Follow me awesomeness, GPS Issues

[ragboy]

So all in manual this time. At first, overexposed. We are in a heat wave and blistering sun and its very difficult to use the screen and then have it right on my desktop, but after a couple of sessions, I got it right. One of the hard parts of it, is when you lock in WB, its pretty easy. But for exposure, you go to manual, and then it doesn't leave it as the auto setting, so you can then adjust. It goes to white hot and completely over exposed. But after playing a bit, I got it right, the last one was set to 1/1000, which worked in this blazing sun and that super reflective blue water.

As far as the follow me/watch me, I am still blown away by it, with a caveat. The caveat is that sometimes it won't work due to GPS issues, and I am outdoors in the middle of a lake. I think it could be from the boat tower, but I got out from under it, and it was better, but it still wasn't perfect. I am going to test outside of the boat to make sure it IS the tower that is the problem and not some other issue.

One thing I found, and I didn't see this in the manual which I did read completely: when you are in follow me you have to manually pan and tilt with a knob and that left dial which is challenging. Its not so bad if the boat goes in a straight line and doesn't alter. But you have to turn and then stop if the rider falls and turn around, etc. So it requires you to reorient each time you restart which takes some time, and with 15 mins to shoot, time is precious. So I found if I leave in watch me, which orients the camera on its own, I can then use the gimbal tilt and pan dial/knob to alter the tilt and pan RELATIVE to what the watch me is pointing at. This is FANTASTIC. The camera orients to watch me in the boat, and I just have to pan left to frame the rider and then tilt as needed and it holds incredibly well.

I am going to do a review for my channel on how this works when I have done more testing and stuff, but I am blown away by the stability and function of the watch me/follow me smart mode.

I think an amazing feature, would be to have one more toggle or a slot in an existing one that would allow you to use the left stick for the camera while in smart. So you switch the toggle and the left stick is for the camera, and then back and its for throttle and yaw, etc. Then if in angle or home, it is always only for flight.

 

[Steve Carr]

Have you tried the Wizard and ST16 in team mode so you can control the camera with the stick?
This is something you want to perfect on land first.

A couple of other thoughts: Since you fly over water a lot you might want to put a Getterback on the H in the event she ditches. Be cautious about getting to close to the water in any autonomous mode. Since it relies on the altimeter it can drift vertically with wind and temp changes.

 

[PatR]

You nailed the camera settings in the latter portion. Well done. Just think about how much better it's going to be as you gain more time with it

 

[kai_bcn]

nice surfing, cool aerials and nice footage ragboy

 

[ragboy]

@Steve Carr Yes, I have definitely tried the wizard and team mode, I made a quick test video here:

@PatR Thanks. I took some settings form Captain Drone video, and I definitely had to use lower settings than he recommended. I am guessing due to the reflective water and more intense sunlight, but once I spend more time I am sure I will be able to guess the best exposure. The CGO3+ definitely does not make this easy. With the WB, I mostly can just spot my subject in auto, then lock it, done. But with exposure, it looks good and then I go to lock it, but instead, it goes to 1/30 when you hit manual, instead of staying where it was set during auto, that is a major pain in the a$$. The good thing is that Yuneec SHOULD be able to fix these things with software.

@kai_bcn Thank you. He isn't doing many tricks because we were working out the kinks with the drone, so I didn't want him to fall so I could spend as much time adjusting and dealing with the GPS issue. As we get things more ironed out, I am looking forward to some more intense footage with various pro riders.

I also just got a new 6700 mah battery, hopefully it helps give me a bit more time. Probably going to need about 8 of those suckers for a good video shoot. ;-)

 

[ragboy]

@Steve Carr I forgot to mention, while I DO think the wizard and team mode works great, I don't trust landing with it on the boat. Just during this last shoot, there was some wind and I can't see doing that with the wizard. The fact that watch me works as I described, makes the process so much simpler, I think I will be good as long as I can workout how to get the GPS working reliably, and not cutting out like it was. I have never had that issue on other drones.

One last thing, I heard a lot about Yuneec customer service being good, but I sent an email, then a day later opened a case on 7/27, and I haven't heard a thing, and the case is just sitting in Open status. What is the issue with that?

 

[ArnhemAnt]

With the WB, I mostly can just spot my subject in auto, then lock it, done. But with exposure, it looks good and then I go to lock it, but instead, it goes to 1/30 when you hit manual, instead of staying where it was set during auto, that is a major pain in the a$$.

I have had the exact same issue and it can be frustrating. I'm keen to hear the process you have taken to overcome this.

 

[Rayray]

The caveat is that sometimes it won't work due to GPS issues, and I am outdoors in the middle of a lake. I think it could be from the boat tower, but I got out from under it, and it was better, but it still wasn't perfect.

Very interesting. Kindly go into more detail on the GPS issues you were having...
And yes, "Watch Me" is definitely the way to fly, for the reasons you mentioned.

 

[ragboy]

When I start up the drone, I get 17 or so sats, and it all seems good, but the "follow me/watch me" button will be "not available" and then all of a sudden, I will get "GPS not available switching to manual flight" or something like that, can't remember exactly. Then a few seconds later, GPS comes back, and this can repeat itself several times. The Drone is on the sundeck of the boat and I am in the back, you can see in the video about where I am sitting. After a bit, sometimes I have to turn the drone off and back on, and then maybe the follow me switch will be available. After a minute or sometimes more, the GPS warnings will stop, for no apparent reasons, the follow me/watch me button will go off, and then on for a few seconds, then off. Then if I launch the drone, GPS is fine, but the watch/follow button may still be acting up, I put the drone a few feet away and put it in and out of smart, trying to see if that button will work, and then it may, so we start moving, and many times it will stop working and the drone just falls behind us. I have learned to just give the drone some altitude and manually catch up to the boat. EVENTUALLY, it seems to stabilize, and then its on and working and great, but it can take up to 5 mins of this dance. It is VERY annoying and wastes a good portion of my battery and time to film.

 

[ragboy]

"GPS Lost, maintain manual flight." -- That is the message that goes on and off, it happened once while flying and the drone started to circle around quickly and then GPS came right back on. But I have never seen GPS issues like this out in the middle of a lake, no power lines, etc.

I should add, there was a heat wave, and so the temperature was 95 or so on the first flight, and then 105 during the later flight, but it did the same thing on both sessions.

 

[Rayray]

Ah so...
The Follow/Watch functions depend on the ST16 GPS Sat lock. Typically, with mine anyway, the ST16s lag behind the craft in getting the GPS lock. One thing may help your case: Starting up, keep the ST16 as unobstructed as possible. Try to have it high with reference to the horizon. Obviously the craft also needs good clearance.

The craft will usually be ready to go, but watch the ST16 GPS Sat count (on the top right). As/when it is 10 or higher, you'll see the craft rear light begin flashing white over solid purple, solid purple being the craft. At the same time, Follow/Watch will become avail.

At times, due to upper atmosphere conditions or aliens, the craft will give these "GPS Lost" warnings. This usually occurs at startup. As you said, turning the craft off and restarting it may rarely be necessary. Use the Go-Back button to clear the screen. Never turn on OA, or it won't be able to keep up with the boat. Follow Steve's recommendation and get a Getterback, small and light, cheap insurance against total loss.

I like your videos, keep up the good work, and...oh, kidding about aliens.

 

[MM1992]

When I start up the drone, I get 17 or so sats, and it all seems good, but the "follow me/watch me" button will be "not available" and then all of a sudden, I will get "GPS not available switching to manual flight" or something like that, can't remember exactly. Then a few seconds later, GPS comes back, and this can repeat itself several times. The Drone is on the sundeck of the boat and I am in the back, you can see in the video about where I am sitting. After a bit, sometimes I have to turn the drone off and back on, and then maybe the follow me switch will be available. After a minute or sometimes more, the GPS warnings will stop, for no apparent reasons, the follow me/watch me button will go off, and then on for a few seconds, then off. Then if I launch the drone, GPS is fine, but the watch/follow button may still be acting up, I put the drone a few feet away and put it in and out of smart, trying to see if that button will work, and then it may, so we start moving, and many times it will stop working and the drone just falls behind us. I have learned to just give the drone some altitude and manually catch up to the boat. EVENTUALLY, it seems to stabilize, and then its on and working and great, but it can take up to 5 mins of this dance. It is VERY annoying and wastes a good portion of my battery and time to film.

