The ol' Mavic Pro still flies like a dream...

[Donnie Frank]

Hey doods!

My girlfriend is getting a new roof on her house, so I decided to document the entire process via the ol' Mavic Pro. I must say that she still "just works." Say what you want about these old school drones, legacy firmware and legacy software. The bottom line is that it all "just works" and will continue to do so for as long as I can keep batteries in service. The good news is that batteries are still available online and I was able to purchase a replacement battery for one I had taken out of service a couple weeks ago.

I was going to share some screenshots, but this:


Seriously? Screenshots are < 1MB. Whatever.

D

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Hey doods!

My girlfriend is getting a new roof on her house, so I decided to document the entire process via the ol' Mavic Pro. I must say that she still "just works." Say what you want about these old school drones, legacy firmware and legacy software. The bottom line is that it all "just works" and will continue to do so for as long as I can keep batteries in service. The good news is that batteries are still available online and I was able to purchase a replacement battery for one I had taken out of service a couple weeks ago.

I was going to share some screenshots, but this:
View attachment 184136

Seriously? Screenshots are < 1MB. Whatever.

D

Still use mine for hot-rodding around.

 

[redjr]

I've got a MP with few hours on it. At the time of purchase, I was still working fulltime, and we live in a highly, dense forest area, so we always had to drive to a local area suitable enough for flying and greater than 5 miles from an airport. My son had the bigger white DJI drone as well. But the thrill quickly left me and it's been stored for about 5 yrs until recently.

The one thing I like about the MP is the build quality. You can tell just by handling it, it oozes professional grade. And the feature set was certainly good enough for a newbie. I'm actually glad mine is close to brand new, as I never crashed back in the day. The newer drones seem to be made more cheaply, and cost 3-4 times as much. Ouch!

Presently, I'm waiting on a new battery, as the 3 that I have simply will not charge so I'm trashing those, unless there is a magical way to 'revive' them somehow. I thought I would buy 1 battery of a certain brand (KUWATA) to see how it fits and performs, before popping for 1 or 2 more. Any recommendations on a brand available on Amazon that been working well for other users?

Can't wait to get the software all working together and see how well it works/performs in the air. When I was flying it a few yrs back, I would read stores of the MP just flying off to neverland, but never had any flight issues. For me, as stated above, it 'just worked' time and time again.

Happy flying.

 

[Donnie Frank]

I've got a MP with few hours on it. At the time of purchase, I was still working fulltime, and we live in a highly, dense forest area, so we always had to drive to a local area suitable enough for flying and greater than 5 miles from an airport. My son had the bigger white DJI drone as well. But the thrill quickly left me and it's been stored for about 5 yrs until recently.

The one thing I like about the MP is the build quality. You can tell just by handling it, it oozes professional grade. And the feature set was certainly good enough for a newbie. I'm actually glad mine is close to brand new, as I never crashed back in the day. The newer drones seem to be made more cheaply, and cost 3-4 times as much. Ouch!

Presently, I'm waiting on a new battery, as the 3 that I have simply will not charge so I'm trashing those, unless there is a magical way to 'revive' them somehow. I thought I would buy 1 battery of a certain brand (KUWATA) to see how it fits and performs, before popping for 1 or 2 more. Any recommendations on a brand available on Amazon that been working well for other users?

Can't wait to get the software all working together and see how well it works/performs in the air. When I was flying it a few yrs back, I would read stores of the MP just flying off to neverland, but never had any flight issues. For me, as stated above, it 'just worked' time and time again.

Happy flying.

I purchased my battery on eBay. The battery's nomenclature is devoid of the DJI logo, so it's clearly not OEM. I have about a dozen flights on it and am very happy with its performance.

D

 

[redjr]

@D Thanks for the info. Happy to hear it's working out for you and continues to do so. I suspect all Mavic batteries are from 3rd party sources (i.e China) now, and likely can't use any DJI trademark logos etc.

 

[howardK]

Due to financial restraints, all I have is an M1P. I bought it used on Ebay for $500 several years ago. at this point if a suitcase full of cash showed up at my home I really have no reason to replace it. At one point I had two of them but gave one to my son who is in the USCG.

 

[Lets Fly]

My girlfriend is getting a new roof on her house, so I decided to document the entire process via the ol' Mavic Pro. I must say that she still "just works

Your girlfriend still just works, or the drone? Just kidding.

 

[Donnie Frank]

Your girlfriend still just works, or the drone? Just kidding.

Both...<;^)

D

 

[Ex Coelis]

Hey doods!

My girlfriend is getting a new roof on her house, so I decided to document the entire process via the ol' Mavic Pro. I must say that she still "just works." Say what you want about these old school drones, legacy firmware and legacy software. The bottom line is that it all "just works" and will continue to do so for as long as I can keep batteries in service. The good news is that batteries are still available online and I was able to purchase a replacement battery for one I had taken out of service a couple weeks ago.

I was going to share some screenshots, but this:
View attachment 184136

Seriously? Screenshots are < 1MB. Whatever.

D

Absolutely a great little flying machine!
I fly my MP at home, and my M3 Ciné at the cottage, from the boat, and it goes with me to PCB FL for the winter (RID).
I’m not certain, but I think I still like the MP a bit more!

 

[redjr]

So after unearthing my MP a few days ago I spent some time testing it on the deck. I still needed to do a couple calibrations; (1) IMU, and (2) GPS. In advance, I was watching a YT video to refresh my memory. I was successful with the GPS calibration, but not so much with the IMU. This morning I retried the IMU calibration and it completed successfully.

Today I plan to go to a larger area a few miles from my home, and give it a real world test. This is a very remote site, away from any airports (and people) so I shouldn't have any space constraints. I think I'll wait until after this first full flight before attaching my new RID module. I've re-registered my drone, just haven't added a RID yet.

 

[halifax]

The great thing about the MP and M2P is that they both can fly automated waypoint missions beyond the range of the transmitter-receiver link. Not that we would ever do that, of course.

 

[Donnie Frank]

The great thing about the MP and M2P is that they both can fly automated waypoint missions beyond the range of the transmitter-receiver link. Not that we would ever do that, of course.

Of course...<;^)

FWIW, the Phantom 4 Pro does the same...so I've heard...<;^)

Honestly, any software that isn't actively guiding the drone will simply upload waypoints, which the drone will follow autonomously provided the mission is programmed that way. In some programs it's called "connectionless flying." By default the drone will RTH if it loses connection to the RC. But some software will allow the user to bypass this.

Back in my pre-LiDAR days I had call to use this strategy for a couple corridor missions that were miles long. One calculates how many minutes the mission is going to take so when telemetry is lost, one can extrapolate approximately how long it will take said drone to regain connection. And, yes, it's kind of "nail bitey."

Fortunately, I've only had to do this a handful of times in my career. Also, fortunately, said drone always found its way back to the launch point. Good times, for sure. Good drones, those P4P's. I still use her for smaller photogrammetry missions.

D