Why can’t DJI document the changes to their Fly App?  Do they not have any technical writers?  I enjoy most of their upgrade releases, but it drives me crazy when they introduce something new in a software release and don’t document it, or how to use it, like the recently introduced Radar Screen.  Is it too complicated to explain in writing what the rings, the “wings” indicator or the other icons represent, like the blue dot?  

  
  

They leave it up to us (the users) to figure it out and how to effectively use it.  So, I’ll ask the community….1.) What to the rings indicate on the radar icon? 2.) What does the space between the rings represent? 3.) What does it mean when the “wings” are shown above (or below) the X-axis dashed line?

  
  

I assume the blue arrow is the drone and it points to the direction the drone is flying, relative to the Remote Controller.  I assume the “H” means the Home Point and the “N” shows the compass north direction, relative to the Remote Controller.

  
  

Anyone have a link to documentation about the radar screen?  If so, please share!

Radar Screen

      

I agree there could be better documentation but the internet typically takes care of the usage application.

The indicated the distance from the Home Point at close range. Once some distance is achieved, let’s just estimate it at 30m, then the Home Point and Controller Blue dot move to the outer ring and rotate based on the drones relationship to the Home Point.

The Blue dot has an arrow on it which indicated the direction the Remote Controllers antenna is facing. It is best to have the antenna pointing toward the drone.

The slanted lines indicate the attitude of the drone which is the tilt for when it is banking in a turn or fighting the wind. The attitude bars can be at a slant of the drone is hovering when fighting the wind.

One recommendation is to let the drone get a satellite lock then take off. The Home Point will then be set. Moving approximately 10m away from the Home Point allows you to see the Blue dot which when standing in the Home Point are obstructed.

I also agree ... new features or changes that affect the app should be documented. Either separately or, even better, in the manual (PDF). Regarding the dashed LINES and their distance from one another, I think that this is only symbolic to represent a "radar icon". I didn't notice that the distances change when the distance to the drone changes. As already been written, it is advisable to start the drone and then move a few meters away from the home point so that the home point and the position of the controller are not on top of each other.

I think the radar view is quite self-explanatory... It's just a simplified version of the map view.

With the map view you have to pre caché the map, and if you fly fast you sometimes get out of the map view. With the radar view you can easily see your position (blue dot) and your homepoint (H), so it's faster/easier to find a way back home than wait for the map to load each chunk of terrain.

I'ts just another tool, sometimes you may prefer the map view, to know exactly where the drone is, or sometimes you may prefer the radar (easy, fast, no need to pre cache the map).

Huginn Kenningar Posted at 12-28 05:29
I think the radar view is quite self-explanatory... It's just a simplified version of the map view.

With the map view you have to pre caché the map, and if you fly fast you sometimes get out of the map view. With the radar view you can easily see your position (blue dot) and your homepoint (H), so it's faster/easier to find a way back home than wait for the map to load each chunk of terrain.

I think the radar view is quite self-explanatory...

Then you could also say that everything is self-explanatory ... you just have to try long enough. If you've tried all the buttons, you can safely fly a space shuttle. So you know that the dashed circle lines mean nothing? Could be a distance and, depending on how far away the drone is, have a different scale.

This really isn’t thought out very well, the Home Point icon covers the Controller icon so your unable to view the direction the controller is pointing (the blue dot has a little blue triangle indicating direction).

TDZHDTV Posted at 12-28 08:31
This really isn’t thought out very well, the Home Point icon covers the Controller icon so your unable to view the direction the controller is pointing (the blue dot has a little blue triangle indicating direction).

i agree totally.

Just make a part of the outer circel yellow coloured, where the HP is located.
This way the blue dot with the too small pointing to drone arrow is always visible!

cheers
JJB

Can't believe this is even an issue to some "pilots"

jonny007 Posted at 12-28 06:40
I think the radar view is quite self-explanatory...

Then you could also say that everything is self-explanatory ... you just have to try long enough. If you've tried all the buttons, you can safely fly a space shuttle. So you know that the dashed circle lines mean nothing? Could be a distance and, depending on how far away the drone is, have a different scale.

The lines represent a distance, like 5 meters or so (didn't measured it), but it's so little that you'll allways have the home point at the outer radius unless you are flying super close, so have no real utility.

Distance, height, speed, battery left, battery life expectancy, compass, map, simplified navigation, gimball inclination... you already have everything you need to fly anywhere.

