Modding my Mavic 2 Zoom to a Mavic 2 Pro!

So I crashed my Mavic 2 Zoom in a Hollywoodesque feat of daring flight acrobatics (I was trying to drop water balloons using a 3rd party remote release from aliexpress) Instead of fixing it back up to be a Zoom, I decided to make a Pro out of it. The streams prior to this one were split across Reddit and early Twitch and have been lost to ages but join me on this past adventure, finalizing the fixes and the frustrating calibration process.
I was so determined to get my drone flying again that reservation duties and PC reboots just wouldn’t stop me!

This was streamed on Twitch on Dec 8, 2020.

00:00:00 Stream starts
Happy Tuesday!
Scotty explains he can’t use his airpods cause his new streaming PC doesn’t have Bluetooth.
He hopes to finish repairing the Mavic 2 today and explains current status of having converted it from a Zoom to a Pro and replacing an arm and the casing.
Sorry I haven’t been live! There have been lots of little tweaks and changes made to the StreamPC and the days just seem to pass so quickly.

00:01:58 Fixing the drone
Lets continue on the drone!
So; Let’s fix the forward vision sensors! Scotty assumes he forgot to plug in the cables on the board.
Scotty prepares to open up the drone.
He mentions he is considering augmenting his screwdriver set now he’s settled in NM.
The Picuris Pueblo Tribe is performing Tribe wide COVID testing today.
Chat asks if this will be uploaded to YT. Scotty answers that this specific project won’t be as he doesn’t believe it’s interesting enough.
Meanwhile Scotty is removing screws from the Mavic 2 drone while taking more questions about YT, life and Free Gold Watch
Drone bottom plate is opened
Scotty checks all connectors, finds one that was not connected as he suspected.
Re-attaches bottom plate with a screw and powers on drone to test.

00:08:24 Stream and truck shenanigans
Stream shenanigans after switching to DJI Assistant screen share, leading to no mic audio
Scotty fixes it by switching scene with mic audio but shenanigans continue when DJI screen share is switched on again.
While Scotty troubleshoots audio, an unexpected visitor shows up asking Scotty to move his truck.
Scotty switches to Dogcam so we can watch him moving his truck.
Scotty returns after movcing the truck however without mic audio.
More stream shenanigans
Scotty opens up his own stream and hears same issue chat hears.

00:21:11 Sensor Errors
After a couple of false starts, Scotty accepts he won’t be able to fix audio on stream while laptop screenshare is open.
Drone calibration will be done off stream.
Back to the drone!
Scotty answers a chat question revealing he’s not into “Space” or Rockets!
Doesn’t mind watching a twitter clip or two but he doesn’t get too excited about it.
Drone sensors still don’t work, Scotty prepares to re-open the drone.

00:24:48 Reseat all the things 1
Bottom plate is removed again.
Scotty begins disconnecting various flatcables to unscrew the board assembly
Board is removed, after a brief examination, Scotty decides to remove more parts
He briefly explains to chat how the drone crashed in the first place
Removes gimbal
Removes front shell around sensors
Starts to removes top shell after brief struggle
Top shell comes off
There’s a bunch of activity going on outside of Scotty’s workshop. He warns chat he may have to leave
Scotty begins removing the cable retention clip that the sensors’ cables are under.
Reseats (disconnects, then reconnects) cables to PCB.
No obvious damage visible to cable from PCB to main board.
Starts to provisionally put the Mavic back together.
Reconnects the gimbal
Brief talk on headphones, triggered by Apple’s announcement of Airpods Max
Scotty puts main board back into the Mavic body and explains a little bit about the various components.
Chat gets to watch taping of a connector while stream is out of focus.
Camera flexcable gives Scotty some trouble
Bottom plate is screwed in place with one screw so Scotty can test vision sensors again.
Top shell is fixed in place.
Drone is powered on

00:53:44 Testing
Sensors still appear to be non functional
Scotty decides to connect the drone to the remote
After connecting to the remote and using the DJI App, Scotty finds errors for the backward vision sensors.
briefly fixed SD Card error. Sets controller on charge. powers off drone.

00:57:09 Reseat all the things 2
Armed with the knowledge that the forward vision sensors are fine and the problem is the backward vision ones, Scotty opens up the drone again.
Disconnects flexcables
Checks on activity outside his workshop using Dog Cam. His door propping rock gets stolen!
Removes main board
Removes top shell
Reconnects cable retention clip for the forward vision sensors
Removes backward vision sensors
It’s a self contained unit with no obvious visible damage
Scotty runs a brush across connectors for dust, just in case.

