The dji mavic mini, a drone that should be easy to use espacially for beginners. But does dji leave out safety features in order to do so?

As a spark owner i have used to check the compass and imu interference before EVERY takeoff. After asking dji if the mavic mini still has the possibility to check this, the answer seems to be no. From my opinion i completly cant understand why they would leave out such an important safery feature.

I am impressed with the features of the mavic mini and want to upgrade but because of all the flyaways that happened this seems to be so important to me.

What do you think about it?

I got my Mavic Mini yesterday and you can check the IMU and Compass status on the app and calibrate them at any time... is that what you're referring to?

@ICDroneSEcan you do a screenshot where is it in menus?
I think I saw it on some review, but now can't find that vid.

KREMi Posted at 11-12 13:41
@ICDroneSEcan you do a screenshot where is it in menus?
I think I saw it on some review, but now can't find that vid.

If you want to reply to somebody, it is best to hit the small 'reply' button instead of the big field below.
That way the user gets a notification.

Its in the Fly app and you should not need to calibrate compass and IMU every flight. Only required when the app states so.

Here is the compass and IMU in the DJI fly app. Not sure it helps, but here you go!!

Actually thats Not what i mean. On my spark you would check the Sensor Status where a green yellow or Red Bar with a nummer from 1-1000 showing tue live compass and imu interference updating ervery sevond. From my experience you should not Trust the app to warn you becauce it doe that to late. But when The Feature does not exist in mavic mini Then it is not possible to check it by yourselve.

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 11-12 22:45
Actually thats Not what i mean. On my spark you would check the Sensor Status where a green yellow or Red Bar with a nummer from 1-1000 showing tue live compass and imu interference updating ervery sevond. From my experience you should not Trust the app to warn you becauce it doe that to late. But when The Feature does not exist in mavic mini Then it is not possible to check it by yourselve.

I think they are just making things simpler for new flyers.  Probably not much help to know the number if its self checking like this.

IMO it's a good tool (like it looks in spark, air, etc) and it's part of my pre-launch procedure to check if there is no stronger interference. As green bar is really long, yet I'm only flying if it's in his 10-15% lenght max. (looking from left side)

So I fully agree, that it should be possible to check and it's VERY important. reduces fly-aways by a lot also gives few seconds more to get better gps signal ;)

KREMi Posted at 11-13 08:20
IMO it's a good tool (like it looks in spark, air, etc) and it's part of my pre-launch procedure to check if there is no stronger interference. As green bar is really long, yet I'm only flying if it's in his 10-15% lenght max. (looking from left side)

So I fully agree, that it should be possible to check and it's VERY important. reduces fly-aways by a lot  also gives few seconds more to get better gps signal ;)

100% agree. I also check it before every takeoff because you cant trust the app to warn you early enough! I takeoff with max. 250 points interference (green) but the app once said compass normal although it was at 396 points ( yellow colose to red) . When i picked the aircraft up to calibrate it the app displayed a compass error. I dont want to imagine what would have happened when this would happen when the aircraft is in the air. This is just one example that shows that you should not trust the app to warn you!!

I hope dji will add the ability to see the live staus of the compass. Otherwise i wont buy it because it seems to be to unsafe to me.

Cheers

Spark_Pilot_XxXx

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 11-13 10:58
100% agree. I also check it before every takeoff because you cant trust the app to warn you early enough! I takeoff with max. 250 points interference (green) but the app once said compass normal although it was at 396 points ( yellow colose to red) . When i picked the aircraft up to calibrate it the app displayed a compass error. I dont want to imagine what would have happened when this would happen when the aircraft is in the air. This is just one example that shows that you should not trust the app to warn you!!

I hope dji will add the ability to see the live staus of the compass. Otherwise i wont buy it because it seems to be to unsafe to me.

