I'm Furious! Mini 3 Pro Can't Fly Waypoint Missions

[DownandLocked]

I purchased a Mavic Pro many years ago when they first came out. I LOVED IT! I found that the most valuable and most used feature was to fly waypoint missions using Litchi and DroneDeploy for automomous mapping and scenic smoothly flowing cinematic videos. When the Mini 3 Pro came out, I was excited about the new technology, smaller size, excellent camera capability etc and so I bought one. Now that I am becoming more familiar with the Mini 3 Pro, I find that DJI no longer provides waypoint capability and THAT MAKES ME FURIOUS!!!

There was nothing made clear in DJI's marketing of the mini 3 that waypoints were no longer included. Why did DJI eliminate that capability? I've seen many discussions on the possibility of DJI providing it in the future but can DJI confirm that it is in the works? If yes, when? This is a serious downgrade in DJI drone capability and if not addressed, I'm going to get rid of my mini and stick with my mavic pro.

Thoughts??

 

[Droning on and on...]

It's not in the works, and kill any hope autonomous waypoints will be implemented for consumer DJI products. Marketing decision.

Apparently DJI makes more money if WP capability is only available in the professional lines.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

There was nothing made clear in DJI's marketing of the mini 3 that waypoints were no longer included

Conversely was there anything to suggest it WAS INCLUDED?

A lot of people seem to assume that because something was available in previous Apps it will continue to be available in future Apps but if you compare each new app with its predecessor you will find that, with each new app, functions have been removed as well as others added.
There must be loads of posts all over the internet complaining about the freatures that have been lost in the transition to the FLY app.
Sorry but realistically you should have done a bit of web surfing before buying and not have bought "in expectation", I know that is harsh but it would have saved you a lot of heart ache.

 

[Hauptmann]

Can it be done with Litchi?

 

[Tufargon]

Can it be done with Litchi?

No because DJI hasn't released the SDK and even if they did it would only be waypoints via virtual sticks which sucks.

 

[Meta4]

Can it be done with Litchi?

No it can't, because Litchi can't work without DJI releasing an SDK for the drone model.
And DJI haven't and have given indications that they have no intention of doing it.

 

[RogerDH]

I had the same surprise and disappointment after buying the Mini 1 -- I had never heard of a GPS drone that didn't do waypoint missions, and none of the reviews I watched on YouTube mentioned it. (And it seems that DJI is the only manufacturer that sells such a thing, since it's such an easy feature to provide in a drone that already needs to do autopilot return-to-home.) About 8 months after I bought it, the Mini was added to the SDK, which allows third-party apps to communicate with the drone. Litchi still wouldn't work because it was designed to upload missions to onboard firmware, and there wasn't any mission firmware in the Mini, but Dronelink was able to execute missions through "virtual stick" commands, so that's what I've been using ever since. Adding the Mini 2 to the SDK took even longer after release, but it was eventually added. About the same time, Litchi was able to use virtual stick to fly both drones.

With the Mini 3 Pro and the Mavic 3, the original expectation set by DJI (!) was that they would be supported in the SDK, eventually. But now, that's been dropped from any release schedule and there are ominous signs that no future models except "enterprise" models will have SDK support. (The Mavic 3 Enterprise had SDK support on Day One, but it appears the original and Classic models never will.)

I really had planned to buy a Mini 3 Pro when it was supported in the SDK, but I won't buy one otherwise, so it seems I'll be looking elsewhere for my next drone.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Its called greed, this is why the "enterprise" models will get it and the others will not. DJI knows that waypoint missions is at the top of the list for most drone pilots and profit from bigger sales with the "enterprise" models.

 

[DownandLocked]

I had the same surprise and disappointment after buying the Mini 1 -- I had never heard of a GPS drone that didn't do waypoint missions, and none of the reviews I watched on YouTube mentioned it. (And it seems that DJI is the only manufacturer that sells such a thing, since it's such an easy feature to provide in a drone that already needs to do autopilot return-to-home.) About 8 months after I bought it, the Mini was added to the SDK, which allows third-party apps to communicate with the drone. Litchi still wouldn't work because it was designed to upload missions to onboard firmware, and there wasn't any mission firmware in the Mini, but Dronelink was able to execute missions through "virtual stick" commands, so that's what I've been using ever since. Adding the Mini 2 to the SDK took even longer after release, but it was eventually added. About the same time, Litchi was able to use virtual stick to fly both drones.

With the Mini 3 Pro and the Mavic 3, the original expectation set by DJI (!) was that they would be supported in the SDK, eventually. But now, that's been dropped from any release schedule and there are ominous signs that no future models except "enterprise" models will have SDK support. (The Mavic 3 Enterprise had SDK support on Day One, but it appears the original and Classic models never will.)

I really had planned to buy a Mini 3 Pro when it was supported in the SDK, but I won't buy one otherwise, so it seems I'll be looking elsewhere for my next drone.

