go wrong, What happen to keeping eye on your drone and pause button, try to be always prepared. Seen so many idiots Do stupid things,
Paul, we bit harsh arnt we....calling people idiots is plain right out wrong, but educating them would make you sound more professional. Your call.
 
c'mon mann, these people are flying for fun, it's a hobby and they are flying recreationally
The aircraft doesn't care if you're flying recreationally or not, you have to know and understand how it works and be prepared for malfunctions the exact same way as for commercial operations.

Some people do bite more than they can chew on, or just disregard it as a toy which it is not.

calling people idiots is plain right out wrong, but educating them would make you sound more professional.
How do you want to educate people you can't contact? Most you can do is remind at large that people need to educate themselves. They should, but usually they don't because it's too much effort, and that's what turns them into idiots.
 
The aircraft doesn't care if you're flying recreationally or not, you have to know and understand how it works and be prepared for malfunctions the exact same way as for commercial operations.

Some people do bite more than they can chew on, or just disregard it as a toy which it is not.


How do you want to educate people you can't contact? Most you can do is remind at large that people need to educate themselves. They should, but usually they don't because it's too much effort, and that's what turns them into idiots.
Good point,, I guess it was just name calling sometimes bother me. I guess they are idiots that need reminding they are idiots...right?
 
Well, according to the Dunning-Kruger effect, yes :)
Great, point proven...now listen up fliers. I know some here, well a lot of fliers here are not considered idiots and I realized there are some here that are. SO, if you dont want to join the idiotisy club, READ THE MANUAL OR MANUALS. DONT TAKE UNNECESSARY RISKS AND CHANCES. THINK BEFORE PROCEEDING. KNOW YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK. MAKE A THOROUGH LOOK AROUND BEFORE FLIGHT. THIS IS NOT A TOY AS MENTIONED IN A POST #16....... And if you make it a point that you can avoid being a member of the idiotisy club do it. I paid my dues of being an idiot but I practiced and still practicing what I preach (my personal idiotisy level 2)I have to say its 2 because I sometime do things that considers me an idiot (but never against life and limb) when I first started flying it was 7 maybe 8 but I got serious fast, ...Professionalism is a goal for business and fun....Preacher: over and out..
 
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These intelligent flight mode are great, active track as well the other mode .like any man made things it can go wrong, What happen to keeping eye on your drone and pause button, try to be always prepared. Seen so many idiots Do stupid things,
I could point out where everything DJI says about the mode and the very mode itself is all about following an object while it is engaged in an activity other than flying the drone but instead I'll mention that what is being discussed is a flaw in the flight programming itself. This thread is about raising awareness of that. You'd think a consumer should be allowed to use the drone as it was intended and not need to expect that one of it's modes does not work correctly so as it is prone to randomly fly at the subject it is tracking. A good example is the iphondo video where he is riding a motorcycle of some type and the P4 just keeps randomly flying all over the place. _Clearly_ the drone is not working as it should. I'd not call that "great".
 
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