3dr follow me mode

[michaelr]

Since I am New to flying my solo. I have a question. I want to film my self going up the river in follow me mode. However I am a little nervous about it. What happen if you lose WiFi connect with you phone or tablet. Will solo try to land?? Its a big risk to the investment if solo goes into the river. Much input is needed here.

Thanks

 

[Earldgrayjr]

Assuming you have GPS (clear sky view) your Solo will Return to Home, which assuming you had GPS lock when you took off, will be where you took off.

Also keep in mind, that if your controller and tablet (with GPS) lose contact with Solo and it does an RTH, it will make a "bee line" to home at either the RTH altitude or higher if that's where it was when it lost connection.

That means if a tree or a house or a mountain are between Solo and "home" and are at the RTH altitude, it will try to go through it. The default RTH altitude is 49 ft I highly suggest you change that to something higher, such as 150 to 200 ft.

There are tutorials here on the software and process.

 

[michaelr]

With that being said....

If I was to launch 3dr from my boat and go into follow me mode. Would it be better to go into advance settings and turn that on.

In the event I lost connectivity to solo would it just hover there instead of making a return trip to home and trying to land?

 

[taddo]

How do we change the rth default alt?

 

[michaelr]

Sorry I made myself a little unclear here..

What I am trying to say is.. I know if you go into advance setting from what I have read, it takes out of GPS mode and you fly manually correct?

So in the event I lost connectivity with solo would it just hover there instead of doing a return trip from your original starting point?

With what you are saying can the rth be changed in advance settings??
I did see a tutorial on YouTube in regards to the tower app that you can change the settings there but I haven't played with tower app just yet..

But definitely I want to change those setting for sure.

 

[Jubalr]

Sorry I made myself a little unclear here..

What I am trying to say is.. I know if you go into advance setting from what I have read, it takes out of GPS mode and you fly manually correct?

So in the event I lost connectivity with solo would it just hover there instead of doing a return trip from your original starting point?

With what you are saying can the rth be changed in advance settings??
I did see a tutorial on YouTube in regards to the tower app that you can change the settings there but I haven't played with tower app just yet..

But definitely I want to change those setting for sure.

You can fly manual, but the Home position will still be where you took off from or first got a lock. So if you lose signal, regardless of mode you were in, it will still RTH to the original home position. If you are in follow mode on boat home will still be the original position. They are currently trying to implement a 'Boat' mode with a dynamic home point, but it is very complicated.

 

[michaelr]

Awesome thank you for the clarification!!!

What would be your thoughts in what to do in this situation at this point in time?

 

[Jubalr]

Awesome thank you for the clarification!!!

What would be your thoughts in what to do in this situation at this point in time?

For now, you would want to take off from land with a good lock. Then do a follow on the boat and fly manually as you want and to land. As long as you stay LOS you should be fine. But in the event of RTH, you would at least know where to find the SOLO.

 

[CanadianSolo]

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Here is a good tutorial.

 

[taddo]

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here is what happened when I tried to do a follow me.
I should of known better. Completely my fault.

 

[sgs182]

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here is what happened when I tried to do a follow me.
I should of known better. Completely my fault.

What caused the crash? Was it because you tried to use the sticks before ending follow me mode? Hope your bird is alright.

 

[erikgraham]

You should definitely practice using Follow Me in a wide open space a few times on a bike or in a car (sun roof open). Get a feel for how it works. Especially for how the Solo reacts to turns.

Follow Me is NOT idiot proof. A lot can go wrong. For the very reason you mentioned (loss of connection) I personally disable RTL (aka RTH). I also disable the geofence. Those "safety" features tend to cause crashes in my experience. Better to let it drop out of follow me into loiter (what Solo users call "Fly"). It will just hover in place and you can circle back and take control.

You do NOT want it to ever switch into Fly:Manual (Stabilize) if you don't have a connection. Wind will blow your Solo away. It will hold altitude but otherwise go where the wind blows it.

