Why does the Mavic air 2 not use DJI Go4?

[shutterup]

I own a phantom 4,mavic pro and Mavic 2 Pro

Last week I got a Mavic air 2 to add to the fleet and was shocked to see it using such a basic and shoddy "new" app that takes us back in to the dark ages in the DJI Fly app.

Why is this? My understanding is that both of the Mavic and air 2 use ocysync 2 so why not the same app?

Cheers yall

 

[VenomXts]

As a person in the software roadmap side of things for a living my opinion is the Fly app is their new platform going forward.. However, they are breaking off these cheaper drones (mini and air 2) with limited features as they go through their sprint process and add in features as they go. So hopefully the fly app only gets better as time goes on... this makes sense if they will deprecate the old system completely but we most likely wont know that until we see what the mavic 3 will be running on.

Just my opinion and I have been wrong before but this is how it is done for other platform software so you have gradual adoption and dont **** off your old base while minimizing the development and effort needed on the legacy system in parallel.

 

[AMRE2ME2]

I own a phantom 4,mavic pro and Mavic 2 Pro

Last week I got a Mavic air 2 to add to the fleet and was shocked to see it using such a basic and shoddy "new" app that takes us back in to the dark ages in the DJI Fly app.

Why is this? My understanding is that both of the Mavic and air 2 use ocysync 2 so why not the same app?

Cheers yall

You're exactly right. The Fly app is not very well thought out and there’s many features that a lot of people are complaining about.
1. The screen font is so small, you can’t read the remaining battery level or how many satellites you have connected.
2. The aircraft orientation doesn’t work at all for most guys. Especially on IOS. Even after calibrating the devises compass or downloading a compass app, it still doesn’t work, at all. Very dangerous for someone that doesn’t know it’s reading wrong.
3. No way to cache offline maps So your map screen actually shows a map (when offline) like it’s supposed to.

 

[rehkram]

Underlying architecture of the Fly app is 64 bit, allowing the app to address a truly vast amount more memory than Go 4, which is a 32 bit architecture. For future proofing 64 bit is the way to 'go', no pun intended. Short term pain, long term gain. I totally understand the frustration of losing functionality. The upside is developers will be able to bring in much more power and functionality going down the road. The big question is, 'how long will it take to reach parity'. That, like all s/w dev projects, depends on how successfully their development- and QA teams are staffed and managed.

 

[shutterup]

Ahhh that makes more sense now thanks, shame we can't force it to use dji go though until we get a decent app

 

[rehkram]

Yep. And also, if it were just a matter of changing compiler settings to build a 'Go 5' as a 64 bit app we might have seen that scenario unfold. I'd bet good money Dji considered it.

 

[dawgpilot]

Ahhh that makes more sense now thanks, shame we can't force it to use dji go though until we get a decent app

Once DJI releases the SDK for the Mavic Air 2 (supposedly they are aiming for September), 3rd party apps can be updated to support the MA2. So hopefully we will be able to use Lichi, etc. as an alternative after that is released.

 

[Hauptmann]

As a person in the software roadmap side of things for a living my opinion is the Fly app is their new platform going forward.. However, they are breaking off these cheaper drones (mini and air 2) with limited features as they go through their sprint process and add in features as they go. So hopefully the fly app only gets better as time goes on... this makes sense if they will deprecate the old system completely but we most likely wont know that until we see what the mavic 3 will be running on.

Just my opinion and I have been wrong before but this is how it is done for other platform software so you have gradual adoption and dont piss off your old base while minimizing the development and effort needed on the legacy system in parallel.

That's scary, considering how lame DJI's flight sim is compared to any of the "real" aircraft flight sims marketed since 2000 or so.

 

[rehkram]

Speaking of the Dji sim... looking at the many youtube video reviews of Microsoft's press release beta of Flight Sim 2020 it looks like a total game changer to me. Dji should forget their sim and pay Microsoft or someone to integrate drones, & their controllers, into MS Flight Sim 2020. Dji would probably be relieved.

I'm the least likely person on earth to be a shill for a Microsoft product so it must be pretty good. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Microsoft crawls over broken glass to acquire TikTok

 

[Hauptmann]

Speaking of the Dji sim... looking at the many youtube video reviews of Microsoft's press release beta of Flight Sim 2020 it looks like a total game changer to me. Dji should forget their sim and pay Microsoft or someone to integrate drones, & their controllers, into MS Flight Sim 2020. Dji would probably be relieved.

