Mavic Mini - Was I Unrealistic ?

[JMar1017]

I was thinking maybe a brick wall in sports mode..kidding..I know your frustration. I tried a cheap android tablet with my spark and I couldn't get over my back fence without thinking I was going to lose it...Maybe thats the answer..I'd sure try the iphone.. I use a 6s without the plus and it works great with my Spark and Air's 1 and 2

I'm sure accidents like these happen all the time - it would be a shame if the beginner pilot resurfaced in me. I would be shocked to find out that this was my phone as the Note 10+ is less than a year old and my M2P works just fine with it.

 

[JMar1017]

Have you had a look at the frequency stuff under the transmission menu? Can you change any of it?
How many locations have you tried flying in?

I can't really see why the phone would affect it as it is my understanding that the radio 'conversation' between the drone and whatever is between the drone and the controller. Indeed my 'phone'/screen usually has all forms of radio communication, that I know of, switched off.
The mini may or maynot be range limited when a screen is not connected to the controller but once airborne I have, in the house, disconnected the phone with no apparent ill effects, obviously this was at close range

I've flown in about a half dozen different places - same results in all of them.

As for the transmission settings - I've played around with them trying to get better results but nothing changes - if anyone that gets solid distance can share their transmission settings i'll try and duplicate them to see if it helps.

 

[Turkeytracks]

I dont know what it would be at this point - i'm about ready to throw it online and see if anyone wants to buy it.

All I know is I am getting frustrated with it.

Check your distance setting I have the same 2 birds love them both

 

[JMar1017]

I use an iPhone 8 with my mini and I have gone over 4800 feet with only minor connection problems. I hope you get this figured out because the mini is a blast to fly!

I hope I get it figured out too - but the more and more time goes on the less and less hopeful i get - maybe an Air 2 would be better but i feel like that's not much of a difference in size compared to my M2P

 

[JMar1017]

You are extending and orienting the antennas appropriately?

I keep them in line with the drone and angled the way it is suggested in the manual

 

[JMar1017]

Just a suggestion; go to a different area to fly. There may be some magnetic interference in the area or at the take off point.. never experienced the issues with any of my drones.. so if there's not interference then suspect it's the drone itself, may have a defect. If you fly the Pro 2 then you know the quality is there.... they don't lower the standards from what I can tell.

Tried about 6 different places - if it is interference - then the magnetic interference is me haha

 

[JMar1017]

I won't post the exact distance i flew my completely stock Mini yesterday or the mall cop/fun police will come out & tell me to get off their lawns but it was 16,000 feet. LOL So I think the Mini is more than capable at distance.

What kind of terrain? unobstructed?

 

[JMar1017]

I know you aren't supposed to favor one kid over the other - but at this point my M2P is my favorite child lol

I have my distance limits to the max it can go

@Turkeytracks

 

[TheRock]

Send it to DJI. The Mini works fine. I flew mine all over West Papua in the middle of nowhere long distances and in some winds and it did everything it was asked. Ship radar interfered with it once and that was my only problem. Works fine at home too. There's either something wrong with the drone or the phone. Send it in.

 

[alopeznj]

I would be thrilled if i could get somewhere between a half mile and a mile - sadly I haven't been able to

I fly A LOT with my Mini. More than my Mav Pro. Yes, occasionally i will get a comm error but I am more than a mile away, no line of sight (not recommended ) and totally rely on RTH because I have no clue how to get back. It has never failed me close to a year now. I recommend taking it to a different place, calibrate everything. I suspect there is strong interference in your airspace. I have litterly waited a full minute after RTH before I hear the rotors over my head. That has to be pretty far away.

 

[alopeznj]

Send it to DJI. The Mini works fine. I flew mine all over West Papua in the middle of nowhere long distances and in some winds and it did everything it was asked. Ship radar interfered with it once and that was my only problem. Works fine at home too. There's either something wrong with the drone or the phone. Send it in.

Why not have both ? I really enjoy the mini unless I am flying the beach with higher winds. M Pro hands down. Mini is NOT wind happy.

 

[flycaster1]

Hello All -


So I had the chance to pick up a Mavic Mini fly more bundle about a month back - I went ahead and grabbed it thinking it would be a cool little drone to be able to get into tighter areas for some unique shots.

