DJI updates Phantom 3 drones with new 'Intelligent Flight Modes,' including auto-follow

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2015
DJI's latest generation of drones, the Phantom 3 lineup, gained a number of new features on Monday, thanks to new firmware that adds "intelligent flight modes," including auto-follow, waypoints, and auto-filming of points of interest.




The new firmware is available for DJI's Phantom 3 Professional, Phantom 3 Advanced, and Phantom 3 Standard drones. It can also be applied to the company's higher end Inspire 1 flying camera.

The new modes enabled by the update are:
  • Waypoints: Record a flight path, then tell your Phantom 3 or Inspire 1 to fly along the same path repeatedly while you control the camera and orientation. Save your favorite missions, customize speed, and more.
  • Point of Interest: Tell your Phantom 3 or Inspire 1 to automatically revolve around a designated object, person, or place in a perfect circle. Automatic and customizable, get shots that only experts could before.
  • Follow Me: Tell your Phantom 3 to follow you, and it automatically flies and keeps you in the camera's view wherever you go. This is not available on the Inspire 1.
  • Home Lock: Customize your flight controls to be relative to you at all times. Flick a switch, and forward/backward and left/right flight will be set in relation to the Home Point.
  • Course Lock: Easily fly along a set path by putting your platform into Course Lock, which sets all flight controls to directions relative to its current heading.



DJI has warned that its new "Intelligent Flight Modes" are only available when sufficient GPS signal is available. Pilots are also advised to keep the drone's controller in hand at all times, even when using automatic functions.

Auto-follow, in particular, has become a popular mode for other, competing drones, some of which are not yet on the market. For example, the AirDog, Hexo+ and Lily are all different types of user-tracking drones, aiming to make aerial photography simple.

Monday's firmware update also improves the camera quality on DJI's mid-range Phantom 3 Advanced to 2.7K resolution, or 2,704 by 1,520 pixels at 30 frames per second.

The new update comes just days after the iOS-connected accessories went on sale at Apple's online store. AppleInsider recently reviewed the Phantom 3 Professional and found it to be DJI's best phantom yet, sporting a greatly improved controller with clamp large enough to hold an iPad Air, as well as stunning 4K video footage.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11

    It's good to see that "the aircraft highly" is 30 meters, the "distance between with you" is 20 meters.

    That's some good stats (I think).

  • Reply 2 of 11
    Good to see they are incorporating something that the 3DR Solo already has....I was wondering when Appleinsider is going to review the Solo ... Saw one during the weekend and I was impressed.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    Good to see DJI incorporating something that the 3DR solo had already. I was wondering when Appleinsider was going to review the 3DR Solo, I saw one during the weekend and was impressed.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    evilution wrote: »
    It's good to see that "the aircraft highly" is 30 meters, the "distance between with you" is 20 meters.
    That's some good stats (I think).
  • Reply 5 of 11
    technotechno Posts: 737member

    Buy one while they are still legal, because it won't be long.

  • Reply 6 of 11
    techno wrote: »
    Buy one while they are still legal, because it won't be long.

    Model aircraft has been joyful hobby for a long time. Not going to change anytime soon. While there's some current bad apples/hysteria, the same is true for anything. Maybe there will be stiffer penalties for certain levels of stupid over time, outright banning isn't going to happen.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member

    Can an iOS App enabling the shooting down of drones be far behind???

    The AckAckApp...

  • Reply 8 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ajgaspard View Post



    Good to see DJI incorporating something that the 3DR solo had already. I was wondering when Appleinsider was going to review the 3DR Solo, I saw one during the weekend and was impressed.



    This bit from https://store.3drobotics.com/products/solo might help explain that -

     

    Quote:

    Solos ordered today will ship approximately 6 weeks from order date. Orders will be shipped in the order they are received.


  • Reply 9 of 11
    I have a phantom3 advanced. I downloaded and extracted all files of v1.4 to the sd card and tried powering on the aircraft with the sd card in the camera slot but nothing updates. The 'HOW TO' pdf that come with the file says it is for the 1.2 version and also has instructions for updating the controller which does not need an update with this firmware version. Anyone run into this problem?
  • Reply 10 of 11
  • Reply 11 of 11

    You guys just got your gimbals. How exciting ;)

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