Video: Crash While Active Tracking In Low Light

[Scouts]

Video of crash here, with telemetry:

Watch 2019-12-02 21-52-24 | Streamable

Watch "2019-12-02 21-52-24" on Streamable.

streamable.com

I was flying my brand new (refurbished) Mavic 2 Pro, testing Active Track, and it was dark out. As you can see, the drone saw a ghost or something because it was so dark, and it flew straight into a brick wall before I could press pause.

Active Track was working the night before under even darker conditions, but I guess I'm lucky it didn't fly away from me the first night.

Anyway, any additional wisdom would be appreciated. And I would recommend only using Active Track in "Spotlight" mode if it is very dark out. That way if it loses you it won't go chasing ghosts.

I'm getting an LED glow-in-the-dark vest, and that probably would have prevented this crash, but I'll be keeping a finger over the pause button in any further experimentation.

Luckily I only lost a propeller, and the drone is just fine including the gimbal/camera.

 

[ZX14-R]

Pretty sure the sensors are not fully functional at night.

 

[agchenry]

Video of crash here, with telemetry:

Watch 2019-12-02 21-52-24 | Streamable

Watch "2019-12-02 21-52-24" on Streamable.

streamable.com

I was flying my brand new (refurbished) Mavic 2 Pro, testing Active Track, and it was dark out. As you can see, the drone saw a ghost or something because it was so dark, and it flew straight into a brick wall before I could press pause.

Active Track was working the night before under even darker conditions, but I guess I'm lucky it didn't fly away from me the first night.

Anyway, any additional wisdom would be appreciated. And I would recommend only using Active Track in "Spotlight" mode if it is very dark out. That way if it loses you it won't go chasing ghosts.

I'm getting an LED glow-in-the-dark vest, and that probably would have prevented this crash, but I'll be keeping a finger over the pause button in any further experimentation.

Luckily I only lost a propeller, and the drone is just fine including the gimbal/camera.

Remember to recalibrate IMU after a crash. Even if the bird isn’t asking for recalibration ?

 

[Scouts]

Remember to recalibrate IMU after a crash. Even if the bird isn’t asking for recalibration ?

OK thanks a lot!

 

[raven swe]

talk about ignore warnings.

 

[hiflyer201]

Video of crash here, with telemetry:

Watch 2019-12-02 21-52-24 | Streamable

Watch "2019-12-02 21-52-24" on Streamable.

streamable.com

I was flying my brand new (refurbished) Mavic 2 Pro, testing Active Track, and it was dark out. As you can see, the drone saw a ghost or something because it was so dark, and it flew straight into a brick wall before I could press pause.

Active Track was working the night before under even darker conditions, but I guess I'm lucky it didn't fly away from me the first night.

Anyway, any additional wisdom would be appreciated. And I would recommend only using Active Track in "Spotlight" mode if it is very dark out. That way if it loses you it won't go chasing ghosts.

I'm getting an LED glow-in-the-dark vest, and that probably would have prevented this crash, but I'll be keeping a finger over the pause button in any further experimentation.

Luckily I only lost a propeller, and the drone is just fine including the gimbal/camera.

Thanks for including the video..It kinda looks like one of those horror films where you think....Please don't go into that scary looking house...then ...alas..

 

[spicciani2]

Video of crash here, with telemetry:

Watch 2019-12-02 21-52-24 | Streamable

Watch "2019-12-02 21-52-24" on Streamable.

streamable.com

I was flying my brand new (refurbished) Mavic 2 Pro, testing Active Track, and it was dark out. As you can see, the drone saw a ghost or something because it was so dark, and it flew straight into a brick wall before I could press pause.

Active Track was working the night before under even darker conditions, but I guess I'm lucky it didn't fly away from me the first night.

Anyway, any additional wisdom would be appreciated. And I would recommend only using Active Track in "Spotlight" mode if it is very dark out. That way if it loses you it won't go chasing ghosts.

I'm getting an LED glow-in-the-dark vest, and that probably would have prevented this crash, but I'll be keeping a finger over the pause button in any further experimentation.

Luckily I only lost a propeller, and the drone is just fine including the gimbal/camera.

I just want to know what was happening here.... Shooting for a horror/fantasy/firefighter film?

 

[Scouts]

I just want to know what was happening here.... Shooting for a horror/fantasy/firefighter film?

I bought the M2Pro because of the superior nighttime image of the camera.
I make youtube videos, and I know it looks completely ridiculous to be walking/riding around while talking to a drone/camera that is following you.

Late night filming solves that problem, plus it opens up filming locations that would be too busy/unsafe during daytime, like side streets.

My Parrot Anafi tracks just fine under these conditions, and I just got my reflective vest and LED lights to make it even easier.

And the M2P actually handled these kinds of low light tracking conditions the night before.

I'll stick with the Anafi for midnight tracking for now. At least it when it loses me in low light it will just stop, it won't chase some imaginary object into a brick wall.

And I'll eventually try the M2P under these conditions, except I'll be lit up like a Christmas tree.

 

[Scouts]

Here's the Autel Evo tracking in even darker conditions than what I've been doing, after the 9 minute mark:

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[Scouts]

When I try the M2P under these conditions again, with the reflective vest and LEDs, I'm going to try checking the "Set Dynamic Home Point" box, and also setting a geofence of just a few meters distance. That way if it does fly out of control again, maybe it will stop at the geofence if I can't reach the pause button in time.

 

[DanMan32]

You mean maximum distance limit.
Geofence is the feature that warns you or prevents flight due to airspace class/situation in Flysafe database.

 

[Scouts]

You mean maximum distance limit.
Geofence is the feature that warns you or prevents flight due to airspace class/situation in Flysafe database.

They're both types of Geo-fencing. In the Parrot Anafi app the max distance/altitude section is called Geo-fence. So any geographic restrictions on flight would technically be examples of Geo-fencing.

But in DJI lingo you might be correct.

 

[Scouts]

This is an example of night-time tracking working well, on the Anafi. The headlight is bright enough that the drone can track it easily. But it does require using the remote control to keep the drone in front where it can see the headlight. This should also work with a headband mounted flashlight, but still requires at least one hand on the remote.

Not sure if the M2P would succeed in these conditions, or if it would just crash into a wall again while chasing imaginary objects. Maybe I'll try it with "Spotlight" mode, where I'd have to fly the drone by remote control but it would at least track my headlight, without any chance of flying into a wall.

This is an empty parking lot, btw:

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