The only thing I miss is a distance to the floor, which is already being measured in real time by the two sensors below, but it doesn't show anywhere and would be useful.

PS: I don't have a compass in my smartphone, so can't point the direction anyways but yep, that's an issue because knowing the direction in wich the controller is pointing (you need a smartphone with a compass for it to work) helps maintaining the connection when flying in places you are not used to.

Thats it what I mean, no description, no documentation...maybe 5 meters after start, but when the drone is 400 meters away then the distance between the lines maybe is 100 meters....or it means nothing...who knows ? THAT'S why a documentation would always be good. The Mini2 sensors measure more then 11 meters (as Mini1) ? ... I doubt this.
Or is this documented anywhere ?

Arpettaz Posted at 12-28 14:19
I think some of the people posting comments on this thread should get a life. Yes, an explanation of the new feature could have helped. But some of the debate is just too nerdy. Shop debating and enjoy the flying experience

‘get a life’ says the guy who's continually praising DJI, maybe some people have issues with the new updates, maybe it doesn't work out as DJI planned, just because you think everything is wonderful doesn't mean other people have the same opinion, that's what this forum is for, sharing views and helping pilots out.

Arpettaz Posted at 12-28 14:19
I think some of the people posting comments on this thread should get a life. Yes, an explanation of the new feature could have helped. But some of the debate is just too nerdy. Shop debating and enjoy the flying experience

Really? That is one of the main PURPOSES of this forum in case you missed that. We have a life. Follow suit soon.

While i agree that there should be documentation, the „horizon„ lines pretty quickly makes sense when you've ever seen that instrument on a plane and if you take the drone in your hand and move it around manually. You see right away what the indicators mean

jonny007 Posted at 12-28 13:58
Thats it what I mean, no description, no documentation...maybe 5 meters after start, but when the drone is 400 meters away then the distance between the lines maybe is 100 meters....or it means nothing...who knows ? THAT'S why a documentation would always be good. The Mini2 sensors measure more then 11 meters (as Mini1) ? ... I doubt this.
Or is this documented anywhere ?

That's all you need, sometimes you don't know how close to the ground you really are, specially when climbing mountains or simmilar. Sometimes you want to take photos from 1-3 meters height and that information would help a lot.

The sensors are there, and are allways working, so we could get some input and thus know axactly at what altitude we are from the ground.

I think this is the direct result of some users complaining that the home point was not shown on the former indicator, only on the map. I liked it the way it was. Now the blasted home point is covering up the controller location and direction. Bad implementation in my opinion. This will encourage users to move away from the home point to get a clear indication. I would have put the controller indicator on top of the HP indicator, not the other way around.

mini2grueni Posted at 12-28 17:53
While i agree that there should be documentation, the „horizon„ lines pretty quickly makes sense when you've ever seen that instrument on a plane and if you take the drone in your hand and move it around manually. You see right away what the indicators mean

Do you think that is the way most real pilots should fly, by trial and error instead of reading the instructions?

GaryDoug Posted at 12-28 20:46
I think this is the direct result of some users complaining that the home point was not shown on the former indicator, only on the map. I liked it the way it was. Now the blasted home point is covering up the controller location and direction. Bad implementation in my opinion. This will encourage users to move away from the home point to get a clear indication. I would have put the controller indicator on top of the HP indicator, not the other way around.

The problem is there is a small pointer on the blue controller icon, as you state the issue is the home point obscures the icon, if you walk away from the home point you are able to see the icon pointer, unfortunately if you fly the drone away the radar scales and the home point once again obscures the controller icon.  

hi guys, the new radar screen is really not very functional and uncomfortable, is it possible to have the old one on ios?

Huginn Kenningar Posted at 12-28 18:23
That's all you need, sometimes you don't know how close to the ground you really are, specially when climbing mountains or simmilar. Sometimes you want to take photos from 1-3 meters height and that information would help a lot.

The sensors are there, and are allways working, so we could get some input and thus know axactly at what altitude we are from the ground.

The sensors are there, and are allways working, so we could get some input and thus know axactly at what altitude we are from the ground.

The display of the altitude above ground would be awesome, I agree. Imho this only works with the sensors up to a height of about 10 meters, so it would be very limited. The effective range is comparable to that of the obstacle avoidance sensors.