01:03:57 Intermission 1 BRB!
Phone rings. Stream is paused.
Stream is unpaused as Scotty coordinates his COVID test which happens per household including himself.
He begins explanation and wrapping up.

01:06:16 Reassembly of the drone
Scotty puts drone back together
Realizes he didn’t switch cameras, suggests setting up a Nightbot command for mods to switch.
All connectors reseated, bottom plate goes back on.
Top shell goes back on but not fully clicked in place
Battery inserted, drone powered on
connected to controller and DJI App launched

01:12:40 Sensor Errors persist
Calibration error on backward vision sensors
Scotty attempts calibration on laptop but does not appear to work.
Decides to follow app calibration method instead
Calibration is reported a success but error persists.
Scotty reconnects the drone to Laptop
Still no joy with laptop app, Scotty unplugs the external monitor.
Calibration software on laptop bursts into life.
Phone rings, stream is paused.
Stream returns without audio, Scotty is still on phone.
Scotty has to leave to help the Tribal secretary get onto a wifi network.
He will be back later and suspects the Drone repair will work out because calibration works.
Sorry for the abrupt end, Scotty will be back later!

01:18:58 Restart after reservation duties
Stream begins. Sorry it took longer than Scotty thought – he got tested for COVID and it took a while
Stream dies
Stream audio is back
Scotty notices, figures out a capture card was knocked out
Stream is fixed.
Scotty explains DJI Calibration software doesn’t really work on Mac but it looks better on PC
Scotty shows off his Aputure lights

01:25:16 Drone Calibration 1
Back into Drone calibration with screen share on windows!
Scotty explains how it works with drone connected to computer.
Essentially, by holding the drone in a specific way, you can calibrate the vision sensors by aligning target boxes with graphics on screen.
Calibration completes however an unexpected visitor knocks on the door. Stream paused.

01:29:09 Intermission 2 Tribal Tech Support
Scotty is back. He was asked to remove an ethernet cable from a laptop that he had run earlier to the COVID testing location on the pueblo.
Scotty manages to unstick it.
Scotty leaves stream to return the laptop

01:36:48 Drone Calibration 2
Back to the calibration!
Start calibration again but with entire screen visible.
Calibration information is collected, calculation begins
Talk about building a quadcopter drone again
Refers back to thermal soaring project like gliders
Moves into a discussion about gliding and thermals
Calculation seems “stuck”
Attempts to find out if program has actually stuck or not.

01:54:00 Drone Calibration 3
Quits calculation. Reboots drone.
Restarts DJI program.
Retries calibration from Step 1.
Calibration information is collected, calculation begins
Scotty immediately starts to google “DJI Assistant calibration hanging”
Scotty finds a forum thread explaining install process of the DJI Assistant as it appears to need to follow a bit of a process involving booting into test mode and other intricacies.
Scotty works through initial install steps
StreamPC reboots Scotty will be right back!
Scotty started the stream almost immediately after the reboot and takes care of some stream checklist stuff.
Chat gives Scotty a thumbs up that they’re there
Scotty installs the unsigned DJI drivers again

02:09:47 Drone Calibration 4
Scotty starts the calibration process again.
He’s getting pretty fed up with waving his drone around but on the up side is getting rather well versed at the process.
While performing the calibration, Scotty shares his thoughts on how the process works, hinting it could be using the paralax effect.
Thinking on, Scotty is reminded that he forgot to put the rubber gaskets back in the drone.
He stops the calibration, opens the drone puts the gaskets in
Apparently, the Tribe’s Secretary never picked up the laptop.
Scotty starts putting the Mavic back together again.
As Scotty powers on the drone, there’s a knock at the door.
The laptop is picked up!
Scotty then re-aligns his camera so chat can see the process.

02:16:59 Drone Calibration 5
More calibration!
Unfortunately, it’s too dark to go fly outside once calibration is fixed.
Nope, still no cigar, the calculation still freezes.
It appears unsigned drivers have something to do with the issue.
Scotty does some research on internet while chat does their best to look as well.
Scotty switches his resolution to 1920×1080 as this is suggested on a forum and switches out the Mavic battery.

