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In Spotlight mode why are controls weird?

dixiefla

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I use Mode 2 for my control sticks. I just tried Spotlight mode. Obviously orientation with the left stick is disabled because Spotlight mode keeps the camera oriented toward the subject. But with the right stick all of the stick movements are different. Forward and backward flight and side-to-side flight are completely different in terms of the stick movements. The disadvantage of this is if shooting a video it kind of messes up the video because you have to try a stick movement to maneuver the way you want, but then find the drone responds the wrong way and you have to try a different stick movement etc. This seems silly, and it doesn't make sense why the stick movements should be different. Short of doing Spotlight enough to memorize a completely different set of stick movements, it kind of makes this mode less desirable. Is there a way to set it so that the stick movements are the same as in standard mode 2?
Obviously, one can use Point of Interest instead but the advantage to Spotlight is that it works with a moving subject. Point of interest only works with a stationary subject
 
I use Mode 2 for my control sticks. I just tried Spotlight mode. Obviously orientation with the left stick is disabled because Spotlight mode keeps the camera oriented toward the subject. But with the right stick all of the stick movements are different. Forward and backward flight and side-to-side flight are completely different in terms of the stick movements. The disadvantage of this is if shooting a video it kind of messes up the video because you have to try a stick movement to maneuver the way you want, but then find the drone responds the wrong way and you have to try a different stick movement etc. This seems silly, and it doesn't make sense why the stick movements should be different. Short of doing Spotlight enough to memorize a completely different set of stick movements, it kind of makes this mode less desirable. Is there a way to set it so that the stick movements are the same as in standard mode 2?
Obviously, one can use Point of Interest instead but the advantage to Spotlight is that it works with a moving subject. Point of interest only works with a stationary subject
Spot light mode basically puts the drone into course lock mode while aiming the drone at the subject. Course lock mode locks the heading to be the direction the aircraft is heading when you enter the mode. This allows you to fly in the same direction constantly even if you yaw the aircraft to face a new direction. Right stick controls are always relative to the direction the AC was i. When you started the sportlight tracking. Pressing forward on the right stick will cause you to fly in the same direction always.

This is the intended function of spotlight mode. If you wish to fly without the controls being course locked then just choose a different active track mode.
 
I think many of us, including me, wish there was a mode tracking some while flying free. Should be possible because the gimbal can move quite a lot sideways and up/down. But... We don't have it ?
 
I think many of us, including me, wish there was a mode tracking some while flying free. Should be possible because the gimbal can move quite a lot sideways and up/down. But... We don't have it ?
I am not sure if I want that. Imagine that the camera is pointing sideway. Forward stick will end up in what appears as sideway movement in the live view. I am sure I will be confused.
 
What I expected was that you could control to aircraft's flight normally, just that the yaw would be disabled because the drone keeps the camera aimed at the subject. That is not what is happening. I've tried it twice now. The left stick still controls altitude, but the right stick is completely different, and its not like mode 1, 2 or 3 either. From memory, moving the right stick forward makes the drone move sideways to the left; moving the stick back causes the drone to come closer; moving the stick to the right causes the drone to move farther away; left stick makes it move sideways to the right.

There is a video on YouTube where the guy is ice skating on a path and he's using spotlight just like active track parallel, to follow him as he is skating. The way mine behaves there is no way I could do that without, again, memorizing the completely different stick commands and trying to coordinate the movement.

Another YouTube video suggest that with Spotlight mode the point is to have the drone stay stationary in a hover but follow the subject with the camera. If that is the purpose, that would work fine. But trying to move the drone to follow or stay with the subject is very difficult with the oddball stick commands.
 
OK, I have played with the spotlight mode today using my M2P. The apparently weird behaviour is due to the fact that the directions of movement ( forward/backward/right/left ) in this mode are defined by using the line joining the drone and the subject of interest as reference. At some points the elevator /aileron controls will appear to be swapped. The following diagram explains how this mode works :

1580746091584.png
 
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Excellent diagram. Very helpful! Thanks for posting!
 
I'll try that next time, as my recollection is that forward and back stick don't make the drone go forward and back, and I'm sure that right stick, left stick did not make the drone go sideways--that would be logical, and would be "normal" stick movements. But I'll check it out next time and use the diagram for reference. Thanks for posting it.

If the controls continue to act wierd (for me) I'll just relegate Spotlight mode to that example I saw where you keep the drone stationary in a hover, and just let the camera follow the moving subject. If the subject is stationary, then I can use Point of Interest, etc, other modes, or manual, to circle it.
 
I'll try that next time, as my recollection is that forward and back stick don't make the drone go forward and back, and I'm sure that right stick, left stick did not make the drone go sideways--that would be logical, and would be "normal" stick movements. But I'll check it out next time and use the diagram for reference. Thanks for posting it.

If the controls continue to act wierd (for me) I'll just relegate Spotlight mode to that example I saw where you keep the drone stationary in a hover, and just let the camera follow the moving subject. If the subject is stationary, then I can use Point of Interest, etc, other modes, or manual, to circle it.
Another thing you could consider is to get Litchi which I would highly recommend for its other features and customizability as well but you can also change the joystick reference to be “aircraft” in its track mode which will do exactly what you want. the controls will always be relative to the aircraft just like normal.

You can also do this is follow mode in DJI Go 4 but the joystick speeds are limited where as in Litchi you can also adjust this.
318F2B0A-8EFB-4707-A5BA-B5F167CCC87E.png
 
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