Mavic Air 2 User Manual v1.4

Thanks for the notice. Just updated.

screwthepap said:

Dated 2020-12-30. Download here. The latest release notes, dated 2020-12-28, are here.

Still no mention of the new Attitude Indicator in v1.4; they're still showing (and describing) the old Aircraft Orientation Indicator in the manual:

View attachment 120666

One gets the distinct impression that the technical writers at DJI responsible for product documentation aren't on speaking terms with the engineering staff.

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I hope they revert back to the previous Fly App target display for the drone and the RC. It used to be easy to see on screen all of the time. Now I have to open up the map window on my iphone 11 Pro and take my eyes - and hand - off more important things. DJI - are you listening ......? ? If it is not broken, don’t fix it ..... (or else give the placement options in the settings)

Not aware until now that DJI updates the user manual ......

Although the details of the new attitude indicator may not be mentioned in the updated manual, I for one am glad they did away with the initial indicator on the Fly App. It never worked correctly for me so good riddance. Granted the new AI may take a few steps to get to but at least it works correctly reflecting the aircraft positioning and home point way more accurately.

rcourtney671 said:

Although the details of the new attitude indicator may not be mentioned in the updated manual, I for one am glad they did away with the initial indicator on the Fly App. It never worked correctly for me so good riddance. Granted the new AI may take a few steps to get to but at least it works correctly reflecting the aircraft positioning and home point way more accurately.

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The majority , if not all of reported problems about the old indicator were due to the compass of the phone not calibrated. If this is the reason in your case, you will see the same problem carried over to the new indicator.

boblui said:

The majority , if not all of reported problems about the old indicator were due to the compass of the phone not calibrated. If this is the reason in your case, you will see the same problem carried over to the new indicator.

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Noted but the compass doesn't seem to have been the problem. The old indicator never got the aircraft orientation correct even with the aircraft hovering right in front of me with the nose pointing straight ahead, The old indicator always had the nose pointed several degrees off whereas the new AI seems very accurate as far as where the home point is and the aircraft nose direction.

DavidT_ NZ said:

I hope they revert back to the previous Fly App target display for the drone and the RC. It used to be easy to see on screen all of the time. Now I have to open up the map window on my iphone 11 Pro and take my eyes - and hand - off more important things. DJI - are you listening ......? [emoji102] If it is not broken, don’t fix it ..... (or else give the placement options in the settings)

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But it was broken, sort of. Many kept complaining about it not working.

boblui said:

The majority , if not all of reported problems about the old indicator were due to the compass of the phone not calibrated. If this is the reason in your case, you will see the same problem carried over to the new indicator.

Click to expand...

Yup, so now DJI puts in the AI, which hardly got a peep in Go.
Ironically, the Go version has the HP in the middle and relied on the device compass to accurately show where the AC was in relation to HP.
So now they have it so center is AC with RC/HP is in relation to AC, which only needs AC GPS and compass.

rcourtney671 said:

Noted but the compass doesn't seem to have been the problem. The old indicator never got the aircraft orientation correct even with the aircraft hovering right in front of me with the nose pointing straight ahead, The old indicator always had the nose pointed several degrees off whereas the new AI seems very accurate as far as where the home point is and it's relation to the aircraft position and the aircraft nose direction.

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My Mini 1 does not have such problem even after a severe crash and the gimbal destroyed. The problem you have mentioned occurred only if the craft has yaw error due to magnetic interference :

screwthepap said:

Dated 2020-12-30. Download here. The latest release notes, dated 2020-12-28, are here.

Still no mention of the new Attitude Indicator in v1.4; they're still showing (and describing) the old Aircraft Orientation Indicator in the manual:

View attachment 120666

One gets the distinct impression that the technical writers at DJI responsible for product documentation aren't on speaking terms with the engineering staff.

Click to expand...

I get that same impression. And let’s not leave out the Customer Service counter. First flight, all of a sudden it won’t go “sideways”, so I ask for help including that it flys well and I have 8,000 hours of flight time so I basically understand flying. They were quick to answer, referring me to the diagram showing the options of how the control sticks work which was absolutely no help. It would have been very nice if they’d have referred me to the tiny icon on the display that stops sideways flight (which I must have grazed with my finger while flying) or to the obscure menu where you can disable sideways motion. I do think it’s a great product though and fun to fly!

Nope, I don't think magnetic interference has anything to do with it either. I fly from the ground at our local flying field launching from my foldable, circular nylon pad. I notice you're flying a Mini and I'm flying an Air 2, so that might be the difference in what you've experienced from what I've experienced even though they both operate on the DJI Fly App.

screwthepap said:

...
One gets the distinct impression that the technical writers at DJI responsible for product documentation aren't on speaking terms with the engineering staff.

Click to expand...

<rant>
Having done a long gig as a technical writer, I doubt that's true. More likely, the engineers aren't speaking to the writers! With notable exceptions--mainly among the very brightest--the engineers considered my work beneath their lofty attention (even though I had far better credentials than most of them).

As I first realized in graduate school, a lot of engineers' egos are so big you can barely squeeze past them in the hallway. And I say that as a lifelong engineer.
</rant>
One can hope this will get fixed in V1.5; meanwhile, there's always YouTube!

Well noted. YouTube is where I first learned the MA2 zooming function could also be controlled (and more smoothly I might add) by pressing and holding the Function button and scrolling the gimbal control wheel. It makes me wonder how the YouTubers discover stuff like that with no mention of it from DJI. Perhaps someone has a hotline to an Engineer/Developer in DJI's Research & Development Team.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Downloaded already and updated my MA2 folder

icecoldgin said:

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Downloaded already and updated my MA2 folder

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Wouldn’t get too excited, it’s still WAY out of date

rcourtney671 said:

It makes me wonder how the YouTubers discover stuff like that with no mention of it from DJI.

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Reminds me when the Spark came out in 2017, DJI's Wi-Fi selfie drone that worked with just the phone or coupled with the remote control.

No OTG cable was needed like the earlier products since it used Wi-Fi. But then somebody plugged one in and had a eureka moment finding a better video feed when using the cable.

For the longest time DJI didn't support the use of the cable because it didn't work on all of the Android platforms but Apple was fine.

Things have been worked out now and I believe DJI supports the OTG cable with the Spark.

InvisibleName said:

Wouldn’t get too excited, it’s still WAY out of date

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True. But then again it is an improvement, I hope, from v1.2 ?

The MA2 manuals (v1.2 and v1.4) are password protected so I cannot use the compare document function in Adobe Acrobat. It would be easier to see the changes using this.

By chance, is there anyone here who has the password?

Thanks for announcing the update. The manual is always slightly behind the software and firmware changes. I see several positive improvements in the 1.4 manual.