After selling my Mini 1 last Saturday my Mini 2 arrived today from B&H. I took some time to get acquainted, took it for a quick spin and can will add some comments below regarding that. You guys have covered a lot of the flight elements. But if you've had a Mini 1 and are like me, you may have accumulated a few accessories along the way. The Mini 2 is so new I didn't know what to expect in regard to what accessories I should hold onto and which I could let go to sweeten the deal with my buyer.
In terms of the drone itself, the exterior dimensions are near enough to be called identical for the most part. As someone else noted, the legs are a bit stiffer than the Mini 1 and that was evident when I put my old leg extensions/landing gear on. It took a little more oomph because of the slightly beefier legs, but they went on without a fuss. I like these because you don't have to take them on and off. The only thing is that the make the circumference around the drone a wee bit wider, so the cradle that came with the Mini 2 will have to have strap extender because it doesn't quite reach to fasten with the extenders on. I can do that with velcro, or come up with some alternate plan to span the extra 3/8" that it needs to reach. Also, the gimbal hood still fits, so I'm glad that I didn't give that up. Obviously you don't want to use MM1 propellers on the Mini 2 or vice versa.
Most importantly, using the old MM1 batteries... Batteries are costly. The MM2 battery costs $55 while the MM1 costs $35. Will the MM2 battery provide better performance and longer flight times in real world applications? I don't know yet. We'll see. The Mini 1 battery fits fine in the Mini 2 and flies well. The Mini 2 battery is not bigger! It is just shaped differently! I measured both batteries with a caliper The Mini 1 battery measures 38.7mm x 20.0mm deep while the Mini 2 measures 38.6mm x 19.75mm... so both within spittin' distance of being the idential size. The Mini 1 batteries is a little more oval in nature while the Mini 2 is somewhat more rectangular. The Mini 1 battery not only fits in the Mini 2 but also in the Mini 2 charging bank. I did try charging one Mini 2 batteries with my Yx (individual) charging adapter with the DJI provided brick, but my Kweisi meter said it stopped charging once the battery took on exactly 1599mah of charge. I'm not sure why or what that means, so if one of you engineer guys can tell me why it did that I'd love to know. More importantly, I'd like to know if there would be any damage using one of these adapters [Yx adapter] and wall brick?
Cases... The biggest change from the MM1 to the MM2 is the size of the controller. I'd been very happy with my old compact zipper case except I'd have to cut out the entire side of the padding to squeeze the MM2 controller in. But I can get it closed while standing it vertically if nothing is in the upper compartment. I'd have to take minimal extra stuff. The MM1 Fly More case was worthless as it was far too cramped. The case provided with the MM2 Fly More is more spacious, not that much smaller than the Fly More case from the Mavic 2. Lots of options. It's worth noting that if you're in the US Harbor Freight, with their ongoing 20% discount sells the Apache 2800 for only $23. The bigger one, the 3800 only costs a few $ more and both come with pick-n-
I'm attaching a bunch of photos for those who (like me) prefer to look at pictures rather than read long diatribes (like this one).
One thing about flying the MM2... It does seem more responsive. I don't recall having a Yaw rate/smoothness control in the MM1. I'm sure I'll think of other stuff, but wanted to cover things that weren't discussed so much. One more thing... I do not like the balance of this MM2 controller over the MM1/M2Pro controllers. In addition to being significantly heavier, it creates unwanted forward torque that I have to physically resist whereas the other controllers had a nice balance over a fulcrum (hands and fingers). But overall flying, in the very brief time I got to fly it- this thing is a Mini Beast!
In terms of the drone itself, the exterior dimensions are near enough to be called identical for the most part. As someone else noted, the legs are a bit stiffer than the Mini 1 and that was evident when I put my old leg extensions/landing gear on. It took a little more oomph because of the slightly beefier legs, but they went on without a fuss. I like these because you don't have to take them on and off. The only thing is that the make the circumference around the drone a wee bit wider, so the cradle that came with the Mini 2 will have to have strap extender because it doesn't quite reach to fasten with the extenders on. I can do that with velcro, or come up with some alternate plan to span the extra 3/8" that it needs to reach. Also, the gimbal hood still fits, so I'm glad that I didn't give that up. Obviously you don't want to use MM1 propellers on the Mini 2 or vice versa.
Most importantly, using the old MM1 batteries... Batteries are costly. The MM2 battery costs $55 while the MM1 costs $35. Will the MM2 battery provide better performance and longer flight times in real world applications? I don't know yet. We'll see. The Mini 1 battery fits fine in the Mini 2 and flies well. The Mini 2 battery is not bigger! It is just shaped differently! I measured both batteries with a caliper The Mini 1 battery measures 38.7mm x 20.0mm deep while the Mini 2 measures 38.6mm x 19.75mm... so both within spittin' distance of being the idential size. The Mini 1 batteries is a little more oval in nature while the Mini 2 is somewhat more rectangular. The Mini 1 battery not only fits in the Mini 2 but also in the Mini 2 charging bank. I did try charging one Mini 2 batteries with my Yx (individual) charging adapter with the DJI provided brick, but my Kweisi meter said it stopped charging once the battery took on exactly 1599mah of charge. I'm not sure why or what that means, so if one of you engineer guys can tell me why it did that I'd love to know. More importantly, I'd like to know if there would be any damage using one of these adapters [Yx adapter] and wall brick?
Cases... The biggest change from the MM1 to the MM2 is the size of the controller. I'd been very happy with my old compact zipper case except I'd have to cut out the entire side of the padding to squeeze the MM2 controller in. But I can get it closed while standing it vertically if nothing is in the upper compartment. I'd have to take minimal extra stuff. The MM1 Fly More case was worthless as it was far too cramped. The case provided with the MM2 Fly More is more spacious, not that much smaller than the Fly More case from the Mavic 2. Lots of options. It's worth noting that if you're in the US Harbor Freight, with their ongoing 20% discount sells the Apache 2800 for only $23. The bigger one, the 3800 only costs a few $ more and both come with pick-n-
I'm attaching a bunch of photos for those who (like me) prefer to look at pictures rather than read long diatribes (like this one).
One thing about flying the MM2... It does seem more responsive. I don't recall having a Yaw rate/smoothness control in the MM1. I'm sure I'll think of other stuff, but wanted to cover things that weren't discussed so much. One more thing... I do not like the balance of this MM2 controller over the MM1/M2Pro controllers. In addition to being significantly heavier, it creates unwanted forward torque that I have to physically resist whereas the other controllers had a nice balance over a fulcrum (hands and fingers). But overall flying, in the very brief time I got to fly it- this thing is a Mini Beast!
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