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Mavic Air - here we go again ... Active track and elevation changes

slup

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Hi all,

New here & thought I should reach out to you all as a last life line to nail down the true facts regarding how the Mavic Air's Active track modes handle elevation changes.
Have gone over all kinds of forums + YouTube trying to sort out the facts ... but the picture over how it works is unfortunately pretty diverse so it's hard to draw any conclusions.

My prerequisites:

Drone on firmware 01.00.0620
RC on firmware 01.00.0200
DJI GO 4 v4.3.25 (Android)
All sensors (front, back & bottom) calibrated through DJI Assistant 2 v1.2.5
All Obstacle detection ON (even those under the Advanced setting menu) & tested with/without APAS

My findings:

Active track in Trace mode:

The drone will trace downhill
(even below RTH altitude) but will NOT trace uphill ... on a distance of approx 0,3-0,5 meters from ground it will stop & the otherwise green trace square will turn red in DJI GO 4 with an additional message on screen that the drone is to low.

Active track in Profile mode:


The drone will trace downhill
(even below RTH altitude) and it WILL also trace uphill ...


As a side note I have also tested the Active track Trace mode possibility through Smart Capture started from the RC and my findings there were ...

Active track in Trace mode through Smart Capture:

The drone will trace downhill
(even below RTH altitude) and it will also trace uphill.


Above total scenario/behavior are rarely described ... have found one or two that describe my findings but the vast majority claim beyond any doubt that the active track trace mode make the drone tag along uphill and are really disappointed that the drone doesn't follow downhill instead of just maintaining the highest altitude.


So ... what's the correct behavior, do I have some kind of bug ... or have DJI changed the way it works through firmware changes (as most forum discussions & YT-clips dates back to mid 2018)?


Can in a way see some kind of logic in my experienced Active Track behavior (from a minimized crash risk perspective)...


-In the Active track Trace mode you can send out the drone pretty far (on a unattended distance/altitude) & with no sensors on the top the drone can follow uphill & hit obstacles from below without any warning.


-When it comes to the Profile mode it will always be the most risky as no sensors are on the drone sides ... so DJI let it climb & descend with the tracked object.


-Smart Capture's Active track trace possibility ... well, the drone will always be near you (like max. 7 meters away) so hopefully the crash risk is mitigated by that.


So ... how is this Active Track function actually intended to work (with all the latest & greatest firmware)?
 
I don't think we need yet another thread on this...
To sum it up from previous threads, the Air is NOT a good drone for following EXCEPT if you can have it close enought to you and use SmartCapture+Trace. In that case you will have the up/down/home point update "hat-trick" !
 
I don't think we need yet another thread on this...
To sum it up from previous threads, the Air is NOT a good drone for following EXCEPT if you can have it close enought to you and use SmartCapture+Trace. In that case you will have the up/down/home point update "hat-trick" !

Hi webvan,

No I didn't aim for a new thread either ... but couldn't sort out the facts. Think I've seen you in some older threads promoting the Smart Capture+Trace & the "Hat-trick" :) can you confirm my findings? And yeah ... will not trust the Active Track feature to much but thought it could be good to know & in that way avoid mishaps.
 
ActiveTrack is one of the main uses for me. The Spark works up and down in trade mode. I was struggling wit MA and found this post. Shame on DJI
 
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