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DJI Mavic Mini

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Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#71

Post by tibbon »

thekid314 wrote: post #44
tibbon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I know people are like, "Well, just follow the rules!", and they should... some people fly drones stupidly. BUT - it's worth pointing out that if you live in some cities like Boston, that it is nearly impossible to fly a drone in city limits. Or Cambridge. Or Somerville. Check out the maps on Skyvector; it's 70/SFC, until you're in Watertown, parts of Quincy of north of Lynn. The FAA says to call the tower for pe…

As a Somerville resident thanks for the info! Does it just need to pass the FAA requirements or are there local police requirements?

No idea. IANAL

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#72

Post by pc86 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #58
post_break wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how all laws work though. Rifle minimum barrel is 16" so they make 16" barrels. Wifi can only put out X watts max, they put out the maximum by law. There are no ethics in following a laws minimum or maximum.

It's a great reason to exercise caution when setting up rules and definitions. Whatever distinction gets established, however arbitrary, casts a tint on everything else on either side of it, for better or worse. This is true even in things as routine daily chit-chat and conversation. Think about how often tacitly express your opinion through the way you frame a discussion and how often those environmental cues bias o…

> It's a great reason to exercise caution when setting up rules and definitions.

This is (part of) the reason people spend hours debating seemingly mundane aspects of rules & regs, legislation, corporate bylaws, etc. Eventually someone will have a [dis]incentive and try to get around something.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#73

Post by tlrobinson »

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #69
folli wrote: post #57

I feel like an old man, when I say this (and maybe I am), but I'm starting to feel increasingly annoyed by drones in public. You hear the whirring of drones on a nice day by the lake, and sometimes even on some more popular mountain peaks here in Switzerland. For me it's almost as annoying as a mosquito in your bedroom.

I live in the northeastern United States. I have literally never seen a drone (consumer or otherwise) anywhere other than a Best Buy (or similar electronics retailer) still in its packaging.

They tend to be used by tourists in touristy areas.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#74

Post by pc86 »

gok wrote: post #45
blhack wrote: post #23

Wow, very cool! As others have pointed out, being under the weight limit set by the FAA is basically THE selling point. Ethical question: are DJI the good guys here working within the rules set out of the FAA, or are they running afoul of the spirit but staying within the letter?

Is it unethical to drive just under the speed limit?

Yes, because you're likely the only one on the road going so slow :)

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#75

Post by Accujack »

billziss wrote: post #68

This looks nice and I certainly appreciate the battery life. To the people that are excited because this is outside some regulatory limits. A few years ago there were no or few drone regulations and people abused this; the result was strict national and city regulations to the point that flying a drone is almost impossible (legally) in some cities in the US. If people abuse the regulatory limits expect more strict re…

A half ounce hex nut would take down a small airplane in the wrong place.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#76

Post by pc86 »

dougmwne wrote: post #53
blhack wrote: post #23

Wow, very cool! As others have pointed out, being under the weight limit set by the FAA is basically THE selling point. Ethical question: are DJI the good guys here working within the rules set out of the FAA, or are they running afoul of the spirit but staying within the letter?

I mean the idea of the weight limit is that at some weight the drone just does not pose as much of a public safety issue. I don't wee why the regulators should change the weight limit unless there's evidence that 249g is still too much of a risk. Incentivizing companies to hit a weight limit is a good thing. If the drone is the size of a songbird and the loudness of a bumblebee, I'm not sure I care if they're unregul…

Not mention if the legal limit is 250g then it's incredibly likely whatever testing or studies the FAA looked at (I'm being generous here by assuming they didn't pull a number out of thin air) showed the danger spiked well above that.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#77

Post by dogma1138 »

bilbo0s wrote: post #51
dogma1138 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to make a note it seems that this one has two types of batteries one that weights 50g and one that weights 100g. If you use the heavy battery you go over 249g I’m also not sure if their flight stats were measured with the heavy one or the light one I’ll bet that they are with the 100g battery. This means that under most conditions you’ll likely have 8-10min of flight time with the light battery since the adverti…

Also, I imagine flight characteristics will change dramatically with a 100g battery. Heavier payload, same motors, doesn't bode well. May as well get a real drone rather than use the 100g battery. But for toy drones, the 50g battery is fine. Especially since that pack lets you carry 3 of them. Plus I'm sure the next generation will be lighter still with still greater flight time. And the generation after that. Etc. F…

Eh I’m not sure they’ll be lighter look at mobile phones they aren’t getting lighter...

Battery technology is maxed out currently, plastics and composites aren’t going to change much...

Not much weight shedding to be done here my bet is that they’ll add more collision sensors as they become cheaper but not much else they can do.

They shouldn’t add any weight and you’ll offset their weight with the removal of the material from the chassis.

As for the flight characteristics I’m pretty sure they did everything with the heavier battery you go from 18W to 8W in exchange for losing 50g which is only 16% reduction in weight form 299 to 249.

If anything the loophole battery would perform considerably worse given the power output of the cell compared to the full one.

It also looks like the S mode isn’t available for the smaller battery I have a feeling that once reviews will start popping out the FAA approved config will be called gimp mode.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#78

Post by bitL »

Mavic and its variations are fine, but when will we finally get Phantom 5? Mavic is still far from functionality offered by Phantom 5, whether it comes to stability, ease of use and most importantly video quality. Going to new Mavic feels like downgrade with the only advantage being portability, which is a moot point as one has to carry multiple batteries in a separate bag anyway. DJI, come on, give us something!

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#79

Post by rtkwe »

tibbon wrote: post #46
blhack wrote: post #23

Wow, very cool! As others have pointed out, being under the weight limit set by the FAA is basically THE selling point. Ethical question: are DJI the good guys here working within the rules set out of the FAA, or are they running afoul of the spirit but staying within the letter?

Is Vespa working outside the rules/spirit of law of state DMVs by selling scooters that are 1cc under the requirement for motorcycle registration/tax/license? It seems like a pretty good analogy to me, with the main difference being a federal/state authority. I'm really not sure; and I could see arguments either way.

DJI is selling a heavier battery that does put it over the 250g limit so it's a bit greyer than the vespa version.

Re: DJI Mavic Mini

#80

Post by singingboyo »

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #69
folli wrote: post #57

I feel like an old man, when I say this (and maybe I am), but I'm starting to feel increasingly annoyed by drones in public. You hear the whirring of drones on a nice day by the lake, and sometimes even on some more popular mountain peaks here in Switzerland. For me it's almost as annoying as a mosquito in your bedroom.

I live in the northeastern United States. I have literally never seen a drone (consumer or otherwise) anywhere other than a Best Buy (or similar electronics retailer) still in its packaging.

Yeah. I'm in Canada, I have a couple drones. I've seen someone else flying one... once. While I was out finding somewhere to fly.

I think what we're running into though is the sheer size of North America. Even within the city here, there are a fair number un(der)developed areas with no/few people around. Out of the city, there rest stops or sometimes even just viewpoints. For all of these, with a bit of walking I can avoid annoying anyone.

Somewhere like Switzerland, that might not be possible.

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