Smart Shots

Earldgrayjr · Jul 17, 2015

Took out my neighbors Solo (mine is getting repaired) and started working more closely with the "Smart Shots". He is letting me "borrow" it, and I am teaching him and trying to get him his free battery...

I could get all of them to be quite usable (once the gimbal arrives) except the Follow Me. Didn't play around with the defaults other than speed, and it "sortof" worked, but the Solo seems to bump along as if it were riding on railroad ties.... It is possible the gimbal will compensate, but it will be asking a LOT from it, and I am not sure it can take up that much slack.

Anybody else tried this? Seeing the same thing? Any solutions in the settings?

sgs182 · Jul 17, 2015

why is this thread called don't buy at best buy?

Earldgrayjr · Jul 17, 2015

sgs182 said:
why is this thread called don't buy at best buy?

Good question... That wasn't my intent...

sgs182 · Jul 17, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Good question... That wasn't my intent...

haha. i haven't tried follow me mode yet, but from what I've read and seen, it doesn't work too well if you're just walking or if the distance you are traveling is short. this guy has a pretty lengthy demo of follow me with his solo.

GhostMaster · Jul 17, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Took out my neighbors Solo (mine is getting repaired) and started working more closely with the "Smart Shots". He is letting me "borrow" it, and I am teaching him and trying to get him his free battery...

I could get all of them to be quite usable (once the gimbal arrives) except the Follow Me. Didn't play around with the defaults other than speed, and it "sortof" worked, but the Solo seems to bump along as if it were riding on railroad ties.... It is possible the gimbal will compensate, but it will be asking a LOT from it, and I am not sure it can take up that much slack.

Anybody else tried this? Seeing the same thing? Any solutions in the settings?

Gimbal will not compensate the jerk moves... Follow me its not perfect in any aircraft yet... But is what it is...

Killboy · Jul 17, 2015

When you say "bump along" do you mean it's moving excessively up and down, or some other direction?

Keep in mind that the follow mode is only as accurate as the device sending Solo positional data. Cell phones are not the most high performance GPS devices out there, especially certain models that may update more slowly than others.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 18, 2015

It's not the tablet. I can watch the target move smoothly both in the app as well as other apps. The problem is the Solo jerks forward, then slows, then jerks again in a very rythmic pattern, when the target is moving smoothly.

Like it is moving too fast, then adjusts and slows, then goes too fast again, over and over.

I am teaching neighbor on his. Will try to post video if I can before traveling again on Tuesday.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 20, 2015

This is a short video of the "Follow Me" problem I discussed in a previous post. This might be handled by a speed adjustment, though I would hope the Follow Me speed is adaptive? In any case, I am truly interested in how to make this work, and any experiences others are having with it.

sgs182 · Jul 20, 2015

Very strange, that doesn't seem normal to me.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 20, 2015

Does yours do this? Anyone else?

Somebody has to have tried this....

Jubalr · Jul 21, 2015

There are plenty of examples of this feature on YouTube. Saw one last week following a wake boarder. The problems people have is when they are 'testing' it. Usually by some slow activity like walking. It's not really for that type of activity. When you are walking around trying to test it, you have to remember that it is determining your location by your phone/tablet GPS, which is not all that accurate. I have a GPS app on my phone that shows number of sats, speed, height, position, etc, all the usual stuff. Another thing it shows is the current estimated accuracy. A typical reading is in the 12'-25' range. Now you can see the problem. Let's say best case 12' accuracy +/-. So making small movements makes it very difficult for the Pixhawk controller to both follow you and predict your next position. But as your speed and consistency increase, so does the Solo's ability to follow you a little more smoothly.

Fly Safe..
Jubal

Earldgrayjr · Jul 21, 2015

Jubalr said:
There are plenty of examples of this feature on YouTube. Saw one last week following a wake boarder. The problems people have is when they are 'testing' it. Usually by some slow activity like walking. It's not really for that type of activity. When you are walking around trying to test it, you have to remember that it is determining your location by your phone/tablet GPS, which is not all that accurate. I have a GPS app on my phone that shows number of sats, speed, height, position, etc, all the usual stuff. Another thing it shows is the current estimated accuracy. A typical reading is in the 12'-25' range. Now you can see the problem. Let's say best case 12' accuracy +/-. So making small movements makes it very difficult for the Pixhawk controller to both follow you and predict your next position. But as your speed and consistency increase, so does the Solo's ability to follow you a little more smoothly.

Fly Safe..
Jubal

I have seen the promo stuff. Forgive me, but but those are best case and showing everything perfect. Not a knock at all, as I have made that kind of thing myself in other circumstances. But they often don't tell the real story of what can be done in real life. I also get the idea....and it sounds like a good explanation....

Except in my case.... The faster I go... The worse it gets.... You can even see it in this video as I speed up and slow down on the way back, but I originally took out my mountain bike and was going abou 10 miles an hour, and it was much worse rather than better. In that case it was jerking so badly that I dont even stay in the frame, and I was pretty far away. I used this clip because it illustrates the problem better. The other clip was such a mess you could hardly tell what was going on. I am positive that in this case at least, it isn't from being to slow.

It is also not the GPS of the device. I have tried it with two devices (Nexus 9 and iPhone 6) and get identical results in two different places with open skys. The accuracy of the Nexus device I was using in this open field was as tight as it gets (smallest circle) and and an accuracy of <6 feet. I can see my location updating very smoothly in real time as I move. You just aren't going to get better GPS conditions, or better results on consumer devices.

I would be interested in seeing a clip of someone here using Follow Me with a current unit, either doing what I have, or something faster or the "right" conditions to compare and troubleshoot.

Eric Sheehan · Jul 21, 2015

I experienced the same herky jerky movements. I was flying low, and walking slow. Starting with the camera pointing directly at me, in a short time it was pointed way off center. Also, when I put the iPhone in my pocket, the app dropped right away, follow me done. Had to restart app to continue. In my opinion, to use follow me you would not have the device fully exposed.

Jubalr · Jul 21, 2015

I have not tried the follow me feature on the Solo yet, don't really have a use for it but will try to test it this weekend if the weather holds. I have tested Follow on a Hex with the Pixhawk and it seemed to work OK at the time. I also had a gimbal which is going to smooth out the start/stop by quite a bit. Here is the video I referenced with the wake boarder. You can see some pausing in it, but still pretty smooth without a gimbal.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 21, 2015

Jubalr said:
I have not tried the follow me feature on the Solo yet, don't really have a use for it but will try to test it this weekend if the weather holds. I have tested Follow on a Hex with the Pixhawk and it seemed to work OK at the time. I also had a gimbal which is going to smooth out the start/stop by quite a bit. Here is the video I referenced with the wake boarder. You can see some pausing in it, but still pretty smooth without a gimbal.

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I appreciate the test when you can. I will return the favor some time

I am hoping it is just some default values in the Pixhawk2 that I can change, but I want to see if it is the same for everyone first as a troubleshooting step before I start looking for it or tweaking things.

Jubalr · Jul 21, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
I appreciate the test when you can. I will return the favor some time

I am hoping it is just some default values in the Pixhawk2 that I can change, but I want to see if it is the same for everyone first as a troubleshooting step before I start looking for it or tweaking things.

No Problem Earl. After the test, maybe we can determine some tweaks that will help.