DJI mini pro 4 questions

[echen2323]

just got a mini pro 4 from amazon and have a few questions.

1. i have the Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that are supposed to last 45 min each. i assume this is under ideal conditions? if one flies the drone farther away, is it normal for this time to be cut in half?

2. the other day i was flying the drone at night around my house and i was descending closer, i clipped a tree and the drone broke and fell 40 ft onto the street and got damaged. im sending it in to DJI today and they will evaluate. will warranty usually cover damages like this?

3. is there a way to have the drone take photos at an interval, like every 0.50 sec or every 1 second?

4. do ND filters help with low light? or only in bright light?

 

[slup]

Hi there & welcome to the forum

1. The power consumption will not just change to the worse just because you fly far away... in equal flight conditions the drone will consume the same amount of mAh even if you fly in a circle close around you.

2. Warranty will take manufacturing faults... this sounds like a typical pilot error & can be covered with some sort of insurance (like DJI Care) if you have that.

3. Think you have a hyperlaps mode you can investigate & try out.

4. No, a ND is like sunglasses, they cut out light making the camera compensate by either rising the ISO or increasing the shutter time. ND can be used when filming to achieve longer shutter times to get some motion blur... ND have in general no use for stills other in very special circumstances.

 

[Meta4]

just got a mini pro 4 from amazon and have a few questions.

1. i have the Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that are supposed to last 45 min each. i assume this is under ideal conditions? if one flies the drone farther away, is it normal for this time to be cut in half?

DJI explain in the specs how you would have to fly to achieve 45 mins.
It's under laboratory conditions and not like anyone normally flies their drone.
Max Flight Time
34 minutes (with Intelligent Flight Battery)
45 minutes (with Intelligent Flight Battery Plus)*
Measured in a controlled test environment. Specific test conditions are as follows: flying forward at a constant speed of 21.6 kph in a windless laboratory environment at 20 meters above sea level, in photo mode (without photo taking operation during flight), with Obstacle Avoidance Action set to Off, and from 100% battery level until 0%. Results may vary depending on the environment, actual use, and firmware version.
* The Intelligent Flight Battery Plus is not sold in Europe.

Any ascending, accelerating, flying faster or slower than 21.6 kph, pushing against winds will reduce your flight time to less than the max.

4. do ND filters help with low light? or only in bright light?

No .. ND filters won't help in low light.
They would make things worse by cutting the light that gets through to the camera.

 

[BigAl07]

First off WELCOME to the forum

just got a mini pro 4 from amazon and have a few questions.

1. i have the Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that are supposed to last 45 min each. i assume this is under ideal conditions? if one flies the drone farther away, is it normal for this time to be cut in half?

2. the other day i was flying the drone at night around my house and i was descending closer, i clipped a tree and the drone broke and fell 40 ft onto the street and got damaged. im sending it in to DJI today and they will evaluate. will warranty usually cover damages like this?

3. is there a way to have the drone take photos at an interval, like every 0.50 sec or every 1 second?

4. do ND filters help with low light? or only in bright light?

1) That's all MARKETING! If you read this "disclaimer" on how they got that # you'll see it's pretty much hogwash at best. They did it under "Lab Conditions" and with all "extra stuff" turned off (no Obstacle Avoidance etc). IMHO very unrealistic #'s to say the least but that's how MARKETING works.

2) Unfortunately that's Pilot Error. Only DJI or a 3rd Party Insurance will cover "dumb thumbs" and it's a BEFORE YOUR fly type of coverage. Odds are you're going to be paying DJI for some repairs/replacement.

3) Yes Hyper Lapse, try it out when you get your drone repaired/replaced.

4) You really need to research ND filters and not only what they do but HOW they work why you use them (or not). In short, think of them like SUNGLASSES for the camera sensor.

 

[KB4MTO]

I clipped a tree with my Magic 2 Pro. It broke 1 arm, 2 motors, and the body. My DJI care expired. I sent it in for repairs completely expecting a $400 bill. They repaired the entire thing and shipped it back in 9 days for $93.

 

[echen2323]

thanks everyone for welcoming me.

i noticed as i flew the drone farther and farther away, the battery estimated went way down from 40 min to 30 min to 25 min. i noticed when flying the drone closer to me, battery seems to be more stable. perhaps i am flying it pretty fast when its away from me.

if its just marketing and the 45 min batteries dont get anywhere near that, i assume the 34 min battery get alot less as well?

another thing with the DJI mini pro 4 and my accident. i was flying the drone downwards and it hit a tree cause i didnt see it. shouldnt the obstacle sensors have detected it and avoided it?

 

[Droning on and on...]

i noticed as i flew the drone farther and farther away, the battery estimated went way down from 40 min to 30 min to 25 min. i noticed when flying the drone closer to me, battery seems to be more stable. perhaps i am flying it pretty fast when its away from me.

The battery indicator can be confusing.

The time showing on the battery indicator is the amount of time you have remaining to fly before you must come home. So, speaking very approximately, if you fly straight out from your launch point for 1 minute 2 minutes will drop from the remaining flight time indicator, because you need 1 minute to get back.

This is vastly oversimplified, different flight modes affect the calculations differently, altitude, etc. The drone has a very sophisticated estimation system that is constantly calculating how long it's going to take to get back, and shows you remaining flight time minus the return home time.

