Just bought a Mavic 3 Pro and now I’m worried about the SDK thing. Did I mess up?

General Drone Discussion
1

I have been wanting a drone for my farm to help with some of the work, like making 3D maps of the land to plan better. After thinking about it, I went for the Mavic 3 Pro with the RC Pro controller.

Now that it’s here, I’m finding out about all the issues with doing more than just flying it around. I came across people talking about the SDK not being available, and how it doesn’t work with mapping apps. I’m starting to think I just bought an expensive toy that won’t help me at all. I thought ‘Pro’ meant it was for professional stuff.

I’ve seen some workarounds, but it seems way too complicated for something that should be simple, like older drones could do.

Should I try to get a refund? I’m not a big farmer who can afford pricey subscriptions or enterprise-level drones. It was hard enough to justify buying this one.

2

Get the enterprise Mavic. You can still map with the Mavic 3 Pro, just look up some YouTube videos about it.

3

Same thing happened to me. I was surprised the Mavic 3 Pro doesn’t support the SDK. DJI is being tricky with that. I ended up getting a Mini 3 Pro when I need the SDK. It’s not perfect, but it works.

4

Yeah, you’re stuck. Don’t count on there ever being SDK support, so it’s not gonna work for mapping.

5

You might want to look at downgrading to something like the Air 2S. You’ll be able to use all the third-party software for mapping. You’ll lose the extra cameras, but if you can’t afford the enterprise version, it might be your best option.

6

Also, make sure the waypoint feature on the Mavic 3 Pro isn’t enough for what you need. It’s not as good as third-party software, but you can do some cool stuff with it.

7

It’s weird. At a conference, they said SDK will only be for the enterprise version, which is really annoying. It also means you can’t use the parachute system on the Mavic 3 Pro, so you’re limited with flights over people and vehicles. I love DJI, but this is a bad move.

8

If you were looking for SDK, you got the wrong drone. Either go cheaper, which is strange, or go for the enterprise one.

9

What’s SDK?

10

@Gia Thanks for asking! I didn’t want to ask myself. :sweat_smile:

11

@Grace_Hamilton Lol yeah, I knew I’d get downvoted. People can be harsh when you ask questions.

12

You might want to look at the Autel Evo drone for mapping if you don’t want to stick with DJI. But DJI has great customer support and a big market share, so it’s a tough choice.

13

I was upset that my Air 3 couldn’t do grid flights with waypoints. I thought I should’ve gotten the Mavic 3 Pro, but I guess I’d still be upset if I couldn’t do grid flights on that either. You should check out Litchi.

FYI, waypoint missions are Google Earth files (KML), so they can be created pretty easily if you have the patience.

14

@Gia Here’s a link: https://developer.dji.com/

It’s basically tools for developers to customize drones. The Mavic 3 Pro doesn’t support it, so you need to choose a different model if you want that.

15

This site shows how to do mapping with the Mavic 3 Pro: https://www.waypointmap.com/

16

I went through the same thing. There are some workarounds that might work depending on what you need. Check out my thread with tips and options: