How do I orbit close to the ground?

[NoblenNutria]

I want my MA to orbit a point of interest about 4 feet above the ground. So far I have not been able to find any way to do this. The DJI app says a minimum height of five meters. I have tried other apps like autopilot, which has a minimum of 13 feet. Maybe this is a safety feature so drones to not orbit into peoples faces. Still, I want to run an orbit closer to the ground. How do I do this?

 

[BD0G]

Manual stick control. Practice.

 

[AnzacJack]

Yep. Practice at height (plenty of practice, don’t get over confident) then fly the pattern you need

 

[dirkclod]

I use tripod mode on some to practice a few times on what I am wanting to get or just use that and speed it up in post .
Ain't that right BDOG .

 

[Mossiback]

Go to 13 feet to set your point of Interest and then drop it down to orbit.

 

[tcope]

Go to 13 feet to set your point of Interest and then drop it down to orbit.

Yup. Manually lower the drone after you set it at the minimum altitude.

 

[NoblenNutria]

Go to 13 feet to set your point of Interest and then drop it down to orbit.

With which app? The DJI App?

 

[kjcbid54]

I agree with manual flying. Practice, practice. But, the question to ponder is: Why use a flying camera at 4ft high, when this can be accomplished on the ground with a regular camera?

 

[NoblenNutria]

I agree with manual flying. Practice, practice. But, the question to ponder is: Why use a flying camera at 4ft high, when this can be accomplished on the ground with a regular camera?

I want the camera to orbit me in a circle at four feet above the ground. I can’t do this manually because I want to be the one filmed. I do acrobatics and I want to film myself doing Acro with my drone circling me at 4 or 5 feet.

 

[kjcbid54]

I want the camera to orbit me in a circle at four feet above the ground. I can’t do this manually because I want to be the one filmed. I do acrobatics and I want to film myself doing Acro with my drone circling me at 4 or 5 feet.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for elaborating. So this will also take the "fly manually" factor out of the equation as well.

 

[NoblenNutria]

Yeah

 

[Mossiback]

With which app? The DJI App?

Go 4 Point of Interest mode.

UPDATE: Point of Interest did not work. I could not get low enough. However Active Track did work. I just selected myself and it would let my MP drop to around six feet. Then while orbiting it dropped another two. I think this will get you what you want.

 

[AnzacJack]

I want the camera to orbit me in a circle at four feet above the ground. I can’t do this manually because I want to be the one filmed. I do acrobatics and I want to film myself doing Acro with my drone circling me at 4 or 5 feet.

Ahhh ok. This negates most of the responses. Hope you find a way to get it done, sounds like it would be a nice piece of footage

 

[Mossiback]

You should be able to use the Point of Interest mode. Fly above you and set the POI and then back away to start the orbit. Once the orbit has started you should be able to adjust the altitude and distance.

Full disclosure, I don't use these modes often but do recall being able to adjust the distance and height while in orbit. I will try to test tomorrow.

UPDATE: Point of Interest did not work. I could not get low enough. However Active Track did work. I just selected myself and it would let my MP drop to around six feet. Then while orbiting it dropped another two. I think this will get you what you want.

 

[NoblenNutria]

It kinda works. The tracking software often looses the lock, especially if I am moving around a lot.

 

[NoblenNutria]

I around a way with the autopilot app. I can get the drone to orbit at 3 feet but it’s speed is limited to one mph.

 

[sbens]

I am using Litchi waypoints to circle at 6 feet and take video it works well but a little jumpy, also waypoints must be 16 feet (5 meters) apart. You can fool DJI by taking off from a lower point than your POI, so if you take off from an area 11 feet lower than your POI you can get your 6 feet.

 

[tcope]

You can fool DJI by taking off from a lower point than your POI, so if you take off from an area 11 feet lower than your POI you can get your 6 feet.

You can fool the DJI Go app minimum requirements by starting the mode at the minimum required altitude and then manually flying it below that level.

 

[MavRik]

The best way to achieve this would be to put it into Tripod mode after reaching the minimum height on take off. This slows everything down. Then fly to your subject and use the sticks to accomplish that. It will take a bit of practice of course when first starting out. Good luck!