IPAD with cellular

MoonUnit · Mar 15, 2019

Hi everyone.im flying a mavic pro with a samsung s7 edge and I have not had any problems with it at all however I'm seriously considering getting the ipad mini4 to fly with

My question is... how nessacary is it to have the cellular option? The price difference is quite big. I've heard that some people use their phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for gps. Will this work when I'm in a different country without a working sim card and no signal ?

I use follow me mode quite often...

Many Thanks for your time

msinger · Mar 15, 2019

MoonUnit said:
I've heard that some people use their phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for gps.

You cannot share GPS data over a hotspot.

Unless you need to use the Follow Me flight mode or manually reset the home point to your current location (if you move away from the last marked home point), you likely won't need GPS on your mobile device. All other GPS related functions use data from the Mavic's GPS receiver.

MoonUnit · Mar 15, 2019

So are you saying it's not a big deal if I get the ipad without cellular?

msinger · Mar 15, 2019

For iPads, the cellular models contain a GPS receiver. That GPS receiver is active whether or not the cellular service has been activated. So, if you want to use the features I noted above, you'll need a cellular model. Or you could buy a Wi-Fi only model and attach one of these external GPS receivers to the iPad.

Meta4 · Mar 15, 2019

MoonUnit said:
So are you saying it's not a big deal if I get the ipad without cellular?

It's not a big deal.
Are you planning to use Follow-me flight or reset your home point to the controller's current location?
Very few people do and there are alternatives that work as well or better any way.

Those are the only two features that can use a GPS in the tablet.

Racin8de · Mar 16, 2019

I've had and only use the iPad 4 mini without cellular and never had a problem with anything.. It still runs pretty smooth for the 3 alomst 4 years I've had it

MoonUnit · Apr 16, 2019

I went for the Wi-Fi + cellular.got a massive discount in a demo unit. But now I have a problem with the transmission. The ipad screen is filled with 70% red lines/shadows all over the place while I'm in the air.can hardly see what's going on.the actual footage is fine though. Any advice? Could it be the cable (its original)