Best tablet/device to dedicate to mavic

F6Rider · Dec 29, 2016

Got my Mavmount yesterday so was able to go out and fly 4 batteries with the iPad Air2 today, OK, so I love it. Being winter with low sun I didn't need the sunshade, and the iPad video is great, I did notice when the Mavic was in 4K the monitor video was lower res, and when I switched to 1080p it was much better, bandwidth allocation I assume. One good result is that the iPad battery still had 62% after 4 full batteries, much better than my iPhone, which ended up with less than 20%. A neck strap connected to the base of the ball on the mount helped a lot as I didn't have to hold the weight of the controller, Mavmount, and tablet. I leave the Mavmount on the controller when not flying as it fits the bag fine, speeding up the setup a lot, I just remove the tablet arm. The way I have it set I can't see the controller screen but I am used to that coming from a P3 and don't miss it as all of the info is on the tablet, and easier to read.

Skyhawk · Jan 1, 2017

Just a question on the iPad mini's - Do they have to have both Wi-Fi and Cellular or will the Wi-Fi version suffice? I have never been an Apple user so Apple products are foreign to me, however I am considering getting a mini just for flying the Mavic and any other DJI drone I may get.

msinger · Jan 1, 2017

Skyhawk said:
Just a question on the iPad mini's - Do they have to have both Wi-Fi and Cellular or will the Wi-Fi version suffice?

If you don't need GPS in your mobile device, then a Wi-Fi only device will be fine. Without GPS, you cannot use the Follow Me feature or manually reset the home point to your current location after taking off.

PropPilot · Jan 1, 2017

I'm a big Apple fan but that is one configuration that flames me. To get GPS capabilities in an iPad it has to have cell. The two are totally unrelated but part of Apples up charging strategy. I use an iPad mini with Foreflight for full size aircraft and needed to by the cell enabled one tomget the GPS. I know it is easy to use a third party device however it is one more battery to charge and watch.

Some of the Android tablets like the Acer Iconia 7 i picked up have the GPS and i can easily set my home point for me from the tablet all for the total cost of $ 65 CAD.

The Android devices are not as plug and play as IOS but if you find a winner like I did, its rock solid and dirt cheap !

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Skyhawk · Jan 1, 2017

msinger said:
If you don't need GPS in your mobile device, then a Wi-Fi only device will be fine. Without GPS, you cannot use the Follow Me feature or manually reset the home point to your current location after taking off.

Okay thanks for the heads up on the GPS implementation, kind of means you need both in the iPad.

Skyhawk · Jan 1, 2017

PropPilot said:
I'm a big Apple fan but that is one configuration that flames me. To get GPS capabilities in an iPad it has to have cell. The two are totally unrelated but part of Apples up charging strategy. I use an iPad mini with Foreflight for full size aircraft and needed to by the cell enabled one tomget the GPS. I know it is easy to use a third party device however it is one more battery to charge and watch.

Some of the Android tablets like the Acer Iconia 7 i picked up have the GPS and i can easily set my home point for me from the tablet all for the total cost of $ 65 CAD.

The Android devices are not as plug and play as IOS but if you find a winner like I did, its rock solid and dirt cheap !

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Thanks for the info, I might go down this route instead of the iPad. I was just trying to stay within the recommended devices.

superdave5050 · Jan 1, 2017

Aikiguy said:
Wow,
This is a depressing thread. I have ordered a Mavic, and am thinking about canceling the order.
It seems like the DJI house are all Apple fan boys, and those of us not in love with the rapacious fruit company are basically out of luck. So in addition to the cost of the Mavic, I would have to spend almost $300.00 additional to purchase a Ipad that would only be used to fly it. Even though I have a Nexus 6p, and various Android devices already.
I was looking at possibly getting the Nvida Shield, but that doesn't seem to completely work either as the DJI support for Android devices does not even work on the devices that they claim to work on according to what I am reading in these forums.

Any thoughts?
Guy
:-(

I just switched to a new nvida k1 shield from a iPad Air 2. And yes I spent another 25 bucks for the litchi app. All went well for the day no problems except it was 40 degrees and I froze but the bird didn't complain.
Nivida has the micro sd card and it's removable storage plus a mini hdmi port. I'm thinking about FPV goggles soon and wanted that option. It Will mirror tablet to goggles. I just wasn't comfortable having my 500 dollar iPad out of its case. Did buy the MavMount it's great so they'll both work if I'm a big screen mood. I'm not finding the "litchi view" app for android like I got for the iPad, but maybe it's there somewhere. I'm new to the android party.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

FireFlyer451 · Jan 1, 2017

I had a mini 2 that I got specifically to run map pilot iOS. It worked ok for non terrain aware missions. But was nothing short of massive frustration for TA missions. Even though the maps made easy folks said a mini 2 work, it did not. Tried the mini 4 and problems gone

