Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced, First Impressions

[Cookedinlh]

Yes, the Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced does not use a FLIR thermal core. It uses a Chinese sourced thermal and word on the street is that it is the same core as found on the Matrice 300 RTK's H20T camera. I have not heard anything concrete on who makes it. Autel uses IRay cores.

To add some drama to the thermal saga, FLIR has finally after 3 or so years made radiometric Boson cores. They are listed on the FLIR website in a number of configurations. Its only a matter of time before these cores end up in drones.

and where's the 60 and 120 fps video . . not even UHD!!? . . not a general use machine any more . . great IR resolution in a small package but . . . .

 

[jfo]

M2EA is my first IR drone, so I have nothing to compare it with and I am happy with the 640x512 resolution, not knowing anything better
However, I do miss the Point of interest feature - it could come pretty handy when inspecting stacks etc. I secretly hope that DJI is just waiting for enough of us to show our disappointment over the missing features (like the POI for me) and then they'll start coming up with software upgrade packages - say, "add the POI for 5 bucks", "add the ability to change the temperature range during the flight for 8 bucks", and so on. Or a third party developeer willl decide to cash-in using the open MSDX and add these for us. Perhaps we just need to make enough fuss about it and then the things will start happen.

 

[Cookedinlh]

M2EA is my first IR drone, so I have nothing to compare it with and I am happy with the 640x512 resolution, not knowing anything better
However, I do miss the Point of interest feature - it could come pretty handy when inspecting stacks etc. I secretly hope that DJI is just waiting for enough of us to show our disappointment over the missing features (like the POI for me) and then they'll start coming up with software upgrade packages - say, "add the POI for 5 bucks", "add the ability to change the temperature range during the flight for 8 bucks", and so on. Or a third party developeer willl decide to cash-in using the open MSDX and add these for us. Perhaps we just need to make enough fuss about it and then the things will start happen.

All part of being an EARLY ADOPTER . . I can live with it for now. . . just disappointing when the DUAL was such a great step forward and then Advanced kind forgot all that . . . . and just went with a better sensor

 

[jfo]

The DJI Thermal Analysis not working was my fault. I had downloaded the app when I placed my preorder. I did not realize that between then and now a new version was released. It does work now. While it is a little less functional and less polished than FLIR Tools, it does work and is pretty easy to use.

The lack of camera settings and advanced flight modes is disappointing though because the Autel 640T has the same ones as the standard and Pro Evo 2.

My opinion is that the temperature span will be coming and possibly the ability to change parameters in flight (emissivity, humidity, TRflec). Without the temperature span and the ability to narrow down temperature ranges you could miss something on an inspection, so for now you will have to tune in post to make sure you don't miss something.

I have a FLIR 80x60, 120x80, 320x240 and this DJI thermal sensor really lets you see some detail up close. I can now easily see the sheetrock nails, thermal bridging of every stud in the wall. The high resolution and low NETD really take out the noise in your thermographs as well. The FLIR Lepton 160 sensor has so much noise in it.

My opinion is that the temperature span will be coming and possibly the ability to change parameters in flight (emissivity, humidity, TRflec).

I hope so, too.
The post-processing tool is pretty cool, BUT when I change the emissivity or the ambient temperature in it, it does nothing - it still shows the same temperature values as before the change. Are you having the same issue too or am I doing something wrong?

 

[sar104]

My opinion is that the temperature span will be coming and possibly the ability to change parameters in flight (emissivity, humidity, TRflec).

I hope so, too.
The post-processing tool is pretty cool, BUT when I change the emissivity or the ambient temperature in it, it does nothing - it still shows the same temperature values as before the change. Are you having the same issue too or am I doing something wrong?

It works properly for me. Are you setting the parameters for the entire frame, or regions within it, and are you clicking the orange "Settings" button after changing them and clicking out of the relevant parameter box, as DJI software always seems to require?

 

[jfo]

It works properly for me. Are you setting the parameters for the entire frame, or regions within it, and are you clicking the orange "Settings" button after changing them and clicking out of the relevant parameter box, as DJI software always seems to require?

I swear I tried this before I wrote my comment and it was NOT working!
Now I tried it again and it does, both for the entire frame and for regions in it.
From now on I'm gonna text you whenever it's not working, you seem to be able to charm it remotely

 

[sar104]

I swear I tried this before I wrote my comment and it was NOT working!
Now I tried it again and it does, both for the entire frame and for regions in it.
From now on I'm gonna text you whenever it's not working, you seem to be able to charm it remotely

I had a similar experience when I first started using the software. I thought I had tried everything, but if you miss any of the steps it looks like nothing changes. I’ve also found that certain combinations of actions in that program, that I haven’t fully identified, completely crash Windows 10. DJI still has a little work to do.

