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Some results for tracking in gesture mode

Malakai

Well-Known Member
Join
Jun 8, 2017
Messages
81
Age
45
Loc
West Midlands, England
Hey all, I have been doing some tests using just gesture mode with tracking and recording video.

First off, it would appear that in gesture mode the spark is limited to about 25m from palm launch point and it captures the palm launch as the home point.
Secondly, when it hits that 25m distance from home it freezes in the air. The green lights shows its tracking and if you step out of view it flashes yellow to show it lost you.

Now for the bad news!

Once it freezes at the perimeter and has frozen, it stays there, you cant gesture to track, if its high up you cant use palm control, you cant use the bekon command. Even with backwards tracking enabled it wont back up. The only way to get it back is use either the phone or controller to connect to it and fly it backwards about 1m. Then you can bring it down or continue using gesture controls but only inside that perimeter. If you leave it hanging too long there it initiates a RTH and flies up to about 10-15m and flies back to home. My RTH was set to RTH at current alt or 50m. Neither of which it followed.
All of this fits in the beginner mode restrictions. 30m height, 50m distance (if you work it in diameter = 25m from home point to outside edge of perimeter)

This makes it almost of no use because if i wanted to capture a shot of us walking along a path it only captures for a few seconds before it hits its distance limit. Sure its ok for someone who is not really moving about and might want to use the spark instead of a camera person to do a bit of video.

The restrictions could do with having some element of owners input. Sure, in gesture mode, set the spark to default to beginner mode out of the box. But allow users to make changes in the app to get out of beginners mode. Keep a 30m height restriction but allow me to choose a tracking distance of up to 200m.
If the spark hits the max distance then instead of freezing up at least allow for it to rotate during tracking to follow you back inside its zone or even allow the bekon command once its hit that limit.

My hints for you all are:
Make sure you have paired you phone or controller before you fly in gesture mode. Even if you have them turned off, when you turn them on they should reconnect to your spark so you can take control.
Be aware of the distance limit for tracking and be aware of the RTH just in case you have walked under cover (trees etc)
 
This issue happend to me as well. I hand launched it into gesture mode and started video. I began cycling but shortly after the Spark froze in the air Just like you describe. Luckily I had the controller in my bag. After turning it on I could regain control.
I am very disappointed about current state of gesture mode. Hope this is a bug DJI will fix soon.
Thanks a lot for clarifying what actually happens. I will always bring a connected device when using gesture mode. Just in case.

DJI please improve your testing!
 
Two days ago I have the same problem .palm launched , followed me and frozen at 3 meters high. No response to gesture only camera moving up and down to follow me. Can not take control over with the phone cause I have not reseted wifi before launch . Just waited to low battery landing . FW .500
 
Two days ago I have the same problem .palm launched , followed me and frozen at 3 meters high. No response to gesture only camera moving up and down to follow me. Can not take control over with the phone cause I have not reseted wifi before launch . Just waited to low battery landing . FW .500
this is what i was talking about ,, a situation where you dont reset wifi settings (in europe we have to do that every time) and gesture fail... sick
 
this is EXACTLY what i was wondering -- if this scenario ever occured, i wanted to know that i could connect to my phone while in-flight from a palm launch and move the drone via my phone.
 
H
Secondly, when it hits that 25m distance from home it freezes in the air. The green lights shows its tracking and if you step out of view it flashes yellow to show it lost you.
My spark frozen after following me 15-17 meters. what firmware do you have on spark ?
 
Found another bug in video recording for gesture mode.
I was testing out the video gesture mode. The Spark blinked as video gesture was recognized correctly.
After palm landing I checked Go (iOS 4.1.5) and no video was there.
I thought that video gesture was not working until I checked the SD card in my Mac. It turns out that the videos are on the card but not in Go App. I think that this is another bug that videos recorded using gesture mode does not show up in GO's video album.
 
Hey all, I have been doing some tests using just gesture mode with tracking and recording video.

First off, it would appear that in gesture mode the spark is limited to about 25m from palm launch point and it captures the palm launch as the home point.
Secondly, when it hits that 25m distance from home it freezes in the air. The green lights shows its tracking and if you step out of view it flashes yellow to show it lost you.

Now for the bad news!

