DJI Mavic Active Track useless for skiing :/

newschoolskier · Dec 31, 2016

I'm sad... today I was trying to use the active track feature a couple of times for skiing. There a 2 big issues with the most recent firmware:

1.) It loses the subject=skier very often

2.) It can't descent while using active track, it just tries to follow the subject horizontally which doesn't work of course if you're skiing downhills.

I hope there will be a solution using tracking together with all downhill sports in future firmware updates!

Happy new year!

Mattman · Dec 31, 2016

That's one of the worst places to ski I've ever seen...

pbasinger · Dec 31, 2016

Yeah, Active track leaves a lot to be desired. It will change altitude with the subject, but it is really slow to react and has pretty limited uses in action sports stuff.

newschoolskier · Jan 1, 2017

Mattman said:
That's one of the worst places to ski I've ever seen...

Mattman that's because we don't have much snow at the moment here in Austria but more is on the way

pbasinger said:
Yeah, Active track leaves a lot to be desired. It will change altitude with the subject, but it is really slow to react and has pretty limited uses in action sports stuff.

That's true! Maybe the next Karma will be a game-changer, then GoPro would be interesting again

kiteboy · Jan 1, 2017

newschoolskier said:
I'm sad... today I was trying to use the active track feature a couple of times for skiing. There a 2 big issues with the most recent firmware:

1.) It loses the subject=skier very often

2.) It can't descent while using active track, it just tries to follow the subject horizontally which doesn't work of course if you're skiing downhills.

I hope there will be a solution using tracking together with all downhill sports in future firmware updates!

Happy new year!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I think that all you refer is mainly due to miss conception of how it works.

The artificial Vision needs some contrast to be able to identify and track the reflections from the snowy background or shadow areas maybe the reason why it looses you! I.e: the same happens when you wear gray outfit on a gray parking lot floor!

The mavic will no adjust it heights downhill it's not a firmware issue (with the recent firmware) it have always worked that way, it is stated in the official manual, it only works uphill

Try to offer a good contrast between you and the background and see if it helps with the tracking,

For the going downhill I've worked it up by manually descending (me or some friend depending on what I'm doing with my hands) while it tracks me

Hope this helps you.

PS: I wouldn't hold my breath for the karma it's just a matter of knowledge, background and know-how and putting GoPro a DJI on a scale will always lean to DJI (leaving the falling from the skies aside)

NoPro · Jan 1, 2017

Try "follow me" mode? It locks into the remote rather than visually tracking you. I have seen one or two lovely videos of skiing. The secret would appear to be taking shorter scenes and perhaps having the Mavic below you when you start (make use of the gimbal tilt up option)

ferraript · Jan 1, 2017

NoPro said:
Try "follow me" mode

as far as I know, "Follow me" doesn't change the flight height at all, so it's useless in this case too

F6Rider · Jan 1, 2017

newschoolskier said:
Mattman that's because we don't have much snow at the moment here in Austria but more is on the way

That's true! Maybe the next Karma will be a game-changer, then GoPro would be interesting again

Oh Man!!, I loved skiing in Kitzbühel, when I lived in Germany we went down there for Holiday. You are lucky, that is one beautiful place to live, the entire Tyrol area is great.

newschoolskier · Jan 1, 2017

kiteboy said:
The artificial Vision needs some contrast to be able to identify and track the reflections from the snowy background or shadow areas maybe the reason why it looses you! I.e: the same happens when you wear gray outfit on a gray parking lot floor!

The funny thing is that the Mavic even lost me when I was on a plain white area. But i can't blame DJI, on page 20 they warn you to use Active Track with caution on a snow surface.

NoPro said:
Try "follow me" mode? It locks into the remote rather than visually tracking you. I have seen one or two lovely videos of skiing. The secret would appear to be taking shorter scenes and perhaps having the Mavic below you when you start (make use of the gimbal tilt up option)

"follow me" mode didn't work, because it always says "GPS Signal poor" when I tried it with my iPhone 7... thats's strange...

I guess it's really hard and risky for artificial vision intelligence to recognize a changing flight height. Maybe in the future a combination of "follow me" and "active track" would solve this problem!

Thanks for your informations and good luck for your flights too!

newschoolskier · Jan 1, 2017

F6Rider said:
Oh Man!!, I loved skiing in Kitzbühel, when I lived in Germany we went down there for Holiday. You are lucky, that is one beautiful place to live, the entire Tyrol area is great.

Hey thanks F6Rider, well it's really beautiful in Kitzbühel. I can also recommend you St. Anton and Lech and Ischgl in Tyrol. If you go to the inner part of Austria try Krippenstein at Hallstatt - it's small but best if there is fresh pow

This was Salzburg Area "Kitzsteinhorn" last week:

F6Rider · Jan 1, 2017

newschoolskier said:
Hey thanks F6Rider, well it's really beautiful in Kitzbühel. I can also recommend you St. Anton and Lech and Ischgl in Tyrol. If you go to the inner part of Austria try Krippenstein at Hallstatt - it's small but best if there is fresh pow

This was Salzburg Area "Kitzsteinhorn" last week:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I have many fond memories of Austria, I was on the US Army Ski Patrol in Garmisch-Partenkirchen resort for two winters, traveled all over the area, a wonderful time. I am so envious.