As they say there is more than one way to skin a cat, first off you can only have a bad compass if it is being interfered with by some outside magnetic interference or you added something to the craft but didn’t calibrate craft with this attached.
You cannot have a bad compass unless it’s broken and if that’s the case no amount of calibration will sort this.
Checking the alignment of the craft triangle on the map with the heading of the craft will tell you everything is ok with compass, you can also preform a quick exercise in safe quarters that will tell you that you have good compass good IMU and good gps.

Take off 2m altitude
Hover 10 seconds
Fly forward 2 ft
Back 2ft
Left 2ft
Right 2ft
Up 2ft
Down 2ft
Each time coming back to hover, if craft shows good attitude you will know you have good IMU .
If craft responds to each command you will know that compass and IMU are acting and working together, if this was not the case then there is conflict between IMU and compass, land turn off and move location and repeat.

You said you wouldn’t trust the app to let you know there is a problem, but in the same sentence you say you trust the app to give you accurate information on compass IMU ratings, this is a contradiction of sorts and just means you trust the app but you don’t trust the app.

The exercise I have given you above is a manual way to check your craft is good for flight , if anything goes wrong you just need to pull down left stick 100% and your craft will land from 2 metre so damage will be limited and mostly ok, providing you take off in a responsible location.

As someone who owns a spark and has watched mainly newbies having problems with compass/IMU in almost all cases take off into the air was how almost all flights started and then it is likely to late to recover .

hallmark007 Posted at 11-13 11:38
As they say there is more than one way to skin a cat, first off you can only have a bad compass if it is being interfered with by some outside magnetic interference or you added something to the craft but didn’t calibrate craft with this attached.
You cannot have a bad compass unless it’s broken and if that’s the case no amount of calibration will sort this.
Checking the alignment of the craft triangle on the map with the heading of the craft will tell you everything is ok with compass, you can also preform a quick exercise in safe quarters that will tell you that you have good compass good IMU and good gps.

Hi hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Sorry if this was written a little bis misleading but i dont mean that i trust the app but dont

hallmark007 Posted at 11-13 11:38
As they say there is more than one way to skin a cat, first off you can only have a bad compass if it is being interfered with by some outside magnetic interference or you added something to the craft but didn’t calibrate craft with this attached.
You cannot have a bad compass unless it’s broken and if that’s the case no amount of calibration will sort this.
Checking the alignment of the craft triangle on the map with the heading of the craft will tell you everything is ok with compass, you can also preform a quick exercise in safe quarters that will tell you that you have good compass good IMU and good gps.

Hi hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Sorry if this was written a little bis misleading but i dont mean that i trust the app but dont

Hi hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Sorry if this was written a little bis misleading but i dont mean that i trust the app but dont

hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Sorry if this was written a little bis misleading but i dont mean that i trust the app but dont

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 11-13 11:57
Hi hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Your good, but I do think all will be good with this craft, I’m hoping that dji have applied the same tech to compass as is in M2 and there is almost no compass problems with M2 compass .

hallmark007

Yes you are right checking the aircrafts heading before the flight with the mini map is a good idea!

Sorry if this was written a little bis misleading but i dont mean that i trust the app but dont

Sorry i dont know why but 90% of my moment is just cut away

Sorry it want possible to Post it otherwise but there

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 11-13 12:15

I think problem here is that both are connected so should work, the problem of interference on the ground is not so much the compass as the IMU , when interference happens on the ground as soon as compass leaves that ground it will always correct itself, I will explain below might be easier.

The best way I can explain this is. If you put your Aircraft on the ground in normal circumstances, start it up, then lift it up and turn it 90 degrees to the right both your compass heading and IMU will both move together 90 degrees and no problems.
If you put your Aircraft on the ground and there is magnetic interference only the heading of your compass will change, your aircraft will still take off. But when it clears magnetic interference compass will then move to correct heading which you would think was great. But No, what happens is IMU is then conflicted and confused because of this sudden movement by compass, so you receive IMU exceptional heading warning, your aircraft cannot deal with data conflict so decides to switch to Atti mode dropping gps in favour of compass simply because aircraft can fly without gps but not compass.

Like another user, I personally always spend a minute letting it hover and testing the controls before going off to a different location.