Active track

[Steve1966]

So if I want to have my mavic follow me on my bike I understand I have to set speed to m/sec so it will go 15 m/sec. But what I need to know is I have some hills that I will be riding up not fast grade just regular country roads. Will the mavic go up or down in altitude while following me as the terrain changes. Or will it crash into the ground.

 

[dwallersv]

No.

It will not descend. It will ascend to a limited extent but only to avoid crashing. This means it may get as close as 2-3' when you had originally set up with it 20' above you.

Terrain-following mode will maintain a fixed distance above the ground, up to 10m or so, when ascending up a slope. It does not descend going downslope however. There's no way I know of to combine this with Active Track or any of the other autonomous modes.

 

[Strafe1]

Actually, it will rise or descend as it tracks you as long as the Mavic is less than 10m high. I have verified this with multiple tests. I have only done it with gentle changes, not abrupt hills. Test it for yourself first!

 

[Steve1966]

Great thanks I will have to use car first then so wife can drive car and I can take over mavic if need be

 

[HarryMerkin]

We tested it going up a pretty steep mountain and it did really good until we got to the top. By then it was very very close to the ground and obstacle avoidance kicked in. We went around one corner a little too fast and it lost us and kept going! I had to grab the controls or it would have flown away. Going down was the same way. It did really well. However by the time we got to the bottom the mavic was really high and almost directly above us instead of behind us where I had it set.

 

[mattleech]

I tried Active Track for the first time a couple of days ago. It started at about 10m and I set off at about 25mph on a motorcycle. The controller and phone/screen were in a tank bag so I was not monitoring what it was doing, but when I looked over my shoulder I was shocked to find that the MP was about 3' away from the ground and travelling at my relative speed! I stopped immediately and took it back up high.

I fully expected the MP to stay at a relative altitude to me, I mean why wouldn't it?

 

[doccy]

I tried Active Track for the first time a couple of days ago. It started at about 10m and I set off at about 25mph on a motorcycle. The controller and phone/screen were in a tank bag so I was not monitoring what it was doing, but when I looked over my shoulder I was shocked to find that the MP was about 3' away from the ground and travelling at my relative speed! I stopped immediately and took it back up high.

I fully expected the MP to stay at a relative altitude to me, I mean why wouldn't it?

It is buggy mate - see my experience here...

Blown away by tracking on the Mavic.

I wouldn't trust it unless you have a wide area around you that is clear.

Does anyone know off hand... there was a bug where the speed that the drone can track you was way lower when using metric rather than imperial measurements. Has that been fixed or not?

 

[Mavic 9]

I tried Active Track for the first time a couple of days ago. It started at about 10m and I set off at about 25mph on a motorcycle. The controller and phone/screen were in a tank bag so I was not monitoring what it was doing, but when I looked over my shoulder I was shocked to find that the MP was about 3' away from the ground and travelling at my relative speed! I stopped immediately and took it back up high.

I fully expected the MP to stay at a relative altitude to me, I mean why wouldn't it?

I'm looking to do a similar thing with my motorcycle but I'm hoping to have the Mavic track me up a mountain pass. My concern is that the height change from the start to the top of the route is roughly 250m (820'). Have you had the Mavic follow you over such a height change?

 

[tcope]

I'm looking to do a similar thing with my motorcycle but I'm hoping to have the Mavic track me up a mountain pass. My concern is that the height change from the start to the top of the route is roughly 250m (820'). Have you had the Mavic follow you over such a height change?

As mentioned above, the Mavic will maintain it's height above ground but only once the ultrasonics kick in, at 10m above ground. It's also not perfect. I _do not_ recommend that you rely on this to maintain altitude and not crash if you are moving at higher speeds. You _might_ get lucky but most likely you will be asking how to make repairs to your Mavic.

Also, if you are using Active Track and moving any distance, you need to set RTH to Hover and not RTH. If let in RTH and you loose signal, your Mavic will attempt to fly back to it's take off point which could be miles away. It would also, most likly not increase it's current altitude (if you gained altitude already) and fly into something.

I'd highly recommend that you set the RTH to Hover and fly the Mavic manually. You can use Active Track to keep the camera pointed at yourself but fly it manually. But above that, I don't really recommend this on a motorcycle.

 

[Mavic 9]

Thanks tcope for your suggestions. I may just ride pillion & as you say fly manually to film the motorcycle group.