I received my Mavic mini for Christmas. This morning when I got up I noticed the cloud cover was perfect for a beautiful sunrise. I grabbed my gear and ran for the park where I have been flying. When I got there and set up I was unable to connect to the MM. I hit “Connect Aircraft”, but in camera view got the warning “RC not Connected”. I won’t go through the next 30 minutes of connecting and disconnecting and deleting software, re-downloading the software, and the names I was calling DJI. In the meantime the sky overhead was getting redder and redder. I’ll just admit now that my cable was connected to the RC, but not to the phone. So, the controller and drone were bound, but there was no data transmitted to the phone. I could not change settings, I could not see video, and I could not verify things like GPS connection. So here is the lesson, and it’s not to remember to connect the cable, although that is a mistake I will not make again.
In preparation for my Christmas present, I purchased an inexpensive Drone that does not have video, GPS, or a phone connection. I was very comfortable flying without those things. So, this was the perfect opportunity to see what could be done without a phone connection. I thought this would be good practice in case my phone battery should die midflight, or I simply forgot a cable and needed to fly, or the cable was unplugged like this time.
Knowing the various warning signals based on the flashing lights of the MM, I could tell it was ready to fly. It was flashing a slow green light which means it’s in P-mode and has GPS. I flew the drone over to the other end of an open field and tested RTH. It worked perfectly. Without the connection to the phone I was unable to set the return to home altitude, but it appeared to be my previous setting of 100 feet. I flew the drone up above the trees, and without knowing if it would work, took pictures and video of the sunrise using the manual buttons on the front of the RC. Later after downloading the SD card I was happy to see that I did get photos and video. Should I find myself in this situation emergently, I now know the capability of flying with the RC alone. I would recommend giving this a try in a safe area, so you will be comfortable during a failure. Learn the flashing code, how each manual button works, and give it all a try.
In preparation for my Christmas present, I purchased an inexpensive Drone that does not have video, GPS, or a phone connection. I was very comfortable flying without those things. So, this was the perfect opportunity to see what could be done without a phone connection. I thought this would be good practice in case my phone battery should die midflight, or I simply forgot a cable and needed to fly, or the cable was unplugged like this time.
Knowing the various warning signals based on the flashing lights of the MM, I could tell it was ready to fly. It was flashing a slow green light which means it’s in P-mode and has GPS. I flew the drone over to the other end of an open field and tested RTH. It worked perfectly. Without the connection to the phone I was unable to set the return to home altitude, but it appeared to be my previous setting of 100 feet. I flew the drone up above the trees, and without knowing if it would work, took pictures and video of the sunrise using the manual buttons on the front of the RC. Later after downloading the SD card I was happy to see that I did get photos and video. Should I find myself in this situation emergently, I now know the capability of flying with the RC alone. I would recommend giving this a try in a safe area, so you will be comfortable during a failure. Learn the flashing code, how each manual button works, and give it all a try.
