Follow distance

[Dave Levine]

Heya, new owner with the 3dr set to arrive this saturday.
Naturally I have been pouring over videos and articles and obsessing.
One thing I noticed is that follow mode seems to always be a good distance back from the subject.
How is the drone at maintaining altitude and distance much closer? Such as if I wanted the drone to follow the subject from a distance six feet and 4 or 5 feet from the ground?

 

[IrishmanPDX]

It would depend on a number of factors such as GPS signal strength, weather conditions, filming location etc. There's always a change of positional or altitude drift depending on what the weather conditions or sunspot activity is like, if you're getting a spotty GPS due to your filming location (tree's, tall buildings etc). I would take safety into consideration first and always plan for the worst. Why not film in 4K and do a zoom and crop in post production, that way you can be a few feet further out, get the framing and footage you want while still maintaining a safe filming environment.

 

[Dave Levine]

Indeed cropping may be the tool of choice. But I am trying to get an idea of how close I can reasonable be to the subject assuming decent signal and weather and also what accessories or changes I could make such as a stronger GPS that would allow it. In general baring wind or blocked signal, how stable is the craft at low levels?

 

[IrishmanPDX]

Fair enough, I flew at the coast a while back and thought I had pretty decent conditions, I did however notice a good bit of drift (3-5 feet horizontal and 1-2 feet vertical). I was also about 8 feet away from the drone at this point. However, using autoland (was trying it out after upgrading the greencube) it would put down within 2 feet of the takeoff point (using the sand marks for reference). That was using the Greencube and the previous generation MRO gps chip. However everyone swears that the HERE GPS upgrade gives you rock steady positional hold. Not only does it seem to be a better GPS chip than the previous MRO chip, but since it's usually mounted on a mast and contains a compass too, this elevates both the GPS and compass away from the body of the drone thus reducing the effects of the drones body blocking signals. This in turn should give you better horizontal positional hold.

I live in an area that's heavily wooded and I tend to get poor GPS lock when landing (so manual all the way), however I've recently bought a HERE system and when it arrives I'll be able to see what difference it makes (and when it stops raining here of course).

 

[Dave Levine]

I would love top hear the results, please let me know!
the drifts do not sounds too horrible but the GPS upgrade may be exactly what I need.
Decent amount of trees and such here as well, but the areas I want to film in this manner I can pick and choose.
really want to fly it over the Oregon City falls which is within walking distance. Depending on range I may be able to fly it there from my deck!

 

[IrishmanPDX]

Will do, I did find that with the stock solo GPS (rev a), it would take me about 5 minutes to get a sat lock, or sometimes I wouldn't get a sat lock at all. When I upgraded to the previous MRO GPS, I got 8 - 12 sats within less than a minute and 19-24 sats on average while in the air. However, it's not about the amount of sats you get, but the quality of the signal. My HERE arrives this weekend, I'll hopefully get it installed and fly on the next dry day we have here in PDX.

 

[Dave Levine]

How hard an install you expecting?

 

[IrishmanPDX]

Not very, I still consider myself a newbie, but with a few flying hours under his belt. The MRO GPS upgrade was actually very simple and I think anyone with a screwdriver could do it. The HERE GPS, I think that's only slightly more work, in fact the only part that will be a challenge is making a "nice looking" alteration to the GPS cover to put the wires through, however, that's why I have a dremel. The other part will be making sure it's configured properly, but there's plenty of youtube (and forum) help here for that. Honestly the best thing you've done is join this forum, there's some very enthusiastic people here that are always willing to help!

 

[Vegasrobbi]

Not much can touch Solo for down low close in Follow shots, I've been using Solo for years in that role. The Typhoon H is close but nothing DJI has to offer works for me. There is a learning curve and I regularly fly 3-4 feet off the ground 5 feet off my hood.

Upgrade your GPS and do a proper calibration.

If running on trails with elevation changes use an Apple device with a built in barometer that way Solo will follow the elevation changes of the device.