Activetrack & auto-rtth

[jhiver]

Hello fellow Mavic pilots,

I'd quite like to be able to set my Mavic pro to active track me to follow me while kitesurfing - early in the morning when nobody is on the water to avoid collisions

I was wondering if there was a way to ensure it would automatically return to its home position instead of running out of battery and ending up in the water as I can't really take the controller with me... any ideas?

Cheers
JM

 

[msinger]

Using the default settings, the Mavic will try to return home when the battery is low. Too many things can go wrong though, so it would be better to have someone else manning your Mavic as you surf.

 

[tcope]

This use is _extremely_ risky. Chances are _very good_ that it will lose you and than hover until it's low on battery. It should then attempt to return to the take off point and land. However, you will have no control over any of this.

 

[CoolBreeze]

I'm not an expert, below baced on my experience.

Test what you want to do in safe over land area.

Set Mavic to RTH. Mavic set to automatically return to home with battery remaining at 30%. (Default RTH battery setting)

Set RTH hight well above any obstacles hight.

When launching allow Mavic to hover around 16 feet until GEO 4 notifies home location. Do this in clear are 15 - 20 feet away from obstacles. When RTH, due to obstacle avoidance system, obstacles can confuse when trying to land.

Push RTH icon anytime or wate for low battery auto return to home.

Again and most important...
Test what you want to do in safe over land area.

 

[jhiver]

I guess another way of doing it would be to use wifi mode with a waterproof android device... then at least i could have some control watch battery status and press the rtth button myself. I'd like to stress I'd be only doing this at times when nobody but me is on the water - safety first! Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

This use is _extremely_ risky. Chances are _very good_ that it will lose you and than hover until it's low on battery. It should then attempt to return to the take off point and land. However, you will have no control over any of this.

Exactly!

It will lose you at some point (100% guaranteed) and that's definitely what will happen!

A slow kano would be safer to track but then you also are able to take control. Alone on a surfboard you're screwed when anything unexpected happens. And if you're really unlucky someone steals your mavic and remote after it landed on the beach, unless you have someone watching over it. Or it auto lands on some poor guy walking the dog.

 

[PanthersFan]

I think it would be some great footage if you could pull it off.

Not sure what all this "active track will lose you at some point" is based on, I've had pretty good luck with it.

 

[jhiver]

I don't know if it's possible because I tried to use activetrack on some fellow kitesurfers and it ended up going far too slow to do anything interesting. I ended up following them manually. Footage here -

 

[moleza]

I think that the low battery warning and RTH pretty reliable. I have tested a few times without any issues. However, kitesurfing tipically goes on high wind environments and it might lead the Mavic to miscalculate the energy to go back.

To me, the biggest problem you will face is the Active Tracking loosing you on focus, depending on your speed and maneuvers. That happens all the time.

So it might be a good way to keep your girlfriend entertained while you're in the water, if you trust her on the controls :-D