Hi, K9JDN. Thanks for reaching out! We're sorry if this wasn't added in the documentation notes but the meaning of each icon is as follows:

Blue arrow: Where the Aircraft nose is facing
Green Light under Blue Arrow: The direction of the cradle head camera
White N icon: Due north
Yellow H icon: Return Home Point position
Blue dots: Mobile device location; The triangle icon points to the orientation of the remote control (mobile device compass)
Two white lines:  refers to the plane's attitude, the fuselage leans forward, the white line is tilted to the upper part of the attitude ball, the fuselage leans left, the white the line is tilted to the left of the attitude ball; When the fuselage leans forward perpendicular to the ground white line reaches the top of the attitude ball.
(1) The proportion of the white line to the attitude ball represents the forward and backward tilt Angle of the aircraft.
(2) The left-right tilt degree of the white line represents the left-right tilt Angle of the aircraft.

What is the center of the attitude ball?
The center point of the attitude ball is the position of the aircraft.

Hope this information helps.

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-30 00:18
Hi, K9JDN. Thanks for reaching out! We're sorry if this wasn't added in the documentation notes but the meaning of each icon is as follows:

Blue arrow: Where the Aircraft nose is facing

Thank you DJI Gamora for the clarification you have provided. I updated my Fly app to 1.2.2 yesterday and have been using it a lot today. I think it is very, very good and a HUGE improvement over the old style compass/aircraft indicator. My only small complaint though is that the triangle icon which points to the orientation of the remote control is small and a bit difficult to see on a phone screen, especially in the sunlight. If DJI app developers could make the small blue triangle icon just that bit bigger, the whole Fly update would be perfect!

Hi @DJI Gamora. I’m a commercial pilot and the implementation of the attitude indicator is very poorly done.

The Mini 2 ‘wings’ fly left and right in accordance with the roll direction. That’s fine if you are representing the aircraft attitude as a ‘behind’ view of the aircraft. All aircraft attitude indicators work differently to your implementation. They show the horizon. If you are banking left, the horizon is tilting to the right. Vice-versa for banking right.

The pitch implementation is then completely opposite to how the roll has been done. When you pitch forward, the ‘wings’ pitch up. You have represented it like a horizon (opposite to how you have done roll).

So you need to decide to either represent a horizon in an attitude indicator or represent an aircraft viewed from behind. Both are very different view points. You have mixed both in pitch and roll!

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-30 00:18
Hi, K9JDN. Thanks for reaching out! We're sorry if this wasn't added in the documentation notes but the meaning of each icon is as follows:

Blue arrow: Where the Aircraft nose is facing

Hello Gamora, Blue dots: Mobile device location; The triangle icon points to the orientation of the remote control (mobile device compass).  The problem here is the Home Point obscures this information

Mini2 Flyr Posted at 12-30 00:39
Thank you DJI Gamora for the clarification you have provided. I updated my Fly app to 1.2.2 yesterday and have been using it a lot today. I think it is very, very good and a HUGE improvement over the old style compass/aircraft indicator. My only small complaint though is that the triangle icon which points to the orientation of the remote control is small and a bit difficult to see on a phone screen, especially in the sunlight. If DJI app developers could make the small blue triangle icon just that bit bigger, the whole Fly update would be perfect!

You're most welcome and thanks for your feedback. We'll have your suggestion forwarded to our developers and keep improving the application.

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-30 03:12
You're most welcome and thanks for your feedback. We'll have your suggestion forwarded to our developers and keep improving the application.

Well, just use the radar display as in the GoApp.

Easier to understand where the drone is, as it is positioned in the 360 display ; easy way to find to rotate the RC and when drone icon is between center and white top triangle ; drone in front of you!!

When you have the drone as center of the display [ flyapp]  ; you need to re-think and do a mind calculation to visualize where the drone is.

For FlyApp users without GoApp experience, see this video....how easy it can be DJI !!

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=144696

Well, just my 2 cents.
cheers
JJB

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-30 00:18
Hi, K9JDN. Thanks for reaching out! We're sorry if this wasn't added in the documentation notes but the meaning of each icon is as follows:

Blue arrow: Where the Aircraft nose is facing

Thank you, DJI Gamora, for taking the time to provide this information!  It is very helpful!  Also, since you are a Super Moderator, I certainly hope you relay to the DJI Fly App developers the user concerns and feedback that is seen in this forum regarding the topic, some of which is very good and would be useful for further refinement of the Radar Screen function.  

How do you bring up the radar screen? The old “radar” seems to be missing on my iOS app also since my update.

Thx

davidms Posted at 12-30 15:31
How do you bring up the radar screen? The old “radar” seems to be missing on my iOS app also since my update.

