Sigmo
lvl.4
United States
Offline
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Something that is frustrating is that PotatoJet (the reviewer who made that video) had two videos about the Mini posted a while back that talked more about and showed more about the high elevation issues.
In the first one, he ran into the problem of the Mini dropping down intermittently while trying to fly up there in the mountains. The video you posted, which apparently has replaced that first video, showed more footage of the Mini dropping down and touching the ground as he was trying to fly in the mountains. The new video has a lot of that edited out and more other footage, etc.
The second video he had up said that he worked with DJI, and DJI gave him improved propellers AND a firmware upgrade. Between those two things, he was able to fly while up at over 10,000 feet on a mountain in Hawaii. He now has a replacement video for THAT one, too, and while he talks about being able to fly at that elevation, he includes almost none of the video of him doing so like was in the original video.
So for some reason, he's removed both of those first videos and now replaced them with differently edited versions. This, of course, seems quite suspicious.
I live at about 5150 feet elevation. When I got my Mini Fly More Combo kit, I found that with the propeller guards in place, it could only fly for around 12 minutes before the batteries were exhausted. It also gave me some error messages about a lack of power even though I was only hovering or flying at a slow walking speed.
This made me wonder if I'd gotten the "old style" props that the reviewer had said came with his drone at first. After all, I'd like to have whatever the latest, and presumably better for high elevation props are. Now that we've been talking about this on this forum, coincidentally both of the videos that addressed this have been taken down and now replaced, it seems.
I can't say why this has happened, but it seems a little too coincidental.
Anyhow, the thinking is that DJI has updated the propeller design and also addressed these issues in the firmware.
But, supposedly you're not supposed to use the prop guards at any elevation over 1500 meters. And this makes sense because they add a bit of weight, and if the Mini is already struggling at higher elevations, that extra weight will obviously be an issue.
Some people on this forum have said that swapping out all of the propellers for new ones out of the packages included in their Fly More kits made a big difference, and eliminated the problems with the drone dropping.
I have just installed all new blades on my Mini, but have not had a chance to test this thoroughly, so I can't make any claims one way or the other about what effect this has had. Further, I have no way to know if my Mini did or did not come with the "old style" blades OR even if the new ones I installed are any different. If they are different, the change is very subtle. But they do have different numbers molded into them.
I do know that like the spare batteries, replacement prop blades are not available anywhere for immediate delivery. The DJI site says 10 to 15 days to ship. I have some on order, but there's been no indication of when they'll ship to me.
So to add to the utter uselessness of my comments, I will also say that because of the constant high winds here, I have only had two small opportunities to fly outdoors. And neither of those chances have happened since I put the new blades on OR since I installed the very latest (1.0.4) firmware.
BUT, the first time I was able to fly outside, was a small break in the wind from around midnight to about 3am. So I did go to a local park that had been decorated with lots of Christmas lights, and I flew there without the prop guards, and didn't find any problems. This was at around 5200 to 5300 feet of elevation.
I didn't go nuts because it was the first time I was ever able to fly outdoors. It was cold (around 25 degrees F) but the wind was quite calm. I flew for over 15 minutes, and by the time the battery was low, I was done, anyhow because my fingers were frozen.
The only other chance I had to fly outside was actually in the daylight. I found no problems this time either, and because it was daylight, I got more bold, and flew at 100 feet or slightly more high, and flew a lot farther from me as well. This was also a fine flight in my opinion, with the Mini doing nothing strange except that for some reason, it wouldn't fly more than a certain distance from me. I don't think I had the distance limit set so close, but it was like running into an invisible wall at a certain distance out. Probably my fault somehow, and it was still a fun flight going as far as I'd really dare, anyhow.
Some other folks on here have said (on a similar thread I started a while back) that they've flown with no problems at around 7200 feet where they are.
So I think the little Mini is capable of flying OK at these higher elevations. BUT, as has been said, they really are more limited in elevation, speed, and ability to fight wind compared to a lot of DJI's other drones. So while the Mini is an amazing device for as small and light as it is, there certainly are tradeoffs. And among them are it's low thrust.
Would I buy one again? I'm not sure. It was cheaper than the alternatives I've considered. But its "wimpiness" has been somewhat of an issue for me at 5150 feet with a lot of windy days. But it was less than half the price of the drones that I figure would perform better.
I'm hoping that when we get some non-windy weather here, I can fly it more and will get my money's worth out of it. But for better high elevation power, I have to say that a Mavic 2 or one of the new Skydio 2s might be what I'd choose now. Double or more the money, but perhaps more useful for those of us at higher elevations or in windier locations.
At sea level, on a calm day? I think the Mini is probably an amazing value.
I'd like to hear more from others with Minis at high elevations. I'm hoping I'll end up loving mine. But the wind will have to stop before I can fly it enough to get much of a feel for it. |
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