Jerky Flight Mini 4 Pro

[WinterRanger]

First let me say that I'm not new to R/C flight. It has been a minute since I owned a drone with the Spark being the last one I used. A few weeks ago I had bought a Mini 2 SE and enjoyed it so much I decided to return it and upgrade to the Mini 4 Pro. I figured might as well..right? Today I received my Mini 4 Pro via FedEx. The Mini 2 SE was a dream to fly. Smooth movement and flight characteristics in both normal and sport mode. What fun it is!! To my surprise the Mini 4 Pro was not. Flying just around the yard I felt like how I used to feel when flying a new RC plane for the first few times. The drone acted like I was giving it way too much stick in ever direction. Doing a simple circle around the yard seemed a challenge with the Mini 4 Pro where from the first circle it was nice and smooth and easy with the Mini 2 SE. I tried several times to make sure I just wasn't anxious or over correcting. Nothing seemed to help. Is it just me? Did I get a bad copy? Is it the new design, and due to the fact that the rear of the drone "squats" when in flight? I was so frustrated that I returned the Mini 4 Pro with great disappointment and sadness. I wanted to love the drone because of all its great features. But for me, half the fun is just getting it out and flying around the property, and if that is more of a chore than a pleasure then why bother. I figured I'd post here and see what people had to say. Anyone flown both? Anyone else experience this? TIA.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Press the 3 dot symbol on the top right of the screen, then "control" then "gain & expo tuning" then 'play' with the adjustments in there, in particular expo. I find expo value of 0.5 to give the best predictability.

 

[Meta4]

Did I get a bad copy?

Probably not, but it's hard to tell much from your description.

Is it the new design

No.. it came out 10 months ago and is based on the design of the three minis that proceeded it.
Millions of minis have been sold worldwide and they fly pretty well.

and due to the fact that the rear of the drone "squats" when in flight?

That's a clue.
It suggests obstacle avoidance causing the drone to brake.
Were you flying in a small area with obstacles around?
Did you try flying it out in a wide, open area?

 

[old man mavic]

@WinterRanger this jerky behavior you described, first appeared with the arrival of the Mini 3 pro, and has been carried over to the Mini 4 pro as well
as @Meta4 stated above it is a product of the OA, which makes the drones reactions to stick imputs from the RC seem over sensitive, if you set the OA to Brake or Off then that jerky behavior will stop happening

 

[Exphantomflyer]

I noticed this when i first started flying the M4, i had the M2 originally, i soon got used to it and as its usually high in the air it doesnt bother me unless im flying it back to me at a low hieght, one thing i will say is that no matter how much it twitches the camera footage is always stable

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

@WinterRanger this jerky behavior you described, first appeared with the arrival of the Mini 3 pro, and has been carried over to the Mini 4 pro as well
as @Meta4 stated above it is a product of the OA, which makes the drones reactions to stick imputs from the RC seem over sensitive, if you set the OA to Brake or Off then that jerky behavior will stop happening

Is it the drone that jerks or the gimbal/camera or both?

To everyone, not just OMM.
Could someone post a .txt flight log for a flight that contains the behaviour ?

 

[old man mavic]

@Yorkshire_Pud its the drones reaction, to the any inputs to the sticks,mainly the right stick in mode 2 side to side ,and forwards /backwards
you get a sudden start and stop when its in Bypass mode ,which can make it quite hard to give the drone precise control if trying to fly in places such as through buildings or woodland ,it's almost like the OA does not want any stick imput from the RC ,during such manouvers,but as i said ,turn OA to stop or Off ,and then the drone responds in a much more gentle manner ,to RC control imputs, obviously once you are aware of this ,then it becomes a none issue ,if you just trust the OA to do its job in Bypass mode,the Mini 3pro, because it had no side OA sensors, even had a setting to turn off side to side movement,between the RC and drone, when using the OA, to prevent the pilot from miss judgment and flying into whatever was close to the sides of the drone ,because it wouldn't stop in time

 

[WinterRanger]

Got another one ordered and I'll give these things a try. Thanks for the responses all.

 

[Droning on and on...]

One "jerky" behavior I've noticed on all DJI drones as the OA has improved over the years: Starting from a hover, if you're real close to the distance it would automatically brake, it will start to go forward and then brake hard, i.e. "jerk", as if it was alive, emotional, and panicking.

OA wasn't quite as abrupt back in the days of the original Mavic, but then it did crash in to more things.

 

[WinterRanger]

Press the 3 dot symbol on the top right of the screen, then "control" then "gain & expo tuning" then 'play' with the adjustments in there, in particular expo. I find expo value of 0.5 to give the best predictability.

You mention changing the expo value to .5, but you don’t mention if it’s just one of the three or all three.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

You mention changing the expo value to .5, but you don’t mention if it’s just one of the three or all three.

I set all 3 and for each flight mode that offers the adjustment, I think that was n and sport mode for me, but I suppose you should try it with whatever combination is troubling you.

 

[tuxtard]

Mini 3 and 4 are generally jerkier and it's harder to get smoother video compared to older models. There are a few reasons for this behavior:

1. They have stronger motors, which move the drone more easily and produce greater acceleration.
2. Obstacle avoidance systems.
3. Different flight profiles related to obstacle avoidance modes. In bypass mode, the aircraft reacts to commands abruptly and with greater acceleration. In brake mode and with obstacle avoidance off, it moves and reacts much more smoothly.

 

[Nick 207]

I thought the same very twitchy and not smooth like my mini 3,put OA in bypass mode with the Nifty option and huge difference .

 

[Max Headroom]

@WinterRanger

I bought my first drone a Mini 2 SE a few months go and chose the Mini 2 SE i found my video a bit jerky when i first started flying so having watched the video below i set the settings to his recommendations and what a difference it made, if you have the same settings give it a try -

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