First FPV/VR today Litchi flight with Mavic 2 Pro

[Skybuyer]

I got the cheap VR goggles yesterday and messed around with the settings to get familiar with what to do and got to try it all out today with my Mavic 2 Pro. It was a very interesting experience.

The goggles were on sale at Amazon for $13, so why not (link below)? I even have the option of returning them, but they're cheap enough to keep for a novelty. On my face with the phone installed (iPhone XR) the thing is heavier feeling than I expected. It does have adjustments for focus and eye width. They are not wide enough to accomodate my every day glasses, so I have to remove them. However, the focus isn't quite enough. So I got an old small pair of reading glasses with minimium magnification, took the temples off and placed them inside the googles. To my amazement that setup works great! The reading glasses don't move and give enough extra so the focus is really pretty good.

I'd found a small park area with a small lake and a gazebo and a few geese paddling in the water and looked like a reasonable place to fly. So I flew normally (with Litchi) to get a feel agin of my Mavic 2. I'd forgotten how fast this thing can go even in the normal mode, and within a confined area I saw how fast I could get in trouble. The winter months had made me forget how nimble the Mavic 2 is. I practiced a couple "barrel turns" (you know, like with horses) over the lake to see how tight I could keep things. And yeah, the winter rusted my skills. But the cobwebs are getting shaken off as I'm flying every day now. I don't intend to fly more than a few feet off the ground for now and will stick to wide open places with no people until I develop some skills and a comfort level.

So after connecting my iPhone to the large USB port at the bottom center of the controller I turned Litchi on got it set as best I could (something I need to become more familiar with). Once ok with that, the phone already into the mount was inserted into the goggles and it was time to fly.

Flying with goggles was the most disconcerting thing I'd experienced yet with drones. Once off the ground I immediately switched to tripod mode. I figured it would be best mode to stay out of trouble. I can see how the FPV guys have a better feel of spacial awareness than working off of the screen on the controller. And while it might enhance spacial awareness of the drone it completely destroyed any spacial awareness of where *I* was! As I launched my M2 and flew it away I felt like I was looking over here, but the sound of the drone was way over there. I had to take the goggles off to see where the M2 was, and to my surprise I wasn't facing in the direction that I had thought I was. Complete disorientation. Here I was, mentally inside this box with no idea where I was.

I have not yet figured out how to successfully launch Litchi Vue, but will work on that today. Also I haven't had a lot of flight time with Litchi in the normal mode besides flying missions. I'm going to have to spend more time with Litchi in normal flight mode to get better acquainted with the basic differences from the DJI apps. I hope to get out again this afternoon with the goggles.. A different world of flying- totally.

 

[Skybuyer]

Second VR attempt today...

I still couldn't get Litchi Vue to work, but pushed onward to do some more FPV flying. I went to the forest preserve where there are both open spaces and a few trees that are spread far enough apart to get a feel for passing between objects. I stayed super low to the ground as there are the twig ends of branches that don't yet have leaves, so super hard to see through the camera.

FPV is a whole nother experience. As long as the drone is moving forward you know where it's going. While you basically see the same you you see on your phone's screen in normal mode, for some reason it is much easier to see what's around the drone. A wide angle lens and a small screen makes it, at least for me, very difficult to fly from the screen and I have tended mostly to rely on maneuvering from line of sight, almost ignoring the screen except for altitude, distance and speed details. Flying FPV is the opposite, but better in some ways as in the goggles I can focus on piloting the drone more precisely when it comes to flying near obstacles that I'm not directly in front or behind of.

One time I decided to take my M2 above the tree tops but for a very shot time, just to get that bird's eye view of things that you don't quite get with the phone as a monitor. I think I'm going to have to get a tablet and a bracket as I really like the advantage of the goggles, but OTOH don't like the disadvantages and hope a tablet will be sort of a middle of the road approach between phone and goggles.

 

[Captmike]

Second VR attempt today...

