There is hope for Active Track on MM

Scottalmas · Feb 18, 2020

If the Tello can do Follow Me with a $3 app, why can’t the Mini get Active Track?

DanMan32 · Feb 18, 2020

For the Tello, it's completely an app function and subject to radio interference causing issues. That's probably why DJI doesn't want to rely on apps doing any tracking but rather have the onboard firmware/hardware handle tracking, flight and camera control. There isn't an SDK out yet for third party apps to use to control the Mini.

The Tello has an excellent SDK as it was designed for experimenting.

Now for those going to claim that the Fly app does control flight for quickshots, I put this to the test:
I did a dronie QS, and while it was running, I disconnected the USB between phone and RC. The MM completed the QS. It did not RTH because I did not sever the RC to AC connection, only the app to RC connection.

RogerDH · Feb 19, 2020

DanMan32 said:
For the Tello, it's completely an app function and subject to radio interference causing issues. That's probably why DJI doesn't want to rely on apps doing any tracking but rather have the onboard firmware/hardware handle tracking, flight and camera control. There isn't an SDK out yet for third party apps to use to control the Mini.

The Tello has an excellent SDK as it was designed for experimenting.

Now for those going to claim that the Fly app does control flight for quickshots, I put this to the test:
I did a dronie QS, and while it was running, I disconnected the USB between phone and RC. The MM completed the QS. It did not RTH because I did not sever the RC to AC connection, only the app to RC connection.

I believe what happens is that a QuickShot will send a "canned" course command to the Mini, which it will execute autonomously without any further input, but then as the drone is flying that course, the app will try to keep the subject in the middle of the frame by sending yaw commands. However, it does not attempt to change the preset course, so it's tracking ability is very limited.

Volate!lo · Feb 19, 2020

DanMan32 said:
For the Tello, it's completely an app function and subject to radio interference causing issues. That's probably why DJI doesn't want to rely on apps doing any tracking but rather have the onboard firmware/hardware handle tracking, flight and camera control. There isn't an SDK out yet for third party apps to use to control the Mini.

The Tello has an excellent SDK as it was designed for experimenting.

Now for those going to claim that the Fly app does control flight for quickshots, I put this to the test:
I did a dronie QS, and while it was running, I disconnected the USB between phone and RC. The MM completed the QS. It did not RTH because I did not sever the RC to AC connection, only the app to RC connection.

Correct ! Except that my apps don't use the Tello SDK as it's too restricted. They use the same proprietary control protocol as the original Ryze app.

The onboard processing for an active track is actually much faster & reliable than an external app. Computer vision requires lots of computing power, and most average phones can't analyze more than 8-12 frames per second. Works OK, but isn't as smooth as what you want to see and is fairly unreliable.

I am eagerly awaiting the Mini SDK release to see if DJI allows 3rd party developers to include active track and similar features. Personally I doubt so, as this is one of the differentiators for their larger & more expensive drones. The mini lacks a few features, but is otherwise "good enough" for most personal use cases.

RogerDH · Feb 19, 2020

Volate!lo said:
Correct ! Except that my apps don't use the Tello SDK as it's too restricted. They use the same proprietary control protocol as the original Ryze app.

The onboard processing for an active track is actually much faster & reliable than an external app. Computer vision requires lots of computing power, and most average phones can't analyze more than 8-12 frames per second. Works OK, but isn't as smooth as what you want to see and is fairly unreliable.

I am eagerly awaiting the Mini SDK release to see if DJI allows 3rd party developers to include active track and similar features. Personally I doubt so, as this is one of the differentiators for their larger & more expensive drones. The mini lacks a few features, but is otherwise "good enough" for most personal use cases.

The Mini doesn't even have Course Lock or headless mode, much less waypoints and points-of-interest, which makes it the least capable GPS drone on the market, IMO, even some that cost less than $100. The Mini does not and cannot compete with DJI's more expensive drones because it doesn't have 4K video, obstacle avoidance, or OcuSync, and it's relatively low power means less wind resistance. If DJI did leave out common GPS drone features because they didn't want to compete with their own drones, I think they made a stupid mistake that's costing them a lot of sales.

Volate!lo · Feb 19, 2020

RogerDH said:
The Mini doesn't even have Course Lock or headless mode, much less waypoints and points-of-interest, which makes it the least capable GPS drone on the market, IMO, even some that cost less than $100. The Mini does not and cannot compete with DJI's more expensive drones because it doesn't have 4K video, obstacle avoidance, or OcuSync, and it's relatively low power means less wind resistance. If DJI did leave out common GPS drone features because they didn't want to compete with their own drones, I think they made a stupid mistake that's costing them a lot of sales.

The average consumer doesn't really need 4k, ocusync, or more power for casual use. OK, most do need obstacle avoidance but only know when its too late (and many use care refresh as a substitute)

The features that most consumers do miss are all software related. Not that these are impossible or even hard to implement for DJI. I am quite sure they just have to flip a compile time switch to enable most of these features.
Thats just their way of positioning the Mini in the market.

