[dvprasad]

Originally Posted by procrj

Price has dropped today ordered it! Wait begins.

Thanks for the heads up.
Ordered mavic mini combo at 39k, received it today.
Battery took more than 5 hours to charge all 3 even on my 18 watt charger.
Steep learning curve even for connecting remote controller, turning drone off / on
Even taking out battery from the 3 battery charger is a hassle.

Managed to connect and fly indoor for a couple of minutes

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by dvprasad

Thanks for the heads up.
Ordered mavic mini combo at 39k, received it today.
Battery took more than 5 hours to charge all 3 even on my 18 watt charger.
Steep learning curve even for connecting remote controller, turning drone off / on
Even taking out battery from the 3 battery charger is a hassle.

Managed to connect and fly indoor for a couple of minutes

I got my mavic mini last month, followed an youtube video and found it quite easy to operate. I would suggest you to do the same and I am sure you will be able to handle it easily. One word of caution though, while flying outside, it will be better to ask someone to keep a watch on the drone if you are busy looking at the controller screen and making videos. Two days back I had almost lost my drone while taking the video of a river. I was not giving any input with the controller but somehow the drone was going down. I had not realised that by looking at the screen. My wife shouted and then I somehow brought the drone up just a few feet away from being drowned.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I got my mavic mini last month, followed an Youtube video and found it quite easy to operate. I would suggest you to do the same and I am sure you will be able to handle it easily. One word of caution though, while flying outside, it will be better to ask someone to keep a watch on the drone if you are busy looking at the controller screen and making videos. Two days back I had almost lost my drone while taking the video of a river. I was not giving any input with the controller but somehow the drone was going down. I had not realised that by looking at the screen. My wife shouted and then I somehow brought the drone up just a few feet away from being drowned.

The drone has obstacle avoidance on the bottom, so if you were not manually trying to land it, it should ideally not go down and will come up.

[Cessna182]

I have been flying RC aircrafts since 2003. Have had many crashes, losses of almost 1 lakh so far but I persevere in this hobby.

Currently, I don't own a drone. I had a Cheerson CX 20 which was one of the first GPS programmable path drones sold in this country. It was a Chinese drone and I sold it last year because I was tired of the worries associated with finding a place to fly. It was an amazing machine.

I have flown the Mavic and Phantom and they are great machines too. My only request to the aspiring drone buyers is that please spend on a non-camera disposable drone (that is considered a toy by many people) before spending any money on a bigger unit. While AutoPilot might help you, there's no substitute for the real feel and training that you get out of a cheap quadcopter. It'll also tell you if you like the hobby. It's like learning to drive on a real car vs. a simulator.

Yes, a lot of YouTube videos these days use drones, but my experience is slightly different when it comes to personal travel. I went to a tour of a few islands last year and was tempted to fly the DJI Ryze Tello, a small drone with decent camera capabilities but only a wifi controller. Honestly, the environment did not give me the courage to do this, there were other tourists around and I did not know how they'd react. Think about it, will you like it if your beach holiday gets recorded by someone and posted on a public platform? It's a breach of privacy I don't condone and won't engage in. Mountains and flat lands are different, but even there one has to be very careful.

Not to discourage aspiring film makers.I am just saying that try flying a cheap drone in the vicinity of people when you travel. See if you're okay with the public reaction- I wasn't. A lot of YouTubers and Instagrammers don't care about other folks and do their thing without consideration. Don't be one of them.

On the other hand, if you really like flying, try RC airplanes or helicopters or even FPV racing drones. It's a great hobby. And devoid of privacy issues.

[Safety is Param]

The Mavic Mini is available currently for INR 33k on Amazon from Appario Retail

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07RRMPZ4L/..._ZjXuFbQR6EBE2

Pls note that is NOT the combo pack

[RM Motorsports]

A short video about DJI factory. Its showing production of Mavic 2. Almost reminds me of an automobile assembly line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8whTutWfVCk

[jkrishnakj]

I received mine today. It sure was a long wait. My son and I were Super thrilled flying it. I did capture a few videos , and I am now learning to edit those. For some reason, I do not know where the still pictures went. I am not able to see a single one that we clicked. This means some more education and research tomorrow morning.


The box indicated that this piece was imported in August 2020.

I shall share the videos later. The picture clarity is absolutely amazing.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I received mine today. It sure was a long wait. My son and I were Super thrilled flying it. I did capture a few videos , and I am now learning to edit those. For some reason, I do not know where the still pictures went. I am not able to see a single one that we clicked. This means some more education and research tomorrow morning.

