DJI Go - New autopilot features explained for Phantom 3 and Inspire 1

A few days ago, DJI released a new firmware version for both the Phantom 3 series and Inspire 1 series of drones.  The firmware update turns them into actual autonomous drones enabling features such as waypoint flight, follow me or point of interest.  Read more to find out full details of the flight modes including videos.

If you have flown other arducopter powered drones such as the IRIS or SOLO, you will already be familiar with these flight modes but its still great to see these features finally being included with the phantom quadcopters, which can now officially be called drones.

Follow Me

The follow me mode will use the GPS position from your smartphone/tablet to keep your DJI drone following at a certain distance.  A demonstration video of the follow me flight mode is shown below.

Waypoints

The waypoint ability means that the phantom and inspire are now officially drones since they can fly places on their own.  Waypoints can be set on your mobile device and your drone will fly to them.  This is great for aerial filming as you can set a path for your drone to fly along, and you can focus on controlling the camera.

Course Lock and Home Lock

The course lock mode and home lock modes are more of a manual flight mode.  In these modes your drone will keep track of its heading.  So if you press forwards on the stick it will always go forwards relative to the heading you were in when you entered course lock mode.  Its explained abit better in the video below.

Point of Intrest

In this mode you can set an object, building or any location as the point of interest and your dji drone will orbit around that point at a set radius and altitude keeping it in view of the camera, allowing you to create some dramatic video effects.  Something that used to require some practice to get right when flying manually

Intelligent flight modes require firmware 1.4+

If you already have a DJI Phantom 3, or Inpsire 1 then go ahead and download the latest firmware update to enable these features.  If you have been considering which drone to get for aerial photography, these new features make the DJI phantom or inspire one the ideal options.

Buy a Phantom 3