DJI Mavic 3 Drone
dji.com
dji.com
It is now my frame of reference for all sorts of technology. Automatically not crashing, auto return to home, insane maneuverability on sport mode and all at a bizarrely low price for something that would have seemed science fiction to many punters 20 years ago.
By commoditizing this kind of consumer tech that interfaces with the real world, DJI has changed my perception of what existing technology could be capable of and changed the way I consider usability in my own work.
The biggest draw for me to get a new one at some point would be the flight time per battery. My Mavic Pro gets ~20 minutes and the newer ones seem to get ~30 or more.
Not a huge deal with a bank of batteries, but it will be nice ones my drone eventually kicks the bucket.
If you feel like you're going to crash, hit the button and disables manual mode, rights itself and hovers in place. Near immediately.
As long as you have your finger on that button (and practice using it), it is a pretty safe way to learn.
Best to go in manual mode with a bit of height and in an open area first too.
I want same feature-set on a DIY frame, or at least DIY-able.
aerobatic, surely?
Just some meaningless trivia.
And yeah, the FPV ecosystem with interchangeable parts and open source code is eye opening. It's like building a desktop and installing Linux yourself vs buying a tablet. Mind you, your desktop won't fall out of the sky and shatter into pieces. But it's fun!
Yes, but the DJI FPV that the GP mentioned is an FPV quad.
1) how to solder,
2) how how charge and use lipo batteries,
3) how antennas work, polarisation, connectors etc,
4) what all these buzzwords in betaflight means
5) binding, expressLRS setting,
6) 3d printing protection parts,
7) even there are different connectors standards!,
etc so it's whole umbrella of little hobbies that comes with it. At least for me it's lots of fun, because it takes a few hours of learning time and you get working result. But it's not for everyone for sure. Drastic different with PnP experience of DJI drones.
The DJI is an absolute stunner with fantastic range and video transmission. The build quality is far superior than anything I have seen home built.
I would never recommend racing it, as I am ok with sacrificing my own drones because I can repair them easily, but as an introduction the DJI is an amazing platform.
Hmm, what's the range like? ELRS solves the RC link range (it's functionally infinite) and analog has longer range than DJI video (though DJI's quality is obviously leagues ahead).
I have the DJI video system in my home-built drones, I definitely recommend it but analog goes farther (though you get much better quality for 13km with DJI).
> The build quality is far superior than anything I have seen home built.
If by "build quality" you mean "it feels good", then yes, of course something factory-built is going to be more sleek than something you build in your garage. If you mean "sturdy", though, the carbon fiber quads will take much, much more punishment.
I'm not an expert flyer and I really have had no issues with it. It isn't that hard to fly at all, even in full manual. The "oh shit button" is a godsend.
After only flying other DJI's, manual mode was mind blowing for me. The concept of having control over the speed of the props changed everything. It is one thing to just fly upwards with the stick and another to point the drone in a direction and apply more "gas".
I "get" FPV now. It is real flying... but that doesn't mean I have the time or energy to invest in it. =)
Drones are science fiction dreams come true. But more than that, they offer a really tangible way to work through software and hardware to as you say, interface with the world.
It's a really exciting space and I was initially really skeptical, but as their practcal uses outside of just a camera in the sky become more achievable it became clear to me that I want to get involved.
This sounds a little dismissive ... a camera in the sky is a tremendously useful tool.
There are of course the art application, the "make memories" application that can be perceived as nice but not that important.
But how about: search and rescue, automated land surveying, 3D reconstruction of buildings and landscape, understanding the impact of new architectural projects on the environment, etc ... ?
Combine the "just a camera in the sky" with ML and that's a lot of new applications (and therefore business opportunities).
Ag spraying, high definition cinematography, industrial inspections, affordable localized LIDAR scanning, even underground mine surveys are all super interesting to me.
Oh good grief. If that is the use case, you get something designed for that.
After all this abuse it's still flying like a champ.
I think DJI probably had some quality control issues on at least on the original batch (first I got had lots of problems) but their service reps simply sent a replacement for no charge. The second one has had no problems.