The box indicated that this piece was imported in August 2020.

I shall share the videos later. The picture clarity is absolutely amazing.

Check the albums in dji app, or you can directly check in SD card too.

[jkrishnakj]

I finally could find time today and it was a sunday evening well spent.

Two things that i noticed new ( i.e. i haven't come across these two from anyone else here or even online )

1. Since the first flight, i am always being asked to do the Calibration - Horizontal and Vertical, and only after the calibration is successful does the quad take off
2. I got a message today that the Aircraft is hot and was asked to switch off for a few minutes and cool down before the next flight

I am assuming both the above are normal, given these are system messages.

Here are some pictures from the Mavic Mini. Loving it and i am so glad i got the Combo that comes with 3 batteries, and that is a flying time of 90 minutes on full charge of all 3 batteries.

We attracted attention from the villagers there and had to wrap up our quick escapade this evening. Since we live close by to the lake, we will perhaps go another day and pick a different spot for getting more familiar with the piece. For now, loving it. I still need to learn to edit videos and upload here.

Well, we did have two heart in mouth moments - a) when we tried to land using just the controller and we almost missed the pavement and it went into the grasses, thankfully, nothing happened and b) we were wrapping up and i hit the RTH ( Return to Home ) button, and it flew horizontal at a lower height almost hitting the power cables. A quick manual intervention prevented the quad form hitting the cables.

[deetee]

Price for combo has dropped today to 43k briefly. From Appario retail.

Fellow mavic mini pilots, please make sure you don't take off in heavy wind conditions. There are numerous threads online about mini's lost in strong winds, especially above 20m altitude. Don't be overconfident about this tiny drone's capabilities.
Also, very importantly, if you happen to loose control of the drone, try to reduce the altitude first (higher altitudes have stronger winds) and try to fly backwards towards you. DON'T HIT "RTH" button if you lose control due to winds. In RTH mode, drone speed is reduced to 8m/s and if winds are stronger, it will not able to fly back but will be blown away.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by dvprasad

Managed to connect and fly indoor for a couple of minutes

I didnt have any such issues as I had looked up a few videos and figured out the details before the drone arrived. After a test run on friday, which helped me get familiar with the drone controls and the flight modes, I decided to take the drone with me and shoot during the weekend drive that was planned. Few pics from the trip.






After a lot of contemplation, I decided to get the drone up to 330feet(100 meters) from the resort as there was hardly any wind and this was the reward

https://youtu.be/6EIrx-6mtcA

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

1. Since the first flight, i am always being asked to do the Calibration - Horizontal and Vertical, and only after the calibration is successful does the quad take off
2. I got a message today that the Aircraft is hot and was asked to switch off for a few minutes and cool down before the next flight

Having used the drone of about 90 min in total over the last few days, I haven't got either of these messages. Yes the battery did get warm when I flew for 25min and the charge dropped from 100 to 20%, but no such errors showed up. You might want to drop DJI a note and check. Also do check if your firmware is updated.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I was not giving any input with the controller but somehow the drone was going down.

That's strange... was the battery low?

[procrj]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I somehow brought the drone up just a few feet away from being drowned.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

That's strange... was the battery low?

A quick check on DJI forums and you will realize that the Mini is not great at flying low over moving water. Apparently its a problem with either a) VPS (Vision Positioning System), which gets confused by flowing water and assumes that you are gaining height, hence the sudden drop in altitude OR b) barometer which senses increased pressure due to wind and corrects by dropping height as there has been no stick input to raise height.
On the whole, its recommended that you fly high over any kind of water or disable VPS if you want to fly low over water - https://store.dji.com/guides/how-to-...ly-over-water/

I did face this issue when I was flying over a small pool of water and the drone was continuously losing height without any inputs from my end. Hence any flying over water will be at about 20+ meters for me.

[tomraven99]

Managed to get prop guards from Aliexpress for the Mavic mini. These cost about 750 rupees including shipping. Not a bad deal for those who have brought the basic kit. Make sure the seller doesn't mention drone on the invoice.
Although not needed during daytime they are crucial when flying in low light conditions when the optical positioning system may glitch.

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

That's strange... was the battery low?

No it had full battery, I will share the video if possible. It has happened several times after that.

Originally Posted by procrj

On the whole, its recommended that you fly high over any kind of water or disable VPS if you want to fly low over water -

Thanks a lot procrj for this post and the URL. I have been guilty of flying the drone very close to water. I have to avoid doing it.