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Follow Me "NOT" on I1

Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
152
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Age
70
Location
Longview, TX
Website
www.encoremultimedia.com
So here's something interesting. I thought, oh we'll never need the Follow Me function on the I1, so it's no big deal it's disabled. However, just yesterday I was trying to shoot video of a couple walking in a park. The director didn't want a shot real high so the people looked tiny but Waypoint wouldn't let me program in points under 32' so that wouldn't work. Plus, the people were walking at a normal pace and, as you know, with the power of the Inspire motors, going very slowly manually is nearly impossible, especially while trying to keep two people center in the video and following them on a winding path. Follow Me would have been helpful, especially if it worked under 32'.

So, DJI, are you following us...ADD Follow ME to the I1 in the next firmware upgrade and give us professionals some credit, we're not stupid, let us use this and Waypoint under 32' in height. We'll be careful and not hit anything. I'm not going to risk our $3,000 quad copter for one shot but if I don't get some of the shots the director wants, he'll be asking for a different quad copter!
 
So here's something interesting. I thought, oh we'll never need the Follow Me function on the I1, so it's no big deal it's disabled. However, just yesterday I was trying to shoot video of a couple walking in a park. The director didn't want a shot real high so the people looked tiny but Waypoint wouldn't let me program in points under 32' so that wouldn't work. Plus, the people were walking at a normal pace and, as you know, with the power of the Inspire motors, going very slowly manually is nearly impossible, especially while trying to keep two people center in the video and following them on a winding path. Follow Me would have been helpful, especially if it worked under 32'.

So, DJI, are you following us...ADD Follow ME to the I1 in the next firmware upgrade and give us professionals some credit, we're not stupid, let us use this and Waypoint under 32' in height. We'll be careful and not hit anything. I'm not going to risk our $3,000 quad copter for one shot but if I don't get some of the shots the director wants, he'll be asking for a different quad copter!
I don't know what you are using,but there are good alternatives apps though.Litchi(Android) or Autoflight(IOS).I know you have to pay for these 3rd party apps,but I use Litchi and I'm very happy with it.Both have follow me.
 
We were just playing around this evening as well with the IOC functions. It would be a useful addition, as you never know when it will come in handy. The POI function was very good even in a fairly strong 15-20 Kt wind the footage was very good. The i1 was working hard though! Very impressed with it and the waypoint function. We'll be using th POI setting on a job we're doing this Friday for definite.
 
So is the Autopilot now compatible with the i1? It says coming soon on the link?
 
Looks good. That was posted May this year so has anyone who got the Beta version got any feedback on it? Worthwhile getting? I'm always wary of trying Beta stuff? It's a big risk for a development program
 
Go to the latest page on the thread and you have all your answers.Have Beta tested Litchi and no problems at all.Both apps are good and have great response towards pilots.
 
So here's something interesting. I thought, oh we'll never need the Follow Me function on the I1, so it's no big deal it's disabled. However, just yesterday I was trying to shoot video of a couple walking in a park. The director didn't want a shot real high so the people looked tiny but Waypoint wouldn't let me program in points under 32' so that wouldn't work. Plus, the people were walking at a normal pace and, as you know, with the power of the Inspire motors, going very slowly manually is nearly impossible, especially while trying to keep two people center in the video and following them on a winding path. Follow Me would have been helpful, especially if it worked under 32'.

So, DJI, are you following us...ADD Follow ME to the I1 in the next firmware upgrade and give us professionals some credit, we're not stupid, let us use this and Waypoint under 32' in height. We'll be careful and not hit anything. I'm not going to risk our $3,000 quad copter for one shot but if I don't get some of the shots the director wants, he'll be asking for a different quad copter!
yea unfortunately they arent really marketing these to photography professionals and as such have decided its a good idea to implement all these stupid little nanny features which makes using it professionally quite difficult to impossible depending on your needs. It will save them a billion headaches from all the average joe hobbyist first time drone buyers who make up the majority of the sales for DJI drones using auto flight features resulting in crashes which they would then blame on dji cause its supposed to be auto however, lol!

Still you wouldnt think it would be hard to be able to switch this nanny crap off with a disclaimer use at your own risk type of thing, they really hobble the effective use of the product. At this stage the auto flight features are quite gimmicky and i wouldnt trust them anyway without careful review of settings and being ready to take over manual control instantly while using them. Its a stepping stone to improving the technology and until they have obstacle avoidance sensors and whatnot they are always gonna be risky to use. Perhaps adjusting your controller gain settings for slower smoother manual control would be a solution at this time. Eventually someone will hack the firmware and remove this crap and make the ability available to the public, but until then were stuck dealing with it unfortunately.
 
