Follow Me at high speed - SOLVED

Alan Murphy · Feb 14, 2016

PdxSteve said:
It entirely depends on the device being followed. It's relying on the devices (relatively) weak wifi signal to send the data back to the controller. Cell phone/Tablet wifi doesn't have much of a range at all. Maybe 50 feet-ish. Is your phones wifi connected to your home internet? Try walking outside and see how far away you can get before losing signal. I'm guessing that's where the real problem lies. We're adding beefier/more robust wifi cards, extra amps, etc., to the Solo/Controller to get a better link between those two...there isn't a way to do that with our phones/tablets, unless there is some sort of external wifi card with a really good antenna that can plug into the USB/Lightning connector.

What would be great is if 3DR would and a hack so we could sync the tablet/phone, solo and controller to a WIFI hub. We could just create our own closed system and extend the range.

Brannon Hagenson · Feb 15, 2016

erikgraham said:
So, I never did post the video...

Here it is. Skip a minute or more in for the higher speeds. According to the driver, we got up to 40 mph a few times. Looking back over it, I can't really pick out when those times were (but definitely after the 1:00 minute mark...). I *guess* around the 2 minute mark we are going pretty fast.

Unfortunately, I was being a little conservative and kept adding altitude to avoid trees. I way over did it, and by the end the Solo is up pretty high. If I had kept it lower to the ground, apparent speed would have been greater. None-the-less, you can get a feel for the speed by focusing on how quickly the car moves past trees and driveways on the side of the road.

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Hi Erik, I'm trying to figure out follow mode a bit better, today I tried it while riding my dirtbike.
I got solo in the air about 100ft up to be safe, clicked on follow me and put my phone in my backpack and began to ride, my girlfriend stayed back with the controller.
Solo followed me for about 250ft then stopped! Is this because my controller was away from my phone?, do I have to the 2 together in order for follow me mode to work correctly?
Thank you

erikgraham · Feb 15, 2016

Brannon Hagenson said:
Hi Erik, I'm trying to figure out follow mode a bit better, today I tried it while riding my dirtbike.
I got solo in the air about 100ft up to be safe, clicked on follow me and put my phone in my backpack and began to ride, my girlfriend stayed back with the controller.
Solo followed me for about 250ft then stopped! Is this because my controller was away from my phone?, do I have to the 2 together in order for follow me mode to work correctly?
Thank you

Yes. You have to keep the controller near the phone, unfortunately.

I suggest a backpack. I posted a few pictures of how you might try to fit the Controller in the Solo backpack. A similar approach could be used for any back pack. Just make sure your Return to Home location and altitude are very safe, because if you lose connection it will be difficult to get the pack off and get to the controller.

Follow Me - back pack "mod"

Brannon Hagenson · Feb 15, 2016

erikgraham said:
Yes. You have to keep the controller near the phone, unfortunately.

Wow that's crazy and ridiculous, if I put my controller in my back pack I run the risk of buttons or the sticks getting pressed and messing everything up! So everything 3dr shows of solo chasing a motocross guy is basically a lie, they don't have the controller on them in the videos they show! Anyways thank you for the info, I'm super disappointed with solo right now!

erikgraham · Feb 16, 2016

Brannon Hagenson said:
Wow that's crazy and ridiculous, if I put my controller in my back pack I run the risk of buttons or the sticks getting pressed and messing everything up! So everything 3dr shows of solo chasing a motocross guy is basically a lie, they don't have the controller on them in the videos they show! Anyways thank you for the info, I'm super disappointed with solo right now!

Well, they use chase vehicles. Or they position the guy with the controller within wifi distance of the phone. But yes it's disappointing. With previous 3DR drones, you would just attach an antenna to the phone so it could connect directly to the drone and take the controller out of the loop.

I think you can rig a backpack wth the controller in such a way that you won't have to worry about buttons getting pressed. You will have to adjust wpnav_speed if you want it to follow faster than 10 to 15 mph. I would recommend staying at or below 1500 cm/s for now. I haven't been able to test at a higher speeds, so i can't tell you what will happen if you go faster. But that will get 35 to 40mph. (1500 cm/s = approx 35 mph, but in my (limited) experience it will go a little faster than that during follow me.)

Brannon Hagenson · Feb 16, 2016

erikgraham said:
Well, they use chase vehicles. Or they position the guy with the controller within wifi distance of the phone. But yes it's disappointing. With previous 3DR drones, you would just attach an antenna to the phone so it could connect directly to the drone and take the controller out of the loop.

I think you can rig a backpack wth the controller in such a way that you won't have to worry about buttons getting pressed. You will have to adjust wpnav_speed if you want it to follow faster than 10 to 15 mph. I would recommend staying at or below 1500 cm/s for now. I haven't been able to test at a higher speeds, so i can't tell you what will happen if you go faster. But that will get 35 to 40mph. (1500 cm/s = approx 35 mph, but in my (limited) experience it will go a little faster than that during follow me.)

Great, thank you for all the info, very much appreciated!

Captain J.D. · Feb 17, 2016

Question here in terms of cranking up the
WPNAV_SPEED parameter for Follow Me mode. If I crank that up, will that also increase the speed doing a selfie? Point being I would not want that, just curious.

erikgraham · Feb 17, 2016

Captain J.D. said:
Question here in terms of cranking up the
WPNAV_SPEED parameter for Follow Me mode. If I crank that up, will that also increase the speed doing a selfie? Point being I would not want that, just curious.

