DJI Mavic Mini FPV R/C Drone, $399.00 (www.dji.com...)
Manufactured by DJI (www.dji.com/)
Last updated 11-14-21
This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have a number of LEDs on its fuselage, so what the hey
I love things that fly; that's why I added a seperate section titled "PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO FLY" on my website a number of years ago and created a new website just a couple of year ago specifically for flying machines of this nature!!! I was also attracted to something that this drone has that many others don't...
1: It has GPS -- simply meaning that it can stably hover despite any mild wind and knows where 'Home' is.
2: Its camera has a very high-quality and high-resolution imager.
3: The camera also comes with a 3-axis gimbal; so even if the drone is rocking & rolling because of wind, the images will be in sharp focus and the video will be mirror-smooth.
4: It has a gyro -- that means it's easy to fly even for a "craptastic" pilot like me.
5: It has optical flow position hold
6: It has those wonderful LEDs
6: Its flying weight is just 249g so it bypasses many restrictions inposed upon quadcopters weighing 250g or greater
This is a small, fairly light (249g), easy-to-fly 4-channel, brushless motor remote-controlled outdoor drone that has advanced features like GPS tracking and optical flow positioning. Its remote uses RF (radio frequency) radiation at 2.4GHz to communicate to and from the drone.
It sports BRUSHLESS motors that deliver incredible amounts of power and have a far longer useable lifetime than their brushed counterparts.
It also flaunts a 2.7k 12 megapixel (4,000x3,000 stills) camera on a 3-axis gimbal to furnish a live video feed to the app; both still photos and aerial video can be taken with it!
In the last photograph above, you should be able to see an TheRCSaylors Sticker affixed to the drone; that thing on the upper surface of the drone's fuselage (this word is definitely *NOT* pronounced "fyoo SELL' uh jee" as Drake Parker from the TV program "Drake and Josh" would pronounce it; the word is pronounced "" (near the front edge) is an Anti-Collision Strobe (2).
SIZE
This hobby-grade drone is a bit more complicated to get it to take off than your average toy-grade drone...here's how to get it off the ground:
As with any rechargeable product, charge the flight battery and the radio's battery first (see directly below), and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cats would think it was if it were designed to be flown in a small living room).
1: Remove the gimbal guard from the front of the drone, and put it in a safe place where it will not get kicked or stepped on.
2: Unfold the pylons (propeller arms) -- this procedure is a bit different than it is for most folding-arm drones. Hold the drone so that its camera faces forward. Unfold the two front arms (their ends will be at the rear of the drone when you grab them and will have landing sprigs on their ends) in the "normal" manner -- that is, swing them out horizontally until they stop.
The two rear pylons are unfolded by rotating them front-to-back until they too no longer move.
3: Turn the drone upside-down, press & release and then long-press (several seconds) and then release the button on the underside of the drone's fuselage. Place the drone rightside-up on a hard, flat surface.
4: On the remote control, remove the control sticks from their storage compartments inside the FPV device holder and screw them into the gimbals (the joystick controllers themselves). Press & release and then long-press (several seconds) and then release the "OFF/ON" button at the upper right of the radio.
5: Affix your FPV device into the mobile device holders on the underside of the radio, and plug the furnished Lightning, USB-C, or MicroUSB cable into the charge connector (usually found along the bottom edge of your mobile device) and the other end into the female MicroUSB connector on the left side of the radio's body. Turn your mobile device on at this point if you have not already done so.
After several seconds, the radio transmitter should emit another BEEP tone -- this lets you know that the drone and radio are bound with one another.
6: Open the DJI Fly app.
7: On the app, press the three dots (...) on the upper right of the display, then press the "Calibrate" link. Follow the onscreen prompts.
8: When the text, "Ready to fly" appears at the upper left of the display, position the joysticks on the remote as follows: LEFTHAND stick to the 5:00 position; RIGHTHAND stick to the 7:00 position.
When the props spin up to idle, give it a little "gas" by moving the left joystick up (toward the antenna on the radio); your Mavic Mini should now be in the air.
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
On the remote control, press & release and then long-press (several seconds) and then release the "OFF/ON" button and then turn the drone upside-down and press & release and then long-press (several seconds) and then release the "OFF/ON" button to neutralise them when you are finished. Also, be certain to replace the transparent, brown-tinted gimbal guard over the camera.
The battery in the DJI Mavic Mini FPV R/C Drone itself is rechargeable; so is the battery in the radio!
To charge the battery in the DJI Mavic Mini FPV R/C Drone, plug the smaller end of the furnished USB cable into the female receptacle on the back of the drone, and either plug the larger end of the USB cable into any free USB port on your Pee-Cee or Mac, or plug it into a "wall wart" USB charger frequently used for charging cellular telephone handsets.
On the underside of the drone, you'll see four small white LEDs; they'll cascade from left to right as the battery is charging, and when the charge cycle is complete all four will illuminate steadily.
Fully charging the DJI Mavic Mini FPV R/C Drone' battery should give you approx 20 to 25 minutes of flying time.
To charge the battery in the radio, you can either plug the larger end of the USB cable into any free USB port on your Pee-Cee or Mac, or plug it into a "wall wart" USB charger frequently used for charging cellular telephone handsets. On the left-hand side of the radio, look for a small receptacle, and plug the other end of the charger cable into it. The connector is keyed to fit only one way, so it's essentially mistake-proof.
When the radio's battery is receiving a charge, you'll see four small white LEDs; they'll cascade from left to right as the battery is charging, and when the charge cycle is complete all four will illuminate steadily.
