Do you think this self tracking application will work with the Mavic 3 and Active Track 5.0?

[Dspace]

So, I’ve owned a Mavic Pro and a Skydio2, but neither have been very effective for my niche self-tracking application. I wing foil where I launch from shore and ride around for awhile with the drone tracking me. Beyond reliable tracking, a key requirement for the drone is to have an auto-return-to-home function so that when it reaches a certain battery level it returns and lands at the home-point (takeoff location) with no required input from me. Obstacle avoidance is not all that critical for this application, other than not flying into the water!

Right now I use my trusty old Staaker drone. It has no obstacle avoidance at all but it has a decent gps waterproof beacon that you wear for tracking and a reliable auto-RTH function. I’ve linked a couple of videos showing the Staaker in action. Unfortunately Staaker is no longer produced and supported so when this drone dies I’m back to square one.

Do you think the Mavic 3 might work for my application with Active Track 5 once it’s released? Obviously I can’t bring the controller with me while foiling. I assume it could track the wing fairly reliably and if it lost it (say I crashed) I could always ride back in view for it to lock back on? It would also need a reliable auto-RTH function that kicks in at a predetermined battery level? What do you think? If I got 30 min of flight time in 20 knots of wind, that would be awesome…. Thanks for any input!

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[zeusfl]

We will never know how good is until is released. Without a beacon I don't think will be that reliable as that tracking in your videos. If can keep up without a beacon I will be surprised. By the way, that is a very cool stuff what you are doing.

 

[Kilrah]

Most likely not, DJI have never been keen on people operating their aircraft without someone actively at the controls.

 

[Dspace]

Yeah, perhaps just wishful thinking on my part. I set my Staaker to fly at a fixed”compass” angle and it‘s obviously at a fixed altitude above water. Our hand wings are pretty large and provide decent contrast with the water, and I’m not going all that fast or changing direction too quickly, so I’m still slightly hopeful that the new Mavic might do OK.


Also hoping that in a worst case scenario where it loses me and I can’t get it to re-acquire it just envetually does a return-to-home. I should note that I don’t do this around groups of other riders or groups of people on-shore, but as you say,I’d have no direct control over the drone while out there. With my Staaker the controller (beacon) is always with me.

All this crazy effort by drone companies using object recognition for subject tracking, while these crude little gps-beacons actually do a more reliable job in some cases….. Oh well…

 

[surfbird]

I've done something similar for dji drones, works even on mini2 .
This followme is almost 7km downwind.
I start the drone from the surfboard, have a separate tracking phone.
I have programmed it for emergency landing places down my route in case it run out of battery.

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I also made a function where the drone waits on the beach until Im 1km out, starts and follow me. Only wearing a separate tracker phone. Controller on the beach.
Lands where it started when it runs out of battery.
An early prototype testing:

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Can't wait to test it on mavic3, with such long flighttime is going to be a killer

 

[CanadaDrone]

Skydio has better tracking than the Mavics, but neither have been amazing - I would be surprised if the M3's tracking is significantly better than the Skydio2, but nobody knows just yet.

 

[Dspace]

I've done something similar for dji drones, works even on mini2 .
This followme is almost 7km downwind.
I start the drone from the surfboard, have a separate tracking phone.
I have programmed it for emergency landing places down my route in case it run out of battery.

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I also made a function where the drone waits on the beach until Im 1km out, starts and follow me. Only wearing a separate tracker phone. Controller on the beach.
Lands where it started when it runs out of battery.
An early prototype testing:

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Can't wait to test it on mavic3, with such long flighttime is going to be a killer

Surfbird, that’s awesome. How does your tracking phone work? And how are you programming a delayed takeoff and emergency landing locations? I assume this is the Go 4 app on your phone? I’m really rusty on my DJI controller knowledge since my Mavic Pro days. And you’re exactly right, long flight times would make a huge difference with our type of drone filming….That alone could make the M3 worth it for me over an Air 2S.

Nice kite foiling! I still kite foil as well, in addition to wing foiling. If my knees were in better shape, I’d be strapped in and jumping, but my age has finally caught up with me. In the old days before decent self tracking drones, or any camera drones for that matter, all I had was a GoPro on a stick, although the new 360 cams really provide some fun footage (not the best resolution though) without the complexity of drone self tracking. Auto fixed position tracking as shown in the attached video

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[surfbird]

Surfbird, that’s awesome. How does your tracking phone work? And how are you programming a delayed takeoff and emergency landing locations? I assume this is something different than the Go 4 ap. I’m really rusty on my DJI controller knowledge since my Mavic Pro days

I've done a short documentation here:

Mavicmax followme

Why? No other app that works in real life. Opensource reference project Use case driven API-development Real-estate filming Two apps Tracker RC-control Low latency updates over SDN <50ms 4G Location estimates with timestamped gps info. Full control from the tracker device (home, land ,stop) Web s...

docs.google.com

Right now I'm rewriting everything from scratch and make it more userfriendly.
I've done a lot more functions, like cruise control, wind meter.

