How to "Follow Me" on a second iPhone?

[Flyer299]

I'm sure this has been discussed before...

Is it possible to fly with my iPad connected to the controller (4G/LTE version with GPS) but also connect a second iPhone? Then give the second iPhone to my Subject and have the Solo Follow the iPhone, but allow me to control and view from the iPad?

I assume that I would have to stay reasonable close to the subject so that the iPhone is within Wifi range of the controller?

How do you set this up?

 

[Flyer299]

I just tried to run the Solo off of both an iPad and an iPhone at the same time. Results were not good. Which ever device I got connected first and was able to see the video preview on worked. The other App just kept crashing. I was able to start the follow me on the iPhone and then let my subject walk away and it followed her. But I was never able to see the video on my iPad.

My goal is to use Follow me and other Smart shots but not have the UAS operator in the shot. The UAS operator can be just outside the shot and within WIFI range. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[PdxSteve]

How you said is how it is. First connected device gets the video feed. That's the pilot. 2nd connected device goes to the person you want to follow. They won't get video feed, and they don't need it. Just the pilot needs to see. That person runs follow me mode on their device. Solo follows that device. The pilot frames the shot, controls the gimbal, performs orbits around the subject or whatever else as solo follows the other device.

Yes, you are limited to the wifi range of the device being followed. It has to be fairly close to the controller. Most devices don't have a very good wifi range due to tiny internal antennas... ~100 feet or so.

I'm assuming your running the same version of the app on both devices? I'm not sure why the app would crash. I've never had that happen.

 

[Flyer299]

How you said is how it is. First connected device gets the video feed. That's the pilot. 2nd connected device goes to the person you want to follow. They won't get video feed, and they don't need it. Just the pilot needs to see. That person runs follow me mode on their device. Solo follows that device. The pilot frames the shot, controls the gimbal, performs orbits around the subject or whatever else as solo follows the other device.

Thank you PdxSteve... I think I see what I did wrong on my last test run. I let the Follow me device get the video stream. I'll try another test run as soon as it stops raining and see if I can get it dialed in.

I am hoping 3DR comes out with a purposed built tracker. I could see a water proof watch that has a GPS and Wifi on it. Know what I do of how the 3DR software works, I think it would be do-able with easy to get components. Sell if for $99, and it would make the Solo an amazing platform.

One more question. If the person taking the "Follow Me" device starts the follow me... Does that mean only that device can tweak the options? Like set it to Follow me Orbit or Follow me Free Look?

 

[PdxSteve]

The person being followed runs the follow me smart shot. They shouldn't touch anything after that. The pilot can control everything and change the options. They are in control. Yes the person being followed CAN control/change settings, but you probably don't want them to unless you are the person being followed and controlling it as well.

I don't think 3dr will be coming out with a tracker. It would be nice.

They did come out with a wearable for Tower, and Tower is compatible with solo. I have no idea whether you can use the wearable for Solo follow me modes throught the regular 3dr solo app though...
Tower Wear - Android Apps on Google Play

Edit: Crap, I forgot you're on iphone/ipad. Tower isn't available for that. :/

 

[DJ Wes]

I thought the device that gets the video feed is also the GPS lock device. How exactly do you 'move' the GPS lock to the second device?

 

[PdxSteve]

When you trigger a follow mode from a device, the lock changes to that device.

 

[Ben J]

Why not use a secondary monitor using the HDMI out on the controller? I have a 7" FlySight Blackmagic that I've used as a secondary display. You could connect your iDevice, take off, start your smart shot and hand off the iDevice. Then the Solo would follow your subject while allowing you to still see the Solo's view on your secondary monitor. You would lose the ability to access advanced controls from the app but you could still fly the Solo. Not a perfect solution but a viable workaround.

 

[DJ Wes]

Why not use a secondary monitor using the HDMI out on the controller? I have a 7" FlySight Blackmagic that I've used as a secondary display. You could connect your iDevice, take off, start your smart shot and hand off the iDevice. Then the Solo would follow your subject while allowing you to still see the Solo's view on your secondary monitor. You would lose the ability to access advanced controls from the app but you could still fly the Solo. Not a perfect solution but a viable workaround.

I wonder if there would be a latency issues.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

The HDMI output will have less latency than the streaming video on your phone/tablet.

Remember when you're doing this, the phone you hand off to your subject is connecting to the controller by WiFi, and so is the Solo. So if you have directional antennas (like FPVLR), you better have both the phone and the solo in the same vicinity. If you're pointing the antennas at the Solo, and the subject with your phone is more than 30 degrees off that angle, you might lose contact with the phone.

 

[DJ Wes]

What would happen if you lose contact?

 

[PdxSteve]

That would depend if you have it set to return to home (launch point), or return to me (current location).

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Actually, this is an interesting scenario. If you're in a smart shot, and you lose connection with the phone/tablet, but not with the solo, what will it do? Continue the smart shot? Switch to fly? RTH/RTM?