This R/C drone is meant to be used as a flying machine in a dry area outdoors or fairly sizeable area indoors (a high school gymnasium would be of an appropriate size here), not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, bashed, trashed, and abused; so I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the {vulgar slang term for a fudge bunny}bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of a patio, bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a scanner-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoñata is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analyses, or inflict upon it punishments that I might inflict upon a flashlight.
So this section of the drone's web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.
The unit has a 4-channel remote control; this allows for forward / backward / up / down / left / right movement (movement on all three axes -- X, Y, and Z). It also has a fully proportional control system; simply meaning that the motor speeds can be varied depending on how far you move the joysticks -- it isn't simply "full power and no power at all" like some other R/C products.
The camera has a video resolution of 2704x1520 (2.7k video quality) and can take still photographs at 12MP (4000x3000).
From the FAQ on DJI's website, come these camera resolution values:
Photo Resolutions:
4:3 4000*3000
16:9 4000*2250
Video Resolutions:
2.7K (2704*1520): 2720*1530 25/30fps (frames per second)
FHD (1080p): 1920*1080 25/30/50/60fps
There is a ribbed wheel on the upper left portion of the radio; this allows you to smoothly and easily adjust the camera's Y-axis (vertical) orientation from pointing straight ahead to pointing straight down and anywhere in between.
I'm uncertain as to where the drone's antennae are located, but if you so happen to see a wire hanging out for no good reason (that was not visible before), just tape it down -- never EVER cut this wire!
The Mavic Mini's maximum wind speed resistance is 17.90mph (28.80kph).
The only thing (and I mean THE ONLY THING!!!) that piddles me off about this drone is its small size -- this reduces the range for LOS (Line Of Sight) flying -- by law, you must keep the drone within LOS at all times.
I've come to think of the Mavic Mini as, "the little drone that could."
THIS IS A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION, SO NOT ALL OF THE DATA HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TO THIS PAGE! PATIENCE PLEASE!!!
Photograph of the remote control in its feral state (with no cellphone or tablet affixed to it).
Photograph of the remote control with a cellular telephone handset affixed to it.
Photograph of its remote control with an Ipad Mini 4 affixed to it.
The Ipad Mini was graciously donated by Angels from the RCGroups fora after I had discovered that none of my cellular telephone handsets or my tablet would install the DJI Fly app -- this left me essentially in custody of a $400.00 paperweight.
Aerial photograph taken by this drone.
Click on the image to view in original size (4096*3072).
Another aerial photograph taken by this drone.
Click on the image to view in original size (4096*3072).
Another aerial photograph taken by this drone.
Click on the image to view in original size (4000x3000).
ALL OF THE FLIGHT VIDEOS ARE ON THEIR OWN WEB PAGE
SO THAT THIS EVAL. WOULD NOT BECOME TOO CUMBERSOME!!!
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 04-20-21, and was received at 6:06pm PDT on 04-26-21
UPDATE: 08-25-21
The drone has started to emit a queer beeping sound immediately after landing.
To wit: Beeping noise from my drone
Litchi (the app I normally fly with) displays a pop-up window that reads, "ESC beeping. Failed to take off."
UPDATE: 10-19-21
Yesterday morning, the camera gimbal went to pot, as you can see in the following brief (26 seconds) video.
To wit:
Amazingly enough, it began to function normally several hours later.
UPDATE: 11-14-21
On a flight that I made yesterday morning, I crashed into a high-voltage wire approx. 50 feet (~15.2M) and watched helplessly as the drone spiraled down and impacted the asphalt with a surprisingly loud smack. :-(
Because I only have one functional eye and therefore no stereoscopic (3D) vision, I believe that contributed significantly to this catastrophe. :-(
Visible damage is the starboard (right) front pylon is "bucking fusted", the port (left) landing sprig is busted, and the camera gimbal is totally fuxxored.
The drone is no longer flyable, so the dreadful, "" must be appended to its listings at once.
MANUFACTURER: DJI
PRODUCT TYPE: R/C GPS quadcopter (drone) w/inbuilt camera
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: At least 10 (4 white in radio, 4 white and 2 tricolor red/yellow/green in drone)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/off on remote; pushbutton on/off on drone
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 3.7v 2600mAh LiPo (18650 cell) for transmitter; 7.20V 2,400mAh (2.40Ah) Li:ION battery for drone
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND RHINOCEROUS MICTURITION-RESISTANT: Very light sprinkle-resistance at maximum (though if a rhino really does go poddy on it, you've got FAR bigger problems than a stinky dead drone, hahaha!!! )
SUBMERSIBLE: EIN GROßER RIESIGER GEIST, DER EINEN RIESIGEN PLUMPS NIMMT UND DANN DEN KOPF UNROT NEIN VERLÄSST!!!
ACCESSORIES: Charger + cable for radio, charger + cable for drone's battery, 1x flight battery, radio, 2x front rotor blades, 2x rear rotor blades, small Phillips screwdriver
SIZE: 140mm L x 81mm W x 57mm H (stowed); 245mm L x 289mm W x 55mm H (deployed) (battery itself): 73.30mm L x 40.50mm W x 20.10mm D (not incl. outer flange)
WEIGHT: 249g (incl. battery) -- battery itself 96.40g
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: USA
WARRANTY: 6 to 12 months depending on what has become fuxxored
PRODUCT RATING:
(Yes, that's ten (10) radios that you see!
This is the best R/C drone that I've seen to date!!!)
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" 
(near the front edge) is an Anti-Collision Strobe (2).
SIZE
" must be appended to its listings at once.
)