NoPro · Jan 1, 2017

ferraript said:
as far as I know, "Follow me" doesn't change the flight height at all, so it's useless in this case too

Read my previous post a little more carefully. Shorter scenes, start the drone below you... Make use of the constraints, rather than being frustrated by them

FlashGJ · Jan 1, 2017

Take a look at Autopilot app. It has a follow mode that you can set a height you want the Mavic to be above the controller, and it will adjust the altitude up or down to keep that height. Only catch is, the device you use with the controller must have barometric pressure capability. I downloaded the app the other day and I am still in the testing stage, but so far the results seem very positive. Hopefully I will be ready to try it in a real scenario in the next week or so. It is available for iOS not sure about android.

MavicGuy · Jan 1, 2017

NoPro said:
Try "follow me" mode? It locks into the remote rather than visually tracking you. I have seen one or two lovely videos of skiing. The secret would appear to be taking shorter scenes and perhaps having the Mavic below you when you start (make use of the gimbal tilt up option)

This[emoji121]️ Been thinking this myself. Have the mavic ahead before you start and then do short clips. Only solution we have for now

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

dewster · Jan 1, 2017

DJI should implement something like the Yuneec Wizard. I'm sure it would be possible to do as an add on and be much more reliable than visual tracking alone.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

MavicGuy · Jan 1, 2017

NoPro said:
Read my previous post a little more carefully. Shorter scenes, start the drone below you... Make use of the constraints, rather than being frustrated by them

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Question: Where were you putting your controller? In your backpack? Makes me a little scared to do so lol

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

NoPro · Jan 2, 2017

MavicGuy said:
Question: Where were you putting your controller? In your backpack? Makes me a little scared to do so lol

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

That's not my video, sorry I can't answer that!

newschoolskier · Jan 2, 2017

FlashGJ said:
Take a look at Autopilot app. It has a follow mode that you can set a height you want the Mavic to be above the controller, and it will adjust the altitude up or down to keep that height. Only catch is, the device you use with the controller must have barometric pressure capability. I downloaded the app the other day and I am still in the testing stage, but so far the results seem very positive. Hopefully I will be ready to try it in a real scenario in the next week or so. It is available for iOS not sure about android.

Thanks for the hint, I downloaded the App today and tested it right away while Skiing but with no luck:

I played with the "follow me" mode, but after "engaging" me the Mavic acted in a strange and scary behavior: it started tracking me slowly, but all of a sudden passed me by quickly and then returned back to the hills behind me (more than the 10m I set previously) so i had to immediately stop tracking before it hit the slope!!! I tried several times but with no luck.

Here's the video:

Another time the Mavic just stayed at the position when i started engaging, though on the Autopilot map i was clearly moving away! Ok, the App informed me "GPS only 15m accuracy", but it should still be enough precision for tracking a movement, right? What would indicate that there's a GPS problem is the fact that the "follow me" function on the DJI App didn't work either because of low GPS accuracy.

Another thing I haven't figured out yet was controlling the focus with tapping on the screen.

Any ideas? I will try the App again tomorrow.

FlashGJ · Jan 2, 2017

newschoolskier said:
Thanks for the hint, I downloaded the App today and tested it right away while Skiing but with no luck:

I played with the "follow me" mode, but after "engaging" me the Mavic acted in a strange and scary behavior: it started tracking me slowly, but all of a sudden passed me by quickly and then returned back to the hills behind me (more than the 10m I set previously) so i had to immediately stop tracking before it hit the slope!!! I tried several times but with no luck.

Here's the video:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Another time the Mavic just stayed at the position when i started engaging, though on the Autopilot map i was clearly moving away! Ok, the App informed me "GPS only 15m accuracy", but it should still be enough precision for tracking a movement, right? What would indicate that there's a GPS problem is the fact that the "follow me" function on the DJI App didn't work either because of low GPS accuracy.

Another thing I haven't figured out yet was controlling the focus with tapping on the screen.

Any ideas? I will try the App again tomorrow.

Wow, kind of scary. What device are you using with the controller, does it have barometric pressure capability? If not, Autopilot will try to follow using GPS, but GPS Altitude is very unreliable and even gives you a warning when engaging that it is not reliable. I personally would not use it if your device does not read Barometric Pressure.
The app will also switch from following from Behind to Front or Right Side or Left Side by moving the right stick. Did you happen to move the right stick after engaging? I am still learning the app myself and have not tried it in real life skiing situations. I would recommend you read through the Follow section of the Flight School on their website to make sure you understand it thoroughly. And possibly more testing in a safe environment is necessary.

I am very much interested in hearing about your experiences and what you learn in your testing.

FlashGJ · Jan 2, 2017

Just reread your post and realized that you stated that you got the message "GPS only 15m accuracy", so your device must not have barometric pressure. I don't think 15m accuracy is good enough, unless you can fly the Mavic high enough to keep it out of danger.