I'm the least likely person on earth to be a shill for a Microsoft product so it must be pretty good.

You're the first person here who agrees with me. A few weeks ago I appealed to our membership to do what you suggest. There was absolutely no interest. I also perused all the flight sim fanboy sites to see if they evidenced any interest in incorporating drones. None.

With the expanding number of drones in the wold--many, many more than there are private aircraft--and the anticipated popularity and the open architecture of MSFS 2020, it seems inevitable that the two interest groups will merge. Microsoft would have access to a huge new market--maybe double.

Just think how our piloting skills could improve, by flying within tight spaces with gusting winds blowing us about; with unlimited battery life; the option of pressing reset after a crash; being able to design and pre-fly missions, so they can be perfected, then loaded into Litchi (or whatever) before real-time flight......Sounds like a win-win deal to me.

 

[rehkram]

$$ talks!

 

[shutterup]

I've never used litchi and the playstore rating is under 3.8, is it really worth the cost?

 

[Hauptmann]

I've never used litchi and the playstore rating is under 3.8, is it really worth the cost?

I like it.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Underlying architecture of the Fly app is 64 bit, allowing the app to address a truly vast amount more memory than Go 4, which is a 32 bit architecture. For future proofing 64 bit is the way to 'go', no pun intended. Short term pain, long term gain. I totally understand the frustration of losing functionality. The upside is developers will be able to bring in much more power and functionality going down the road. The big question is, 'how long will it take to reach parity'. That, like all s/w dev projects, depends on how successfully their development- and QA teams are staffed and managed.

There’s a 64-bit version of DJI go for android and iOS.
The apps I’ve converted to 64 bit on android pretty much just required a couple of checkboxes and maybe a few warnings fixed.

The truth of the matter is they chose not to make a 32-bit version of fly which makes sense.

The real reason is to keep people like me from ever buying an aircraft that uses fly. And in my case it worked as soon as I see that it uses fly it’s a big fat no.

Other than marketing consideration there’s no reason why it could not use go. But they want you to pay the more money for the better app.

Dronelink which uses the DJI UX SDK had no problem with the mini.

You get what you pay for.

 

[JoelP]

I like it.

My smoothest and longest flights are all done with Litchi. When used with Virtual Litchi, Google Earth Pro allows you to preview and tune your waypoints to optimize a flight before you head to your planned destination.

The strongest advantage for Litchi are the waypoint features, but there other tools for flying a circle of a certain radius or flying a straight line that are also very useful. I am sure that once you try this you will be sold.

 

[shutterup]

Inwas looking at an app called "rainbow" sounds just like litich but half the price?

 

[rehkram]

Since we can't sit down and read through the source code and compiler settings for either Go or Fly it's speculation as to why Dji has not produced a 32 bit version of Fly, or a full blown native 64 bit version of Go 4 either. Was it a marketing decision, or a technical one? Or, more likely (IMO), a mix of both?

32 bit code, both operating systems and apps, are on life support at this stage, casualties of Moore's Law. There's no going backwards unfortunately. Easy for me to say, I bit the bullet years ago. I don't miss 32 bit-anything, and neither do I carry around a Victrola to listen to 78 rpm records on the subway! A lot of people do... Not.

In a few years a 128 bit standard will hatch. It will likewise be unstoppable.

Moore's Law

 

[Martinus]

I've never used litchi and the playstore rating is under 3.8, is it really worth the cost?

I personally like litchi a lot, its social platform is very nice where you can see the flightplan of others (if they choose to publish of course). Also I like map pilot for surveys at it allows the height of the drone to be related to the surface and not to the home point. I think that the "battle" for the best flying software is not over yet.

 

[Jeff A]

I've never used litchi and the playstore rating is under 3.8, is it really worth the cost?

Personally, I would never have a drone that could not run Litchi. IMO, a non-Litchi drone is a crippled drone. The cost? You're worried about an under $25.00 program?

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Since we can't sit down and read through the source code and compiler settings for either Go or Fly it's speculation as to why Dji has not produced a 32 bit version of Fly, or a full blown native

Not sure by what you mean by "full blown" but DJI GO4 IS 64 bit. Yes there is still a 32 bit version for older devices but there is also a 64 bit version.
They did not product a 32 bit version because the play store will not accept new 32 bit apps any more.

Support 64-bit architectures | Google Play | Android Developers

developer.android.com

As for 128 bits read this:

Neterra.cloud Blog

Shared computing insights

blog.cloudware.bg