DJI Spark - Tripod Mode

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Two questions from this newb... how well does tripod mode fight wind. And can it be assigned to a custom button to make engaging and disengaging it easier?

Anyone?

 

[RaWine]

I didn't know the answer, but I found one video about it.

You can see the trees blowing. Looks stable to me. I don't know what wind speed this is.

 

[Bugs]

Two questions from this newb... how well does tripod mode fight wind. And can it be assigned to a custom button to make engaging and disengaging it easier?

I tried tripod mode for the first time the other day. There was a slight breeze blowing and with tripod mode engaged, my spark just flew away with the wind..I exed out of tripod mode (in the app) and was able to continue flying. Still this a good mode for beginner pilots.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Two questions from this newb... how well does tripod mode fight wind. And can it be assigned to a custom button to make engaging and disengaging it easier?

Anyone? The wind question is my main concern....

 

[Koala Tails]

Have you found that sport mode uses more juice from the battery? or is it negligible?

Sport mode uses about 50% more juice per minute of flight, allowing the spark to fly at twice the speed.
Less flight time, more distance, per battery.

 

[bradbear117]

Anyone? The wind question is my main concern....

Tripod mode essentially limits power to the rotors. Less rotor power less ability against the wind.

 

[Spark 317]

Tripod mode essentially limits power to the rotors. Less rotor power less ability against the wind.

Hello from the Hoosier Heartland, bradbear117.

I agree, it is not good for fighting the wind, but did you know that you can tilt the camera UP a little to look above while in this mode?

This area is reserved for the Sphere and Pano shots under those gesture conditions.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[RaWine]

The Spark could probably be modified by DJI to use more power in tripod, to maintain it's 2.2mph were it fighting a big wind. But if it doesn't you certainly could be blown backwards I suppose.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Tripod mode essentially limits power to the rotors. Less rotor power less ability against the wind.

Thanks!

 

[Shuflie]

Sport mode uses about 50% more juice per minute of flight, allowing the spark to fly at twice the speed.
Less flight time, more distance, per battery.

That math doesn't really work, 50% more juice per min giving twice the speed means same distance but less flight time.

 

[Rod One]

Used tripod mode once and found it to be too slow. I too am fairly new to flying and find it more fun without it turned on and sport mode is crazy fast. There is a pretty big difference in how smooth the video looks. So if you want that look and are learning try it out, it doesn’t hurt. There’s so many features I haven’t even touched yet with my Spark.

 

[RaWine]

Used tripod mode once and found it to be too slow. I too am fairly new to flying and find it more fun without it turned on and sport mode is crazy fast. There is a pretty big difference in how smooth the video looks. So if you want that look and are learning try it out, it doesn’t hurt. There’s so many features I haven’t even touched yet with my Spark.

I think Tripod is mainly for video, not for fun. You can still get odd shakes in Tripod, but everything is usually smoother for filming when you do multiple movements.

 

[Koala Tails]

That math doesn't really work, 50% more juice per min giving twice the speed means same distance but less flight time.

The numbers are not exact, but we can pretend that they are. On a windless day, Let’s say you have flown 6 minutes in normal mode, in a straight line & used 50% of the battery power. You stop, turn, & fly straight back in sport mode 3 minutes later you have returned with battery power to spare. Why?
You still have the battery power that is normally used to run the camera, flight controler, GPS, transmitter, compass, sensors, for 3 minutes. All those things drew power for 6 minutes during the away flight & were only in use for 3 minutes to return.
It would be interesting to see how long the motors run on 1 full battery by themselves. That would be a bench test, it would not fly.

 

[Shuflie]

The numbers are not exact, but we can pretend that they are. On a windless day, Let’s say you have flown 6 minutes in normal mode, in a straight line & used 50% of the battery power. You stop, turn, & fly straight back in sport mode 3 minutes later you have returned with battery power to spare. Why?
You still have the battery power that is normally used to run the camera, flight controler, GPS, transmitter, compass, sensors, for 3 minutes. All those things drew power for 6 minutes during the away flight & were only in use for 3 minutes to return.
It would be interesting to see how long the motors run on 1 full battery by themselves. That would be a bench test, it would not fly.

That makes more sense, so what you're really saying is that sport more uses around 40-45% more juice per minute to give you twice the speed?

 

[suprPHREAK]

The numbers are not exact, but we can pretend that they are. On a windless day, Let’s say you have flown 6 minutes in normal mode, in a straight line & used 50% of the battery power. You stop, turn, & fly straight back in sport mode 3 minutes later you have returned with battery power to spare. Why?
You still have the battery power that is normally used to run the camera, flight controler, GPS, transmitter, compass, sensors, for 3 minutes. All those things drew power for 6 minutes during the away flight & were only in use for 3 minutes to return.
It would be interesting to see how long the motors run on 1 full battery by themselves. That would be a bench test, it would not fly.

This is entirely wrong.

You get longer flight time when moving due to aerodynamics of forward flight. Hovering is your least efficient on power. This is why DJI advertises 16 min flight time @ 20kph, but 15 in a hover.

What you falsely assume is that the motors are going full bore at all times to achieve the fast flight. This is untrue. Once the Spark reaches its maximum lean (45 degrees) the motors throttle back to maintain that angle, where then the thrust vector is what accelerate the drone. When the speed reaches its maximum, the motors throttle back even more to maintain that speed.

Reality is, the overall difference in battery life will be minimal. Lots of people getting 13 mins in real world conditions in Sport Mode, so it does NOT consume "40-50%" more battery per distance. All helicopters, especially with fixed pitch props like drones, have incredibly inefficient aero at all times. That is the overriding factor, not outright speed.

 

[Vapor069]

Would like some input as I am very new to flying drones and especially shooting video clips. I believe I heard on a YouTube video the recommendation to fly the Spark in Tripod mode for smoother cinematic effects. Is this the general opinion among the more experienced Spark pilots?

I usually fly to my intended location in Regular or Sport Mode, then switch to Tripod Mode for my shots, and return home in Regular or Sport Mode.

 

[FishingSpark]

My only issue with tripod mode is sometimes the subject matter is moving far faster than tripod mode slows you to move

 

[Vapor069]

Hello from the Hoosier Heartland, bradbear117.

I agree, it is not good for fighting the wind, but did you know that you can tilt the camera UP a little to look above while in this mode?

This area is reserved for the Sphere and Pano shots under those gesture conditions.

Welcome to the Forum.

I did not know that it could be tilted up in this mode... thank you for the insight!

 

[Teacherbytes]

I was shooting some video of a pep rally in a gym with a Spark. The video of the crowd in the stands was much better when I was flying in tripod mode rather than regular mode. The regular mode video was too blurry to be usable while the tripod mode video was just about perfect.