I have had my Mavic Air 2 for a little over a year and love it.  I have been thinking about getting a smart controller.  For those of you that use the smart controller with the Mavic Air 2, is it it worth the money.  I have to admit that when I use the regular contoller with my iPhone during a bright sunny day, it is hard to see the screen and where I am flying.  So since the screen is brighter on the smart controller, I have been thinking about buying one

personally i think the sc is worth the money, maybe not $750 but maybe about $500.  you could buy it used or refurb or maybe find it on deal but the key is to buy one along with a combo pack where it is already discounted.  certainly the screen is brighter than most phones including an iphone but it's only 1000nit or so and my warning to you, it's not super super bright.  it's sunny and summer in america so don't expect the difference to be night and day but it will be better and you should have a more enjoyable experience with the sc over your current setup.  certainly a good deal if you plan to pickup another dji drone such as the mini2 or the mavic 2.

I only use now the SC, the RC only for emergencies. Switch it on and off you go. No fiddling with the iPhone and the cables. The screen is in bright sunlight much better as on the mobile. I haven't regretted it so far.

I have two Smart Controllers (referred to as "SC" for short) and really like them. In my opinion, they are a lot more convenient to use when compared to a phone. They are much brighter than my iPhone 8. A Smart Controller also does not suffer from the iPhone 8 problem of getting a lot less brighter as you use it due to the phone heating up and compensating by reducing brightness (my iPhone 8 is terrible for this in warm weather which is very common here).

I also purchased a third party ultra bright LCD and a LifThor bracket then attached it to the Smart Controller. It all fits nicely in a Lekufee hard carrying case with the drone. I even leave the LifThor bracket attached at all times to save setup time (the LCD screen itself unscrews with a single standard tripod mount screw). In very bright sun it remains easily viewable and really helps with getting a good shot. The yellow lines on the screen and the centre mark can be toggled on or off with on screen touch controls. It also has a bunch of analysis meters. The pictures below show my setup:






Comparison of Brightness:
* The iPhone 8 has automatically boosted brightness of 640 nits in bright sunlight when the brightness slider is set to maximum (it's 530 nits when the brightness slider is set to maximum and not in bright sunlight).
* The Smart Controllers brightness is 1,000 nits.
* The third party LCD pictured above is 2,200 nits so it is easily more than 2 times brighter than the Smart Controller.

Finally, now that the Smart Controller (SC) supports the Mini 2 I am very happy with the system. I can easily switch between my 4 supported drones (Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom and Mini 2).

Matite Posted at 6-19 15:53
I have two Smart Controllers (referred to as "SC" for short) and really like them. In my opinion, they are a lot more convenient to use when compared to a phone. They are much brighter than my iPhone 8. A Smart Controller also does not suffer from the iPhone 8 problem of getting a lot less brighter as you use it due to the phone heating up and compensating by reducing brightness (my iPhone 8 is terrible for this in warm weather which is very common here).

I also purchased a third party ultra bright LCD and a LifThor bracket then attached it to the Smart Controller. It all fits nicely in a Lekufee hard carrying case with the drone. I even leave the LifThor bracket attached at all times to save setup time (the LCD screen itself unscrews with a single standard tripod mount screw). In very bright sun it remains easily viewable and really helps with getting a good shot. The yellow lines on the screen and the centre mark can be toggled on or off with on screen touch controls. It also has a bunch of analysis meters. The pictures below show my setup:

How do you power the display? From the controller or a separate battery plate?

I'll let you know next week - mine arrives on Tuesday.

I have the Plus controller for the Phantom and love the screen brightness. But having flown the Mavic 2 using two different iPhones and an iPad Mini, the screen brightness just isn't there. And the clunky bracket with the iPad makes for a cumbersome thing to hold for very long especially when you put a sunshade on it.

So...definitely looking forward to Tuesday.