Maybe it's just me, maybe not but I am totally disappointed in this little guy - I barely get a few hundred feet before I get loss of connection and choppy video. To be clear these preliminary flights are in open fields and unobstructed as i wanted to get a feel for the maneuvering before I did any official flights where I was trying to get a shot. I've watched dozens of videos trying to figure out if it's me, a fault drone or a little of both. Still after 3 weeks of fiddling around I can't seem to get more than a few hundred feet without getting that loss of connection or choppy image.

Was I unrealistic with just blindly trusting the DJI logo and the vids online that showed how cool these were?

To note - I am usually flying a Mavic Pro 2 - so my plan was to bounce between the 2 depending on the shot I was looking to get.

Also the device I use is a Samsung Note 10+

I've flown my mavic mini over 2 kilometers with no disruption in the feed on many occasions. You either have interference you're not aware of or a defective unit.

 

[BigSexyHouse]

What kind of terrain? unobstructed?

I launched from a middle school parking lot a couple miles from my house. It's a fairly rural area so I fly there frequently, mostly fields. I turned around due to battery, not signal loss, I could have gone farther with more battery. I hit 29500 with my MA2 in the same location before turning around, again, only due to battery.

 

[JMar1017]

I launched from a middle school parking lot a couple miles from my house. It's a fairly rural area so I fly there frequently, mostly fields. I turned around due to battery, not signal loss, I could have gone farther with more battery. I hit 29500 with my MA2 in the same location before turning around, again, only due to battery.

Wow - that's quite a flight - furthest I've even take my M2P is 1/2 mile. I'm sure that was pretty cool to do.

I've often wondered what it would be like by me - I could essentially tour the barrier islands in my area which I've always thought would be cool to see - but the closest take off points are main roads that are constantly patrolled by troopers.

I dont go too much further than that out of fear of losing the drone - as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter how smart these things are programmed to be - man or machine we all have our moments of stupidity and I'd rather avoid my drone finding it's stupidity too far from me lol

 

[JMar1017]

Basically the notion I'm getting here is:

Try in a few more areas

Try using a different device although I don't think my less than a year old device should be an issue since I seldom have issues with my M2P

Possibly defective unit and try my being it's defective try my best to avoid any catastrophic but safe (no person or animal gets hurt) accidents - however should I get into some sort of accident - because let's face it - acidents happen all the time, that's why there are erasers on pencils - not to worry DJI Care Refresh should replace no questions asked.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I don't see how the screen device can be responsible but leaving that aside my screen device is an 'ancient' Samsung S6, I have a 5s iphone that works with the app too but haven't flown anywhere with that that I could VLOS beyond 100m or so so it's worth mentioning as such.

The other thing that occurs to me is, see if you can find another mini flyer locally and if they are willing try their drone on your controller and vice versa

 

[LifesShort]

I feel 100% confident it saying it's not your phone. You don't even need a phone to fly. Try flying your drone and, once you are in the air, turn the phone off. The drone will continue to fly normally and you will have full control. I actually had to reboot my phone by powering off and then back on mid-flight one time. The AC just sat there and hovered while I got my phone going again.

 

[JMar1017]

I know it's a lot to ask - so if nobody is up to the task I totally understand.

If someone is up for it that gets a good range on their MM - could they please share their flight related settings and also the settings they use on their phone - such as airplane mode ON/OFF - BT ON/OFF - Location settings - whatever the case may be

Preferably someone who uses a droid as that's my go to device.

 

[Ol' Sparky]

Tried about 6 different places - if it is interference - then the magnetic interference is me haha

Don't own a MM bur....yeah....could be. I use a Moto e4 for flying and a Pixel for my smartphone...I always put the Pixel in airplane mode before I connect the e4.

 

[bobzdar]

Just throwing it out there, but the issues you're having may be why the previous owner sold it....I've hit around 3/4 of a mile before I started getting connection warnings and video drop, but that was out in the country standing on top of a hill, so best case scenario. I couldn't see it very well past half a mile, so it's kind of impractical to fly it that far if obeying the rules, but a few hundred feet tells me something is definitely not right with your unit.