02:25:28 Drone Calibration 6
Going through the calibration, Scotty lets on he’s ordered a separate touchscreen to temporarily use as a streamdeck until he builds his own.
Still no joy, even in the new resolution.
Scotty checks the version of the Assistant that he downloaded.
It’s very unclear which version should be the right version.
Downloading a new version, Scotty sees he may have originally gotten the wrong one installed.
He uninstalls the old one before installing the new one.
But is inevitably met with yet another reboot screen.
Stream starts with double audio. Thanks for sticking around!
Scotty starts DJI Assistant again

02:34:42 Drone Calibration 7
Scotty starts the calibration process again
Feels better, he gets prompts from the software now.
Pop-ups work better.
No more broken images on side vision sensors
Scotty has high hopes this will work!

02:37:24 SUCCESS!
Calibration completes and calculation immediately starts.
“Let’s fly the drone inside. What could possibly go wrong?”
Scotty reveals he’s a numbers driven guy when making content and he finds it hard to do that on twitch
Scotty notices a slight echo and fixes it.
Scotty explains mixing audio signals into OBS to stream to twitch works nice on mac but not so much on windows.
Drone connects to DJI App and controller.
It looks like it might actually be happy.
No immediate errors or codes but is requesting calibration.

02:41:10 Testing the Drone
Scotty flies the drone inside.
Scotty tests basic functions but can’t find any major flaws.
Scotty discovers camera features of the Pro camera.
Drone lands.
We have a working drone!

02:44:43 Show & Tell
Scotty shows “Picture by Picture” function with multiple sources on his monitor so he can see MacBook and StreamPC desktop simultaneously.
Get Synergy running so he can use 1 mouse and switch it between desktops.
Turns into tweaking stream settings in OBS to make it an easier viewing experience for chat.
Scotty downloads monitor software and drivers in an attempt to automate source switching
distracted by looking at AirPods Max
Shows AirPod Pros and metal shavings that stick to magnet case from working in the workshop.
Tells a story of metal shavings getting into MacBook speakers while working on atm in SF.
Runs magnet across MacBook speaker grill but decides to play some music to show effect
Drone is powered down as Scotty logs in to Epidemic Sound and discusses Last Pass.
Scotty tries to find a song on Epidemic to demonstrate speaker crackling from MacBook.
Is eventually able to accurately demonstrate it.

03:17:27 YT video ideas
LEt’s brainstorm YT video idea’s!
Scotty gets a lot of requests for a lot of the same idea’s a lot.
He explains he gets his most idea’s from hanging out with people
“Why don’t you build a DJI drone?” – easy! BEcause those parts are not available in the markets!
Scotty feels part of the what makes the videos interesting are the markets.
He’s looked at building his own mac but parts like logic boards are difficult to find.
Scotty asks chat “Ordering all parts to build an iPhone online is probably possible but is it interesting?”
Scotty believes it’s not but this mindset is changing due to the pandemic. He’s in the workshop anyway and there are no markets near him.
“Put X in Y!” to which Scotty responds “some stuff is just way harder than others. I wouldn’t know where to start with some projects”
Scotty could maybe design some hardware that intermediates between x and Y but in a lot of cases it likely won’t work.
Scotty was thinking about designing a board that would be able to run an iPhone screen using MIPI
Talk moves to the ATM Slot machine and Scotty mises why views on YT were low.
Collaborations gets mentioned, Scotty supposedly has a list of creators he’d like to collab with.
Modular phones are mentioned, Scotty mentions his thoughts and summarizes that he doesn’t have an interesting take that would be successful.
He’s thought about designing a custom phone.
Scotty is led by chat to mipi controller chips, this piques his interest a lot.
After looking it up he figures out it’s the driver chip that sits between cPU and screen.
Starts mising if he can sniff enough of the controller logic to figure it out or whether he needs a data-sheet.
@timonsku in chat reports “yea MIPI DSI is a sh*t show tbh, without a data-sheet your are lost”
Scotty shares mikeselectricstuff iPod Nano 6 LCD Interface
and Tom W MIPI DSI Shield for driving an iPhone 4 LCD from a Raspberry Pi

03:33:34 Wind down
It’s time to wind down and head home for dinner!
Scotty expects to stream tomorrow again and hopefully on the iPhone 12 USB-C PRoject again!
Ends stream by raiding Ryan56K who is gemstone grinding