Mini 3 build quality compared to the Mini 2? had me surprised...

[shadow3467]

I have seen this on many forums.

”guys I bought a PS, is the quality really this bad?”
”I also hate X or Y”
”omg it is not normal that it is so bad now is it?”
”well, looks like i returned it! Xbox is much better”

I don’t really think he actually has a mini 3, probably just an alt account to criticise it

Dang you got me. It can't possibly be that I'm disappointed in paying well over $1000 dollars and getting a subpar product and then ignored by the seller

https://imgur.com/dloh0uX

 

[Robert Prior]

Why not just get a P4Pv2 and ditch these flimsy toys?

Probably for the same reason that I bought my Mavic Mini despite already having a Mavic 2 Pro. In Canada, you can fly a micro drone (sub 250 g) in many more places than you can a heavier aircraft, with much less paperwork.

OP posted a lovely shot of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration which he took with the Mini 3. To take that with a heavier machine would require advanced certification, and a Special Flight Operations Certificate, as it is within 3 nautical miles of Buttonville airport.

 

[MS Coast]

Dang you got me. It can't possibly be that I'm disappointed in paying well over $1000 dollars and getting a subpar product and then ignored by the seller

https://imgur.com/dloh0uX

Send it back right away and be done with it. We'll all be happier.

 

[shadow3467]

Probably for the same reason that I bought my Mavic Mini despite already having a Mavic 2 Pro. In Canada, you can fly a micro drone (sub 250 g) in many more places than you can a heavier aircraft, with much less paperwork.

OP posted a lovely shot of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration which he took with the Mini 3. To take that with a heavier machine would require advanced certification, and a Special Flight Operations Certificate, as it is within 3 nautical miles of Buttonville airport.

Exactly. It's such a shame because the camera on the Mini 3 is so good and the only reason I havent returned it yet. I want to believe this can be fixed through firmware but so far DJI has not even acknowledge that there is a signal issue and its been nearly a month

 

[mavicn00b]

I have seen this on many forums.

”guys I bought a PS, is the quality really this bad?”
”I also hate X or Y”
”omg it is not normal that it is so bad now is it?”
”well, looks like i returned it! Xbox is much better”

I don’t really think he actually has a mini 3, probably just an alt account to criticise it

I dunno about that, the mini 1 had pretty flimsy front arms. They hollowed out the plastic and replaced with foam to get the weight down. Felt kinda cheap.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

the same thing happens to vehicles when i started driving nearly 60,years ago the cars that were around at the time used quite a thick steel to construct the body of the vehicle a lot of them had a separate heavy chassis and you could stand on the hood/bonnet, and lean heavily on the wings /fenders and no damage would be done
try that on todays vehicles and if the dent doesnt spring back then it will mean a replacement part or expensive repair ,even a small cheap car has lots of plastic panels and the ones that are metal are half the thickness of what they were before ,and why all to save weight to improve the power to weight ratio ,

Very true in many makes.

With most of the rest (bar the cheapest cost budget type models), car manufacturers are going to light, high strength steels like boron, spring steels . . . well, this has been evolving for a decade or so.

Of course aluminum is really coming into its own now, light and strong, but in the past too expensive for most vehicle use.

Plastic parts, including grilles, headlights, mirrors, and especially bumpers are really a godsend for both economy, ease of replacement, and most importantly pedestrian safety.

Bumpers absorb impact and spring back to shape most light hits.
A dented bumper end can be warmed up with a heat gun and gently popped out from behind, if the paint is sound a little hand polish and a lot of times you wouldn't know.

Still, not much sets the heart going like a good old steel jalopy, with chromed metal bars and such.

 

[EpicFlight]

@shadow3467, you're apparently in Canada. Are we to understand you're criticism of DJI includes not being able to reliably hack FCC mode?

 

[Torque]

Dang you got me. It can't possibly be that I'm disappointed in paying well over $1000 dollars and getting a subpar product and then ignored by the seller

https://imgur.com/dloh0uX

Refresh my memory: What is the range you are getting and unhappy with?

 

[shadow3467]

Refresh my memory: What is the range you are getting and unhappy with?

Losing signal at around 300-400m consistently sometimes lower


I just tried the FCC method to get it into FCC mode, basically turn on remote, turn on drone, let it update home point, then keep remote on but turn drone off, then turn drone on again and leave it somewhere it cant get GPS lock for 3 minutes, then take it outside and fly


Apparently that keeps it in FCC mode and holy crap, I got perfect signal after, just as good as the mini 2. Flew up to 1000m away at an altitude of 50-60m with no signal loss whatsoever so clearly theres something wrong with the normal default startup procedure


I hope this is something they fix through firmware asap because having to do that procedure and lose 10% of battery in the process is very annoying

 

[Robert Prior]

Still, not much sets the heart going like a good old steel jalopy, with chromed metal bars and such.

I can think of many things that set my heart going more than a jalopy. (Unless the old jalopy is trying to run me over, I guess.)