^i had the same setup (sc + monitor + lifthor) but i abandoned it for two reasons:  it got a bit bulky and i never could get the 2nd monitor to show anything different that whatever was on the sc.  how did you do it?  maybe i could re-visit the setup.  at this point, my 2000nit monitor doing duty with an autel livedeck.  if i cannot make it work with the dji sc, i will be selling the lifthor bracket (pictured abouve).  also the monitor is quite a bit brighter than the sc but calling it "more than twice as bright...." i dunno. ;)

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. Hope that you could get the best recommendation and suggestion from our fellow DJI pilots here. Thank you for your continued support!

At this point I think we'll see a SC 2 come out soon.  Might be worth waiting on that as the current one is getting a bit old and many people complain how unstable it can be.

GaryDoug Posted at 6-19 18:36
How do you power the display? From the controller or a separate battery plate?

It has 2 x NP-F battery plates on the back of the LCD unit (see photo below) so you can connect two batteries at the same time (it uses one battery then the other). For those not aware, the NP-F battery plates are standard for a lot of photography equipment and are available in various sizes/capacities. I just mount one of the batteries (2600 mAh) on the back of the plate and it easily lasts for 3 flights (using 3 full aircraft batteries) on a Mavic Air 2 at full brightness.

The photo below is from the Amazon (Australia) listing for the LCD screen:


I purchased two sets of these at the Amazon (Australia) link below (each set comes with a charger and 2 x batteries):
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B06XDC47YM

Below is the Amazon (Australia) link from where I purchased the LCD screen (note it does not come with any batteries so you need to purchase them as well):
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08933R75M

The Saint Posted at 6-19 19:16
^i had the same setup (sc + monitor + lifthor) but i abandoned it for two reasons:  it got a bit bulky and i never could get the 2nd monitor to show anything different that whatever was on the sc.  how did you do it?  maybe i could re-visit the setup.  at this point, my 2000nit monitor doing duty with an autel livedeck.  if i cannot make it work with the dji sc, i will be selling the lifthor bracket (pictured abouve).  also the monitor is quite a bit brighter than the sc but calling it "more than twice as bright...." i dunno. ;)

Personally, I don't find it bulky. It all fits inside my Lekufee hard case with the Mavic Air 2 drone + fly more kit with no issue (Smart Controller with LifThor bracket permanently attached, LCD screen and 2 x NP-F550 batteries). I do prefer to mount it on a tripod instead of holding it. You could use that other bracket thing that is like a vest with a tripod mount to attach it onto yourself (I think it is by LifThor too).

You can use the Smart Controller settings to control what is displayed on its external HDMI port. I have it set to display only the drone camera output. The other option available is to simply mirror the Smart Controller screen. Go to Settings then Display -> HDMI -> HDMI Output Mode then choose Camera View to show only the camera. See the photos below:


Photo showing Smart Controller is set to "Camera View" only mode.



Photo showing LCD output in "Camera View" only mode (it only shows a picture when the DJI app is running). The LCD picture looks a lot better in real life as this photo washed it out due to its brightness.


As for the brightness: there are several models from this company and they all look the same (the old model looks pretty much the same as the new model). This is the newer model which is 2,200 nits. It shows that on the Amazon listing. It is easily twice as bright as the Smart Controller. Also, be aware that by default it uses an internal light sensor to automatically adjust the brightness to suit the current conditions to try and save battery power. You need to turn that setting off in the touch screen menus then you can drag your finger up and down on the right side of the LCD to manually adjust brightness.

Here is the original Amazon (Australia) listing for the new model:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08933R75M

Here is the original Amazon (Australia) listing for the batteries to suit (set includes 1 x charger and 2 x batteries):
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B06XDC47YM

i have the 2200nit monitor, it doesn't seem twice as bright to me but "twice" is subjective i guess.  I know 1100 x 2 = 2200 but the display has to be four times brighter for it to seem twice as bright to my eyes.  I don't see it.  

i've changed those setting and it didn't help but that was years ago so maybe the sw has been fixed and it works better.  i wanted the map on one screen and the camera on the other screen.  i might try it again since the sc is doing triple duty now the m2 is added.

Thanks.