Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Rilot · 24 May 2022 at 12:02

Yes, you are correct. However you will find that most commercial insurers will require you to hold the A2 in order to cover you. You might as well do the A2 as it's only £120 ish. I did it last year.

Combat squirrel · 24 May 2022 at 12:04

Rilot said:
Yes, you are correct. However you will find that most commercial insurers will require you to hold the A2 in order to cover you. You might as well do the A2 as it's only £120 ish. I did it last year.

Ok thank you - is this the online only test that is needed or do I need a practical test also?

Many thanks

Rilot · 24 May 2022 at 13:40

It was online but proctored. No flight exam was necessary.

RobotXander · 24 May 2022 at 20:46

Email from Heliguy yesterday. looks like I just missed out on the May 24th stock allocation of the Mini 3 Pro. Now "guaranteed" to be sent out on June 6th

JonRGV250 · 24 May 2022 at 20:52

Bought this on a whim today..

I managed to get a shot of my cottage (it's in there somewhere) before coming to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing with either flying the thing or video/pic settings.

Time to start back reading this thread.

GIBURROWS · 24 May 2022 at 21:26

JonRGV250 said:
Bought this on a whim today..

I managed to get a shot of my cottage (it's in there somewhere) before coming to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing with either flying the thing or video/pic settings.

Time to start back reading this thread.

Learn by doing and always uploading so we can see the gloriousness!

Combat squirrel · 25 May 2022 at 11:17

Any ideas whats going on with my Mini 3 Pro ?

I press the shutter button then it takes like 30-60 seconds or more for the shutter to eventually fire and take a photo.........quite annoying, and weird, also I cannot see how to get it into 48mp mode?

Latest firmware etc

Rilot · 25 May 2022 at 12:09

Odd, are you in panorama mode or something?
Tap the icon above the shutter button on the screen. You can then choose what shooting mode you want (Video, Photo, 48mp, Mastershots etc).

Combat squirrel · 25 May 2022 at 13:01

Rilot said:
Odd, are you in panorama mode or something?
Tap the icon above the shutter button on the screen. You can then choose what shooting mode you want (Video, Photo, 48mp, Mastershots etc).

No, it turns out that it wasn't the latest firmware despite saying it was - I have updated it now and have the same problem, its taking tens of seconds to minutes to fire the camera shutter now - I've googled and I am defo on the latest firmware now, using an iPhone 13 pro as my screen.

Pressing the camera shutter does nothing, then minutes later it will randomly fire/take the photo - as I pressed it several times at the end of the flight I got like 5 photos of the landing area as I had the camera face down to see where I land :rolleyes:

It's a load of rubbish, I am very disappointed, its also very twitchy, I need to try and change some settings I think.

Rilot · 25 May 2022 at 13:03

Maybe it's faulty. I see none of what you are describing with mine. Photos are taken instantly using either the button on the screen or the button on the controller.

Combat squirrel · 25 May 2022 at 13:07

Rilot said:
Maybe it's faulty. I see none of what you are describing with mine. Photos are taken instantly using either the button on the screen or the button on the controller.

It's a very odd fault to have no ? When it takes the image it works fine, so I'm struggling to understand what the issue is with it, I'm going to charge it again and have ago again in abit - its a little bit windy today, so I'll wait for the wind to die down, maybe it won't take it if its too breezy ?

rhysduck · 25 May 2022 at 14:12

What's the general consensus on the DJI RC then? I've read that it's not the brightest so unsure whether to go with the RCN1 Mini3 Pro combo and save myself £150 and use my phone or get a ipadMini to pair with it.

I'll sell the Mavic Pro most likely.

Rilot · 25 May 2022 at 15:08

I have it and I wouldn't go back. It annoys me that I can't use it with my Air 2S...... yet.
Just having the ability to switch on, switch drone on, and fly is a revelation compared to having to faff with cables, turn airplane mode on (so calls don't interrupt the flight), faff with the clamp, etc.

The screen is plenty bright enough. It's brighter than my iPhone 12 Pro Max but the phone can't maintain that brightness indefinitely and will overheat.

rhysduck · 25 May 2022 at 15:11

Rilot said:
I have it and I wouldn't go back. It annoys me that I can't use it with my Air 2S...... yet.
Just having the ability to switch on, switch drone on, and fly is a revelation compared to having to faff with cables, turn airplane mode on (so calls don't interrupt the flight), faff with the clamp, etc.

The screen is plenty bright enough. It's brighter than my iPhone 12 Pro Max but the phone can't maintain that brightness indefinitely and will overheat.

Hmm... you'd say it's a worthwhile addition then over my OnePlus 9Pro? Just over 1k with the DJI Refresh, anyone have experience of having to use this? Is it worthe £160 for 2 years?

Greebo · 25 May 2022 at 15:31

Rilot said:
I have it and I wouldn't go back. It annoys me that I can't use it with my Air 2S...... yet.
Just having the ability to switch on, switch drone on, and fly is a revelation compared to having to faff with cables, turn airplane mode on (so calls don't interrupt the flight), faff with the clamp, etc.

The screen is plenty bright enough. It's brighter than my iPhone 12 Pro Max but the phone can't maintain that brightness indefinitely and will overheat.

This. So much easier and mroe user friendly. Would never go back to the old remote and using my phone.

Greebo · 25 May 2022 at 15:32

rhysduck said:
Hmm... you'd say it's a worthwhile addition then over my OnePlus 9Pro? Just over 1k with the DJI Refresh, anyone have experience of having to use this? Is it worthe £160 for 2 years?

I bought my drone from heliguy and went with their version of "refresh" which is cheaper and covers more things.

rhysduck · 25 May 2022 at 22:10

Greebo said:
I bought my drone from heliguy and went with their version of "refresh" which is cheaper and covers more things.

It's more expensive over two years compared to DJI? It's £68.5 a year (£137 for 2years) with Heliguy (with 10% off) and £119 with DJI for two years.

Greebo · 26 May 2022 at 08:45

rhysduck said:
It's more expensive over two years compared to DJI? It's £68.5 a year (£137 for 2years) with Heliguy (with 10% off) and £119 with DJI for two years.

Its £55 when I bought from Heliguy with 10% off if you buy it as the same time as the drone so £49.50 per year so £99 for 2 years.
My mistake, the 2 year deal from DJI is cheaper. If only doing one year its cheaper with heliguy.

JonRGV250 · 26 May 2022 at 19:12

I got a bit bored of packing away the Mini 2 every time I used it, so I decided to use my VR cable pulleys to store the thing.
Do excuse the rotor guards, they're there to stop me trashing it until I'm a little more proficient.

Marzipanogram · 30 May 2022 at 13:21

I took this test pano recently using the Mini 3 (wide pano mode). It hasn't turned out too bad for an architectural shot, but it's a little bit stretched at either end. If it was just a landscape photo, it would be acceptable.
The stitching was done with Microsoft ICE, all the other panorama software I tried was a complete mess.

I also tried flying parallel to the building and taking (single) shots as I went along, but all the pano software failed to stitch it correctly.

Question for anyone who owns a Mini 3: Does you get a thick green line displayed on your phone or controller when you've switched from video to photo mode?
It's around the 4:3 image frame.