Also, you want to be sure you understand the different follow modes. Here is trouble I could see getting you on the river.... Lets say you have the leash set to 20 or 30 meters. Meantime you have the altitude set to something like 10 or 20 meters, but the trees on either side of the river are 40 or 50 meters tall. At first you will be fine as you drive/paddle straight up the river. But if you make a turn at speed, you could end up swinging your solo into the trees. I've had this happen on ski slopes with snow boarders by the way. This happens because the drone is constantly extrapolating where it should go based on your heading and speed. The easy solution is to set the altitude above the trees. Or you could shorten up the leash.

As I said in another post somewhere on these boards, Follow Me is a bit of an art. Once you get the feel for it, its awesome, but it takes some finesse.

p.s. you will want to launch from land or a stable dock. you might be able to take off from the boat after the next Solo update.

 

[erikgraham]

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here is what happened when I tried to do a follow me.
I should of known better. Completely my fault.

Follow Me seems to be tuned for stuff like biking, boating, snow boarding, driving... just generally faster moving activities. It seems like its gotten better in the last 6 months, but in general it doesn't work well for walking around.

Notice how you spun around in place at one point. The drone is trying to extrapolate your heading and speed to predict where it should go next. It does a good job softening things up when you are moving faster, but from the drones perspective during that video its receiving massive heading changes, coupled with imprecise location data from your phone/tablet (not a failing of your Solo's GPS, but rather the location data from your tablet).

Someone showed me the math at one point awhile ago, but suffice it to say that at slower speeds with wildly fluctuating headings caused by swinging your phone/tablet around, things can go haywire). Quick solution while you get the feel for follow me is to raise the altitude of the drone above anything near by.

 

[michaelr]

erikgraham,

Can you give me some insight on how I can change the parameter on the geofence and RTH.
Next question to that after I fly back on land I will need to change those parameter back to normal correct?

Where I am looking to do the follow me I in no need to worry about tree or structure I am out on the Columbia river that borders Oregon and Washington where it can stretch to 1 to 5 miles across the river. That why I am been in question on the parameter I am working with here.. My take off and landing would be from the boat directly.

Erik thank you for all your insight and help it greatly appreciated

Is there some good tutorial out there on tower that a person can read up on and study
to get more of a feel for how to utilize it features??
I wish they had a class for this!!

 

[erikgraham]

erikgraham,

Can you give me some insight on how I can change the parameter on the geofence and RTH.
Next question to that after I fly back on land I will need to change those parameter back to normal correct?

Where I am looking to do the follow me I in no need to worry about tree or structure I am out on the Columbia river that borders Oregon and Washington where it can stretch to 1 to 5 miles across the river. That why I am been in question on the parameter I am working with here.. My take off and landing would be from the boat directly.

Erik thank you for all your insight and help it greatly appreciated

Is there some good tutorial out there on tower that a person can read up on and study
to get more of a feel for how to utilize it features??
I wish they had a class for this!!

Everything you need can be found on the 3DR support site. You'll probably want to use Tower to change Params. Or Mission Planner on a PC. Or APM on a mac.

(I'll try to post more when I have more time)

 

[michaelr]

Awesome... thanks,

 

[erikgraham]

Awesome... thanks,

Here are some links. These are all from 3DRs website.

Tower Support page.
If you have an Android device this is a good choice.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/tower-support/

Mission Planner Support page:
If you have a windows device, this is best. Mission Planner is the best most complete ground station software for ArduCopter/Pixhawk based devices (like the Solo). The User Interface is kind of dated though.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/mission-planner/

APM Support page.
Use this if you only have a Mac. Its not as good as Mission Planner, but it has really come along.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/apm-planner/


Additional links:
http://copter.ardupilot.com

http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/
(this link lists all parameters and gives explanations)

http.diydrones.com
This is kind of the place to go with technical questions. There are numerous groups you can join. The Solo group is pretty small, but the developers frequent it (including the CEO of 3DR). Don't expect instant replies to your posts though. Sometimes you might throw a question out there and no one will respond for days or even a week. Sometimes they don't respond at all. Other times you might get a response in seconds. Other groups to check out at DIY drones would be the Arducopter group, the Iris group and maybe the Tower group.

http://ardupilot.com/forum/
Another forum, focused on the ardupilot code.


