Been there done that! I salute your creativity but personally I prefer the Plus controller.
Above is my old rig, a 12.9" iPad Pro with the NS1 controller. I was an evangelist for that method for a long time. Super love the giant screen as you say. And I still think it's a better method than the RC, possibly than the RC Pro, and definitely better than using a phone. But the Plus is hard to beat.
- every iPad screen I've ever seen is waaaay less bright than the Plus controller. No comparison, I was constantly having to shade my iPad. With the Plus I can see the screen perfectly in full sun. It's downright amazing. And I don't know if Apple games their screen brightness ratings but for some reason even a 1000 nit rated iPad screen is just terrible in full sun. And I disabled all the screen dimming settings that I could find.
- the iPad is one more thing to keep charged. I don't know what's up with DJI Fly but if I don't force close it, it kills the battery on my iPad. That's maybe fixable through some settings but I never found it. There were so many times that I had to cut flying short or switch to my RC because of a dead iPad. I even had my iPad die during a flight once, which was an adventure. The Plus has basically infinite flight time since it has hot swappable $60 batteries that I think each have more capacity than the batteries in the ns1.
- The USB cable is annoying and one more thing to stress about not forgetting. One more thing to go wrong.
- You can't see the controls while you're flying since the iPad is in front of the controls. I got used to that and practiced to make it easier, but still, it's nice to see the controls.
- the sticks and all the controls are waaaay better on the Plus than the NS1. Everything about the NS1 feels like a toy compared to the Plus. Even everything on the Pro feels like a toy compared to the Plus.
- and the NS1 controller only has one dial, so you can't simultaneously control both camera tilt and zoom. It's nice to be able to work both those at the same time.
- if I need a bigger screen with the Plus I can use the HDMI out or connect a USB C monitor. Neither of which are options with the NS1.
- the Plus is waterproof... That means dust proof and generally super tough. Remember when they used to call things "ruggedized"? This thing is rugged.
- transporting the NS1 and the tablet holder is annoying. It's doable, but sometimes I wouldn't disassemble everything and it broke on me a couple of times. I went through 3 of
the tablet holders, $25 each. Not the end of the world but annoying.
- with the Plus there's no assembly or disassembly time. I just open the clamshell cover and fire it up. When I'm done I close the clamshell and stick it in a bag. I don't even need to remove the joysticks.
That's my Plus controller on the left and my
Mavic 3 Pro on the right.
- and at $600 the Plus is super cheap anyway
And really the screen size of the Plus is fine for me, and I'm an evangelist for large screens. But of course if I need to I can always fire up that NS1 and the iPad Pro, takes just a few seconds to switch over. And assuming someone already has an iPad I agree, that's an excellent method and is dirt cheap. It's better than the RC or even the RC Pro, but the Plus has them both beat by a lot in my opinion. The Plus is an absolutely amazing controller.