I simply purchased my first drone, the DJI Mini 2. Not solely is it close to the highest of our checklist of the perfect drones, however its light-weight nature makes the principles round flying it lax – excellent for a first-time flyer. What’s not so excellent, nevertheless, is simply how complicated the factor is to arrange.
I am not speaking about assembling the drone – stickers on the physique (which you’ll be able to see within the above image) make it straightforward to unfold the limbs and take away the gimbal protector. No, I am speaking concerning the app scenario.
Now I am no drone professional, however I do set up and mess around with apps as a part of my day job, so this should not have been the chore for me that it turned out to be. DJI has so many alternative apps that it is extremely complicated figuring out which one I used to be alleged to be use.
DJI Go? Extra like DJI No
Once I had turn out to be accustomed to the design of the DJI Mini 2, charged up its batteries and perused by way of the directions guide, I made a decision it was time to set the gadget up, and I knew I wanted an app for that.
I remembered from the directions that it was referred to as one thing like DJI Fly or DJI Go or DJI Air, so within the search bar of the Google Play Retailer, I searched ‘DJI’… to seek out quite a few apps that every one appeared potential.
There was DJI Go, DJI Go 4 and DJI Pilot, in addition to two different apps from the corporate which appeared clearly not the fitting ones. None of them had a consumer score above 1.4 stars which… is not nice, and made them appear at a look all to be faux apps.
So which was the fitting one? DJI Go mentioned it was ‘For merchandise earlier than P4’ whereas the Go 4 mentioned ‘For drones since P4’ – as a first-time drone purchaser, I had no thought what the P4 was or whether or not the Mini 2 was earlier than or after it.
To search out extra solutions I needed to wade into every separate app description, skim for the checklist of supported units, and examine mine off towards them… which is once I realized that none of those three apps was truly the fitting one.
I needed to go deeper by Googling on my cellphone ‘dji app mini 2’ which introduced me to the DJI web site – right here I found that the proper app wasn’t Go, Go 4 or Pilot, however a fourth one referred to as DJI Fly which simply did not present up within the Play Retailer in any respect.
I needed to side-load this by way of DJI’s web site, which is not precisely an ideal resolution given the inherent dangers with downloading and putting in apps outdoors the Play Retailer. This complete course of, of researching and twiddling with apps, took me about half an hour – for much longer than you’d assume putting in an app to arrange a drone ought to do.
In spite of everything this, the app fortunately did work and I used to be capable of arrange my new cinematography instrument. However it is a far messier course of than it must be.
Issues should not be this complicated…
In our checklist of the perfect drones, we name the DJI Mini 2 “the perfect drone for novices” – that is partly why I purchased it, as a result of I need to take nice sweeping panorama movies, and determined the Mini could be a good way to study.
But when organising a drone is such a ache, it would push away different individuals who had been eager to study to fly – and who’d additionally spent a great deal of cash on a brand new flying digicam.
Drones are a scary factor to make use of – once I took the Mini 2 out of the case I used to be terrified, as a result of it is small and dainty and I knew one drop might put it out of motion. The risks of flying, plus the principles about the place you’ll be able to fly, and what {qualifications} or certifications you want to take action, will probably put a great deal of folks off.
DJI must make it as straightforward as potential for folks to start out utilizing its merchandise, to allay their fears as a lot as potential and get them utilizing the drone shortly. For those who’re caught for half an hour, making an attempt to work out which app to obtain, that is simply going to escalate the concerns.
What is the resolution? Easy: have only one app that works with all of the drones. Oh, and DJI ought to actually look into why everyone seems to be giving the app 1-star critiques too – at a primary look, I assumed it was a rip-off app, not the proper and official DJI one.
Now that I am in, the app seems helpful, with guides on restricted zones and coaching packages for novices like me. I simply want it had been simpler to get the factor working within the first place.
