Phantom Firmware: Follow Me to the Waypoint’s Point of Interest!
Engadget reports that the DJI Phantom 3 series of drones (of which I own the 3 Professional) are getting a Phantom firmware update next week (7 Sept 2015) to fill some feature gaps (!!!) that have been widely panned by owners on a number of forums, and in blogs I read before purchasing. It was the one worry I had, but figured with DJI’s competition including the features as standard in their drones, it was only a matter of time until they pushed an update.
So what was announced that will be added in next week’s Phantom firmware update?
- Waypoints – you will be able to set a number of waypoints for the drone to follow using the free DJI GO app (iOS/Android). This will be great for the travel I do, I could set waypoints around an area and let the drone (mostly) fly itself while I focus on photography/video.
- Point of Interest – with the upgrade, you can select an object and have the UAV fly around the point with the camera on the object the whole time. I’d love to have this and pick a landmark (where it is legal still) and fly around it at multiple altitudes shooting video… another idea could be reversing it and shooting some cool panoramic photos.
- Follow Me – this is pretty self explanatory – and I am working on assumption on the how it works – I assume it will follow the remote control console. This could be interesting in some open spaces and the motorcycle – slow ride with the UAV in tow.
This brings the Phantom 3 in line with the feature sets of their competitors, such as the 3DR Solo, which was my second choice …
Now, I need a new tablet for the remote to allow for better performance. My old android tablet is a bit too slow for the video feed, and my iPhone 6+ sucks in the sunlight (and is a bit too small… first time anyone ever said the 6+ was too small!) – but that’s for another post …
