[Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless

[Olivier Hecht]

I did use the Active Track feature to track Fretless...it worked well but was in another portion of the video. I tried circling while it was tracking us automatically but that didn't work for some reason and conditions weren't good enough to keep trying it so I orbited manually. Definitely not as smooth a shot, though. 

For the launch, I just switched to Attitude mode to disable GPS and then switched back to "P" mode as soon as the drone was away from the boat. This way you can launch without GPS but then still easily switch it on and get all the stabilization and other features to work again. 

> On Jul 3, 2016, at 10:58 PM, Michael Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> 
> Olivier,
> 
> A Phantom 4! Wow! The 3 Pro also has the 4K camera, but, the major differences in the 4 over the 3 are the visual collision avoidance system and the "Follow me" mode.  Follow me should have been able to circle the remote controller (boat) just as the point of interest mode does in the older model.  It might have made your effort simpler.
> 
> I don't think that the VHF caused the interference.  Most of the time it is not transmitting.  When it does transmit, it is in the 100 MHz band.  The Lightbridge communications are at 2.4 GHz.
> 
> Thanks for the tip on disabling the GPS at launch since the drone and the boat are in motion.  Now that I think about it, without the GPS, follow me may not function.  I'll have to read up a bit more before dropping my toy in the drink.
> 
> Mike
> s/v Wind Lass ('91)
> Nissequogue River, NY
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Olivier Hecht
> Sent: Sunday, July 3, 2016 6:31 PM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless
> 
> It's a DJI Phantom 4 that uses a 4K camera. I launched and retrieved it from my hands off the port quarter. At the time we were running and that was the windward side so it was as far away from the sails as I could get it and it was the safest departure and approach route based on the direction of the boat. Launching anchored or even drifting without any sails up would be easier and is what I would do if the conditions were any breezier than what we had yesterday at the time. 
> 
> Launching and catching the drone by hand is not as dangerous as it sounds once you're used to flying it based on the stability of the drone. It uses the GPS and Russian satellite networks simultaneously and often is tracking between 15 and 20 satellites.  It will hover exactly in place when you're not actively steering it. 
> 
> The trick to launch is to turn off the GPS stabilization because otherwise the drone tries to stabilize itself against the forward motion of the boat. So I launched in "manual" flight mode and fights you as you hold it before launch.  For landing I left it fully stabilized and brought it in very carefully until I could grab the landing gear as it hovered just over and sl