In fact, when your "free" fly time runs out, you will get a warning, and if you don't cancel it the drone will automatically fly home by itself. This can happen at 60% battery if you're far from the launch point. It's called Low Battery RTH... There are several adverse conditions under which the drone will automatically fly home... you absolutely should review the RTH section in the manual.

 

[BigAl07]

thanks everyone for welcoming me.

i noticed as i flew the drone farther and farther away, the battery estimated went way down from 40 min to 30 min to 25 min. i noticed when flying the drone closer to me, battery seems to be more stable. perhaps i am flying it pretty fast when its away from me.

if its just marketing and the 45 min batteries dont get anywhere near that, i assume the 34 min battery get alot less as well?

another thing with the DJI mini pro 4 and my accident. i was flying the drone downwards and it hit a tree cause i didnt see it. shouldnt the obstacle sensors have detected it and avoided it?

Yes the 34 min battery will also get less than 34 minutes. If you fly your drone in exactly the same conditions, and in exactly the same configuration, and the exact same way they did for the "Marketing Stunt" you might get close but ... if you read the details that time is flying from 100% to 0% which we technically can't do because the Public Firmware will shut the motors down a more than 0%. So if you can get say 80% of that 45/34min battery in REAL WORLD flying you're doing something.

You are putting WAY too much faith in the OA system. Small items may not be seen and when lighting is less than optimal the OA could miss items. The OA is good but it's far from PERFECT!

 

[IFlied]

Umm, maybe I’m wrong, but I think remaining flight time includes return home time ? ? ?

 

[slup]

2. the other day i was flying the drone at night around my house and i was descending closer, i clipped a tree...

...another thing with the DJI mini pro 4 and my accident. i was flying the drone downwards and it hit a tree cause i didnt see it. shouldnt the obstacle sensors have detected it and avoided it?

Think you should spend some time reading the full downloadable user manual where DJI at least tries to be somewhat truthful... now you are way too caught up in their marketing material.

Here you have the 115 page long user manual --> https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/DJI_Mini_4_Pro/DJI_Mini_4_Pro_User_Manual_EN.pdf

The last thing at page 59 answers all your expectations regarding seeing that tree at night...

 

[Droning on and on...]

Umm, maybe I’m wrong, but I think remaining flight time includes return home time ? ? ?

Nope. The remaining time is the time you have left before RTH is going to kick in.

 

[echen2323]

yea i think i should have been more careful flying it at night time. lesson learned!

 

[BigAl07]

yea i think i should have been more careful flying it at night time. lesson learned!

If you watch your screen closely, you'll see a notification telling you this early on and IIRC the icon on the screen indicates OA is not operable. There's a ton of data on that screen and they are doing their very best to save you from these mistakes but "they" can only go so far

 

[NoBozos]

Congratulations on the M4P. Sorry to hear about your crash. It happens. Learn.

A few thoughts and observations.

Starting with battery. I’d say a real time endurance for the plus batteries is under 30 minutes, if you are capturing video and using obstacle avoidance. More like 25, but depends on temperatures, wind. Etc.

Regarding night time operations, there are specific rules you should familiarize yourself with. Google it up.

Obstacle avoidance isn’t reliable in daylight. And worthless at night. Keep it on. Don’t rely on it. At all.

Be mindful of wind speed and direction. The battery required to get there is different than the battery required to get back.

ND filters are for blurring. And even in low light there could be situations where you want them. The m4p is f/1.7. A little light goes a long way. Not to mention still images with blurred lights, water etc.

Get it fixed. Go fly.

 

[Droning on and on...]

yea i think i should have been more careful flying it at night time. lesson learned!

I note my own biological Obstacle Avoidance doesn't work too well in the dark either, and it's based on the same basic sensor package...

 

[mobilehomer]

Nope. The remaining time is the time you have left before RTH is going to kick in.

If you tap the battery icon, three times show up. Until RTH, Until Forced Landing and Until Battery Depleted. The one that stays on the display is the last one, Until Battery Depleted
So, yes, it DOES include ALL flight time including RTH time. That is why a 20% return time is recommended by most.
.

 

[IFlied]

Thank you mobilehomer. That screenshot is exactly what we needed to clarify this !

 

[BigAl07]

I note my own biological Obstacle Avoidance doesn't work too well in the dark either, and it's based on the same basic sensor package...

That's a FACT!!

Also I'll admit that my only (so far) incident with the Mini 4 Pro includes some small branches and a 6' tumble to Terra Firma. Both the Onboard Mini 4 Pro Obstacle Avoidance and the "Biological Obstacle Avoidance" failed and this was in daylight, although it was a dim/dismal day.

 

[Luckyguy9]

just got a mini pro 4 from amazon and have a few questions.

1. i have the Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that are supposed to last 45 min each. i assume this is under ideal conditions? if one flies the drone farther away, is it normal for this time to be cut in half?

2. the other day i was flying the drone at night around my house and i was descending closer, i clipped a tree and the drone broke and fell 40 ft onto the street and got damaged. im sending it in to DJI today and they will evaluate. will warranty usually cover damages like this?

3. is there a way to have the drone take photos at an interval, like every 0.50 sec or every 1 second?

4. do ND filters help with low light? or only in bright light?

2) FYI, the obstacle sensors don't work in the dark.

 

[Droning on and on...]

2) FYI, the obstacle sensors don't work in the dark.

Yeah, known problem, whether drone or mammal