Once it freezes at the perimeter and has frozen, it stays there, you cant gesture to track, if its high up you cant use palm control, you cant use the bekon command. Even with backwards tracking enabled it wont back up. The only way to get it back is use either the phone or controller to connect to it and fly it backwards about 1m. Then you can bring it down or continue using gesture controls but only inside that perimeter. If you leave it hanging too long there it initiates a RTH and flies up to about 10-15m and flies back to home. My RTH was set to RTH at current alt or 50m. Neither of which it followed.
All of this fits in the beginner mode restrictions. 30m height, 50m distance (if you work it in diameter = 25m from home point to outside edge of perimeter)

This makes it almost of no use because if i wanted to capture a shot of us walking along a path it only captures for a few seconds before it hits its distance limit. Sure its ok for someone who is not really moving about and might want to use the spark instead of a camera person to do a bit of video.

The restrictions could do with having some element of owners input. Sure, in gesture mode, set the spark to default to beginner mode out of the box. But allow users to make changes in the app to get out of beginners mode. Keep a 30m height restriction but allow me to choose a tracking distance of up to 200m.
If the spark hits the max distance then instead of freezing up at least allow for it to rotate during tracking to follow you back inside its zone or even allow the bekon command once its hit that limit.

My hints for you all are:
Make sure you have paired you phone or controller before you fly in gesture mode. Even if you have them turned off, when you turn them on they should reconnect to your spark so you can take control.
Be aware of the distance limit for tracking and be aware of the RTH just in case you have walked under cover (trees etc)
This is exactly what happened to me last night and had me totally baffled. It was quite windy (weather in the UK is awful ATM, it's summer...) so I tested 'gesture mode and tracking' down a local pathway, with trees either side. It followed me fine then stopped. Frantic waving / beckons and...nothing. Then straight up to 30 metres, JUST missing a tree on the way up, then back a few metres and hovered. Got my phone out, connected, then brought it down. Had hardly any battery left (11%) so was lucky I recovered it. Will know next time - this is going to catch people out.
 
In my situation spark frozen only at 17 meters from launching point , so it was below 20 meters range required to engage rth .
 
Last edited:
Found another bug in video recording for gesture mode.
I was testing out the video gesture mode. The Spark blinked as video gesture was recognized correctly.
After palm landing I checked Go (iOS 4.1.5) and no video was there.
I thought that video gesture was not working until I checked the SD card in my Mac. It turns out that the videos are on the card but not in Go App. I think that this is another bug that videos recorded using gesture mode does not show up in GO's video album.
Worked flawless for me yesterday. You have not disabled caching of video to phone?
 
Worked flawless for me yesterday. You have not disabled caching of video to phone?
the app will only show whats cached when the app is open while connected to the spark, if you fly gesture mode with nothing connected then those videos will only appear when you stick the card in a computer or plug the spark in via USB.
 
the app will only show whats cached when the app is open while connected to the spark, if you fly gesture mode with nothing connected then those videos will only appear when you stick the card in a computer or plug the spark in via USB.
If you are flying using gestures without connection to a phone running GO4 how would you imagine the videos/photos endung up on your phone? Be realistic in your expectations...
 
If you are flying using gestures without connection to a phone running GO4 how would you imagine the videos/photos endung up on your phone? Be realistic in your expectations...
After flying in gesture mode I connected GO4 App to the Drone using RC. When they have connection I would expect all recorded media to show up in the GO Photo Album. But they don’t. Only cached footage shows up.
 
Have you seen any documentation that this is how it should work? If not, it is not a bug but something you would like to have - an enhancement request. Send it to DJI - they can do something about it (we can't).

Safe flights
Morten
 
confirm to have in some meters after palm lunch the situation that it was frozen in the air and gimbal goes up and down quite crazy. Take control back with RC.
It was after the newest update.
minidrohn
 
my gesture control not working properly as well after the update. it was working fine before the update. now, it tracked my palm up and down only but to the right left movement. palm landing not working as well.. Note: I did connect the AC to the remote control. very upset about this. but other than that, it worked well.
 
Gesture mode just freezing at max distance is most unsatifactory. To reconnect rc or phone negates its purpose entirely. I found its behaviour exact as described above. If it's only a few metres away it lands where it is on flat battery. And if it climbs to rth as it sometimes does, what's the point as A. battery's nearly out and B. You can't go over 8 meters in gesture so what can be in the way?
It's a shame and a nuiscance. But I see no fix possible because it has no idea of what to track and therefore what to look for once the subject is lost.
Just landing off say the end of a pier is the worst option. If new dynamic homepoints are set in the new update coming, the problem will be te same or worse.
 

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