This isn’t the usual throwaway consumer hardware. The drone is designed to be repaired.
The crash site was a pile of steel beams and other debris from a demolished building.
Do you have suggestions what else I could have done except search for it?
All other regulation applies.
Not true in this case. Smaller tends to have higher pitched prop noise which is much more noticeable and annoying to the people around.
The larger mavics have larger props that produce a lower pitch noise which blends in much more easily.
Only when flying recreationally under USC 44809. Part 107 is free from CBO requirements (but, of course, has others). There’s also a reckless operation catch-all in 107 too.
For commercial drone pilots, I think you also escape qualifying the drone for certain operations but I'm not sure. I don't have the commercial license yet.
I'm not sure what the overall EU regulation situation is, but in Finland which follows EU regulations very strictly, the drone flier registration required for above 250g was not really an issue. I've been flying my Mavic Pro legally just fine.
The situation may be different in different jurisdictions of course.
But I think the EU legislation has been crafted so that heavier flyers need to register, but is not so burdensome it would be a problem for hobbuists flying Mavic type drones.
For a drone weighing 734g (Mavic Pro), under EASA rule one either
- has to fly 150m away from residential, commercial or industrial areas (subcategory A3); or
- is required to hold an A2 Certificate of Competence (which would allow flying close to uninvolved people but, at this weight, not over them).
Qualifying for an A2 Certificate of Competence is not hard (I've done it both in the EU and the UK) but it is significantly more involved than punching a few details into a Web form.
I live near Joe Biden's house. His neighborhood is off of a major road. Near the entrance to his neighborhood, there are LED road signs that say something like "Drone flights prohibited".
I think drone flights are only prohibited while he is in town, which is semi-often.
Not that you'd really want to fly a drone in his neighborhood, it's full of trees.
1) in shenzhen
2) less than ten years old (dji started in 2006, so a bit earlier)
3) making really cool shit.
It's like 1970 all over again, only China is now the new Japan.
Skydio IMO has a big jump on DJI in this space while DJI does have an overall more polished package. Will be interesting to see how the next decade plays out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZJblMAuko
Any other interesting companies / products from there you'd care to share?
My dji mini 2 is one of my favorite gadgets I've ever bought.
This is so important. As an European I would rather that the EU encourage Shenzen like technology hubs in Europe than continuing the cliché of naming a new "Silicon Valley of Europe" every year.
The only thing coming out of Silicon Valley nowadays is more AdTech hell.
There's a solid jump from the base to flymore - $800. I need the batteries, need filters, need the charger but don't care about the bag. Batteries are $420 for two. Charging hub is $90. Filters $180.
Cine is $5k. For the $2k jump, it gives more filters (never used higher than ND16), pro controller, SSD and ProRes. SSD would be handy, but I fly over the ocean a bit and frequently change microSDs to "bank" good footage I don't want to lose if the drone drops or hits a bird. I'd be keen to get the smart controller. Does ProRes give enough to justify the cost (editing and grading performance, etc)?
Currently leaning towards the base, filters, charging options, smart controller and then a few batteries. Alternatively, I already have two iPad minis I use now, so I could stick with the default controller and keep using those. The new RC Pro is US$1,200!
Thoughts?
(I have no film production background personally but I did spec out a NAS setup for someone who does, just for them to cost analyze what it would look like to take RAW filming on the road with them to out of the way places, so I've seen the numbers once)
I bought 25TB in portable drives this week for a multi-month project. I have 3x 4-bay NAS boxes that I archive to, and then day-to-day I am connected directly to 7 external drives (3x 2-4TB standard drives, and 4x 0.5-1TB SSDs to work from). Sick of the cables and ejecting drives each time I move between home and office!
It seems there were a lot more case options years ago before there was a cloud service datacenter on every other street corner. Not nearly as many being made today as there were 10 years ago.
I find it often misses local city or park-level rules so I'd always use it in conjunction with a local jurisdiction's app (if available), as well as checking council websites etc.
[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airmap.air...
They seem to be less up to speed on local restrictions. I have a DJI Mavic Air 2 and flew it last year in Colorado with no issues from the software. However I was in complete violation of some local regulations that I wasn’t aware of.
