DJI NEO, Mini 4k and Mini 4 Pro

[RedRascal]

Thinking about getting a better drone for next season. I currently have a $50 Costco special which has been great for learning how to fly but it's pretty limited in range, wind tolerance and camera quality. My fear starting out was putting a $500 drone in the water thus I choose a $50 drone.

I am looking for a couple features and looking for feedback from folks flying any of these off of boats. Here is what I am shooting for:
-Being able to fly in 5-10knots of wind, specs say yes to all 3 and many youtubers prove this possible with the above but...
-Follow-me for shots of having the drone follow the boat or dinghy for 30 seconds to a few minutes, NEO and Pro will do this. Not sure if this is actually practical in boating scenarios. Curious how this has worked out for folks. If following-me isn't that great then that puts the Mini 4k in the mix.
-Landing on the bow of the boat. I have a CHB 34 with a bimini, mast with spreaders and life raft on the aft cabin top. To date my best luck has been landing on the bow vs flybridge or aft deck. I am unclear if the obstacle avoidance will mess up trying to landing on the bow.

Anyone with experience with any of these from a boat?

 

[H2O_Doc]

I used a Mini4Pro a year ago quite extensively for a 4 day car event. I was going to fly it from our boat later that summer, but wasn't too sure how to handle the situation where it comes "home" if the battery gets below a certain charge level. You can override that, but if your boat moved, since the drone took off, the drone will land in the water where your boat was. You have to be very aware of battery level, and how to override that setting, IMO.

That being said, it's VERY easy to fly and land it exactly where you want it. I do think the follow me setting would work great for a boat. It can also have it "follow me" while circling the object along with all sorts of other cinematic features.

 

[RedRascal]

Can the return to home feature easily be turned off and stay off once the drone gets within 50 feet of you? What I envision is if something goes sideways and you use return to home to get it close to the boat then manual fly it onto the boat. What would be bad is if you get in a loop where the drone is close to the boat then you go manual then 30 seconds later the drone automatically goes back to return to home mode which would most likely fly it away from the boat. I think the follow me feature looks pretty slick.

 

[H2O_Doc]

I don't recall the settings, but I think you may be able to turn it off completely or adjust when (battery life) it comes back automatically

 

[RedRascal]

Thanks!

 

[SteveK]

I have a Holystone 360S on the work bench. It fly very well, but had an accident. GPS navigation.
I have launched it and retrieved to the boat. Auto return home on that one can only be stopped if it is within range of remote where home was, otherwise you have to manually bring it to where you are.
Watching videos I learned not to try and land but to catch it as it comes to land, turn upside down shuts off motors.
Yes you can turn off auto return if it is in range of the remote.

 

[ksanders]

I have a DJI mini 4 and love it.
It is super stable in a breeze, and easy to fly.

The Return to home feature is super easy to turn off either before the RTH process initiates, or during the process at any time that it is returning to home. I often initiate RTH and then when the aircraft gets close I turn it off and bring it in manually.

In fact I have never let the RTH process complete a landing, because I'm either operating from the boat, or a dock and I have an inherent distrust that it will not be off by just a little bit.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

Landing on a moving boat seems difficult and catching a drone seems sketchy. Is there a consensus on retrieving without splashing? I have seen “catch handles” in some videos. Does that make catching the drone easy enough?

 

[Moonfish]

I got the Mini 4 Pro last summer and am really impressed with it. Of course, it replaced a 10 year old Yuneec Typhoon 4K, so it was quite the upgrade. I used to fly the old drone on/off the boat all the time, and it was easily 5 times larger. If my wife was on deck, she would catch it by the landing skids (just like a helicopter has). Otherwise, most often I would land it on the upper deck. However, it had no collision avoidance system...

Back to the Mini 4 Pro, as far as the RTH feature goes, my understanding is it will return to where the base controller is in real time (which makes sense if you are using the follow me feature and the controller is moving). Old drone technology did indeed have the drone return to the spot from which it took off. But yes, you can easily turn off RTH when the drone is close.

I think for the OP's case of landing on a CHB 34, the obstacle avoidance should not be a problem if you descend straight down. That being said, I'd do a few practice landings on the bow while still in the marina. That way you can have a designated backup landing spot!

Here's the first video I made with the Mini 4 Pro (combined with DJI Osmo 2 ground footage):

 

[DDW]

The RTH on the Mini4 Pro returns to where it took off. You can update that location at any time (it will update to the location of the controller, which also has GPS). But the facility is pretty useless to complete a landing on a boat. On a boat not moving, it is very easy to land with a little practice. I can land it on the upper deck or top of the PH, or use one of the two hand landing techniques: first is to bring it close, grab it and flip it over. It will fight you a little but once upside down shuts the motors off. This is an accepted technique, doesn't hurt anything. But lately I've been instead using the hand landing technique where you just get it close, hold you hand under the drone, then pull the down lever. It will land in your upturned palm without drama.

