My first "FOLLOW ME"..freakin awesome

johnnyu · Sep 21, 2015

I used the 'follow me' to take some footage of some neighbors mountain properties in the West Virgina Mountains. I must say I was nervous in the forests where bears, mountain lions, panthers and skunks are. I photographed one property for its owner and the next property wasnt too too far away but the next mountain over so I was skiddish on using the feature while my wife drove the car. I enabled it after the fact, jumped in the car, and had my wife take the wheel of the car just in case I ran into issues.

I want to say right now, I was blown away. We got to the next mountain and we turned the car off and I could hear the P3 making its way to me. Now how friggin cool is that? I did run the recorder onboard and captured the whole thing. Camera pointing I need to work on, but I was really amazed at the performance of the craft.

Just had to share.

Phantom Dr1 · Sep 21, 2015

I only had a chance to play with the follow me feature for a couple of minutes but I was definitely impressed. One thing I did not test was if I walked towards the drone, would the drone also back up maintaining a constant distance from the remote?

Chuck Young · Sep 21, 2015

I tried this and my P3 said it has found home and stopped. Then when I took off again it just stayed there hovering. I had to go back and get the darn thing.

Phantom Dr1 · Sep 21, 2015

Ah so it's literally "Follow Me" and not a "Mirror Me"

PilotHarry · Sep 21, 2015

johnnyu said:
I used the 'follow me' to take some footage of some neighbors mountain properties in the West Virgina Mountains. I must say I was nervous in the forests where bears, mountain lions, panthers and skunks are. I photographed one property for its owner and the next property wasnt too too far away but the next mountain over so I was skiddish on using the feature while my wife drove the car. I enabled it after the fact, jumped in the car, and had my wife take the wheel of the car just in case I ran into issues.

I want to say right now, I was blown away. We got to the next mountain and we turned the car off and I could hear the P3 making its way to me. Now how friggin cool is that? I did run the recorder onboard and captured the whole thing. Camera pointing I need to work on, but I was really amazed at the performance of the craft.

Just had to share.

Can you post the footage? Sounds awesome!

johnnyu · Sep 24, 2015

PilotHarry said:
Can you post the footage? Sounds awesome!

its not much to watch. I didnt really have the camera on my vehicle the whole time, and I was panning around'

John Locke · Sep 24, 2015

Phantom Dr1 said:
Ah so it's literally "Follow Me" and not a "Mirror Me"

Yeah, disappointing there's only a "Watch Me" mode, which DJI calls "Follow me". My Yuneec Q500+ has both "Watch Me" and "Follow Me" modes.

The FM mode of the Q500+ is great for biking or driving along a coastlines, all you have to worry about is the camera being pointed in the desired direction, such as pointing at the ocean waves, or at the highway, whatever. The bird simple tracks the movement of the controller and stays at the prescribed distance, height and direction from the controller.

In the WM mode of the Q500+ the camera automatically points at the controller PLUS tracks the movement (same as DJI Follow Me). In this case all you have to worry about is the orientation of the camera in relation to the controller, because if the bird is in front of you, and you turn left, the bird will now be on your right side capturing you from a different angle, instead of staying in front of you. In those cases you can easily change the orientation manually using the sticks while it's tracking, and when you get it oriented correctly, it will continue that position in relation to the controller.

I hope DJI adds the option to track movements only, which would correctly be called "Follow Me" by Yuneec, not just having only the ability to "Watch Me", which is the only thing the Go app currently supports, although DJI calls it "Follow Me".

johnnyu · Sep 25, 2015

I had the opportunity to drive a UTV and try and fly the bird at the same time. It was not optimal by any means. Going up a mountain, the bird did not stay the same height and I was having to stop lots of times to raise it to the new height level as I went uphill. I have not tried this since 'follow me' was incorporated into the software. From what your describing, it wont be any better. The default is "Piss me Off" mode. LOL

Brutaly · Sep 25, 2015

Use Autopilot with a iPhone 6 and it blows my q500+ out of the water. Dji GO follow is kind of lame, Autopilot rocks.

johnnyu · Sep 25, 2015

I shall try that. Just got my 6 plus this week.

StumbleBee · Sep 25, 2015

Brutaly said:
Use Autopilot with a iPhone 6 and it blows my q500+ out of the water. Dji GO follow is kind of lame, Autopilot rocks.

What is this Autopilot and where do I get it? Tnx.

johnnyu · Sep 25, 2015

I think its as easy as a checkbox on one of the screens.

Brutaly · Sep 25, 2015

Autopilot - Autoflight Logic

Automatic adjustment of altitude in folllow me when using an iPhone with barometer.

Tons of settings to get the perfect shot. Will use mine for some fierce action shots riding my Polaris.

MikeON · Sep 26, 2015

johnnyu said:
I used the 'follow me' to take some footage of some neighbors mountain properties in the West Virgina Mountains. I must say I was nervous in the forests where bears, mountain lions, panthers and skunks are. I photographed one property for its owner and the next property wasnt too too far away but the next mountain over so I was skiddish on using the feature while my wife drove the car. I enabled it after the fact, jumped in the car, and had my wife take the wheel of the car just in case I ran into issues.

I want to say right now, I was blown away. We got to the next mountain and we turned the car off and I could hear the P3 making its way to me. Now how friggin cool is that? I did run the recorder onboard and captured the whole thing. Camera pointing I need to work on, but I was really amazed at the performance of the craft.

Just had to share.

Mountain lions in West Virginia?