Has anyone tried downhill descent with the Mavic 2?

lenabanana · Feb 6, 2019

I never got to use my Mavic 1 much while snowboarding because the follow me features did not work well when the subject was traveling downhill. Has anyone tested the feature with the Mavic 2?
If I set the drone to follow me downhill, will it descend with me? Or will I end up with it hundreds of feet in the air by the time I hit the base of the mountain?

DanielSan · Feb 6, 2019

I have tried it skiing down slopes with about a 45-degree incline, works pretty well! It got a little high sometimes but always came back down by itself.

Live LA · Feb 7, 2019

lenabanana said:
I never got to use my Mavic 1 much while snowboarding because the follow me features did not work well when the subject was traveling downhill. Has anyone tested the feature with the Mavic 2?
If I set the drone to follow me downhill, will it descend with me? Or will I end up with it hundreds of feet in the air by the time I hit the base of the mountain?

Hi
not sure about showboarding super fast, but here are some vids of it tacking us sledding. Backwards didnt work great (had to re do like 5 times to get a half way decent one and as you see at the end of it the drone moves to the side to continue tracking (i didnt controll that) Also with multiple people or items around I noticed it would get lost on who or what it would track (that was frusterating walking up and down the hill for a shot lol, so if you see in the one with all 3 kids, I staggered their decent and followed the last person.... i tried it other ways and it would loose track of who it was following and id loose the shot... sooo yeah have fun, cool when it works, frusterating when it doesnt

Live LA · Feb 7, 2019

Scatch that, sorry, the videos wont upload??? they are downloaded to my iphone x straight from the dji app, anyone want to chime in as to why I cant upload these videos?

Mav.phant.inspire · Feb 7, 2019

Not great going uphill when I tried to follow a snowmobile it kept stopping cause the sensors saw the slope... Turn sensors off and hold left stick up a bit.

Mav.phant.inspire · Feb 7, 2019

I’d download it to your photos app on phone then upload

Live LA said:
Scatch that, sorry, the videos wont upload??? they are downloaded to my iphone x straight from the dji app, anyone want to chime in as to why I cant upload these videos?

lenabanana · Feb 7, 2019

Mav.phant.inspire said:
Not great going uphill when I tried to follow a snowmobile it kept stopping cause the sensors saw the slope... Turn sensors off and hold left stick up a bit.

Way too chicken to turn sensors off, but going downhill I shouldn’t have that issue I guess. I could see up being a challenge because the drone has no way to know that it should increase altitude and stay but I wonder about down because it would end up sensing a negative altitude once you start going downhill.

DanielSan · Feb 7, 2019

Mav.phant.inspire said:
Not great going uphill when I tried to follow a snowmobile it kept stopping cause the sensors saw the slope... Turn sensors off and hold left stick up a bit.

If you are riding with a partner, you could also sit in the back, and pilot the drone manually from their while your partner drives.

Mav.phant.inspire · Feb 7, 2019

lenabanana said:
Way too chicken to turn sensors off, but going downhill I shouldn’t have that issue I guess. I could see up being a challenge because the drone has no way to know that it should increase altitude and stay but I wonder about down because it would end up sensing a negative altitude once you start going downhill.

Can understand your concerns about sensors, but just remember how tough these birds are. Look up the guys who fly them into trees at 70 Kmh. I hit a steel grain bin going 56 km/h with mp1 then it got ran over by grain truck... 350 cad for repair. Not bad. Saying all that when it’s an investment of about $2k... even in the snow...

Mavic Pro Platinum · Feb 7, 2019

Mav.phant.inspire said:
Can understand your concerns about sensors, but just remember how tough these birds are. Look up the guys who fly them into trees at 70 Kmh. I hit a steel grain bin going 56 km/h with mp1 then it got ran over by grain truck... 350 cad for repair. Not bad. Saying all that when it’s an investment of about $2k... even in the snow...

Wow!

DanMan32 · Feb 7, 2019

lenabanana said:
I never got to use my Mavic 1 much while snowboarding because the follow me features did not work well when the subject was traveling downhill. Has anyone tested the feature with the Mavic 2?
If I set the drone to follow me downhill, will it descend with me? Or will I end up with it hundreds of feet in the air by the time I hit the base of the mountain?

I assume you mean Active Track.
Active Track follows an object visually.
Follow Me is another mode that tracks the RC's GPS coordinates given by the mobile device.
M2 does not currently have Follow Me but does have an updated version of Active Track

Sitka78 · Feb 7, 2019

lenabanana said:
Way too chicken to turn sensors off, but going downhill I shouldn’t have that issue I guess. I could see up being a challenge because the drone has no way to know that it should increase altitude and stay but I wonder about down because it would end up sensing a negative altitude once you start going downhill.

I don't believe the sensors work well when over snow or bright surfaces or over water that reflects back to the sensors. They need more contrast to work properly. (For what it's worth.)

lenabanana · Feb 7, 2019

Sitka78 said:
I don't believe the sensors work well when over snow or bright surfaces or over water that reflects back to the sensors. They need more contrast to work properly. (For what it's worth.)

I can understand issues differentiating snow on the ground vs snow covered trees. Where I snowboard though is usually man made snow, so the obstacles would be mostly pine trees with little to no snow or brightly colored posts on chairlifts.... would the snow affect the sensors in this case?

lenabanana · Feb 7, 2019

DanMan32 said:
I assume you mean Active Track.
Active Track follows an object visually.
Follow Me is another mode that tracks the RC's GPS coordinates given by the mobile device.
M2 does not currently have Follow Me but does have an updated version of Active Track

I didn’t even realize follow me wasn’t on the M2 yet - but yes active track then.
I know on the mavic 1 active track did not descend - I read one person having success launching it from the base, then flying it to the top and starting active track before heading back down but that is a huge pain in the butt.