Mavic mini GPS

[Cypher1]

If I use a ipad mini4 without any GPS will my controller still be able to bring up google mapping info on the screen?

 

[Greekislandlover]

I have a mini4, and the way round this is to make your phone a wifi hotspot and connect the tablet to that.That works well for me. All I need to do on location is remember to put the phone hotspot on. I think there is a chance that some of the maps bay be cached, so if you visit a place you have been before the map may be there already.

The tablet knows to look for it's wifi and things run seamlessly. I purposely got a mini 4 without GPS and 4G as it was a lot cheaper, and I intended to use it through the phone.

The other thing you can do is to pre-load the map of where you are going if there is unlikely to be a phone signal.

 

[msinger]

It depends on if you're talking about GPS or Internet connectivity. Connecting to a hotspot would give you access to the Internet. But, you won't have GPS on an iPad Mini unless it's a cellular model.

 

[Cypher1]

I have a mini4, and the way round this is to make your phone a wifi hotspot and connect the tablet to that.That works well for me. All I need to do on location is remember to put the phone hotspot on. I think there is a chance that some of the maps bay be cached, so if you visit a place you have been before the map may be there already.

The tablet knows to look for it's wifi and things run seamlessly. I purposely got a mini 4 without GPS and 4G as it was a lot cheaper, and I intended to use it through the phone.

The other thing you can do is to pre-load the map of where you are going if there is unlikely to be a phone signal.

So does that mean that the gps on the drone itself will not show any mapping info on the tablet screen itself unless I buy one that is cellular capable?

 

[msinger]

So does that mean that the gps on the drone itself will not show any mapping info on the tablet screen itself

The location from the drone's GPS receiver is sent back to your mobile device and can be displayed on maps (assuming those maps were downloaded from the Internet). However, the location of your mobile device will not be displayed on maps unless your mobile device also contains a GPS receiver.

 

[Greekislandlover]

The drone GPS is the one the drone itself uses for where it actually is. It uses this info for setting the return home point, and working out where it is and will happily fly - just no map on the screen. It's independent from the GPS used for the controller / tablet / phone.

The GPS for the controller is on the phone or tablet, and tells the mapping server where you are so it can give you a map. Without the map being present the drone will still record the home point correctly, still fly any routes you have set up in advance with waypoints and the flying functions work.

If you have cellular and GPS on the tablet, it will load a map of your location. That's all it does. There are other ways to get the map. You can download them to the tablet in advance, but the way I do it is to set my phone to tethering and use the cellular and GPS of my phone via a wifi hotspot. That works seamlessly and you don't need to have cellular or GPS on the tablet - mine hasn't got that facility. You just need your phone to have signal if you want live mapping.

 

[Meta4]

the way I do it is to set my phone to tethering and use the cellular and GPS of my phone via a wifi hotspot.

Hotspotting to your phone gives you internet data.
It does not give any GPS location data.

That works seamlessly and you don't need to have cellular or GPS on the tablet - mine hasn't got that facility. You just need your phone to have signal if you want live mapping.

For drone flying, there's almost nothing that you need GPS on the phone or tablet for.

 

[Greekislandlover]

Hotspotting to your phone gives you internet data.
It does not give any GPS location data.

For drone flying, there's almost nothing that you need GPS on the phone or tablet for.

Point 1 - True, but I guess as my phone knows my location, and I have location sharing on, it passes that onto the tablet.

Point 2 - Agreed. I was in the wilds of Canada last September, usually without a map and flew without any problems. The most part of my screen real estate is the camera view, the exposure information and the compass. I rarely use the map.