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

PropPilot · Jan 1, 2017

superdave5050 said:
I just switched to a new nvida k1 shield from a iPad Air 2. And yes I spent another 25 bucks for the litchi app. All went well for the day no problems except it was 40 degrees and I froze but the bird didn't complain.
Nivida has the micro sd card and it's removable storage plus a mini hdmi port. I'm thinking about FPV goggles soon and wanted that option. It Will mirror tablet to goggles. I just wasn't comfortable having my 500 dollar iPad out of its case. Did buy the MavMount it's great so they'll both work if I'm a big screen mood. I'm not finding the "litchi view" app for android like I got for the iPad, but maybe it's there somewhere. I'm new to the android party.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Litchi for Android is available on Google Play

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

superdave5050 · Jan 1, 2017

PropPilot said:
Litchi for Android is available on Google Play

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Yes I bought that but it's the litchi Vue app I didn't see in the play store. In iOS (Apple) it'll let you stream/mirror over wifi to a second iOS device so you can have a second iPad so friends can watch while your flying.
That way there not having to look over your shoulder to watch your main tablet screen.
That's what I'm not seeing for android devices.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Wacker2611 · Jan 1, 2017

superdave5050 said:
Yes I bought that but it's the litchi Vue app I didn't see in the play store. In iOS (Apple) it'll let you stream/mirror over wifi to a second iOS device so you can have a second iPad so friends can watch while your flying.
That way there not having to look over your shoulder to watch your main tablet screen.
That's what I'm not seeing for android devices.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Apparently they're working on it, but it's not currently available for android as yet.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

woodmnctry · Jan 2, 2017

Total newbie here trying to sort all this out before I buy my bird --- will a Nexus 7 2012 work??---think I have read that it will but now cant find that thread ---
Thanks

zimode · Jan 2, 2017

I got a cheap Android Tablet 7" for my Mavic..

Wacker2611 · Jan 3, 2017

woodmnctry said:
Total newbie here trying to sort all this out before I buy my bird --- will a Nexus 7 2012 work??---think I have read that it will but now cant find that thread ---
Thanks

It might, but the video will be too laggy to be useable. It's just not powerful enough, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Phot_Bot · Jan 3, 2017

laura schlenker said:
Galaxy tab s2 8 inch , I love it,

I see you are using a Tab S2, did you have to do anything special for this? I have the same tablet but when I connect it to the controller it acts as if I am constantly plugging and unplugging the cable and will not connect to the aircraft. I have tried multiple cables without success. Thanks!

Wacker2611 · Jan 3, 2017

I'm going to chime in again on the subject of tablets vs phones for controlling the Mavic with Go or any of the others. I always used a Shield, or occasionally an iPad Air 2 with my Phantom, and both devices were great. But with one massive flaw that applied to both. As far as I know, there is not one single tablet out there that is anywhere bright enough to be used in bright sunlight. On the other hand, a good quality phone (Sony Xperia S3/S5, Galaxy S6/S7, any newish iPhone etc) will out perform any tablet in the brightness stakes as most are specifically designed to be useable outdoors. No sunshade needed with either my Z3 (the best by quite a margin), an S7 Edge I had briefly or any of the iPhones knocking about our house.
The Z3's screen is to die for and is eye wateringly bright and just big enough at 5.2 inches.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

woodmnctry · Jan 3, 2017

Wacker2611 said:
It might, but the video will be too laggy to be useable. It's just not powerful enough, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Well shucky darn --- now I have to sort out a new pad device to get this project airborne --
Thanks for your comment --- I would vastly prefer getting this part correct before I dive in

PropPilot · Jan 3, 2017

I disagree. I am using an Acer Iconia One 7 that has identical specs to the OP's tablet with many flights on it with zero lag and I mean zero. I have looked for it and tried to find a flaw with the configuration and cannot find any.

No stutter, no crashes Nada. Running Lolipop 5

The ONLY issue I see is that the DJI Go 4 Android app does not seem to have the function to sync or view flight logs. The OP's video shows it however I think it disappeared in the most recent release.

Anyone able to find it ??

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Wacker2611 · Jan 3, 2017

PropPilot said:
I disagree. I am using an Acer Iconia One 7 that has identical specs to the OP's tablet with many flights on it with zero lag and I mean zero. I have looked for it and tried to find a flaw with the configuration and cannot find any.

No stutter, no crashes Nada. Running Lolipop 5

The ONLY issue I see is that the DJI Go 4 Android app does not seem to have the function to sync or view flight logs. The OP's video shows it however I think it disappeared in the most recent release.

Anyone able to find it ??

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

The 2013 version would be fine. But I doubt very much whether the 2012 version of the Nexus could run Go reliably.

F6Rider · Jan 3, 2017

PropPilot said:
I disagree. I am using an Acer Iconia One 7 that has identical specs to the OP's tablet with many flights on it with zero lag and I mean zero. I have looked for it and tried to find a flaw with the configuration and cannot find any.

No stutter, no crashes Nada. Running Lolipop 5

The ONLY issue I see is that the DJI Go 4 Android app does not seem to have the function to sync or view flight logs. The OP's video shows it however I think it disappeared in the most recent release.

Anyone able to find it ??

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

From the opening screen select the menu icon (3 horz lines top right) and select 'Flight record', this will bring up the flight log.