 

[sar104]

I have a question that needs some independent testing, if anyone is interested.

I'm seeing some unexpected behavior from the Smart Controller / M2EA combination when using the SC with more than one aircraft. The SC maintains an inventory of linked aircraft and can (in principle) switch between them without having to relink. The unexpected behavior is that the M2EA only shows up in the inventory when connected - after powering down the aircraft it disappears, although it still connects immediately when powered up again.

So that's not really a problem until you link and use a different aircraft. In my case I linked a M2P. That also linked and connected just fine - the difference is that it is now in the inventory list whether it is connected or not, which is how I would expect it to work. And now, if I try to go back to the M2EA via the "Switch Aircraft" function, it doesn't appear as an option (because it's not in the inventory), so it has to be added again and relinked, which rather defeats the purpose of the SC inventory system.

And just to add one last wrinkle - if I do a factory reset on the SC then (of course) the entire inventory gets deleted, but if I power up the M2EA it connects to the SC immediately, no linking required. Is the SC hard-linked to the M2EA somehow?

So the question is - is this behavior specific to my SC and/or M2EA or do they all behave like that. The vendor is going to try to replicate it, but I'd be very interested if anyone else would:

1. Simply check the inventory list to see if the M2EA is listed both when connected and not connected;
2. Add another aircraft to the inventory and see whether the SC still remembers the M2EA.

Below are the screenshots of what I see:


M2EA connected.


But incorrectly named in the list view.


M2EA disappears when powered off.


Mavic 2 Pro connected.


Mavic 2 Pro remains in inventory when powered off.


M2EA added again and relinked - both aircraft in inventory.


But still misnamed in the list view.


And it disappears again when powered down, although it will continue to connect automatically unless/until the SC is switched to the M2P.

 

[jfo]

I have only one drone compatible with the SC so I can't shed any light to the issue with multiple aircrafts, but after I had to re-set my SC to factory settings, it needed no linking with the M2EA, so I suppose it makes sense to assume that they are, somehow, hard-linked.

 

[sar104]

I have only one drone compatible with the SC so I can't shed any light to the issue with multiple aircrafts, but after I had to re-set my SC to factory settings, it needed no linking with the M2EA, so I suppose it makes sense to assume that they are, somehow, hard-linked.

Thanks. So does the M2EA show up in your SC aircraft inventory when it is not powered up and connected?

 

[jfo]

Thanks. So does the M2EA show up in your SC aircraft inventory when it is not powered up and connected?II

I'll check that next time I take it out

 

[Zeke13z]

I have a question that needs some independent testing, if anyone is interested.

I'm seeing some unexpected behavior from the Smart Controller / M2EA combination when using the SC with more than one aircraft. The SC maintains an inventory of linked aircraft and can (in principle) switch between them without having to relink. The unexpected behavior is that the M2EA only shows up in the inventory when connected - after powering down the aircraft it disappears, although it still connects immediately when powered up again.

So that's not really a problem until you link and use a different aircraft. In my case I linked a M2P. That also linked and connected just fine - the difference is that it is now in the inventory list whether it is connected or not, which is how I would expect it to work. And now, if I try to go back to the M2EA via the "Switch Aircraft" function, it doesn't appear as an option (because it's not in the inventory), so it has to be added again and relinked, which rather defeats the purpose of the SC inventory system.

And just to add one last wrinkle - if I do a factory reset on the SC then (of course) the entire inventory gets deleted, but if I power up the M2EA it connects to the SC immediately, no linking required. Is the SC hard-linked to the M2EA somehow?

So the question is - is this behavior specific to my SC and/or M2EA or do they all behave like that. The vendor is going to try to replicate it, but I'd be very interested if anyone else would:

1. Simply check the inventory list to see if the M2EA is listed both when connected and not connected;
2. Add another aircraft to the inventory and see whether the SC still remembers the M2EA.

I'm having these exact same problems with my M2EA and M2Pro (edit: although at this point I have my SC the way I want so I'm not gonna factory reset to check if it rebinds automagically). While this is something I can deal with, the advertised functionality would be appreciated though.

 

[sar104]

I'm having these exact same problems with my M2EA and M2Pro (edit: although at this point I have my SC the way I want so I'm not gonna factory reset to check if it rebinds automagically). While this is something I can deal with, the advertised functionality would be appreciated though.

Okay - thanks for confirming that you are seeing the same behavior. I'm pretty sure that if you were to do the factory reset then it would still be bound, but that's an advantage rather than a problem so not worth testing if you have customized the SC.

 

[ZachBreacher]

Does anybody have an update on when the in flight thermal controls might be enabled? Pretty disappointed this is not enabled.