Yes it probably will. You'd have to double check to make sure but wpnav_speed will effect speed in auto and guided mode. I haven't looked into it, but I assume the selfie shot is one of the two.

In general, I would recommend using the default wpnav_speed value, unless you are specifically looking for high speed following. It's easy enough to change, even while in flight.

CanadianSolo · Feb 17, 2016

Yikes, what do you guys do for a living... "i have a couple of solos left" wtf is that.. lol lol lol WOW! I can only afford one hahaah.

Acroduster · Feb 17, 2016

In the video you posted with it following you, the camera appears to tilt now and then. Are you doing that or is the Smart Shot controlling it?

erikgraham · Feb 17, 2016

Acroduster said:
In the video you posted with it following you, the camera appears to tilt now and then. Are you doing that or is the Smart Shot controlling it?

That's the Solo keeping me in frame. Also, as the flight went on and we started driving faster and faster I got nervous and increased altitude a lot (way too much). As the Solo gained altitude it automatically tilted the camera down to keep me in frame.

As an aside, the reason I increased altitude so much is because (as you may know already) when you increase speed the angle-of-attack increases and you can lose lift. The effect can be hard to notice at first so just to be safe I kept increasing altitude. But as you can see, by the end of the video the Solo was way up there. It's too bad because if I stayed closer to the ground it would have highlighted how fast the Solo was flying. You can still tell its moving faster if you watch objects slide across the frame, but it's not as apparent.

erikgraham · Feb 17, 2016

CanadianSolo said:
Yikes, what do you guys do for a living... "i have a couple of solos left" wtf is that.. lol lol lol WOW! I can only afford one hahaah.

Software. And yes it's ridiculous that I've invested so much into the Solo, but I love flying drones.

pyrate · Feb 17, 2016

I wonder if free look on follow me is now still limited in speed.
my understanding is you can change the angle of attack, so if you are on rabbit and it is keeping up with you but you want to shift the camera from behind you to in front of you, is there enough rocks in solos pockets to get that extra speed stock?

Captain J.D. · Feb 19, 2016

erikgraham said:
Yes it probably will. You'd have to double check to make sure but wpnav_speed will effect speed in auto and guided mode. I haven't looked into it, but I assume the selfie shot is one of the two.

In general, I would recommend using the default wpnav_speed value, unless you are specifically looking for high speed following. It's easy enough to change, even while in flight.

Yeah I'm just leaving it at the default value. But when they sort this crap out and release "Boat Mode" I'm gonna need some more speed in Follow Me. Right now it's a moot point since I can't get the thing to initialize offshore to begin with.

Brettt · Jun 1, 2016

Hey guys, new to the Solo and the boards and disappointed with the Follow speed like everyone else (which 3DR still advertises as 55 mph in their FAQ's). Any new recommendations at this point? Does it seem reliable at 1500 cm/s at least? Anyone take it higher safely?

Vegasrobbi · Jun 1, 2016

Brettt said:
Hey guys, new to the Solo and the boards and disappointed with the Follow speed like everyone else (which 3DR still advertises as 55 mph in their FAQ's). Any new recommendations at this point? Does it seem reliable at 1500 cm/s at least? Anyone take it higher safely?

I'm not disappointed with Solo's Follow Me, it is as good as my P3P and I think the new leash even better. I'd say maximum Follow speed is about 35 mph. I've had my Solo to over 50 mph many times but only in a dive. I think maximum Follow speed is about 35 mph, maybe a little more with a completely stock Solo. I purchased a Typhoon H which claims 43 mph follow me but I have yet to try it out.

Here's a short vid showing Leash.

pyrate · Jun 1, 2016

try acro it will go faster
just be ready to crash

Vegasrobbi · Jun 2, 2016

pyrate said:
try acro it will go faster
just be ready to crash

Not convinced it would go much faster in Arco. I did extensive speed testing and many Arco flights with Solo.

At about 40-45 mph Solo starts to lose altitude even when applying more throttle. I feel it is a combination of thrust angle and aerodynamic forces. I tried different modes - manual, sport, etc. I set max angle to 45° with MP but I couldn't hold full forward stick with more than about 3/4 throttle or Solo would dive. Maximum speed is achieved in a dive at about 55 mph IMO. 35-40 mph felt comfortable in Follow which I think is respectable compared to what is out there now. Newer designs like the H and P4 are not boasting much more speed in follow than Solo.

Faster than this and the motors are really screaming and the gimbal isn't happy. I think firmware updates have made Solo one of the best Follow quads I own and I have become content with it's speed.

SPP · Jun 2, 2016

Hi Vegas,

OOT, but I want thank you for your nice ( informative ) video about Lichi vs MPCC.

Brettt · Jun 2, 2016

Thanks for the vids and info, I'm gonna try messing with the nav speed and find a good stable max speed. Looks like the default is 1100 cm/s, or 25 mph which is exactly where mine had maxed out before. The Follow is definitely more accurate and quick to respond than my P3... but they shouldn't be advertising Follow at 55 mph like they are.

I looked into the Typhoon H and they say it only does 22 mph?