Strange Follow Me Flight

[Pete Leare]

This was my first 'true' test of the follow me feature, (after walking around the yard and making sure the P3 did in fact follow me okay from about 50ft in the air - which was perfect BTW) and I had a somewhat puzzling result.

First let me say that I was using an ipad Mini2 (wifi only) hooked up to a Garmin Glo GPS via BT, which had a good satellite lock as did the P3 (17 Sats on the P3).

I sent the P3 up to ~200ft in order to clear all the trees on my intended short drive down the street and back, and panned the camera down to keep my car in view.

I set the Garmin on the dash to make sure I maintained a good sat signal, and set the controller on the passenger seat. I was solo, so did not look much at the ipad while driving and did not control anything. I kept my car speed between 10-15mph.

After the short drive/flight I took the SD card out and reviewed the video. The 'downward leg' of the trip seemed to be perfect as you can see from the video, however after doing a U turn at the end of the street to come back, the P3 seemed to lose me... it stopped and appeared to be 'looking around' to find me.. then continued up the street following the road, but stopped again and started looking around. Eventually it came back but I still was not controlling anything until overhead and I manually landed it. Does this behavior sound a bit strange to you?

 

[batch1978]

Dude I think you drove by Donald Trump's house lol

 

[batch1978]

I have a similar video I'm gonna post later was the RC in the vehicle or hanging out?

 

[Pete Leare]

The RC was on the passenger seat inside the car

 

[Ingsoc75]

How far was the drone from the car?

I've tried the exact thing and it only takes 1/4 mile distance before GPS signal is lost and the drone just hovers. I do think being in the car is the culprit.

Gotta find a truck or something so there are not car obstructions.

 

[Pete Leare]

I was up 200ft and tried to drive as slow as possible. As you can see, there was no problem on the 'downward' leg at the same speed. I think you are right ingsoc just car obstacles

 

[Ingsoc75]

I was up 200ft and tried to drive as slow as possible. As you can see, there was no problem on the 'downward' leg at the same speed. I think you are right ingsoc just car obstacles

Driving in a neighborhood works pretty well, but when you try and drive on main roads it's pretty impossible because of the speeds.

 

[Stan_in_KS]

Did you consider how the Follow Me has to work? I think the controller also has GPS inside it, so the P3 always knows the exact position of the controller. The number of satellites the controller could see would be limited by your windows and the position of the sats at the time you were driving. When you turned around, the controller might have lost enough satellites that it wasn't sure where it was. It would be better in a convertible or where someone could hold the controller so it could "see" the sky. I might be wrong, but it looked like you drove faster going home at the signals to the GPS in the controller might have been scrambled for a while and not updating the position correctly. Try it with the controller having better access to the sky while you drive.

 

[batch1978]

Here my P3 stops following me in FMM and for a moment seems to watch my buddy, you can see me running away with the TX

 

[Marcfly]

Hi, thank you for your nice experience. A car body works like a Faraday cage. Unless equipped properly the signal of your RC can be affected depending on your speed or any electric system functioning at this moment. Faraday cage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[George J Zanatta]

In your video, on your way back I noticed that when the drone stopped was by a place that looks like having a bunch of antennas is that right or just my imagination?

 

[batch1978]

In your video, on your way back I noticed that when the drone stopped was by a place that looks like having a bunch of antennas is that right or just my imagination?

in the middle of the traffic circle there are one way signs, thats it though

 

[ELHEAPO]

I was up 200ft and tried to drive as slow as possible. As you can see, there was no problem on the 'downward' leg at the same speed. I think you are right ingsoc just car obstacles

I've got 2 say u have the best avatar on this forum...Louis van Gaals red and white army...sorry back 2 the phantom stuff now!!

 

[bobmyers]

This was my first 'true' test of the follow me feature, (after walking around the yard and making sure the P3 did in fact follow me okay from about 50ft in the air - which was perfect BTW) and I had a somewhat puzzling result.

First let me say that I was using an ipad Mini2 (wifi only) hooked up to a Garmin Glo GPS via BT, which had a good satellite lock as did the P3 (17 Sats on the P3).

I sent the P3 up to ~200ft in order to clear all the trees on my intended short drive down the street and back, and panned the camera down to keep my car in view.

I set the Garmin on the dash to make sure I maintained a good sat signal, and set the controller on the passenger seat. I was solo, so did not look much at the ipad while driving and did not control anything. I kept my car speed between 10-15mph.

After the short drive/flight I took the SD card out and reviewed the video. The 'downward leg' of the trip seemed to be perfect as you can see from the video, however after doing a U turn at the end of the street to come back, the P3 seemed to lose me... it stopped and appeared to be 'looking around' to find me.. then continued up the street following the road, but stopped again and started looking around. Eventually it came back but I still was not controlling anything until overhead and I manually landed it. Does this behavior sound a bit strange to you?

The P3 was obviously lost--- when you stopped in your drive way and got out-- was it in sight?

 

[Pete Leare]

It was, but way down the road.. Several hundred feet away

 

[bobmyers]

It was, but way down the road.. Several hundred feet away

So it was looking -- the whole time on the way back good to know--

 

[Pete Leare]

What was very interesting to me was that it followed the road I travelled on even though a straight line to me would have been a shorter route... Like I left a scent trail of sorts

 

[acherman]

I used it last week. The message on the screen says if it gets 200m away from the controller it will stop and hover - that will be its new home point. Happened to me as I sped up and pulled away a bit. Disappointing to see its max speed was 10m/s while it was following.

Also, @Stan_in_KS, the P3 controller does not have GPS built in. Hence the need for a device with GPS to be connected for things like this to work.

@Marcfly - not much of a Faraday cage. Waaaaaay too many holes big enough to crawl through. Besides, how would our cell phones work inside of a car with much lower powered transmitters?

 

[Ingsoc75]

I used it last week. The message on the screen says if it gets 200m away from the controller it will stop and hover - that will be its new home point. Happened to me as I sped up and pulled away a bit.

I found that out the hard way as my drone hovered over a soybean field and then landed in it when I got too far and lost signal.