TapFly

MileHighSi · Oct 10, 2017

I just had a quick go of TapFly. It kind of does what it says - flies towards a tapped point, which is smart. However, I was hoping for a little more once the flight begins. Chiefly, the ability to yaw the drone without it changing direction, allowing me to take autonomous panning shots (sideways), tracked shots from in front (flying backwards), etc. I'm sure you get the idea. Is this really not possible?

In 'Direction mode' any attempt to yaw the drone mid-flight just shifted the target it was flying towards. In 'Co-ordinate mode' any stick movement cancelled the flight.

Active Track would work if I wanted a subject framed in the shot throughout, but for everything else (i.e. landscape sweeps or a subject passing through the shot) it seems that Active Track isn't the answer. A few additions to TapFly would certainly do it - unless I'm missing something?

Kilrah · Oct 11, 2017

MileHighSi said:
Is this really not possible?

No becasue TapFly relies on obstacle avoidance, and that requires the aircraft to fly facing towards the target.

Tim32581 · Oct 11, 2017

They need something like the "cable cam" feature that another manufacturer has. It flies a predetermined flight path but gives you control of the yaw. I cant remember the manufacturer unfortunately.

Gibby · Oct 17, 2017

Tim32581 said:
They need something like the "cable cam" feature that another manufacturer has. It flies a predetermined flight path but gives you control of the yaw. I cant remember the manufacturer unfortunately.

Are you talking about ZipLine in AutoPilot?

Adam · Oct 17, 2017

More like Course lock or home lock on the Mavic Pro is what I would like

RoccoT312 · Oct 17, 2017

Me to

MileHighSi · Oct 18, 2017

I read that there might be a 'paper plane' mode coming to the Spark, which was accidentally leaked in their initial .700 firmware press release (later removed). The .700 firmware has yet to be released. This could do the trick, although I'm not sure if the launch method (gently throwing, like a paper plane) will ever come to fruition - seems very accident-prone!
In the meantime I'll try out Autopilot - looks like there are some useful modes on there which do what I want.

Memmber Berry · Nov 29, 2017

Tim32581 said:
They need something like the "cable cam" feature that another manufacturer has. It flies a predetermined flight path but gives you control of the yaw. I cant remember the manufacturer unfortunately.

The 3DR solo had An amazing cable cam. that you could set up multiple waypoints that would remember elevation and camera angle. You also had full control of the yaw the whole time, you could even spin 360 degrees at 10 revolutions a minute the whole time while the drone flew tracking the cable cam line up down wherever you had set it. You had control over speed as well and it rounded out all the corners of the waypoints to to make it as smooth as butter! Sadly mine lost all signal on a downward cable cam and dove right into the Atlantic. The only problem is that it had crappy GPS receiver and would sometimes drift as much as six feet! It would have been epic if optical sensors could've have been incorporated into a newer model. After coming from the solo the thing that most blows me away is the gps acquisition is lighting! I could t believe inside of 15 seconds I was tracking 26 satellites the first time I flew the spark. Mind blown.