I still couldn't get Litchi Vue to work, but pushed onward to do some more FPV flying. I went to the forest preserve where there are both open spaces and a few trees that are spread far enough apart to get a feel for passing between objects. I stayed super low to the ground as there are the twig ends of branches that don't yet have leaves, so super hard to see through the camera.

FPV is a whole nother experience. As long as the drone is moving forward you know where it's going. While you basically see the same you you see on your phone's screen in normal mode, for some reason it is much easier to see what's around the drone. A wide angle lens and a small screen makes it, at least for me, very difficult to fly from the screen and I have tended mostly to rely on maneuvering from line of sight, almost ignoring the screen except for altitude, distance and speed details. Flying FPV is the opposite, but better in some ways as in the goggles I can focus on piloting the drone more precisely when it comes to flying near obstacles that I'm not directly in front or behind of.

One time I decided to take my M2 above the tree tops but for a very shot time, just to get that bird's eye view of things that you don't quite get with the phone as a monitor. I think I'm going to have to get a tablet and a bracket as I really like the advantage of the goggles, but OTOH don't like the disadvantages and hope a tablet will be sort of a middle of the road approach between phone and goggles.

I have yet to try goggles but am looking forward to trying a good set. I used to make my living as a Ship Captain and on one large yacht we had a Remote Operated Vehicle that had 1000 ft of cable. It was about the size of a quad ATV. I flew it with a large screen monitor on the back deck. Often I would lose track of where it was and have to surface it to find out its location. I finally got the hang of it and would take it in caves and a few shipwrecks. Spatial awareness took a while and I can only say it came with experience, lots of experience.

Have Fun,

M

 

[Skybuyer]

I have yet to try goggles but am looking forward to trying a good set.

I would love to have a "good" set too, but one of the major complaints that I have with DJI is that few of their electronic accessories, (i.e. goggles, smart controller, controllers in general) are not cross-model compatible. You can't just buy one of their "super controllers" (that don't exist) and use them on all DJI drones. You can't just buy one pair of goggles and use them on all or even most the DJI drones- and they ain't cheap. Their basic goggles are $350, about the same as an ala carte Mini. You could buy their new FPV drone with the goggles- and not be able to use them on any other DJI drone that you own.

There are a few things I'm not crazy about with these $13 VR goggles, so I have a $20 set on order which should be here tomorrow. I'll return one of them. The $20 set looks more comfortable, better made and has a different way of installing the phone, which might be better for my purposes. I am hoping that this mini-adventure gets me comfortable without having my eyes on the drone all the time. That FPV drone looks fun, but I can imagine it won't last long in the hands of the inexperienced.

 

[Rupi]

I would love to have a "good" set too, but one of the major complaints that I have with DJI is that few of their electronic accessories, (i.e. goggles, smart controller, controllers in general) are not cross-model compatible. You can't just buy one of their "super controllers" (that don't exist) and use them on all DJI drones. You can't just buy one pair of goggles and use them on all or even most the DJI drones- and they ain't cheap. Their basic goggles are $350, about the same as an ala carte Mini. You could buy their new FPV drone with the goggles- and not be able to use them on any other DJI drone that you own.

There are a few things I'm not crazy about with these $13 VR goggles, so I have a $20 set on order which should be here tomorrow. I'll return one of them. The $20 set looks more comfortable, better made and has a different way of installing the phone, which might be better for my purposes. I am hoping that this mini-adventure gets me comfortable without having my eyes on the drone all the time. That FPV drone looks fun, but I can imagine it won't last long in the hands of the inexperienced.

Hi Noob drone flyer here - I have been trying to get the hang of flying with my first ever drone the Mini2.
Very intrigued b y FPV - Ken Heron's YouTube video about the Mini2 FPV method seemed very interesting. I already have a Chromecast and a power bank and the necessary cables, cant decide which headset to get. The DJI headset Ken was using is expensive.
I would love to hear about your own experiences. Unfortunately Litchi is not available for Mini2 as yet as far as I know. Appreciate any advice on how to proceed.
Thanks