Now landing on a moving boat is an entirely different matter and fraught with peril. Even moving very slowly. The problem is that all of the stabilization software including the assisted landing (which most of us use) is predicated on the theory that it will stablized the motion of the drone relative to the earth (or GPS satellite constellation). If the boat is drifting even at 1 knot, it drifts under the drone at surprising speed. So the drone is still and the deck is moving alarmingly underneath, with railings and antennae or your head moving towards it. Doing a moving landing, i.e., drifting forward or sideways while you bring it down is very, very difficult. And remember you are on the clock, with the battery ticking down. When it gets to a certain low level it will land regardless of what you do, probably in the water.

I took the following shot while drifting away from the falls just in the current of the falls. Around 1 - 1.5 knots. I launched and retrieved twice, and almost lost the drone twice. First time I tried a hand catch, eventually did it but it was very hazardous for both me and the drone, battery down to 5%. The second time I landed it on deck, almost lost it over the side. You get it positioned perfectly, then pull the throttle back but the software takes about 5 seconds to land it the last 2 feet. In that 5 seconds everything is changing. You can use the forward/back/sideways sticks but doing so in a manner that is will coordinated with the boat motion must take a lot of practice which itself is hazardous.

A couple of other points: DJI offers insurance, this didn't used to include loss in water (as you had to produce a carcass to get a replacement) but now it does include "flyaway" as well as water loss. There is a procedure for documenting the loss and they will replace it.

I have not found the follow me to be of much use on the boat, but it comes along with recognition features that allow orbiting and automatic tracking during passing shots which are very useful. Basically you tag the boat and the drone automatically circles the boat or keeps it in frame when moving.

The extra collision protection in the Mini4 is very welcome over the Mini3. I have almost lost the Mini3 flying close to trees while trying to get a nice shot of the boat in a tight anchorage. When you see the tree branches blowing around from the drone wash, pay attention! The Mini4 has good collision detection in all directions. However that comes at a cost as well, landing on the boat there is usually some things very close by and it will complain and be reluctant to go where you want. But those features can be turned off.

 

[RedRascal]

Tons of great feedback thanks. I nixed the NEO from a value and capability perspective and nixed the Mini 4 Pro from the cost of it going for a swim is more than I want to risk. As DDW noted these little rascals can be easy to lose from a boat. So that narrowed me down to Mini 4k and thanks Kevin for the feedback on stability and ease of use. But as I was doing research I came across another Costco special which is the Atom 2 by Potensic. The fly more kit is $350 right now. Based on what I could learn from YouTube and reddit it seems like a reasonable drone compared to the Mini 4k. The the main pro for the Atom is it has follow me and maybe a couple other video capture features over the Mini 4k BUT the con is I think it will drift more in a hover vs the Mini 4k. Other features like range, battery life, wind tolerance and camera sensor are all pretty similar. No obstacle avoidance so I should be able to fly it onto the bow without it balking at things like the hand rails or the sampson post. We'll see how this goes, I have many months to practice on land before getting it over the water.

 

[DDW]

I started out with a DJI Mavic Pro. I 3D printed some float legs, using short lengths of pool noodle for the floats. The Mavic is much larger than the 249g drones and could carry them. Flew it that way for a year from the boat, but never needed them. You do gain confidence with some practice!

 

[RedRascal]

I have a flight update on the Potensic Atom 2 from Costco(Black Friday $350). Absolutely a huge upgrade from my original $50 Costco drone. We are having a windy day in my area so I decided to fly it and test how it holds a hover. That was my concern from my prior YouTube research. To my delight it stays in one spot well with the exception that a strong gust sometimes might drop it a foot or two of elevation. I would not fly it from the boat in the same conditions that I tested it in this afternoon. So my hover concern was erased today.

The follow-me feature works although it wants the drone a little higher than I would like. To initiate follow-me the camera(gimbal) needs to be pointed down at a 25 degree angle or more. This in turn means the drone needs to be a maybe 10-15 feet above you so you will not be able to get video from an eye level perspective. If you adjust elevation in the follow-me mode it kicks it out of following and holds in a hover.

Also it appears that the return to home function will bring it back to the launch point or controller. I haven't been able to test this yet but it looks promising for bringing it back to the boat when getting video underway.

It only has obstacle avoidance for landing and I am not sure yet how it may impact landing on a boat. When you descend to land it will pause in a hover about 1-2 seconds about 2-3 feet above the ground. You just keep holding the down stick and it will continue to descend after the pause. This is one thing that isn't so great for retrieving on a boat.

It did seem helpful starting out with the $50 drone because I had to learn how to counter the effects of the wind on it. With no GPS sensors the drone would drift with the wind so you always had to counter the wind. The new one is much easier to fly because is compensates for the wind which in turn should lower my blood pressure while flying.