 

[Robert Prior]

Losing signal at around 300-400m consistently sometimes lower


I just tried the FCC method to get it into FCC mode, basically turn on remote, turn on drone, let it update home point, then keep remote on but turn drone off, then turn drone on again and leave it somewhere it cant get GPS lock for 3 minutes, then take it outside and fly


Apparently that keeps it in FCC mode and holy crap, I got perfect signal after, just as good as the mini 2. Flew up to 1000m away at an altitude of 50-60m with no signal loss whatsoever so clearly theres something wrong with the normal default startup procedure


I hope this is something they fix through firmware asap because having to do that procedure and lose 10% of battery in the process is very annoying

A Faraday cage will block GPS signal. When I was in Greenland the locals used aluminum foil on their drones to block GPS and ignore geofencing. Very relaxed about EU regulations, they were .

 

[manc54]

If you have a fixed weight limit (250 g), and you want to add features, you have to save on weight somewhere else. One of the most common ways to do that is to make things thinner...more flimsy.

I don't have a Mini-3 (I have 3 Mini-2s), but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened in this case.

Very commen in the car industry to reduce the thickness of the material used to build the body and thus reduce weight.........which is why you only have to sneeze on modern cars to dent them.

 

[Robert Prior]

Losing signal at around 300-400m consistently sometimes lower


I just tried the FCC method to get it into FCC mode, basically turn on remote, turn on drone, let it update home point, then keep remote on but turn drone off, then turn drone on again and leave it somewhere it cant get GPS lock for 3 minutes, then take it outside and fly


Apparently that keeps it in FCC mode and holy crap, I got perfect signal after, just as good as the mini 2. Flew up to 1000m away at an altitude of 50-60m with no signal loss whatsoever so clearly theres something wrong with the normal default startup procedure


I hope this is something they fix through firmware asap because having to do that procedure and lose 10% of battery in the process is very annoying

Just had a thought…

Are you testing your Mini 3 near Buttonville Airport? (Your cathedral picture was relatively close.) I wonder if being so close is affecting which mode it's in?

Would it be possible to test the Mini 3 somewhere well away from airports, cell towers, etc? Just wondering what the parameters of the range issue you're encountering are…

 

[mavicn00b]

Very commen in the car industry to reduce the thickness of the material used to build the body and thus reduce weight.........which is why you only have to sneeze on modern cars to dent them.

Cars dent easily as they're designed to absorb the impact in the case of collision with a pedestrian. The car can be replaced, the person can't.

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

Cars dent easily as they're designed to absorb the impact in the case of collision with a pedestrian. The car can be replaced, the person can't.

Yes but they are also made light to conform with fuel economy regulations.

 

[shadow3467]

Just had a thought…

Are you testing your Mini 3 near Buttonville Airport? (Your cathedral picture was relatively close.) I wonder if being so close is affecting which mode it's in?

Would it be possible to test the Mini 3 somewhere well away from airports, cell towers, etc? Just wondering what the parameters of the range issue you're encountering are…

No I don't live anywhere near Buttonville, that flight at the cathedral was a one time flight which by the way I have to say was gorgeous in person.

I've tested it in my backyard which is nowhere near an airport and this trick fixed it for me atleast for that one flight, I got out to 1000m at 60-65m altitude with 5 bars of signal, which was impossible before

 

[mavicn00b]

Yes but they are also made light to conform with fuel economy regulations.

That's an added advantage, lighter vehicles equate to less energy requirements, but even more true for aviation which is why on our little electric copters every gram is measured is accounted for.

 

[RUFFSTUFF]

What's unethical is for me to pay $1000 for something and not get even 50% of the advertised effect (signal strength on the mini 3 pro) meanwhile the company refuses to even acknowledge the problem.

That's only because you're in Canada. Move a little south and the problem goes away.

 

[halifax]

Yup.

I own two cars, a 1969 Mercury Marquis, and a 2016 Toyota RAV4, Yoda.

The RAV4 is a delightful machine (this is my second one), has all the luxury that I need and some that I don't, and gets great gas mileage, about 32 mpg on average, and it has over 100,000 miles on it.

The Mercury, who's name is Behemoth, is 19 ft long and weighs 4400 lbs. He doesn't really have "gas mileage" at this point. He burns about 8 gph, regardless of speed. He's got over 150,000 miles. He's more of a pet than a working car at this point, although he does run, and he's registered and insured.

But unlike Yoda, Behemoth would hold his own just fine in a "Mad Max" environment, thank you very much! And he does serve a useful function. His 19 gallon gas tank acts as mobile fuel reserve!

View attachment 150476

Brilliant. Thanks for the full belly laugh.
I had a 1970 Mercury Monarch as my poor grad-student wheels back in the late 1990s. We called it the Iron Butterfly. It was equal to your battleship right down to slate grey and underway. Never locked it. Any girl who would ride in it with me proved that she was with me for me and nothing else. I’ll bet it’s still around somewhere, absolutely indestructible.

 

[Brojon]

I also just dislike the way it looks in general though, prefer the sleeker look of the 2

At even 50 feet up - what's to see? Looks are secondary - it ain't art.