DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Locking speed, direction and rotation for smoother cinematography

thewishy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2020
Messages
59
Reactions
53
Age
40
Location
UK
Hi All,

Relatively new to drones, I've got a Mavic 2 Pro after a short lived Mavic Mini.

I took rather a lot of footage in Iceland. Almost all the shorts were hand controlled using Tripod mode. Looking through the footage one common theme is difficulty keeping motion stable, especially rotation, often it ends up speeding up part way through the recording (Or completely stopping). I also found it rather hard to keep the sticks locked in the same positions as my fingers got cold.

What I really want is to be able to press, say, c1 and have the drone lock the movements I've made manually, and continue with those movements until I'm done with that recording. Can't imagine I'm the first person to have this problem, but can't seem to find anything in the menu which seems to cover it (Outside of some hyperlapse mode). I don't particularly want to use waypoint mode, I found it needed a lot of setup and that eats into battery life.

Currently using Go4.

Steve
 
Yep. I had the same question a couple of years ago. The old toy remote controllers had slide switches next to the joystick for that reason.
 
You could create waypoint missions, which would fly on their own (with no unsteady hand movements) after you've programmed it.
 
I found those quite slow to program, and not really well suited to situations where you don't actually have a focal point you want the software to keep in view (IE you're trying for a general vista). So I was hoping there might be a better solution.
Sonof - I presume you didn't find anything?
 
  • Like
Reactions: alejoh90
Hi All,

Relatively new to drones, I've got a Mavic 2 Pro after a short lived Mavic Mini.

I took rather a lot of footage in Iceland. Almost all the shorts were hand controlled using Tripod mode. Looking through the footage one common theme is difficulty keeping motion stable, especially rotation, often it ends up speeding up part way through the recording (Or completely stopping). I also found it rather hard to keep the sticks locked in the same positions as my fingers got cold.

What I really want is to be able to press, say, c1 and have the drone lock the movements I've made manually, and continue with those movements until I'm done with that recording. Can't imagine I'm the first person to have this problem, but can't seem to find anything in the menu which seems to cover it (Outside of some hyperlapse mode). I don't particularly want to use waypoint mode, I found it needed a lot of setup and that eats into battery life.

Currently using Go4.

Steve
Never heard of anything like that. My advice is to practice more. I can now do do a pretty fair orbit by hand.
 
Never heard of anything like that. My advice is to practice more. I can now do do a pretty fair orbit by hand.
I’m relatively new but isn’t that what “course lock” would do? Not sure also if that drone software has that function, maybe something out there does?
 
Course lock in free mode will maintain a constant direction while allowing the drone to climb, descend and rotate. Flying Course lock fixed will fly in a constant direction with the camera locked looking in the direction the drone is locked to.
 
Also, DJI Go doesn't have regular Course Lock, only Hyperlapse Course Lock.

LITCHI has Course Lock, but it is not fully automatic (still requires stick controlled acceleration and yaw).

Course Lock was not designed for full automation, just to hold the course steady while changing aircraft orientation.

Chris
 
And I mean Course Lock outside of Hyperlapse or any intelligent flight mode: just course lock, flying normally by stick otherwise.

If your P4A has that with DJI Go 4, that's great. But as far as I know, the M2P does not (and this is a Mavic forum).

Chris
 
Red Waypoint can be set all manual or all automatic.
You can change speeds and orientation manually or have the software do it for you.
 
If you think the problem lies with your control of the sticks, instead of putting your thumb on top of them, put them at the base, rest on the controller, and move them with sideways movements of the side of your thumbs. (hope that make sense)
 
Thanks, so sounds like this isn't strictly possible. Sounds like I need to practice a lot more...

I know holding with fingers way gives more control. Iceland was pretty cold and fingers were struggling though.
 
Thanks, so sounds like this isn't strictly possible. Sounds like I need to practice a lot more...

I know holding with fingers way gives more control. Iceland was pretty cold and fingers were struggling though.
You should try to find longer sticks, that will require bigger stick movements for the same stick change vs. original sticks ... make all much smoother & take away smaller stick changes.

I have below & they made a huge difference, now I even can master soft turns in Sport mode with my MA1.

1599341384338.png

Believe they fit M2 RC's also ...

1599341551162.png
 
The M2 did not continue to have courseLock BUT you can use TapFly exactly for what you might look. Although it is absolutely not obvious and we should blame DJI for that, TapFly gives you brilliant footage with smooth flight paths.
Try it out ... there are several good Tutorials on that intelligent flight mode in the www.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,599
Messages
1,554,251
Members
159,603
Latest member
refrigasketscanada