Autopilot Cruise Altitude Focus help

[CraneFlyer]

Phantom 4, iPad Air 2, running latest firmware.

Objective: freely fly and focus near half way down a tree while letting autopilot yaw the aircraft.

Settings:
Cruise mode
vertical strategy: joystick
Pitch/roll strategy: joystick
Joystick orientation: aircraft
Yaw strategy: focus
Focus strategy: subject
Subject: POI

General settings:
Min Altitude: 16ft
Altitude priority: 49ft

Calibrated compass in DJI app, closed app.
Opened autopilot.
Selected settings.
Manual take-off.
Flew over top of tree.
Selected "Set with Aircraft Position" to Mark Focus to X and Y coordinates.
Engaged Cruise
Selected fixed operator.
Flew back away from the tree.
Manually tilted gimbal to assign new Z coordinates to focus half way down tree.

Now here's what I had a problem with. I could not fly below the tree. The lowest altitude I could fly according to the telemetry was "22ft." However the actual altitude of the aircraft in relation to ground level, also where I was and where the aircraft took off was about 80ft. I could fly as high as I wanted, but could not fly below "22ft." If you notice in the lower right hand side of the telemetry, it states altimeter reference 2ft. When I switched the Vertical strategy to Altitude, the lowest setting was 20ft.

I'm thinking I've somehow messed up and programmed the aircraft with the wrong altitude reference to where true ground level is and it's not letting me fly below a hard deck or something. I've attached a screen shot of flight.

If you could please help point what I did wrong and how to properly set it up. I've watched the videos till I've turned blue in the face as well as glazed my eyes over in flight school. I'm waiting to hear from he developer as well.

Thank you,
Andrew

 

[GMack]

Isn't the minimum in AF restricted to 22 feet or 16 feet AGL? The telemetry isn't all that good or reliable so they may have included some safety buffer. I seem to have gotten one email where they liked 33 feet as the safety buffer, maybe due to VPS or inputting a KML file or something. Anyway, I don't think it will do strafing runs well at 2 feet.

 

[CraneFlyer]

Min Altitude by Default is 23ft. I believe I had that set to 16ft at the time of the mission, but not sure as I frantically played with the settings and can't go back and be sure. If it was 23ft, it would make sense if somehow the aircraft used the altitude of the set focus with "set aircraft" posistion. The reason I say that is because the aircraft would not fly below 21-23ft above where I set the focus atop the tree. When I looked at the Altitude value in my instrument panel, it said 21ft. When actually the aircraft was approximately 80-100ft above where ground level was. In this example, I believe the aircraft would've flown below the the tree line if the altitude in my instrument panel would've been calibrated to true ground level (80-100ft.)

Can't test it out today since it is very windy and over cast here. I tried using cruise mode while Focus mode focused on "Operator" but the aircraft would not affix to me in frame. I was only pinging off about 11 satellites. I don't believe I had strong enough signal for it to precisely frame me in focus. I noticed when I engaged the aircraft it stated Location Accuracy of Operator was 16ft. Which to my estimate is how far I was out of frame.

 

[CraneFlyer]

AutoFlight just replied stating the same thing I was thinking. That I somehow set ground level to the position atop the tree. C'mon wind, I want to fly!

 

[CraneFlyer]

Just figured out my issue. I was actually selecting moving operator and using the barometric pressure to set aircraft altitude reference to ground level. When you do that YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE AIRCRAFT AT THE SAME LEVEL AS THE DEVICE! As pictured.. I was using a iPhone 6S this time instead of my iPad Air2.

Also, when setting Focus to Operator, when the Location Accuracy is 16ft or something of great value which I'm sure is progressive depending on conditions, the aircraft can't focus up close. But fly 30ft or more out, it keeps you perfectly in frame. Live and learn I reckon.

 

[normr]

I love that barometric pressure calibration, I wish DJI would add that to their app.


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