You could have GPS issues related to updating the alminac. I had similar problems where I'd get similar errors losing GPS after it had a lock, and on advice from others here, for my first flight of the day I'll turn the H and ST-16 on and leave them sitting out for 15 minutes to fully update the GPS data. Then I'll power cycle the H after this 15 minutes. For every subsequent flight I'll wait a full minute from power on to take off to let it do a warm start. Since I started doing this I haven't had any GPS issues that weren't obvously related to too much overhead cover or similar. Leaving it on for 15 minutes with the LEDs turned off seems to only reduce available flight time by a minute or two, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things.

 

[ragboy]

OK, the SAT count of the ST16 in the corner, I was wondering where I found the GPS status of the controller, and was meaning to look that up, so that is a good tip to watch for and see if that correlates to the follow me off and on. The tower in the boat can be an issue, but it was so *** hot, I didn't want to sit all the way in the back. ;-) Now at least I can make sure that locks in.

The 15 min warm up would be a PITA, everyone staring at the drone in the boat waiting to surf. definitely 1 min is doable, and I have already started doing that. I will test the drone here on my property, and then do another boat session, see how it goes.

@Rayray Are you affiliated with Yuneec at all? is this forum monitored or have anybody on here from yuneec?

 

[ragboy]

Sorry, one more thing. You can see in the video, its a bit smoky due to a wild fire. But I have never seen that cause gps interference, and it wasn't bad, just a light haze.

 

[Rayray]

No no, not at all. We Mods have no connection with any UAV company, and this forum is one of 9 forums in the DronePilots community, which represent most major manufacturers. We have no axe to grind, no dog in the fight. We profit in no way, get no discounts or free beer.

We own Yuneec products (and others) and simply try to help other Yuneec owners while learning for ourselves at the same time.
I'm in it for the fun. I can tell you about Follow/Watch, with and w/o RS OA, because I fly 2 RS equipped THs, one for over a year now.

Yuneec folks do indeed come along from time to time. We try to respect their privacy.

 

[ragboy]

Yes, I def tested RS OA, and not much use for what I do, way too slow. But for some reason, the RS price was 1199 for a bit, now it is back up to $1466. So I do have it. Does the IPS help at all flying low over water? or does that never turn on if GPS is working?

 

[glider]

Dumb question, but are the antennae on the correct connectors on the ST16?

IMO you shouldn't be having GPS cut out issues having flown it this much. There could be interference from some RF source on the boat affecting the ST16 GPS I suppose, but have never witnessed it.

Out of curiosity what was the K-Index during that time?

Do some testing on land. If GPS still cuts out it's probably time to call Yuneec. This could be disaster waiting to happen.

FWIW, I have well over 200 flights (since June 2016) on my H with at most some slight drifting issues on a few occasions. The GPS has never stopped working on either the H or ST16.

 

[ragboy]

The k-index was like 1. I will be testing later today on my property, I am in the mountains, so little to zero interference.

 

[MM1992]

The 15 min warm up would be a PITA, everyone staring at the drone in the boat waiting to surf.

You can knock that out on the dock before launching or while preparing to go out. When I'm out flying jobs I'll turn it on and sit it on the roof of my truck for the 15 minutes, and it might be an hour or two before I'm actually out flying.

 

[Shadowolf]

Not sure if this has been said about the manual settings. Don't confuse white balance with exposure. When you set wb to manual that doest lock in the exposure. When you Goto the exposure and select manual the exposure goes from the auto to a preset default , effectively washing out the picture. Then you select your shutter speed.
Where it would be nice if it translated from auto to manual would be nice. But adjusting would still be needed. All of this should be done before take off and then slight adjustments once in the air.
If you wait till your In the air then if you need to change to a darker or lighter nd filter you cant. Also remember the 2 X rule with the shutter speed as mentioned before.