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posted 10/19/2021 by Maxim Grin
Having a high-quality drone provides a lot of freedom when it comes to videography, photography, or other forms of entertainment. It’s fun to use a drone for the sole purpose of entertainment, but that does mean that you have to understand how to use the drone. In this post, you will learn how to use a DJI Mini 2 using the DJI Fly App. Upon learning this skill, flight with other DJI drones will have a very similar feeling as they either use the same app or have a similar layout.
Let’s start from the very beginning: unpacking the drone.
If you have the DJI Mini 2 Fly More Combo (which I highly recommend), then you will have loads of goodies including a carrying bag, 3 batteries with a charging dock, plenty of replacement propellers, a propeller holder, and also everything that comes in the default Mini 2 kit. This combo does not come with a micro SD card unless you ask to buy one as well, so make sure that you have a card that works with the drone. I’ll provide a link to the DJI website which has a list of compatible micro SD cards below.
Items included in the DJI Mini 2 Fly More Combo
To start off, everything is going to be found neatly packaged inside of the carrying bag. The drone and remote are going to be exposed and easy to find, but the rest will be in two boxes which give a very organized look. The larger box will hold the batteries, charging dock, and USB Charger. In the other box are all of the wires: A USB-C cable for charging the batteries, a USB-C connector, a lightning connector, and a Micro-USB connector for plugging your phone into the controller. The replacement propellers, screws, and screwdriver will also be found inside the case behind a surprisingly well-hidden zipper just above everything else.
To start off with the Mini 2, there is some required setup. While setting up the drone, charge the batteries and the controller. Depending on how much charge there already is, the charging time may vary, but expect about 3-4 hours to go from 0-100% on all three batteries. The controller will take about two hours for a 0-100% charge. For the initial setup, you don’t need everything to be at 100%, but at least have one battery at 50% charge and the controller between 25-50%. While everything’s charging, go onto your phone and download the DJI Fly App; this is what will allow you to fly the drone and see what the camera sees when accompanied by the controller. I’ll provide a link to the DJI website with the download links below. When the download is finished, there are the basic requirements such as accepting Terms of Service, creating an account, and allowing the app to see your location - you need this feature to be on. Once you do all that, you are met with a very friendly user interface where there’s a button in the bottom right saying “Connection Guide”.
By this point, one battery should at least be halfway charged, so go ahead and plug in the controller instead with the same charging cable. Now let’s look at the drone, a wonderful piece of innovation that will be providing lots of entertainment. As this is the initial setup, there will be some stickers in places that shouldn’t always be there, so you can go ahead and gently peel them off. They’re quite sturdy for stickers and come off fairly easily, so you shouldn’t need to worry about tearing them, but ripped stickers aren’t fun to deal with. The drone’s propellers have a holder around them that is secured with a simple button-like strap that opens with a simple pull. But before taking it off, look at how it holds the propellers and how it goes onto the drone. All propellers should be neatly tucked under the strap, and the strap should nest itself into a gap between the gimbal protector and the body of the drone. Speaking of the gimbal protector, it’s as easy to take off as the propeller holder. Right where the propeller holder would go, you can use your finger to push a flexible plastic piece that will allow the gimbal protector to rotate off. The plastic is sturdy, but don’t push it too hard because there are some thin places that keep the protector in place.
Look at how the propellers are tucked under the holder, as well as where the holder goes on the underside of the drone
Above the power button is the gap where you can take the gimbal holder off as well as where the strap should align
Now, let’s connect the drone. Once all the protectors and stickers are taken off, start by inserting the battery into the rear of the drone. There’s a hatch that can be easily lifted by applying some upwards pressure. Simply slip in the battery until you feel a solid click, and swing the hatch down. The battery only goes in one way, so make sure that the side with the notch and sticker faces upwards. Now, unfold the wings. In the compact form, swing the propellers that face upwards forward, and then take the propellers facing downwards and rotate them so the propellers face up. To fold the drone back into the compact mode, just do those moves in reverse. At this point, place the drone on an open, flat surface to start the connection process.
The sticker should be facing up like in this photo, then slide the battery until you feel a click
The propellers facing up swing horizontally while the other set swing vertically to face up
If your controller is charged to the point where at least one of the dots light up when clicking the power button, you should have enough charge to connect the drone once and update it. The controller is easy to set up. On the underside of the controller, you’ll find the thumbsticks which you will screw into the controller to operate your drone. You won’t need them to connect the drone and update it but get into the habit of being ready to use them before turning anything on. On the top of the controller, the black section can be pulled upwards to reveal the phone mount and the cable that will connect your phone. If you will be using an iPhone, the lightning cable is already in there. If you aren’t using a phone that supports a lightning connector, replace it with one of the other connectors that are provided and plug your phone in. When you boot up the app, go ahead and press the “Connection Guide” button in the bottom right and follow the instructions as they describe it. It’ll go through turning on the controller and the drone, but it will mostly do all of the connecting by itself as long as you followed all of the previous steps. Finally, you should be presented with the view of the camera on your drone and any errors which will mostly solve themselves. And you’re all set! DJI releases updates frequently, so to stay up to date on them, go to the home page by pressing a button in the top left and there will be a prompt saying that there are some important updates to do, press the update button and you’ll be ready to fly in no time!
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