Follow me works fine in AutoPilot and Litchi. However, test it well, and notice how the I1 follows but sometimes overshoots, taking very wide turns sometimes, and starts to fly in front instead of behind the subject. I just wouldn't follow some people with it straight away.

With Litchi Magic Leash you can give the subject an android phone. that pares with the device on the RC. I haven't tested that yet, couldn't get it to work on my device.
 
Based on the description of shooting requirements, neither of these follow me offerings would be suitable .. the highly erratic surging redirections that I've experienced would terrify any subject under 32 feet.
 
So here's something interesting. I thought, oh we'll never need the Follow Me function on the I1, so it's no big deal it's disabled. However, just yesterday I was trying to shoot video of a couple walking in a park. The director didn't want a shot real high so the people looked tiny but Waypoint wouldn't let me program in points under 32' so that wouldn't work. Plus, the people were walking at a normal pace and, as you know, with the power of the Inspire motors, going very slowly manually is nearly impossible, especially while trying to keep two people center in the video and following them on a winding path. Follow Me would have been helpful, especially if it worked under 32'.

So, DJI, are you following us...ADD Follow ME to the I1 in the next firmware upgrade and give us professionals some credit, we're not stupid, let us use this and Waypoint under 32' in height. We'll be careful and not hit anything. I'm not going to risk our $3,000 quad copter for one shot but if I don't get some of the shots the director wants, he'll be asking for a different quad copter!

Most of you guys will have to accept the fact if you're going to do production work, you're going to have to fly the machine yourself.

Most of thiese automation features are selling tools, in real world production they are not going to do the job for you.

If the director called for a follow shot you should be able to do it yourself and not depend on a DJI to do the job for you.

Get yourself a practice machine like a Phantom 1/2 and fly the hell out of it. You're not going to learn aerial production in a few months.

Regards
 
However, test it well, and notice how the I1 follows but sometimes overshoots, taking very wide turns sometimes, and starts to fly in front instead of behind the subject. I just wouldn't follow some people with it straight away.
The flight behavior is affected by the settings and controls you select. For example, if you select a slow Responsiveness setting with follow angle based off the operator course, and the operator is traveling slowly (meaning iOS reports an relatively inaccurate course), then you might see this kind of behavior. If you increase the responsiveness and/or move faster (more accurate course), or change the bearing angle reference to Absolute, then you will probably see better flight behavior for this scenario.
 
Most of thiese automation features are selling tools, in real world production they are not going to do the job for you.
This was the idea behind Focus Mode. In the end, you (the operator) can probably fly a better flight path for a scenario that demands something very specific and/or nuanced - but doing this while also operating the gimbal is almost impossible. Focus Mode will be even more powerful when we release Remote Device Tracking in the next version. Think something like: hand a surfer a waterproof iPhone and then fly your Inspire around him while Autopilot keeps the gimbal perfectly pointed at him.
 
.. Plus, the people were walking at a normal pace and, as you know, with the power of the Inspire motors, going very slowly manually is nearly impossible, especially while trying to keep two people center in the video and following them on a winding path...

I'm also considering that a follow me mode wouldn't help alot but what's most important now, is why you say you can't go slow ? I've seen many videos shot with inspire with a very robotic moves, but also seen slow moving and panning with it.

I bellive some people don't setup the stick curves, unfortunately don't have yet the inspire to test, but I'm 99% sure there should be an option for this, I'm doing it at my moded Turnigy 9X transmitter, I did set it up when I change one of the switches position, my stick output it's not linear, but curved (Expo / DR setting on my TX, don't know where it is on Inspire controller)

I'm attaching some photos, if you can do the same on DJI controller than you should be able to move very slow.
 

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The flight behavior is affected by the settings and controls you select. For example, if you select a slow Responsiveness setting with follow angle based off the operator course, and the operator is traveling slowly (meaning iOS reports an relatively inaccurate course), then you might see this kind of behavior. If you increase the responsiveness and/or move faster (more accurate course), or change the bearing angle reference to Absolute, then you will probably see better flight behavior for this scenario.
I will certainly try this out next time. Thanks for chiming in.

However, I wasjust trying to make clear that follow me is something one should have to practice with before actually use it to follow live people. Using the default settings in AutoPilot you must be aware of overshooting of the Inspire.
After quite some test flights and playing with settings it becomes a lot more predictable. And with the wealth of settings in your app it is possible to achieve rather good results.
 

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