As others have mentioned, there are apps to do a better job of being complete, it’s not really that difficult to deal with but it’s disappointing at times.
Complete no go in Boulder County - https://www.bouldercounty.org/open-space/parks-and-trails/ru...
Complete no go in RMNP - https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/management/unmanned_aircraft....
There are numerous apps that try to bridge the gap between the FAA rules (which the dji app does integrate) and the rest.
(Kind in mind I support safe flying and I'm not advocating for the wild west.)
So, in my brief experience, it's a complicated thing.
But I think the competing brands were good enough to make it non viable.
The mirrorless cam tends to just be a travel camera and only sees the 14mm pancake lens on it most of the time.
For more compact travel stuff, I bought a Leica Q a few years ago, that has a fixed 28mm.
There is a reason why when you see any big sporting event or anything with professional photographers these days, you still see a sea of DSLRs despite mirrorless cameras like the A7 having excellent sensors on the market for 10 years now.
The body is ~$5750 which is not peanuts, but it's not $50K either.
The UX is perfect. Simple, direct, if you shot a manual film camera you instantly understand it. Lenses are great, but big and heavy.
So sad watching the photography industry crumble like so.
The photography industry IS DJI type companies these days.
A proper drone with GPS, an IMU, and visual position keeping is going to hold its position in really quite strong winds. $50 drones are going to get whisked off in the first stiff breeze, and then to top that as soon as they lose signal from the controller they'll either kill the rotors straight away and fall out of the sky, or they'll continue flying in whatever direction they're going until the batteries go flat, and then fall out of the sky. Possibly onto someone's head.
It seemed like a few years ago, a guy could go out and buy a nice drone, and with a bit of hussle, and connections; make a living.
Movies, commercials, etc.
With the price point going down, and the boy in all of us looking for a reason to buy a drone--is anyone making a living here with there's.
Then there's also the possibility that they either don't feel like being beholden to an app store or there's some part of the app that wouldn't pass muster on the Play Store. No idea, really. I don't have any DJI products, but it would be interesting if the reason has something to do with app functionality (as opposed to just being too cheap/lazy to update the SDK or wanting to bypass the approval process).
Avid hiker, amateur photographer. Most people wouldn’t be able to legally do that; the majority of Europe has people everywhere. An out-of-sight drone license isn’t super difficult to get, but you do need to invest some time.
Love how the localization accuracy isn’t quantified, just “extreme”. Looks very cool though.
I think 8 m/s ascent rate and 5,000 m max service ceiling sounded impressive.
edit: Found this, which somewhat explains it: https://dronedj.com/2021/11/05/dji-mavic-3-ce-class-label/
Good artists copy. Great artists steal. - cmauniada
Few months ago my brand-new DJI FPS drone was stolen from my room, together with an iPad, a wallet, a few important documents.
As you might know, all drones heavier than 250g have a transponder. DJI could have helped me find where the drone was, and more importantly, where the other stuff was.
I reported the theft to the local police, then reached out to DJI multiple times, using multiple channels. You can guess where the story goes: NOTHING from them.
Some thieves are walking freely because these a*holes don't want to help me recover my drone.
I feel powerless: the law should force them to collaborate with the police in matters like these, but it only (maybe) happens for very violent crimes.
If anyone from DJI is reading this: your company sucks.
DJI should implement a black list of transponder IDs so that owners of stolen drones could easily identify the latest flying location. But DJI doesn't, because it doesn't care.
If the drone ended up in Tunisia as well, there is a very good chance that it was confiscated by the police, since drone usage is very restricted all over the country.
And it's not like DJI have especially bad landing page for Mavic, it's no less that every third landing site looks like that nowadays. So, how do they all come up with the same nonsense? And when will this stop?
It's a lot more sensible on phones, though I usually look for a way to GTFO and be served some plain old HTML!
From the HN guidelines. I'd rather read about the drone.
Those wanting to read about the drone, have to first learn to navigate this bizare and hostile UI.
