I recently bought the Mini 4 Pro. I already have the basic Mini 3 but as it was my birthday coming up I splashed out on the 4 Pro. I didn’t think that I really needed the 4 Pro but how wrong I was. DJI as we know are constantly improving each version of their Mini drones and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the new features. Number one was the “H” home point indicator. This I find very useful as often on the edge of VLOS I look back and sometimes have difficulty in identifying exactly where I took off from….not any more! Next the landing cross “X” which guides me onto my pad. Previously due to lack of depth of field perception I often missed the pad especially if I was standing a few meters away. Not any more. Today I took off remotely (I was 50 meters away on an upstairs balcony). I flew the Mini 4 and was able to return and land perfectly on the pad thanks to the “X”. Cruise control is next on my list. How nice it is to set a speed and patrol the area focusing on the photo settings etc and not having my fingers on the throttle stick. Lastly is the landing light which I probably won’t use very much but still a nice addition as it make the 4 more visible in the fading light. So all in all I am very pleased with my new purchase. I haven’t mentioned obstacle avoidance as it I don’t really need it in the places where I fly but still it is part of the package.
In praise of the Mini 4 Pro
- Thread starter OldGuy
- Start date
AeroJ
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I am having a generally similar experience to you so far - very impressed with nearly everything that M4P does - it is truly a marvel of design, engineering and miniaturisation ! I remain baffled as to how we can get that much image quality out of such a tiny gimbal / camera. DJI really are the masters at that...
And I am beyond impressed that it can seemingly achieve distances up to 5km, even CE mode in the UK, which I find simply incredible given our needlessly pathetic power transmission limits ! I won't be pushing mine anything like that far, but still appreciate that I can fly all my regular fly sites with very little worry about dropping signal or video feeds.
Unlike @OldGuy above, I already had Cruise control on my previous craft, a Typhoon H, but that had very weird turning characteristics when you tried to input manual yaw in addition to forward cruise, which is much better handled on the M4P, as is cruise mode generally I have to say.
Indeed, perhaps the only advantages the TH had was its incredible resistance to even high, turbulent winds, and its gimbal being fully independent from the craft, meaning panorama video clips didn't need manual yawing of craft, which was nice.
Of course since my M4P arrived, I had one day of perfect weather for test flights, after which it has been lots of rain and wind ever since, and today is no exception, hence why I am in here enthusing about it, rather than out there flying it !
And I am beyond impressed that it can seemingly achieve distances up to 5km, even CE mode in the UK, which I find simply incredible given our needlessly pathetic power transmission limits ! I won't be pushing mine anything like that far, but still appreciate that I can fly all my regular fly sites with very little worry about dropping signal or video feeds.
Unlike @OldGuy above, I already had Cruise control on my previous craft, a Typhoon H, but that had very weird turning characteristics when you tried to input manual yaw in addition to forward cruise, which is much better handled on the M4P, as is cruise mode generally I have to say.
Indeed, perhaps the only advantages the TH had was its incredible resistance to even high, turbulent winds, and its gimbal being fully independent from the craft, meaning panorama video clips didn't need manual yawing of craft, which was nice.
Of course since my M4P arrived, I had one day of perfect weather for test flights, after which it has been lots of rain and wind ever since, and today is no exception, hence why I am in here enthusing about it, rather than out there flying it !
AeroJ
Well-Known Member
Yep. Human hands-on-sticks control can be shaky, and inconsistent, and sometimes this comes across in aesthetically unrewarding footage. So if we let the craft do it for us we solve that problem by eliminating human inconsistency from the equation...
So, in its most basic form, if we want to go smoothly forward in a straight line we can start that manually, then at the desired speed we can hit that C2 button (assuming we have assigned it to CC) and the craft will continue at exactly that speed forward ad infinitum, whilst we can release the sticks completely.
So now we have a forward speed set, we can still turn by yawing, and if we decide that yaw should be constant as well, then we can press C2 again whilst inputting just that, and it will be added / updated to the current cruise mode, meaning now the craft is moving forward AND turning slightly all on its own, essentially doing a very smooth circle. Then we can transition that into a helical rise by inputting some throttle and again updating the cruise. And when we have finished the move we can cancel all movement by releasing the sticks and hitting the pause button, the C2 button, or exiting Cruise Mode via the screen.
So, it allows you to add different components of motion one stage at a time, incrementally, and then continues those far more smoothly than typical humans can manage trying to do it all at once AND controlling the gimbal ! It's nice to be able to isolate and separate those inputs sometimes...
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Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
@AeroJ gave a very good detailed explanation, I'll add to that with the pithy one-liner: More or less like it does in your car.
Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
AeroJ
Well-Known Member
Sorry about that - I may have left out an 'h' back there ! But it's OK, I've written to the King and apologised, and he's basically cool with it"wilst", @AeroJ, gotta love you Brits. American English has definitely lost some of the charm you all retain
Now if we Yanks could only hear you too...
Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
Sorry about that - I may have left out an 'h' back there ! But it's OK, I've written to the King and apologised, and he's basically cool with it
See that? Dumb American, I couldn't even spell it right.
At least I have an excuse, buddy...
It's a YouTube video by Nobbygreen called "DJI Cruise Control-The secret feature that DJI don't tell you". You should be able to find it now. Cheers.
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