Small tablets fit the Mavic controller

Alex Baxter · Oct 31, 2016

msinger said:
It's easy to reach the sticks. The problem is that you'll cover the top corners of the tablet screen with your arms or you'll need to hold the remote controller with an even more unnatural grip in order to prevent your arms from covering the screen.

That's kind of what I meant, it's gone from neat and use-able (I'd guess, as I'm one of the anxious waiting ones) to cumbersome in one fell swoop.

JakeS · Nov 1, 2016

I have only been flying with my ipad mini 2 since I found it fit in the arms. I haven't found it cumbersome at all and it feels quite natural to hold. I do have a right angle lightning cable coming to make it a little better. You can see some footage of me flying with the ipad mini here:

dcpmark · Nov 1, 2016

JakeS said:
I have only been flying with my ipad mini 2 since I found it fit in the arms. I haven't found it cumbersome at all and it feels quite natural to hold. I do have a right angle lightning cable coming to make it a little better. You can see some footage of me flying with the ipad mini here:

Have you actually flown it outside for extended periods of time? Most of the time in your video you are holding the Mini comfortably with your thumbs nowhere near the sticks, much less some of the control buttons. In order to use the sticks with my Mini, my hands must be at a 45 degree angle holding the handles of the RC, and the weight of the iPad makes it no longer balanced.

JakeS · Nov 1, 2016

dcpmark said:
Have you actually flown it outside for extended periods of time? Most of the time in your video you are holding the Mini comfortably with your thumbs nowhere near the sticks, much less some of the control buttons. In order to use the sticks with my Mini, my hands must be at a 45 degree angle holding the handles of the RC, and the weight of the iPad makes it no longer balanced.

I have flown outside 5-6 times now as weather has permitted. I haven't posted any of that footage yet but I will. I find it feels very balanced still. Even with my thumbs on the sticks. I'll try and upload some footage later today and post it here

Elan Singer · Nov 6, 2016

JakeS said:
I have only been flying with my ipad mini 2 since I found it fit in the arms. I haven't found it cumbersome at all and it feels quite natural to hold. I do have a right angle lightning cable coming to make it a little better. You can see some footage of me flying with the ipad mini here:

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Can't find a 1ft right angle lightning cable. Where did you get it?

stealle · Nov 6, 2016

Elan Singer said:
Can't find a 1ft right angle lightning cable. Where did you get it?

Maybe JakeS will answer that he found a high quality one. I searched quite a bit and the only 1 ft. right angle lightning cables I could find were on eBay. They look cheap and ship from Hong Kong. But who knows, they might be great. At $6 including shipping there isn't much to lose taking a chance on it.

30cm 0.3m Right Angle Data Charger USB Cable WHITE for iPad Air Pro 2 mini 4 3 | eBay

JakeS · Nov 6, 2016

I haven't found a good 1 foot cable yet. I am using a 3 foot cable still.

Elan Singer · Nov 6, 2016

Elan Singer said:
Can't find a 1ft right angle lightning cable. Where did you get it?

Got it. Ordered. Thanks.

Jeffdj · Nov 6, 2016

mikeroycollins said:
Or a Nexus 7 given the use of the lower USB port as the 6 I think is a little fat in the middle?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I've tried it with a Nexus 7 2013, it fits but is a bit of a tight fit thickness wise, the rubber inserts grip quite tightly. I have also made a sunshade for it. The shade does make it a little more awkward to use the touch screen but controls are ok.
This is only a prototype, the last version has thicker card but is easy to fold up for transport.
Since the original post I have discovered that the Nexus 7 cannot handle the video display giving blocky video monitoring so I have bought an ipad mini2. Guess I'll build a new version of the sunshade. I have also built a version for my Samsung Note 3.

Drone Valley · Nov 7, 2016

I wanted to add a little color to the discussion. The iPad in the clip I did was a Mini 4 and it fits and works great. It is a little awkward at first but if you use a shorter, angled iPad connector it's a lot more comfortable. You'll find the the grip and balance is quite natural after you've flown it a bit. I like that I can use the tablet and not have to worry about dragging along a larger mount that sort of diminishes the advantage of portability. I hope that helps.

Jeffdj · Nov 8, 2016

I have just got my ipad mini 2, everything fits in the controller, however I was a bit disappointed to find that on the ipad mini 2 you cannot get 1080 p video feed on the tablet if you are recording 4K video. How is the ipad mini 4 in this regard? My Samsung S 8.4 didnt say this but it is too wide to fit the controller.

Joseph · Nov 8, 2016

Alex Baxter said:
I think it would be really difficult to fly the Mavic like that, your hands would be all over the tablet, inadvertently pressing buttons, I'll be sticking with my Motorola Nexus 6, I reckon it's the largest practicable screen to use attached to the controller.

Does the Nexus 6 fit into the controller perfectly? Would you attach a picture of how it looks like when the nexus is hooked up to the controller?
Thanks!

Curt · Nov 8, 2016

Hey guys and girls I just picked up my Mavic Pro yesterday. I did all the firmware updates and tweaked the controller settings. Today was my first flight which went off flawlessly. This isn't my first drone I've had the DJI Phanton 2 + vision, the Inspire 1, Phanton 3 Professional, Phanton 4 and now the Mavic Pro. The last four I still own. I'm have three years of drone flying under my belt and I am pretty proficient in their operation. The Mavic pro meets or exceeds any of the other drones. Very stable flight hold on and wait the delay in delivery.

Avalanchediver · Jan 7, 2017

I am unable to get my phone or tablet to work using the lower USB port with a USB cable.I have no issues using the phone (Note3) with the cable coming from the upper left side port on the controller. I have tried with the upper cable connected as well as disconnected. Is there a software setting somewhere to turn on the lower usb port, of has anyone else experienced my problem?

Drone Valley · Jan 7, 2017

Avalanchediver said:
I am unable to get my phone or tablet to work using the lower USB port with a USB cable.I have no issues using the phone (Note3) with the cable coming from the upper left side port on the controller. I have tried with the upper cable connected as well as disconnected. Is there a software setting somewhere to turn on the lower usb port, of has anyone else experienced my problem?

Be sure to completely disconnect the side cable when using the lower one for connection to your phone/tablet. Only one of these cables can be active at a time and if the side (stock) one is connected the bottom one won't function. Since I use an iPad Mini 4 with my controller, I have removed the side cable altogether and just use the lower one for all of my flights. I hope that helps and let me know how you make out.

studentoflight · Jan 7, 2017

I experienced similar problems. Even if only the cable connected to the side port, it will override the bottom port. As Drone Valley has mentioned, once I disconnected the side cable from the controller the bottom port started to work. It may require restarting the controller, with the side cable disconnected, and the bottom cable plugged in. Hope this helps.