There are currently 3 flavors of ardupilot: Arduplane (for fixed wing drones), Arducopter (thats us.. multi rotor drones), and Ardurover (for ground based drones). There is also boat and submarine branches, but I am not familiar with them or where you find info on them (probably DIYdrones).

It can be a little confusing at times, but this is all these links are part of 3DR - sort of. Think of it as one big family.

 

[erikgraham]

Here are some links. These are all from 3DRs website.

Tower Support page.
If you have an Android device this is a good choice.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/tower-support/

Mission Planner Support page:
If you have a windows device, this is best. Mission Planner is the best most complete ground station software for ArduCopter/Pixhawk based devices (like the Solo). The User Interface is kind of dated though.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/mission-planner/

APM Support page.
Use this if you only have a Mac. Its not as good as Mission Planner, but it has really come along.
http://3drobotics.com/kb/apm-planner/


Additional links:
http://copter.ardupilot.com

http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/
(this link lists all parameters and gives explanations)

http.diydrones.com
This is kind of the place to go with technical questions. There are numerous groups you can join. The Solo group is pretty small, but the developers frequent it (including the CEO of 3DR). Don't expect instant replies to your posts though. Sometimes you might throw a question out there and no one will respond for days or even a week. Sometimes they don't respond at all. Other times you might get a response in seconds. Other groups to check out at DIY drones would be the Arducopter group, the Iris group and maybe the Tower group.

http://ardupilot.com/forum/
Another forum, focused on the ardupilot code.


There are currently 3 flavors of ardupilot: Arduplane (for fixed wing drones), Arducopter (thats us.. multi rotor drones), and Ardurover (for ground based drones). There is also boat and submarine branches, but I am not familiar with them or where you find info on them (probably DIYdrones).

It can be a little confusing at times, but this is all these links are part of 3DR - sort of. Think of it as one big family.

Oh and to give this context. The link for the params (http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/) is where you want to start. Search for FENCE and RTL. Read those descriptions to learn about the various options you can set. (RTL is what you guys call RTH).

Then once you have a basic understanding of those params, follow the Tower, Mission Planner, or APM links above to learn how to actually change them. (hint for a Solo you connect to the Sololink wifi, and use UDP to connect to the drone - before solo it was all done with mavlink radios or direct USB into the copter). I predict the hardest part, once you do some research will be figuring out how to connect to the Solo - and thats not to difficult. Plenty of post here and elsewhere on how to do that.

 

[taddo]

What caused the crash? Was it because you tried to use the sticks before ending follow me mode? Hope your bird is alright.

Yes and I tried to change height and spun around quickly. I messed up not the solo.

 

[taddo]

Follow Me seems to be tuned for stuff like biking, boating, snow boarding, driving... just generally faster moving activities. It seems like its gotten better in the last 6 months, but in general it doesn't work well for walking around.

Notice how you spun around in place at one point. The drone is trying to extrapolate your heading and speed to predict where it should go next. It does a good job softening things up when you are moving faster, but from the drones perspective during that video its receiving massive heading changes, coupled with imprecise location data from your phone/tablet (not a failing of your Solo's GPS, but rather the location data from your tablet).

Someone showed me the math at one point awhile ago, but suffice it to say that at slower speeds with wildly fluctuating headings caused by swinging your phone/tablet around, things can go haywire). Quick solution while you get the feel for follow me is to raise the altitude of the drone above anything near by.

I think you are 100 percent correct.