I gave wrong advice

[toad007]

My friend liked my Plat and wanted a drone at reasonable cost so I suggested mini. He has not been pleased with it due to interference and wished he had bought a secondhand Mavic 2 series. I think he is going to return it as not fit for purpose. My Plat excellent, never failed apart from near HV lines in Scotland, but steered it back just about.

 

[old man mavic]

what advice did you give him exactly ,and were your suggestions based on having owned or flown a MM .

 

[toad007]

No, never owned a MM, just thought it was good size and price for him. But I knew of interference issues so perhaps it is not as good as claimed. I am sure there are many happy owners but I am glad I have a Plat.

 

[old man mavic]

No, never owned a MM, just thought it was good size and price for him. But I knew of interference issues so perhaps it is not as good as claimed. I am sure there are many happy owners but I am glad I have a Plat.

sometimes trying to be helpful can backfire ,and ruin a perfectly good friendship

 

[CarstenB]

so is it proven that the MM models consistently have interference issues that other drones don't have?

 

[toad007]

sometimes trying to be helpful can backfire ,and ruin a perfectly good friendship

Well I don't think it's that bad, he was in two minds what to get. But I am glad I never bought an MM, shame, they look clever in their class.

 

[LoganAir]

My friend liked my Plat and wanted a drone at reasonable cost so I suggested mini. He has not been pleased with it due to interference and wished he had bought a secondhand Mavic 2 series. I think he is going to return it as not fit for purpose. My Plat excellent, never failed apart from near HV lines in Scotland, but steered it back just about.

Wasn't a horribly bad suggestion if it was based solely on cost. The MM is a great entry level drone and I thoroughly enjoy flying it. It was up to your friend to go off and do the research and comparisons. If he doesn't like it, he can do what we've all done, upgrade!

 

[toad007]

Wasn't a horribly bad suggestion if it was based solely on cost. The MM is a great entry level drone and I thoroughly enjoy flying it. It was up to your friend to go off and do the research and comparisons. If he doesn't like it, he can do what we've all done, upgrade!

Well I am pleased with my Plat but there is always something better comes along like the Air2. For me, I think about 3 years ownership is good and they will be well advanced in say 3 years time. I use mine a lot and have got good results. I would like to be better but it looks like a life's work if that is your thing. It is my thing but too much else to do.

 

[old man mavic]

so is it proven that the MM models consistently have interference issues that other drones don't have?

what is fact from fiction,is the fact that the MM does not benefit from having Occusync which means its signal is more prone to interference from a high WIFI area and when it first came out many of the people flying them had already flown the more expensive drones ,with Occusync and were expecting the MM to have similar qualities ,it does not really matter that much because the primary role of the MM is to fly as a selfie camera ,it was never designed to be used for flying great distances, as its size makes it almost impossible to see at any sort of distance

 

[BokiFly]

it does not really matter that much because the primary role of the MM is to fly as a selfie camera ,it was never designed to be used for flying great distances, as its size makes it almost impossible to see at any sort of distance

Few other Mavic drones that have OccuSync are not so much larger than Mini to be visible on great distances, especially not on distances that OccuSync provides.

 

[old man mavic]

Few other Mavic drones that have OccuSync are not so much larger than Mini to be visible on great distances, especially not on distances that OccuSync provides.

i was trying to make the point that the mini even if it had Occusync would be out of site long before the signal dropped out
i can see my MPP out to some 1200 ft on a good day and know where it is in relation to the ground and obstacles that are in the area
but with my MM i start to struggle when its at around 700 to 800 ft from home

 

[BokiFly]

i was trying to make the point that the mini even if it had Occusync would be out of site long before the signal dropped out

That is true, but the same thing applies for the MPP or M2P. All of them can go out of the sight long before they lose signal.

 

[old man mavic]

That is true, but the same thing applies for the MPP or M2P. All of them can go out of the sight long before they lose signal.

so whats the point of your post

 

[BokiFly]

You said before

the primary role of the MM is to fly as a selfie camera ,it was never designed to be used for flying great distances, as its size makes it almost impossible to see at any sort of distance

With this logic even Mavic 2 Pro is not designed to be used for flying great distances as its size makes it almost impossible to see at distance that is not a lot greater than the one for Mavic Mini, 1200-1500 ft is not a long distance, and it is a lot shorter than what his OccuSync provides.

My point is that distances on which we are able to see our drones does not determine for what they are designed to be used for.

 

[old man mavic]

right i get where you are coming from ,yes of course they can fly further than we can see them ,even the MM could given the right conditions
but that does not take into account the fact that we should be flying in VLOS, and then the MM loses out to a larger drones as it is harder to see at any given distance

 

[FlyoverDRN]

It's nice and fun to have distance to spare, and I am not one to be restrained by Line of Sight, but from experience, the further one go, the more trouble we are asking for and chances are increasing of loosing our DJI.

 

[dino9832]

The Mavic Mini is a good solid drone. You didn't exactly give bad advice.
Your friend is unhappy due to interference issues. That might mean that it great in all ways EXCEPT the interference issue. I'm sure (like most of us) he had some specific expectations and places he wanted to fly. So, I can totally understand the disappointment as well.

As for range, there are many Youtube videos of what the MM can and can't do. Where is has issues and where is doesn't. One piece of advice is to fly higher. Also, turn off your phones WiFi. Then, there's range extending antenna addons. Or, simply don't fly too far in WiFi congested areas.

 

[jnatt]

Got to admit that I have a MA1 and loved flying it but for hillwalking I got a MM because it is lighter and can be charged from a powerbank on the hills.. at first I was worried by its size and the wind but had it up on the mountains last week and it did amazing.. I don't get much interference when flying and the couple of times I have i just manually changed the frequency and it was fine..

What I'm trying to say is that I think you probably gave some good advice but your friend should also have looked into it too.. it is good at what it can do but there will always be better if you want to pay more. And maybe if your friend looked into it more he may have chosen something different.. there are so many people selling their MM for bigger like the MA2 but equally as many who love their MM and wouldn't get rid of them..

(Still want active track for MM ?)

 

[hiflyer201]

If your friend is that concerned about interference he is not going to be happy with any drone.... from my limited experience ..it's going to be there and you're going to have to learn to deal with it.
I don't have a Mini but I've read tons of material about them here on the forum and it's made me a believer.. ..I think you gave your pal great advice.

 

[Repaid1]

If your friend is that concerned about interference he is not going to be happy with any drone.... from my limited experience ..it's going to be there and you're going to have to learn to deal with it.
I don't have a Mini but I've read tons of material about them here on the forum and it's made me a believer.. ..I think you gave your pal great advice.

I concur, I have seen the other offerings in that price range and they are just plain a nightmare with many issues besides just range. DJI is DJI, they sure ain't perfect, but given other options they would be hard to beat. There are far more (10's of thousands) happy owners of a MM than those that find issue with them.

The problem with the MM is it has broached into a separate bracket of owners who would have never thought to invest in a drone before, and thus unfortunately a different mind set at least from my observations following many forums. I know we have to start somewhere, but when I started "they" still cost $1500.

I spent 6 months using due diligence researching what I wanted to buy before buying it, I knew what I bought before I bought it, seems times have changed. I have owned 4 DJI Models now...zero issues with any of them and my 4+ year old P3P still flies better than the day I bought it.