DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Mavic New User Info before First Flight

Mad_Angler1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
213
Reactions
158
Location
UK
As we are heading towards some of initial orders landing with folks I have put together the usual tips for people for when you receive you new craft , upon receiving your Mavic you want to do number of things before you fly to ensure you get the best experience.

Important Note: Before turning on the aircraft always make sure you have removed the gimbal clamp and it's free to move around unobstructed.

1: Firmware and App

Download the latest version of DJI Go to your smart device, you need DJI Go V3.0 onwards to support the Mavic.

The Mavic will be shipped with firmware already installed but this may not be the latest, Its highly recomended that you update your craft before you fly, read the DJI update release notes and understand what the update should do and how to perform it before starting.

The Mavic firmware update is performed via the Go App or DJI Assistant 2 on PC or Mac, the Go App is done wirelessly and you will update both the craft and Remote controller this way, DJI have produced a video showing this process.

If you have additional batteries you may need to update these as well before you fly, to do this just turn the craft on with each battery in and it will go through the update process again for that battery if required.


2: IMU Calibration


The Mavic's IMU has been pre calibrated by DJI at the factory and you should not need to recalibrate out the box unless prompted to by the Go app, DJI Dr Turbo states

The IMU was calibrated carefully in the factory under controlled environment so you do not need to warm up the IMU before each take off. Once you calibrate your mavic at home, you lost such features

The calibration process has changed on the Mavic compared to the previous DJI models and is now done by rotating the aircraft through 5 axis while following the on screen prompts, If you do need to calibrate I would still advice doing this on a perfectly level surface as well as making sure the aircraft is a cold as possible, this help reduce warmup times at the start so make sure the Mavic has been turned off for a period of time, I personally let it chill on the patio for 20 minutes in the evening as this should be enough to ensure you don't get excessive warm up times.

DJI have released a video showing how to perform this


3:Gimbal Calibration
Once that's done perform a gimbal calibration on the same level surface.


4: Remote Controller Calibration
Set your desired stick mode and calibrate the remote controller sticks and buttons to make sure they perform as they should and endpoint as set.


5: Vision System - Object Avoidance & VPS
The Vision systems come pre calibrated from the factory and you should not need to do anything with this out the box, however if you get an error you can perform a quick calibration in the field but its recommended to perform a full vision system calibration via the DJI Assistant 2 Application.


First flight.

1: Read all the DJI Mavic manuals a few times as there is a huge amount of info in them and its easy to miss something important, i actually advise printing the manual out and having a copy with you, you need to fully understand the flight modes and how the craft behaves in RTH especially with object avoidance, this can make the difference a safe return or a lost craft should the unforeseen happen and you run into trouble.

2: You need to calibrate the compass before your first flight, make sure you do this in a wide open space well away from anything that may contain metal such as reinforced concrete, also make sure there is no metal on your person, Apple Watch and other personal smart devices can have a massive affect on the crafts compass so when you calibrate or handle the craft keep these devices well away.

You do not need to calibrate the compass before every flight, once a successful calibration is done you only need to calibrate again if you travel over 100+ miles or the app prompts you, more on this below. After calibrating the compass I would advise to check the RTH height setting in the go app, make sure its set heigh enough to clear any building or trees, while object avoidance its active in RTH in P-GPS do not rely on this and always set RTH heights accordingly.

Errors

Understand what the aircraft is telling you and NEVER ignore any errors, IMU, compass or battery errors can be serious, if it happens on the ground before you take off stop, reboot everything and try again, If you receive a compass error at a new location that's not that far <50 miles from the last location you calibrated it make sure the area is clear of metal, underground structures or cables, if your taking off from concrete it's possible it's reinforced and this is interfering with the compass, try moving to an new location +40m away and try again before you recalibrate.

Compass errors specifically - Apple Watch and other personal smart devices can have a massive affect on the crafts compass so when you calibrate or handle the craft keep these well away and off your person.

Take it Slow

Take it easy for your first few flights until you understand what the craft is doing and how it behaves vs how you expect it to behave as these can be very different, avoid flying over water or tight spaces and give your self plenty of open space to check the craft is working correctly and you understand its controls and the onscreen data.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Object Avoidance and VPS are not active in Sport Mode and as such make sure you set RTH height accordingly to avoid any building or trees, your aircraft will not stop or avoid objects in Sport mode.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: CSC has changed compared to the Phantom 3 and Inspire 1 so familiarised your self with this new method.

Battery

The DJI smart battery contains builtin charge and balancing circuit, it is also capable of self discharging if left fully charge to storage level below 65%, this can be set in DJI Go to start between 1 and 10 days after charging, Setting this to 3 days is a good mid point.

Take it easy on any brand new batteries, they can take a number of cycles to realise full capacity and flight time and try not to fully discharge a new pack for the first few cycles, ideally don't discharge a new pack below 50% for the first 10 cycles.