 

[Ben J]

Wouldn't the Solo behave just like if you received a phone call while flying? I seem to remember Colin saying in one of his webinars that Solo would pause in that case. On a side note, is the app necessary for flight? Couldn't you fly directly from the controller without using the app? I've never tried.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

App is indeed not needed for flight. But the app has a very active roll during smart shots. So it's not normal flight and it must respond somehow to the app not being there anymore. Perhaps pausing is all it does.

 

[Kelly Schrock]

I'm sure this has been discussed before...

Is it possible to fly with my iPad connected to the controller (4G/LTE version with GPS) but also connect a second iPhone? Then give the second iPhone to my Subject and have the Solo Follow the iPhone, but allow me to control and view from the iPad?

I assume that I would have to stay reasonable close to the subject so that the iPhone is within Wifi range of the controller?

How do you set this up?

It sounds like you're not on Android. If you are, my app (Solex) is going to support this feature in the next release.

Each of your subjects installs a "target" app on their phone (dedicated Android app, or web-based app for iPhones) and specifies a group name and username unique within the group. Then they hit "Follow me", and move about. In Solex, you open Follow/Remote (new Follow mode), open a Mapview, and subscribe to the group. Markers for each subject appear on the map and move around as the subjects move. Click on the subject you want to follow, and hit Start. Solo follows their location as they move. To pick another subject to follow, hit the Map button, and pick another target.

The devices do not need to be on the Solo wifi network, they send their locations to Solex over the internet via websockets.

It works best if your Android device has 4G as well as wifi so it can get map tiles and receive location updates from the targets. None of my tablets have that, though my phone does. But I want to use my tablet. So I added support for Bluetooth and USB tethering last night. To use that, turn Bluetooth Tethering on on the phone, pair with the tablet, and connect them. Then the tablet will get the subject locations and map tiles through the tethered connection.

Anyway, I'm doing some final testing this weekend, and I'm getting together with someone to make a demo video next weekend. In between, I'll be writing documentation for it (since it's more involved than the other shots). So, probably 2 weeks out before I release an update with that feature in there.

 

[Drone Moto]

It sounds like you're not on Android. If you are, my app (Solex) is going to support this feature in the next release.

Each of your subjects installs a "target" app on their phone (dedicated Android app, or web-based app for iPhones) and specifies a group name and username unique within the group. Then they hit "Follow me", and move about. In Solex, you open Follow/Remote (new Follow mode), open a Mapview, and subscribe to the group. Markers for each subject appear on the map and move around as the subjects move. Click on the subject you want to follow, and hit Start. Solo follows their location as they move. To pick another subject to follow, hit the Map button, and pick another target.

The devices do not need to be on the Solo wifi network, they send their locations to Solex over the internet via websockets.

It works best if your Android device has 4G as well as wifi so it can get map tiles and receive location updates from the targets. None of my tablets have that, though my phone does. But I want to use my tablet. So I added support for Bluetooth and USB tethering last night. To use that, turn Bluetooth Tethering on on the phone, pair with the tablet, and connect them. Then the tablet will get the subject locations and map tiles through the tethered connection.

Anyway, I'm doing some final testing this weekend, and I'm getting together with someone to make a demo video next weekend. In between, I'll be writing documentation for it (since it's more involved than the other shots). So, probably 2 weeks out before I release an update with that feature in there.

Kelly that sounds fantastic! When I first saw promotional videos for Solo I wrongly assumed follow me would enable following subject and not the camera operator (seemed like a no brainer since the Solo was advertised as a professional worthy filming solution and not for making cool selfie videos for Instagram) - obviously I thought wrong, must have something to do the tethering architecture utilizing wifi etc.

I can't wait to hear about your results, especially since I use an iPhone and have an Android Acer tablet that does not have 4G much like your scenario!

 

[DJ Wes]

Kelly, This is AWESOME news! Much respect and appreciation to you, sir. I use my iPad Mini 2 most of the time I fly but my phone is an Samsung Galaxy 5S running Android 6.0.1 on AT&T's 4G LTE.

 

[Kelly Schrock]

Kelly, This is AWESOME news! Much respect and appreciation to you, sir. I use my iPad Mini 2 most of the time I fly but my phone is an Samsung Galaxy 5S running Android 6.0.1 on AT&T's 4G LTE.

Then that should work fine! The downside is that all that explicit-network stuff requires at least Android 5.0, so your Galaxy should be in good shape.

 

[Kelly Schrock]

I can't wait to hear about your results, especially since I use an iPhone and have an Android Acer tablet that does not have 4G much like your scenario!

Actually, I wonder if that will work. If your iPhone allows Bluetooth tethering from an Android tablet, I'd expect it will. But my understanding (and experience) with Apple is that in order to establish a Bluetooth connection with an iOS device, there has to be an MFI chip in the other device. MFI stands for "Made For iPod", and I don't know of any Android devices that have that chip in there. I do know that it works with a tethered Android phone hooked to a tablet. I'll just be curious to see if the other scenario works.