Practical things you can do with DJI Mini 2 and Basic plan
I've had a lot of fun with my DJI Mini 2. The DJI Fly app does quite a bit and has a few readymade quick actions.
But of course, I wanted more, and wanted to be able to plan and fly missions, and Dronelink seemed to be a good answer.
I quickly ran into a long list of features that tell me "you need to upgrade to another plan." OK, that's not out of the question but it does beg the question, "what exactly CAN you do with this relatively inexpensive drone and the Basic level of Dronelink?" I've been focused on practical things like inspection and mapping missions, and also being able to preprogram aerial video shots.
Rather than list things you CAN'T do I'll mention the only one that seemed surprising to me, and that is the lack of "return to home" within missions. It's available as a command that the basic version does not support. If there was one command that would be useful on the Basic version, I would say it's RTH. Yes, you can use the dedicated RTH button on the controller but it defaults to 100m altitude.
Here's my list of what I've figured out so far using the DJI Mini 2 and the Basic Dronelink:
1. Mapping mission - this actually works reasonably well. I haven't yet tried to stitch my photos together using WebODM but they came out looking really good. Basically I added a series of destinations to a mission, and turned on auto-capture of photos, and set the gimbal to -90 relative to the horizon. My final destination was back at the origin point. Note that this works only on a relatively flat geography - you won't get any contour following. One of my rationalizations for getting this was getting detailed aerial photography of some land, and this approach allows me to do that.
Here's one of the test plans - sharing is not available and it's a public repository, so presumably others can view this: https://app.dronelink.com/henry-groover/my-first-project/plan/QZVzGpryQ90DDFWZBKq0
2. Missions with waypoints - at first I started using this without the POI tutorial which explains how to use markers along with POI.
I had skipped over tutorials because I ran into a wall of features not supported in the Basic edition, but Mike highlighted the POI tutorial and it turns out I can do pretty much exactly what's in the tutorial. This takes things to a new level. I created a test mission here:
https://app.dronelink.com/henry-groover/my-first-project/plan/FnRDN2UFozwkYBccLyzf
And, of course, the full URL to the POI tutorial:
https://youtu.be/a7H9MioY5rk
3. Follow me - it's a wee bit awkward holding the remote with my mobile phone clamped in it as a run about, with the drone high enough to avoid trees, but this is a fun feature that was left out of DJI Fly.
Someone did point out that I can just remove the joysticks and toss it in a backpack - yep, that would work, thanks!
That's my rather short list but would like to hear what others have discovered. I am not against upgrading, I just like to fully explore the capabilities of what I have before spending more money on an upgrade.
Comments
8 comments
There are two reasons that I purchased the Elite edition:
1. Private folder
2. The price is reasonable and I want to support Dronelink's long term development
I also have benefit of the Restriction area a lot after I start to use the Dronelink.
Though I am not a Basic plan user, I can also give my testimony that the functions with Basic plan are quite enough to do many many flight missions.
Final words:
Could you share some of your mapping mission plan? If so, it will enrich the article.
Yeah splashing the cash for elite is worth it, even just as a hobbyist who doesn't fly a lot
The POI’s should stay on the object. Not sure what you mean by not tracking object.
The Follow me mode needs something to follow so a device is needed with GPS and follows the device. Throw the controller in a back pack with the control sticks taken off and ride away. Plenty of pilots use it this way
The RTH at end of mission should be in the settings. I don’t see why it would not but maybe. I’d Check the settings section again.
I’d watch the DL tutorial videos. Especially the one that has POI’s.
Hope this helps.
POI markers:
https://youtu.be/a7H9MioY5rk
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3wRlldCPXFi4octcc4Iv6IdSI4pHld7u
The Mini 2 has a dedicated hardware button for RTH on the RC, so we don't see the need for an on-screen button that does the same thing.
Thanks Jim, I'll have to try the dedicated RTH button again. Using DJI fly you get some feedback when RTH is not available and I may not have had enough satellites visible when I tried this before.
Thanks Mike, I'll go through the POI tutorial and see if I can reproduce that with the Basic plan.
Yes, I am not against paying more - not having a private folder is a little concerning. But the point here was to see what I can do with Basic first :)
For this - do you mean there is no option to highlight something on the screen and have it keep that in focus while you fly?
I did go through the POI tutorial and everything in there (other than mission preview) works in the Basic edition. I'm dying to try this out as soon as there's light!
Barry Houldsworth I was more referring to what can be done with points of interest in the path. I really did need to go through the tutorial to figure out the right-click / add marker + poi. I had lost interest in tutorials when they started to deal with features I don't have in the Basic edition, but the POI tutorial is a real gem. Thanks to Mike for putting the link in.
Hi Henry. Glad it helped. Markers are a great way to control many functions in DL. I use them on paths all the time. Altitude, Drone heading, Speed, Gimbal, POI’s and other Components. It does take time to learn but there is so much DL can do you will probably need to watch the videos a few times. DL has great support and a good amount of tutorials.
Also here is a link for more help with Quick start series and more info and videos of what you can do. Enjoy, Mike…
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001874574-General
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