All this talk of drones has made me rethink my current setup. I've had a DJI Mavic Pro for about 5 years and it's less useful now since the regs changed on heaver drones. I will be trading it in for an EDC camera, as that will get a lot more use. I was never a confident flyer and was into it as a flying camera rather than the actual flying skills bit. The original one auto landing in the sea didn't help with my confidence! If I need that capability, one of the various DJI Mini models should be suitable for a similar quality of photos and video as I had before
I got the mini 4k and managed to get it flying a bit in Scotland a few weeks ago. Hell of a drone for not a lot of money.
Heard a loud "THUD" on the roof of the shed. Sent the drone up to investigate: Half-full bottle of something thrown in from the ginnel behind. Sadly, the drone is very much observe-and-report, so I had to go get a ladder and the clothesline prop to push it off the edge LIKE A CAVEMAN. Bah. Also, OH MY GOD the gutter's a JUNGLE. Need to do something about that this weekend!
...the one with the stupid cyberpunk goggles? ...the second-generation, more expensive one with the stupid cyberpunk goggles?
New drone get! And I had to design a new Operator ID label, 'cos... Yeah, there's no way my other sticker was fitting on any of this thing's surfaces. It was too big even to go on the battery - plus then I'd have needed three! This one's just got the Operator ID, no contact information. Good enough for the CAA. EDIT: Printed some longer ones with just my name and mobile number on, so if it flies off someone can call me when it lands! They fit on the batteries nicely.
First (brief) night flight, pretty much just straight up to capture a nighttime panorama and then back down again. I see DJI has two new drones out, too - direct successors to my Mini 4k: the Lito 1 and Lito X1, with 360-degree obstacle avoidance and in the case of the X1 a forward-facing lidar too. Twice the price of mine, though you do get the proper all-in-one RC2 controller instead of the one I have that you need to clip your phone to. I'm not going to bite, though - obstacle avoidance isn't that important when you're not allowed to fly beyond visual line of sight anyway, and I'm saving my pennies in case I need to upgrade come the new Remote ID rules in 2028. Oh! I did pick up a bag for the other drone: It arrived from AliExpress disappointingly squished, but it's better than keeping everything in the box! Still can't believe DJI doesn't give you a bag for the thing - the Mini 4k came with one!
There was a big factory fire in BD4 last night, and Ceri was curious as to whether we'd be able to see anything from BD13. Turns out no, but I did get the moon in the panorama this time!
Using Google Maps' 3D globe mode, which is super fun I mean seriously why did I even bother buying a drone, it looks like it's probably this: Only lit up, presumably so small aircraft don't run into it.
I've got another drone. But in my defence, it's effectively costing me nothing if I sell one of my existing ones: the DJI Lito X1, that new entry-level one with the 360-degree vision and front-facing lidar obstacle avoidance. So, I'll be selling the Mini 4k. I'll pop it on the marketplace as soon as I've taken some pictures - my youngest is insisting on being the one to draw the bit-tech logo, but she's been busy with homework all day! I've been charging and labelling it - the big labels I printed won't fit because of the fisheye lens on the top, so I had to design a smaller one - and haven't actually taken it up yet. Spent some time in DJI Simulator, though, which was fun! EDIT: For Sale thread now up! EDIT EDIT: Too wet to take it up today, but I did try a brief indoor flight: it took off, then froze in terror as it detected obstacles everywhere. Had to switch it to Sports Mode, which disables obstacle avoidance, just to land!
Tried taking the Lito X1 up for the first proper flight: powered up the controller, powered up the drone, sat it on the landing pad, waited for a GPS lock, waited for a GPS lock, waited for a GPS lock, waited for a GPS lock, waited for a GPS lock, thought maybe something might be wrong here. Restarted the drone, no joy. Left it powered off for a while, no joy. Reset to factory defaults, no joy. It's entirely deaf to GPS: 0 satellites. I'm thinking the receiver is okay 'cos you'd expect it to throw an error if not, but the antenna's disconnected. Well, now I get to see how DJI's replacement-under-warranty service is, at least!
Redid the labels, from this far-too-big thing I designed before I actually got my first drone: To this, which fits on all the DJI drones nice-like - though you have to put it on the battery of the DJI Neo 2, 'cos there's no room on the body: I even fixed the kerning on "UAV"! Though, looking at it now, the line spacing on the actual contact details and operator ID could do with work. Eh, good enough. Now I've just got to wait for the new drone to come back from the repair shop so I can stick it on... EDIT: Actually, no, not good enough. Tweak the line spacing and I can make the thing even slimmer! EDIT EDIT: Here it is on the Neo 2: Happy with that!
Seems pretty good so far! Sent in a replacement request, got a DPD pre-paid label a few hours later, dropped it off at the Co-op Sunday night. Arrived at DJI's Nottingham depot in a big crate of other parcels at half-twelve today, and ten minutes ago I got an email confirming that it's approved for replacement and the new one will be shipping out within three working days. Now to cross my fingers they remember to transfer the DJI Care Refresh across to the new drone! EDIT: And shipped, apparently - or at least DPD's expecting to collect it. Never mind three working days, that wasn't even three working hours!
Replacement drone - brand-new sealed retail box - get. That's pretty damn impressive: I reported the problem.. 1517 on Sunday, and the replacement was delivered 1323 on the following Wednesday. They even called to let me know, in case I'd missed the emails, and to see if there was anything else I needed. Now to charge it up, set it up, update all the firmware, and finally I can see if the damn thing picks up the GPS satellites like it's supposed to. (And that it's still got my two years' of DJI Care Refresh!) EDIT: Was starting to think I was doing something wrong, there. (Quite what I don't know, as the process is literally "turn it on and wait.") Charged everything, updated all the firmware (nearly, I've still got to update the firmware in the two new batteries(!)), turned it on, zero satellites, waited, zero satellites, waited, zero satellites, took it outside, zero satellites. Risked sending it aloft vision-only so it'd have a clear view of the whole sky. Zero satellites. Zero... no, wait 30. 31! Landed, it could still see 18 (which is more than I'd expect, there are buildings on all sides) - and got it powered off and back indoors seconds before the rain started again. Phew! And yes, they transferred my DJI Care Refresh from the faulty one. Huzzah!
Had a quick flight this morning, 'cos it's due to start raining and I won't have a chance later - just up to the viaduct, a couple of pre-programmed "QuickShot" video flight paths, and back again (in reverse, saves turning the drone around...) No problems at all with this one: took half a minute or so to get a satellite lock on 18 from the ground, took off nae bother (and it's quieter than the Mini 4k, but still not exactly sci-fi gentle-whirr especially when it's descending), handled fine in Normal mode (didn't try Sport or Cine), and the 360-degree vision system is handy-dandy - you can have it picture-in-picture like System Shock's Sensurround, either primary view or in the bottom corner where the radar/map view normally is, and it'll automatically show you the (black and white, low-resolution, low-framerate) image from the direction of travel. Makes hitting the bullseye on the landing pad a breeze! Weather's already turning, though, so any more experimentation will have to wait until tomorrow.
Just joined the British Drone Flyers association, part of the British Model Flyers Association: £51 a year for £25 million public indemnity insurance for recreation *and* £1 million (or the full £25 million, it's a little vague) of EC785/2004-compliant insurance for basic commercial operations. Which means I *can* use the drones for work without the CAA getting shirty with me!