If I go to the site and only hit the space or page down key, it's not really any worse than a series of slides. A couple of them are transitional but the vast majority have information on them.
If I do any kind of normal scrolling, then all the animations work as intended and it's better than a series of slides.
I can't find anywhere where it's "5 screens with literally no information". Can you be more specific about what part of the page you were at? Maybe it has something to do with screen size? Mine is 1080p and it seems to act the same regardless of browser width.
On the other hand, I still think it's a bit silly to make a site that you have to navigate using such a unique way (relative to other websites).
It took me a moment to realize you were not complaining about the difficulty of landing the drone...
That segment is, indeed, also the most likely to consider themselves to be extremely rational people who despise appeals to emotions and will always opine that advertising doesn't work on them, and they would prefer just the tech specs, black on white.
And yet they are buying something that, for the vast majority, will be used as a toy.[0]
Good marketing manages to bridge this contradiction with an assortment of terms like "10-Bit D-Log" set in action movie fonts and colors. Who doesn't want the D-Log?
0: That's not an insult. There's nothing wrong with fun. Indeed, it's the only real purpose life may have. But still, accusations of being interested in a toy would offend them, if being offended didn't happen to also be something they leave to lesser people.
I don’t know much about drones, but it wasn’t very long ago that even consumer level camera equipment came with some degree of dignity and sincerity with respect to their purpose and their users. This could be the greatest camera ever made and that silly mess on the front would just be that much more of an insult. I just don’t understand.
Why undergo the research to find out? Why on Earth should that be necessary?
Clearly this is more a symptom than anything, but the reason it doesn’t matter is not that the “flourish” does not affect image quality; it’s that the equipment is clearly trash anyhow. This kind of thing speaks for itself, just like the ridiculous idea that anyone should even want a Hasselblad mounted on a drone. It’s all a sad joke.
For the record of nearly a century and a half, lens hoods are symmetrical with few exceptions, “flourishes” not being one of them. I don’t see changing this as a progression of any sort. It’s something closer to decadence.
I know that with these new digital toys the more traditional rules of photography are no longer embraced as rules to be broken but rather they are treated as a grab bag of techniques with no rhyme or reason. The equipment tends to reflect this. These cameras are hot rods rather than tools, which benefits nobody. These things are designed to be used one single way and that’s it. It should be unsurprising that they produce such repetitive results. They are not designed for creative endeavors but rather for some type of extreme performance. They are not modular. They are not repairable. They don’t even have a symmetrical lens hood lol. The drone stuff is the worst of it I’m sure, and I just find it sad.
For what it's worth, I was thinking about getting this. I'm not a photographer, but I'd really like to try flying this around and trying my darndest to take cool pictures. I don't necessarily care about modularity or repairability. I don't have the expertise anyhow. It seems like it might be beneficial to my demographic.
I don’t know anything about the Mavic 3, but their products overall are actually pretty good and for $1000-2500 you get some pretty amazing capability. Their cameras and optics (Hasselblad clout abuse notwithstanding) are decent for the size, the flight controls and automation are good, the stabilization is unbelievable and the overall quality and fit and finish is really good.
I think if you tried one out for a month you would find use for it.
I don't think it detracts from its purpose nor impacts its functional ability, and I think it adds character
Other two major types of 3D modeling are parametric CAD modeling and sculpt polygon modeling. Sculpt is a relatively new method suited for modeling natural objects like an animal bone, and parametric CAD is extension to good ol' hand drawn mechanical schematics.
If you know what to look, you might notice that polygon-modeled models often has an origin _point_ at its center of gravity towards which cross section of the model and density of surface details increases, and that parametric models has an origin _plane_ at an "end" where it extends from which tends to define average cross sectional area of a part. This drone is a mix of those two methods.
... And the real reason why I'm writing this comment is because sometimes I don't like when modelers do general aesthetics first and add internal structure as mere flavoring, making it "boneless", like all those Star Wars ships. Everything mechanical are "added details" in Star Wars mechs.
I think your complaints come from something similar to what I have problems with. Photography cameras were always machined so they are always drawn in CAD with mechanical principles first and surface details to follow.