Try not to fly a partly charged pack and only take off with a fully charged battery when ever you can, if you stop flying do not use the pack again for another flight, further to this only fly a fresh fully charged battery so fly with in 24 hours of charging the battery, if the battery has been sitting for over 24 hours discharge it to below 90% then charge it fully before you fly.

In closer weather keep a charged battery warm before flight, cold weather can have an averse affect on the battery and its performance so try to keep the pack warm between charging and getting to the fly site, battery temp should ideally be between 20-30c for take off,you may not be able to arm the motors if its below 15c, if between 15-20c take off and just hover for a bit for the pack temperature to rise above 20c, this can be checked in the battery information scree in DJI Go.

My DJI Mavic Info Blog is located here on RCG

DJI Mavic Pro Firmware Update Information - Troubleshooting- Q &A -Unofficial Thread - RC Groups


The tips and the information above is a collective of information taken from years of use by users and DJI support reps.

Specifically Blade Strike has come up with almost all of the information and best practices and should be thanked and credited for that, I have purely collated that information and tweaked it towards the Mavic.

Thanks should go to

Blade Strike, Dr Turbo, Tahoe Ed as well as all of the users who have worked out this stuff over the years

Thank You
 
Last edited:
I notice in the Mavic manual (page 50) regarding compass calibration they advise after initial calibration only recalibrate when prompted by the app. It is NOT necessary to calibrate the compass before each flight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kmaluo and m0j0
I notice in the Mavic manual (page 50) regarding compass calibration they advise after initial calibration only recalibrate when prompted by the app. It is NOT necessary to calibrate the compass before each flight.

Correct as i stated

You do not need to calibrate the compass before every flight, once a successful calibration is done you only need to calibrate again if you travel over 100+ miles or the app prompts you, more on this below. After calibrating the compass I would advise to check the RTH height setting in the go app, make sure its set heigh enough to clear any building or trees, while object avoidance its active in RTH in P-GPS do not rely on this and always set RTH heights accordingly.
 
If you're in a fairly open area, is it a good idea to set the RTH to something quite high, eg 50-100m? I can't see if being easy to approximate the height of the highest obstacle within you LoS so why not just set it high?
 
There don't seem to be any instructions in the user manual for calibrating IMU....are the instructions given in the GO app?

Edit. Just noticed you've referred to the video in your original post.
 
If you're in a fairly open area, is it a good idea to set the RTH to something quite high, eg 50-100m? I can't see if being easy to approximate the height of the highest obstacle within you LoS so why not just set it high?
Depends......climb outs require a lot of power so a RTH will be initiated earlier in the discharge curve since the quad will 'know' it needs to reserve sufficient power to climb first before returning to home.
 
So if I set it to 100m am I looking at a loss of 10, 30, 60 secs flight time do you think?
 
So if I set it to 100m am I looking at a loss of 10, 30, 60 secs flight time do you think?
Possibly, any climb out will drag down the cell voltage and use valuable power. No need to set a high RTH height if not needed.
If you do set a high altitude RTH you will see you RTH point on the battery depletion slider mover further over to the right hand side because it will kick in sooner.
 
Here is one that is left off. The Phantom and Mavic series are GPS enabled. There are times when you may lose GPS or the UAV switches it off. This will put your UAV into ATTI mode. Which means it will not hold its position without input and will drift with the wind. This is not common but could happen. If this is your first UAV... get a cheap trainer. 30-40$ and practice. It could save your bird. Also practice initiating RTH in all the different scenarios. Understand how to disengage RTH. Practice practice practice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dirty Bird and Derf
Here is one that is left off. The Phantom and Mavic series are GPS enabled. There are times when you may lose GPS or the UAV switches it off. This will put your UAV into ATTI mode. Which means it will not hold its position without input and will drift with the wind. This is not common but could happen. If this is your first UAV... get a cheap trainer. 30-40$ and practice. It could save your bird. Also practice initiating RTH in all the different scenarios. Understand how to disengage RTH. Practice practice practice.

I agree. That is why line of sight is so important. If you loose GPS then you have no RTH as the craft does not know where home is. Just an FYI.
 
I agree. That is why line of sight is so important. If you loose GPS then you have no RTH as the craft does not know where home is. Just an FYI.
Ed you have been flying DJI for awhile. How many times have you lost GPS on P3, P4?
 
I can say with the P4 I have never lost GPS since launch and the P3 maybe 2/3 times max.
 
275 flights on my P3 and never lost GPS (indoors doesn't count), lost video a few times due to distance but never GPS or RC control. Where I fly my RTH has to be 40M.
 
Wow.. the IMU is a 5 point calibration @ 1.10

Reminds me of the 32bit gimbals.
 
Yes sir, that's some "nice to know" stuff right there.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,592
Messages
1,554,182
Members
159,596
Latest member
da4o98