 

[Dspace]

Skydio has better tracking than the Mavics, but neither have been amazing - I would be surprised if the M3's tracking is significantly better than the Skydio2, but nobody knows just yet.

Yeah, Active Track on my original Mavic pro was generally useless and I was really hoping that my Skydio2 would solve things. It’s great for certain applications, but these over-water wind sport applications just don’t cut it. Skydio doesn’t even have an Auto-RTH function, plus it’s tracking can get pretty wonky as it constantly switches between visual tracking and beacon (gps) tracking. For me that made it too risky

 

[surfbird]

Yeah, Active Track on my original Mavic pro was generally useless and I was really hoping that my Skydio2 would solve things. It’s great for certain applications, but these over-water wind sport applications just don’t cut it. Skydio doesn’t even have an Auto-RTH function, plus it’s tracking can get pretty wonky as it constantly switches between visual tracking and beacon (gps) tracking. For me that made it too risky

Most followme functions are useless. Developed by people that never used them in real life applications.

 

[Dspace]

I've done a short documentation here:

Mavicmax followme

Why? No other app that works in real life. Opensource reference project Use case driven API-development Real-estate filming Two apps Tracker RC-control Low latency updates over SDN <50ms 4G Location estimates with timestamped gps info. Full control from the tracker device (home, land ,stop) Web s...

docs.google.com

Right now I'm rewriting everything from scratch and make it more userfriendly.
I've done a lot more functions, like cruise control, wind meter.

Wow. This is way way over my ole-guy head but I assume you’ve written your own custom open source Mavic “tracker-phone”controller app using Python, and it requires you to unlock the controller firmware to gain access to control functions (figuring this voids typical warranty). Is this something your developing as a product or making available in some way? Do you need a willing beta tester? (Seems like this would be a perfect solution for me)

 

[surfbird]

Wow. This is way way over my ole-guy head but I assume you’ve written your own custom open source Mavic “tracker-phone”controller app using Python, and it requires you to unlock the controller firmware to gain access to control functions (figuring this voids typical warranty). Is this something your developing as a product or making available in some way? Do you need a willing beta tester?

It's a 3rd party app. No hacking is needed.
It consist of 2 apps.
One tracker app (dead simple)
And one controller app that is connected to the controller.
Android only

Very similar to litchi and litchi magic leash or what name is. I never got it stable enough. And the thing is when you out on the water you are very concerned about what the drone does. That's why I added voice feedback in tracker phone for every state change in the drone, like taking off, battery %.

So what you need apart from the normal equipment is
* 1 extra phone, (with a good gps)
* sim-card in booth phones.

I will let you know when I have something to try.
I'm in the middle of rewriting everything, so give me a couple of months.

I probably never release the app, since I found that the interest is very low.

Warranty is not voided, but I think dji care is not valid when using other app than dji.

That said, I never lost a drone in my followme missions. I use a kind of fault taulerant coding that makes it very very stable. If it crash it always commands a RTH.

I lost some drones when flying manually though. I guess I'm a better programmer that flyer

I know it sounds complicated, but in reallity it takes less than 2minutes to setup. Here the first time I did a real test outside the sim:

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And remote start as well, the RC is left 2km on the beach. I just turn on the drone,it starts as soon as it have 10sats.

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[Dspace]

It's a 3rd party app. No hacking is needed.
It consist of 2 apps.
One tracker app (dead simple)
And one controller app that is connected to the controller.
Android only

Very similar to litchi and litchi magic leash or what name is. I never got it stable enough. And the thing is when you out on the water you are very concerned about what the drone does. That's why I added voice feedback in tracker phone for every state change in the drone, like taking off, battery %.

So what you need apart from the normal equipment is
* 1 extra phone, (with a good gps)
* sim-card in booth phones.

I will let you know when I have something to try.
I'm in the middle of rewriting everything, so give me a couple of months.

I probably never release the app, since I found that the interest is very low.

Warranty is not voided, but I think dji care is not valid when using other app than dji.

That said, I never lost a drone in my followme missions. I use a kind of fault taulerant coding that makes it very very stable. If it crash it always commands a RTH.

I lost some drones when flying manually though. I guess I'm a better programmer that flyer

I know it sounds complicated, but in reallity it takes less than 2minutes to setup. Here the first time I did a real test outside the sim:

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And remote start as well, the RC is left 2km on the beach. I just turn on the drone,it starts as soon as it have 10sats.

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Ok, sounds perfect. I’ll be an eager participant when you’re ready. And no worries on the risk. I’ve owned enough drones to be realistic , plus I always have my State Farm drone PAP policy in place. Even if I don’t go for the M3, I’ll at least get the Air2S.

BTW, where are you located? That first light wind kite foil session looked like a lot of work! (I’d be on the beach drinking a beer in winds that light)

 

[surfbird]

Ok, sounds perfect. I’ll be an eager participant when you’re ready. And no worries on the risk. I’ve owned enough enough drones to be realistic , plus I always have my State Farm drone PAP policy in place. Even if I don’t go for the M3, I’ll at least get the Air2S.

