Active tracking a vehicle with Air 3

[riterb97]

Hi everyone,
Is there a way, during active tracking (or POI) when tracking a vehicle, that I can:

• Determine the distance between the controller and the drone? I can't seem to move the active track menu at the bottom of the screen. I’ve tried accessing the settings, but from what I understand, I can only adjust parameters for human tracking.
• Move the object (vehicle) sideways? I can adjust the gimbal to move up or down, but I'm having trouble with lateral movement.

Additionally, I’d like to know what happens if I activate Return-to-Home (RTH) when the drone is under obstacles, like trees, car port. I’ve read the manual sections on the different RTH modes, but I want to be certain before testing, as I don’t want to risk a crash. With obstacle avoidance enabled, will the drone try to navigate out of the obstacle area before finding a clear path? Or will it simply ascend to its RTH height and risk crashing into the trees/roof?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

With regards to ANY testing and especially ALL the RTH behaviours I strongly suggest ALL testing, except for OA testing, be done in wide open spaces. There is no substitute for practical experience especially where your expectations are proved false, I speak from experience.
Once you are confident that you correctly understand the behaviours then perhaps you can move on the testing in 'real' locations.
That said, under trees, I would do my very best to ensure that RTH was neither triggered nor needed. Going so far as to switch failsafe behaviour to hover but be informed that even with that option set a low battery can still trigger a low battery RTH.
If you do switch the failsafe option to anything other than RTH be absolutely certain you switch it back to RTH when you have finished the relevant flight.
I would also point out that under trees the drone may lose GPS and, if the foliage is thick enough, the lighting may be insufficient for VPS to work. If that happens then the drone will switch to ATTI mode, in which it will NOT hold position and be blown about by any wind unless you use the controller joy sticks to counter act that wind.

In short I would be wary of flying under trees full stop.

 

[Cafguy]

With obstacle avoidance enabled, will the drone try to navigate out of the obstacle area before finding a clear path? Or will it simply ascend to its RTH height and risk crashing into the trees/roof?

The drone would stay put and hover till the battery died. unless there were only branches above its sensors then it would fly up into them.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The drone would stay put and hover till the battery died.

Assumes GPS is available that is incorrect, low battery RTH will be triggered, though it can be cancelled. If the LB-RTH is cancelled then it probably will hover to battery 'death'.
If that behaviour is different in the Air 3 then it is something new to me.

Low battery RTH kicks in even if the failsafe option is set to hover, I tested that with one of my drones

 

[Droning on and on...]

Folks, read the Advanced RTH section in the Air 3 manual, starting p.51 for 4 pages, to get a thorough understanding of RTH on the Air 3. It's much more complicated than the older, simpler RTH us DJI veterans are familiar with from older models.

A few points relevant to this thread:

• Obstacle avoidance is functional during RTH
• It's not crystal clear, but wording appears to say the drone will seek a clearing first if obstructed above before ascending. Small, thin obstacles like tiny branches and wires may not be sensed, however
• If the drone can't find it's way to a clearing (environment "too complex"), it will stop and land in place

I always set Failsafe RTH to hover if I'm going to fly anywhere with overhead obstructions, with the plan to move closer to the last known position and reestablish the connection.

 

[riterb97]

Folks, read the Advanced RTH section in the Air 3 manual, starting p.51 for 4 pages, to get a thorough understanding of RTH on the Air 3. It's much more complicated than the older, simpler RTH us DJI veterans are familiar with from older models.

A few points relevant to this thread:

• Obstacle avoidance is functional during RTH
• It's not crystal clear, but wording appears to say the drone will seek a clearing first if obstructed above before ascending. Small, thin obstacles like tiny branches and wires may not be sensed, however
• If the drone can't find it's way to a clearing (environment "too complex"), it will stop and land in place

I always set Failsafe RTH to hover if I'm going to fly anywhere with overhead obstructions, with the plan to move closer to the last known position and reestablish the connection.

Thank you for your input. That was my understanding as well based on the manual (theoretical), but I will stay close and test it out to be 100% sure. Perhaps I'll use a carport or something more solid to confirm. Any advice maybe regarding my question on Active tracking?

"Is there a way, during active tracking (or POI) when tracking a vehicle, that I can:

• Determine the distance between the controller and the drone? I can't seem to move the active track menu at the bottom of the screen. I’ve tried accessing the settings, but from what I understand, I can only adjust parameters for human tracking.
• Move the object (vehicle) sideways? I can adjust the gimbal to move up or down, but I'm having trouble with lateral movement."

 

[riterb97]

With regards to ANY testing and especially ALL the RTH behaviours I strongly suggest ALL testing, except for OA testing, be done in wide open spaces. There is no substitute for practical experience especially where your expectations are proved false, I speak from experience.
Once you are confident that you correctly understand the behaviours then perhaps you can move on the testing in 'real' locations.
That said, under trees, I would do my very best to ensure that RTH was neither triggered nor needed. Going so far as to switch failsafe behaviour to hover but be informed that even with that option set a low battery can still trigger a low battery RTH.
If you do switch the failsafe option to anything other than RTH be absolutely certain you switch it back to RTH when you have finished the relevant flight.
I would also point out that under trees the drone may lose GPS and, if the foliage is thick enough, the lighting may be insufficient for VPS to work. If that happens then the drone will switch to ATTI mode, in which it will NOT hold position and be blown about by any wind unless you use the controller joy sticks to counter act that wind.

In short I would be wary of flying under trees full stop.

Thanks a lot again for valuable advice

 

[Droning on and on...]

• Determine the distance between the controller and the drone? I can't seem to move the active track menu at the bottom of the screen. I’ve tried accessing the settings, but from what I understand, I can only adjust parameters for human tracking.

If you mean set the tracking distance, then no. There's also no way to read out the instantaneous distance between the drone and the subject.

• Move the object (vehicle) sideways? I can adjust the gimbal to move up or down, but I'm having trouble with lateral movement."

You should have some yaw and gimbal tilt control to change the framing of the subject, in effect repositioning where the subject is in the frame.

 

[riterb97]

You should have some yaw and gimbal tilt control to change the framing of the subject, in effect repositioning where the subject is in the frame.

Nope, unfortunately not. The gimbal can be used, but Left to right I cant seem to move, unless I'm doing something wrong?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Nope, unfortunately not. The gimbal can be used, but Left to right I cant seem to move, unless I'm doing something wrong?

Let's be sure we're saying the same thing... By yaw I'm mean left stick left/right control movement, not right stick L/R, which would be roll input, causing a lateral "slide".

 

[riterb97]

Let's be sure we're saying the same thing... By yaw I'm mean left stick left/right control movement, not right stick L/R, which would be roll input, causing a lateral "slide".

If I remember correctly, none of the joysticks ( L or R, Yaw or Pitch) have moved the subject position. but I will rather go and test again when I go flying to make 100% sure and give you feedback then.

Regards
R