Any trick to getting Gesture Mode to work?

[Coskier]

Tried running in Gesture mode without the controller this morning. Gave the AC two taps on the button, it beeped, and the camera was looking for me. Tried raising my arm with palm out, but couldn't get it to lift off. Ended up connecting via remote/phone and getting it going, but the response from it was sluggish at best. In general, gesture mode isn't impressing me much.

I want to be impressed though, are there any tricks I should be trying to get it to work?

 

[Air Beetle]

You have to hold a palm toward it until the front led lights turn green. Then lift your hand a couple of feet to get it to take off and hover

 

[Coskier]

Thank you, I'll give it a go.

 

[Mike4884]

You also have to be standing a certain distance away from it.check the manual,I don't want to give you a number pretty sure it's between 6 and 9 ft but don't quote me on that! look at the manual! anyway too close and it won't start..... too far away and it won't start

 

[Coskier]

You also have to be standing a certain distance away from it.check the manual,I don't want to give you a number pretty sure it's between 6 and 9 ft but don't quote me on that! look at the manual! anyway too close and it won't start..... too far away and it won't start

I figured that, and tried moving about. But I didn't give it time for the LEDs to go green. Was travelling yesterday, might try it this afternoon. Appreciate the tips.

 

[tcope]

You also need to make sure that no grass or anything else is blocking the camera while it's sitting on the ground.

IMHO, gesture mode is an accident waiting to happen. I've posted about this and a few people have replied that it works great. I don't agree. I find many times it starts to fail to respond to hand commands. Now you have a drone that is just hovering in the air. You need to either get it to see you or fly until it runs down to 10% battery. I find that it moves side to side much better then up, forward and back. Several times I've attempted to get it to move back, away from me and it starts move forward (usually toward my head).

I'd highly recommend that you only try this mode in wide open areas with no one around.

Also, in my testing you cannot have the controller connected and use gesture mode at the same time. So you need to be able to launch, control and land the Air in gesture mode.

 

[Coskier]

I have put it into gesture mode from the remote, and agree that it wasn't very responsive. It may be more trouble than it is worth, but I at least want to see if I can get it to work.

 

[Travisimo]

The only time it didn’t lift off for me with the palm gesture was when it was sitting in the grass. The camera must have been blocked just enough, but as soon as I moved it to a completely flat position, it worked.

I have used Smart Capture (without controller) at least a half dozen flights now with much success. It’s not perfect, of course, but I will definitely be using the mode intermittently. My biggest gripe about it is that is only records video in 1080p. It does really well at following me, and the only problem I encountered was at the end of the battery life, it stopped responding and hovered one time before eventually landing.

 

[sberfield]

You also need to make sure that no grass or anything else is blocking the camera while it's sitting on the ground.

IMHO, gesture mode is an accident waiting to happen. I've posted about this and a few people have replied that it works great. I don't agree. I find many times it starts to fail to respond to hand commands. Now you have a drone that is just hovering in the air. You need to either get it to see you or fly until it runs down to 10% battery. I find that it moves side to side much better then up, forward and back. Several times I've attempted to get it to move back, away from me and it starts move forward (usually toward my head).

I'd highly recommend that you only try this mode in wide open areas with no one around.

Also, in my testing you cannot have the controller connected and use gesture mode at the same time. So you need to be able to launch, control and land the Air in gesture mode.

I tried it and it worked pretty well. Then it decided to ignore me completely and as you say, I had a drone in the air with no control of any kind. Managed to eventually get it to recognize me again so I could land it, but thinking I will avoid it going forward.

 

[tcope]

I tried it and it worked pretty well. Then it decided to ignore me completely and as you say, I had a drone in the air with no control of any kind. Managed to eventually get it to recognize me again so I could land it, but thinking I will avoid it going forward.

You know the pain. Was really cool to try... until you are stuck with a drone hovering 10' in the air and you realize that there is nothing you can do with it until the battery runs down. You just stand there, dancing in front of the drone looking like an idiot. Only took me 3 times looking like a lunatic before I stopped trying it.

 

[Coskier]

I think I looked like a lunatic yesterday, standing in front of my house, trying to get it to lift off. Never got green LEDs (had it on the sidewalk). If I can't get it to respond there, I'm certainly not expecting great things if I ever got it in the air. Oh well, I'll manage without that mode.

 

[smokeyboy]

I have used it quite a lot and had great success with it. although I always use it from my remote not from the button on the drone so if anything goes wrong you can pick up the remote turn off gestures and manually take over I also find it very good for following you in this mode, it just follows you like a pet dog. It does take a bit of practice to get the hand gestures right though