BTW, where are you located? That first light wind wing foil session looked like a lot of work!

Haha, that kite is a nightmare It was very light though.
West coast of sweden.

 

[surfbird]

Ok, sounds perfect. I’ll be an eager participant when you’re ready. And no worries on the risk. I’ve owned enough drones to be realistic , plus I always have my State Farm drone PAP policy in place. Even if I don’t go for the M3, I’ll at least get the Air2S.

BTW, where are you located? That first light wind kite foil session looked like a lot of work! (I’d be on the beach drinking a beer in winds that light)

Btw if you buy a new phone in the meantime, buy a phone that support gps L5-band. Also called dual frequency gps.
This is very important for accurate gps-tracking.
It's so accurate, 0.1m.

I also suspect the newer mavics uses L5 band, since the L5 band gives you 16 more sats. Explains why you get so many sats

 

[monteolsen1]

amazing video and board. I don’t know about the drones (Skydio? Or 3) but I could see myself dumping into the water about 120 times an hour or until I ran out of steam and had to wait for rescue. Awesome skills.

 

[Mattjohnson91]

It's a 3rd party app. No hacking is needed.
It consist of 2 apps.
One tracker app (dead simple)
And one controller app that is connected to the controller.
Android only

Very similar to litchi and litchi magic leash or what name is. I never got it stable enough. And the thing is when you out on the water you are very concerned about what the drone does. That's why I added voice feedback in tracker phone for every state change in the drone, like taking off, battery %.

So what you need apart from the normal equipment is
* 1 extra phone, (with a good gps)
* sim-card in booth phones.

I will let you know when I have something to try.
I'm in the middle of rewriting everything, so give me a couple of months.

I probably never release the app, since I found that the interest is very low.

Warranty is not voided, but I think dji care is not valid when using other app than dji.

That said, I never lost a drone in my followme missions. I use a kind of fault taulerant coding that makes it very very stable. If it crash it always commands a RTH.

I lost some drones when flying manually though. I guess I'm a better programmer that flyer

I know it sounds complicated, but in reallity it takes less than 2minutes to setup. Here the first time I did a real test outside the sim:

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And remote start as well, the RC is left 2km on the beach. I just turn on the drone,it starts as soon as it have 10sats.

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It's a 3rd party app. No hacking is needed.
It consist of 2 apps.
One tracker app (dead simple)
And one controller app that is connected to the controller.
Android only

Very similar to litchi and litchi magic leash or what name is. I never got it stable enough. And the thing is when you out on the water you are very concerned about what the drone does. That's why I added voice feedback in tracker phone for every state change in the drone, like taking off, battery %.

So what you need apart from the normal equipment is
* 1 extra phone, (with a good gps)
* sim-card in booth phones.

I will let you know when I have something to try.
I'm in the middle of rewriting everything, so give me a couple of months.

I probably never release the app, since I found that the interest is very low.

Warranty is not voided, but I think dji care is not valid when using other app than dji.

That said, I never lost a drone in my followme missions. I use a kind of fault taulerant coding that makes it very very stable. If it crash it always commands a RTH.

I lost some drones when flying manually though. I guess I'm a better programmer that flyer

I know it sounds complicated, but in reallity it takes less than 2minutes to setup. Here the first time I did a real test outside the sim:

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Accept third party cookies

And remote start as well, the RC is left 2km on the beach. I just turn on the drone,it starts as soon as it have 10sats.

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This sounds amazing and exactly a similar scenario with foiling I am trying to do (SUP downwind). Are the apps something you are willing to share?

 

[surfbird]

This sounds amazing and exactly a similar scenario with foiling I am trying to do (SUP downwind). Are the apps something you are willing to share?

Hi,

For the moment my time is very limited due to work and private life. When I started all this I was out of work and planned to release it.
I will soon get a mavic3 and use the old SDK with mavic3 with some hacks. If dji still refuses to release the sdk for the mavic3 it might be a good reason to release my app.

The added flighttime for mavic3 would make the followme so much better.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Hi,

For the moment my time is very limited due to work and private life. When I started all this I was out of work and planned to release it.
I will soon get a mavic3 and use the old SDK with mavic3 with some hacks. If dji still refuses to release the sdk for the mavic3 it might be a good reason to release my app.

The added flighttime for mavic3 would make the followme so much better.

DJI isn't refusing to release the Mavic 3 SDK. They are still refining it. Typically takes about a year on most new aircraft. Patience. They like 3rd party support, too. Just don't want to get it wrong!

 

[Kilrah]

DJI isn't refusing to release the Mavic 3 SDK. They are still refining it. Typically takes about a year on most new aircraft. Patience. They like 3rd party support, too. Just don't want to get it wrong!

DJI have said they'd "prioritize making SDKs for Enterprise machines", which many have understood as them meaning no consumer machine is getting an SDK again without actually telling it for the usual reasons.