I wish I had your previous experience and, I agree. I never would have bought the mini 3 had I known. Waypoint capability is an incredibly valuable feature once you've experienced it. This should be a warning to anyone else who is considering the purchase of a mini 3. I did a search to find that the only DJI drones with waypoint capability right now are:

• DJI Inspire 1.
• Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom.
• Mavic Pro.
• All Phantom 4 drones.
• All Phantom 3 drones.

 

[Brewbud]

None of the YouTube videos I watched mention anything about not having waypoints. I don't use them often, but if I do, I guess I will be using my M2P

 

[Tufargon]

None of the YouTube videos I watched mention anything about not having waypoints. I don't use them often, but if I do, I guess I will be using my M2P

Keep that M2P if you want to use actual waypoints. It was the last drone DJI made that supported it without using virtual sticks.

 

[Brewbud]

Keep that M2P if you want to use actual waypoints. It was the last drone DJI made that supported it without using virtual sticks.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Yeah, as said, this is an arbitrary decision to limit the hardware by software (as we have experienced by many other companies for instance by camera manufacturers for long time).

The Mavic 2 Pro is the last consumer drone able to.
Only possibility is a SDK which takes ages if even promised to support it.

 

[Wild Drone Pilot]

I purchased a Mavic Pro many years ago when they first came out. I LOVED IT! I found that the most valuable and most used feature was to fly waypoint missions using Litchi and DroneDeploy for automomous mapping and scenic smoothly flowing cinematic videos. When the Mini 3 Pro came out, I was excited about the new technology, smaller size, excellent camera capability etc and so I bought one. Now that I am becoming more familiar with the Mini 3 Pro, I find that DJI no longer provides waypoint capability and THAT MAKES ME FURIOUS!!!

There was nothing made clear in DJI's marketing of the mini 3 that waypoints were no longer included. Why did DJI eliminate that capability? I've seen many discussions on the possibility of DJI providing it in the future but can DJI confirm that it is in the works? If yes, when? This is a serious downgrade in DJI drone capability and if not addressed, I'm going to get rid of my mini and stick with my mavic pro.

Thoughts??

May I ask
Why not use the Mavic Pro to fly your waypoint missions and just fly the mini 3 Pro for the fun of it?

 

[scro]

I suspect DJI's reluctance to provide waypoint capability to drones aimed at "the masses" is somewhat influenced by security concerns. With waypoints loaded onto the drone it can fly completely autonomously and therefore can't be tracked back to the pilot by any means. It also makes the drone less susceptible to signal jamming/interception. DJI don't want their drones to feature in prominent news stories that feed the "anti drone" sentiment.

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

It's not in the works, and kill any hope autonomous waypoints will be implemented for consumer DJI products. Marketing decision.

Apparently DJI makes more money if WP capability is only available in the professional lines.

This is exactly true. I have made this point before. They have made the decision to only to add this capability to the pro grade drones. If it makes you feel any better, it is not even available on the Mavic 3 line. The bigger problem is there is no SDK available which would allow 3rd party developers to create software with this capability.

 

[Vic Moss]

Low end drones aren't "do it all" drones. Would you buy a low end car and expect all the bells and whistles available in the top end model? Same deal for drones, whether DJI, Autel, or Bob's drones.

 

[Ranman1022]

They'll release the SDK in a year or so. But yeah a drone with Pro in its name should be such! Enterprise is what they call it. Language barrier! LOL

 

[NormanS]

I purchased a Mavic Pro many years ago when they first came out. I LOVED IT! I found that the most valuable and most used feature was to fly waypoint missions using Litchi and DroneDeploy for automomous mapping and scenic smoothly flowing cinematic videos. When the Mini 3 Pro came out, I was excited about the new technology, smaller size, excellent camera capability etc and so I bought one. Now that I am becoming more familiar with the Mini 3 Pro, I find that DJI no longer provides waypoint capability and THAT MAKES ME FURIOUS!!!

There was nothing made clear in DJI's marketing of the mini 3 that waypoints were no longer included. Why did DJI eliminate that capability? I've seen many discussions on the possibility of DJI providing it in the future but can DJI confirm that it is in the works? If yes, when? This is a serious downgrade in DJI drone capability and if not addressed, I'm going to get rid of my mini and stick with my mavic pro.

Thoughts??

Does Maven do what you need. Yes I Know it is IOS based but I use it to set up the route and then use the DJI controller in case there is a problem.

 

[RogerDH]

Low end drones aren't "do it all" drones. Would you buy a low end car and expect all the bells and whistles available in the top end model? Same deal for drones, whether DJI, Autel, or Bob's drones.

I realize that people who don't use waypoints don't care, but that's a lame excuse. Before buying a Mini, I bought a cheap Hubsan that had GPS and did waypoint missions (although it didn't do anything well and was generally a waste of money). In fact, every low-end GPS drone on the market does waypoints! These days, most of them do some version of "follow me" too, because like waypoints, it's just software. So yes, I think anyone buying any GPS drone should expect it to do both waypoint missions and RTH, since they require the same hardware, and no it's not the "same deal" with any other manufacturer. I also don't know of any other manufacturer who put a camera capable of 4K video and object tracking in a drone and then limit it to 2.7K with no ActiveTrack because you didn't pay enough.