Thx

Tap to bring up the Mini map and there is a very small icon in the bottom right hand corner of the map

Arpettaz Posted at 12-28 14:19
I think some of the people posting comments on this thread should get a life. Yes, an explanation of the new feature could have helped. But some of the debate is just too nerdy. Shop debating and enjoy the flying experience

Why is people wanting to express their opinion on how to make flying better ...Get to get a life ? Just bc you’re ok with it doesn’t mean everyone is...No disrespect just my opinion

TDZHDTV Posted at 12-30 01:31
Hello Gamora, Blue dots: Mobile device location; The triangle icon points to the orientation of the remote control (mobile device compass).  The problem here is the Home Point obscures this information

This from android version 1.2.2. The arrow still visible on top of home point. It have different HP icon size from IOS from what I see. But the arrow is too small for me . I prefer radar from GoApp, it easy to read.

davidms Posted at 12-30 15:31
How do you bring up the radar screen? The old “radar” seems to be missing on my iOS app also since my update.

Thx

If you bother to read through multiple threads you would know there is no old style radar in the position it was in the 1.2.1 Fly app. The new style indicator in 1.2.2 is infinitely better and much more accurate anyway.

TDZHDTV Posted at 12-30 15:55
Tap to bring up the Mini map and there is a very small icon in the bottom right hand corner of the map

Thanks TDZHDTV! Very helpful and appreciated!

I came here for this. After several days of the orientation icon not displaying, I decided to look for answers. I tried different things I found on Google. I spent over an hour trying to resolve it, and towards the end I kind of suspected a change in the DJI controller SW. 1.2.2.

Then I found this thread. Yes, it's annoying that DJI made such a change. I really don't like it. The aircraft orientation icon in the lower middle of the screen was very useful in addition to the map. Boo hiss. This was not a good change, and it wasn't documented.

As a new drone user, I find it daunting that the mfg would make changes without properly documenting them.  It creates a risk for those piloting the drone.  Given the strict regulations many countries are implementing, I think this is unacceptable.  

I've only been using the radar these days, the arrow of the controller direction is visible, but it should be a little bigger.

Hope this animated + real time video can help to visualize and understand it better.

My pesonal opinion is that the the attitude indicator is a great step up from what it used to be. I needed no documentation for such a self-explanatory implementation of the attitude indicator.  I find the new attitude indicator much more accurate and useful than the former one they got rid of which was never reliable or accurate for me.

fans8e299cb6 Posted at 1-6 09:30
My pesonal opinion is that the the attitude indicator is a great step up from what it used to be. I needed no documentation for such a self-explanatory implementation of the attitude indicator.  I find the new attitude indicator much more accurate and useful than the former one they got rid of which was never reliable or accurate for me.

For people who've flying drones for years, I can see that the 1.2.2 attitude indicator is an advance on what 1.2.1 gave us.

But for us newbies who are more concerned about where the drone is rather than whether it's tilting to the left or to the right, having a simple interface depicting that fact is vital. v1.2.1 was simple and intuitive. I understood it. My kids understood it.

I had all of one session with 1.2.1. Then I updated the Mini 2 firmware which requires FlyApp 1.2.2. When I flew the next time I had no idea how to decipher the new gizmo.

I don't want to lose the new indicator.  But I want an option to easily see the drone's position relative to me.

Lucas775 Posted at 2020-12-28 08:45
Can't believe this is even an issue to some "pilots"

You have to remember that most buyers of the MINI 2 and original MINI were first time newbies. Other new features should be discussed also....the DNG fix for panos and why it was done. The 4K color streak at the top left on the video screen, the new zoom ability and how to do it, the new function button options and what they do, etc.
While this is all described in Forum posts, it would be great if they issued addendums to the manual along with the firmware updates. Not everyone should have to search for basic instructions.

Stu.Baby Posted at 1-6 15:18
For people who've flying drones for years, I can see that the 1.2.2 attitude indicator is an advance on what 1.2.1 gave us.

But for us newbies who are more concerned about where the drone is rather than whether it's tilting to the left or to the right, having a simple interface depicting that fact is vital. v1.2.1 was simple and intuitive. I understood it. My kids understood it.

I don't get it.  With the new Attitude Indicator, I know exactly where my drone is.  It gives me my homepoint, an arrow where I am pointing my controller and bearing of the aircraft.  It's all there and more compared to the old Attitude Indicator.