 

[dronesitesurveys]

We've had the Mavic Advanced for a few weeks now and have to say I'm hugely disappointed in what could be an incredible bit of kit. We have a Mavic Zoom, Dual and Pro2 already so were very excited to get our hands on this new thermal camera.
While the thermal camera is great resolution it's virtually impossible to get a properly tuned image out of the DJI Analysis Tool 2.0. It auto sets the highest and lowest parameter and although you can tune within this range it's not nearly as workable as Flir tools. Also, while you can set the emissivity, there a hardly any other editable parameters so there's no way we can be sure the temperatures are anywhere near accurate (in fact we know they're now because we trialled it against our Parrot Anafi through Flir Tools and the Mavic was way out when tested on a known temp). As a tool for accurate building or inspection thermography it's pretty unusable. I imagine for search and rescue it's a nice bit of kit though.
The zoom camera is entirely useless for photos also, the lossless zoom only actually works in video mode so the image you see on the screen is not the picture the camera actually takes. I've never seen a camera where it doesn't actually take the picture you see in the viewfinder ... great idea DJI!!!
It's a real shame and I hope they sort this out with upcoming firmware updates and and improved Analysis Tool because this drone is a big miss by DJI at the moment

 

[jfo]

We've had the Mavic Advanced for a few weeks now and have to say I'm hugely disappointed in what could be an incredible bit of kit. We have a Mavic Zoom, Dual and Pro2 already so were very excited to get our hands on this new thermal camera.
While the thermal camera is great resolution it's virtually impossible to get a properly tuned image out of the DJI Analysis Tool 2.0. It auto sets the highest and lowest parameter and although you can tune within this range it's not nearly as workable as Flir tools. Also, while you can set the emissivity, there a hardly any other editable parameters so there's no way we can be sure the temperatures are anywhere near accurate (in fact we know they're now because we trialled it against our Parrot Anafi through Flir Tools and the Mavic was way out when tested on a known temp). As a tool for accurate building or inspection thermography it's pretty unusable. I imagine for search and rescue it's a nice bit of kit though.
The zoom camera is entirely useless for photos also, the lossless zoom only actually works in video mode so the image you see on the screen is not the picture the camera actually takes. I've never seen a camera where it doesn't actually take the picture you see in the viewfinder ... great idea DJI!!!
It's a real shame and I hope they sort this out with upcoming firmware updates and and improved Analysis Tool because this drone is a big miss by DJI at the moment

Thanks for the insight. Could you please share some more details about the trial you made? What was the known temperature of the object and its emmssivity, what was the distance you measured it at and what was the measurement shown by the M2EA? And what was the temperature measured by the Parrot?

 

[Eden from Africa]

Does the Advanced have the MSX function that the Dual has, in IR mode?

 

[sar104]

Does the Advanced have the MSX function that the Dual has, in IR mode?

No MSX - it's not a FLIR camera. However, the resolution is so good that it really doesn't seem to need any kind of enhancement.

 

[jaja6009]

Got a chance to use this for a solar field inspection at school. Worked pretty good. Would of been better with tunable span, but I had a very easy time finding bad cells, and strings of cells.








Is this drone perfect? No. Is it flat out better than the Autel Evo 2 Dual we have at work? Not outright in my opinion.
Does it work for me and my use cases? Yes, and pretty well.

So far I have found that for qualitative analysis, this package works very nicely. Today was far from optimum for solar panels. Only 450-500 w/m2. And I intentionally tried bad angles, and I still found anomalies pretty easily.

Tomorrow, weather permitting I will try different altitudes with swimmers in the ocean. Good delta this time of year as the water temp is low high 50's to low 60s.

 

[Thanohano44]

We've had the Mavic Advanced for a few weeks now and have to say I'm hugely disappointed in what could be an incredible bit of kit. We have a Mavic Zoom, Dual and Pro2 already so were very excited to get our hands on this new thermal camera.
While the thermal camera is great resolution it's virtually impossible to get a properly tuned image out of the DJI Analysis Tool 2.0. It auto sets the highest and lowest parameter and although you can tune within this range it's not nearly as workable as Flir tools. Also, while you can set the emissivity, there a hardly any other editable parameters so there's no way we can be sure the temperatures are anywhere near accurate (in fact we know they're now because we trialled it against our Parrot Anafi through Flir Tools and the Mavic was way out when tested on a known temp). As a tool for accurate building or inspection thermography it's pretty unusable. I imagine for search and rescue it's a nice bit of kit though.
The zoom camera is entirely useless for photos also, the lossless zoom only actually works in video mode so the image you see on the screen is not the picture the camera actually takes. I've never seen a camera where it doesn't actually take the picture you see in the viewfinder ... great idea DJI!!!
It's a real shame and I hope they sort this out with upcoming firmware updates and and improved Analysis Tool because this drone is a big miss by DJI at the moment

This is what I was afraid of. I’m guessing I’m getting an Autel.