RogerDH · Feb 19, 2020

Volate!lo said:
The average consumer doesn't really need 4k, ocusync, or more power for casual use. OK, most do need obstacle avoidance but only know when its too late (and many use care refresh as a substitute)

The features that most consumers do miss are all software related. Not that these are impossible or even hard to implement for DJI. I am quite sure they just have to flip a compile time switch to enable most of these features.
Thats just their way of positioning the Mini in the market.

But it's actually positioned in the market to compete with drones like the Parrot Anafi, the Hubsan Zino, and the Fimi X8 SE, all of which do have the common GPS drone features I mentioned, and so do many even cheaper drones. If I had known that the Mini does not, I would not have bought it, but as I've said here before, I just assumed that a DJI GPS drone would have those features. I have to say, I've been rather surprised that most Mini buyers don't seem to miss those features, but I do believe it's because they don't realize that they could be shooting much better videos by using them.

Several years ago, I borrowed a friends Parrot Bebop to shoot some video for a project at work. Their mission planner is a $20 add-on to their app, but well worth it. I downloaded that app a week in advance and carefully planned 3 missions. On the day of the shoot, the first mission came back looking exactly like I wanted. The second mission had a couple of waypoints too high, so I just edited those and ran again -- and again, I got exactly what I wanted. I decided that one section of the third mission was redundant and unnecessary, so I deleted some waypoints and ran again. So, never having used a camera drone before, in a little over an hour I had three beautiful videos that were not only exactly what I wanted, but they looked like they were shot by an expert, with a smoothness that I dare say few pilots could match.

When I found that the Mini couldn't do missions like that, I thought about returning it -- and it wouldn't be to buy a $1000+ DJI drone. I eventually decided to keep it, but only because I believe that DJI will make those features available to third party apps, because they will realize that the lack of features hurts their competitiveness against drones in the same price range.

DanMan32 · Feb 19, 2020

RogerDH said:
I believe what happens is that a QuickShot will send a "canned" course command to the Mini, which it will execute autonomously without any further input, but then as the drone is flying that course, the app will try to keep the subject in the middle of the frame by sending yaw commands. However, it does not attempt to change the preset course, so it's tracking ability is very limited.

I don't know about yaw, but for dronie and rocket, the gimbal pitch was controlled by the AC to keep the subject in frame without the app connected. I think I also tested circle. All my circle shots kept the subject in frame, though the path was more elliptical, even with the app connected.

Terry851 · Feb 21, 2020

I think DJI would sell MORE of their advanced drones if they enabled some of the discussed features on the MM (active track, headless mode, waypoints, etc.) While the MM is fun and capable (though somewhat crippled by what is currently lacking in the software), if DJI added these features to the MM, users would learn to use, and depend on them...which would then motivate them to upgrade to larger, more powerful drones as the MM is just too light / not powerful enough for flying regularly.

DenPou · Apr 28, 2020

RogerDH said:
But it's actually positioned in the market to compete with drones like the Parrot Anafi, the Hubsan Zino, and the Fimi X8 SE, all of which do have the common GPS drone features I mentioned, and so do many even cheaper drones. If I had known that the Mini does not, I would not have bought it, but as I've said here before, I just assumed that a DJI GPS drone would have those features. I have to say, I've been rather surprised that most Mini buyers don't seem to miss those features, but I do believe it's because they don't realize that they could be shooting much better videos by using them.

Several years ago, I borrowed a friends Parrot Bebop to shoot some video for a project at work. Their mission planner is a $20 add-on to their app, but well worth it. I downloaded that app a week in advance and carefully planned 3 missions. On the day of the shoot, the first mission came back looking exactly like I wanted. The second mission had a couple of waypoints too high, so I just edited those and ran again -- and again, I got exactly what I wanted. I decided that one section of the third mission was redundant and unnecessary, so I deleted some waypoints and ran again. So, never having used a camera drone before, in a little over an hour I had three beautiful videos that were not only exactly what I wanted, but they looked like they were shot by an expert, with a smoothness that I dare say few pilots could match.

When I found that the Mini couldn't do missions like that, I thought about returning it -- and it wouldn't be to buy a $1000+ DJI drone. I eventually decided to keep it, but only because I believe that DJI will make those features available to third party apps, because they will realize that the lack of features hurts their competitiveness against drones in the same price range.

Probably a lot of buyers of MM are first time drone owners like me, so we don't really know what features we'll be missing but the main reason why i bought the Mini is because it's only weighing 249gr which is falling right under a lot of countries regulations and the obligations that comes with owning an heavier drone. The MM can be brought in lots of countries and great to travel with, and no need to hassle with the registration and so on...

When I get used to flying, I might want to get a drone with more features if the active tracking and other features are not added to it, but till then, I'm satisfied, doesn't mean I wouldn't love to have more features but, until another company does and 249gr drone with those feature i'm sticking with my MM.