Maven - For DJI Drones

I want follow-me functionality for my DJI mini 2. It’s available on the DJI mini 3 pro for $759. I’m satisfied with the photos and videos from my mini 2. I don’t color grade my videos nor post on tik tok, so upgrading just to the mini 3 pro just to get follow-me and tracking didn’t make sense. I started looking at alternative flight programs and Maven was getting excellent reviews for follow-me and tracking so I thought I’d try it out. I am not disappointed! On my first attempt I got follow-me working. I was able to get tracking with circular orbit working with no problems for the second test. Finally, after watching a couple of tutorials I programmed my first mission which included 5 waypoints, 2 altitude changes and a 540 degree orbit around a POI. I headed to the park and the mission worked perfectly. Excellent package that meets my wants and expectations without having to replace my hardware.

This app is fine if you want a point of interest that is large and you can allow a little bit of variance between your waypoints. It doesn’t work so well if the point of interest is yourself and you’re wanting to get some close shots. Each mission seemed to be off the mark a little bit. I returned the next day and it was like 15 feet difference from the previous day. I’m sure I will use this for some things but not what I had in mind. Perhaps I was a bit naive as this is my first drone and my expectations were high.

I’ve been waiting patiently for the other well know Apps to come out with full support (including Waypoints) for the Air2 but Lit**i is still even struggling to provide Waypoints for the Mavic Mini1 and their status on Waypoints has been stuck in “coming soon” since around last August. Read that Dro*****k had Air2 Waypoints beta support out for like 3days then pulled the plug. Being tired of waiting I went ahead and purchased this little known app: Maven for DJI Drones. It’s currently for iOS only (full release, not beta), supports autonomous Waypoints Missions for the Mini1 and Air2. I have a Mini1, an Air2 and an iPadMini5 so Maven seemed like the right fit. After testing the Maven app for 2days running my Mavic Mini1 thru several missions I felt confident enough to step the game up to the Air2. My thoughts: I’m very satisfied with my decision not to wait any longer for the other well known apps and feel Maven for DJI Drones hasn’t received the recognition it deserves. I literally didn’t even read/watch any of the included tutorial links, just jumped in and learned on the fly to create a Waypoints Mission and 30min later I was out watching my Mini1 flying autonomously a simple test mission. After it safely RTH’d I made some little tweaks to the mission’s waypoints and sent the Mini1 right back out. Love that Maven is super easy to learn and use. Found a big plus once I finally did decide to watch one of the included tutorial links. I was able to load Maven on my larger iPad to create missions on its bigger brighter touchscreen then once completed the mission can be exported to iDrive or Google Drive and imported onto my iPadMini5 to go out flying. Such an AWESOME app!!