DJI Mini 4 Pro Budget Accessories – Are They Actually Good?

I just did something a little bit funny in this video. Let’s see if you can catch it – it’s really subtle. For the first person that comments what I did in this video, I’ll send you a free 51 Drones hat. So it’s going to trigger some people. Hi everyone, welcome back to 51 drones. My name is Russ, thank you for stopping by.

StartRC Mini 4 Pro Accessories

Today what I want to show you are some budget accessories for your DJI Mini 4 Pro from a company called StartRC. Now many of you have probably heard of StartRC. When you hear that name, you just run away, because for the past few years all of the things that StartRC have offered us have been not so great quality. They’ve been usable, but really they don’t last or stand the test of time.

But what they’ve been doing over the past year is they’re starting to put out some useful accessories, and they are of average or better quality. So I think they’re worthy of doing a little bit of a review on some of the stuff. What StartRC does, it’s kind of funny, is they’ll send a package to a YouTuber and they won’t even say anything. They’ll just mail a big box of stuff and they’ll hope that that stuff gets reviewed to give them some exposure.

For the most part, I haven’t reviewed most of the things that they have sent me. But this last package that they sent has some actually pretty worthy items in it for the Mini 4 Pro. They also sent me some stuff for the Air 3 which I’m going to review later.

Megaphone and Air 3 Accessories

This thing right here looks really cool. This is a megaphone for your drone. It does fit on the Mini 4 Pro but I don’t think I want to try it. I am going to try it on the Air 3, so watch for that video. I got a couple other things for the Air 3 that they sent me. But like I said, they’re starting to step it up a little bit.

StartRC Strobe Light

The first one that I want to show you is this strobe light from StartRC. They did have a strobe light a few years ago but that thing was terrible. The light did not even meet the FAA regulations, because you have to be able to see a strobe light from up to 3 miles away. This one does now.

They’ve improved it quite a bit – they improved the housing, they improved the brightness, so it is visible from up to 3 miles away. It can mount on any drone. In particular, it works great for these smaller drones because it’s only 10g. It’s very lightweight, it’s USB-C chargeable, takes about 90 minutes to charge it, and it lasts for about 4 hours on a full charge. So definitely have stepped up the game.

I will say it’s not quite as good as the Firehouse Arc 5, which is what I consider the cream of the crop for strobes on drones, just because it’s so amazingly bright. This one’s not quite that bright, but it does meet the standard and it comes in at only $21. The Arc 5 I think is like 35 anywhere from $35-45. 21 bucks for this one and it meets what you have to do when you fly at night with a drone in the United States. So strobe light, very good deal at 21 bucks. Check it out, I’ll put a link in the description. I have a link for everything that I’m talking about today. But I think that one is what most of you are going to be interested in, because it’s a budget yet useful item for your Mini 4 Pro when you’re flying at night.

StartRC Hard Case

The next thing I want to show you is this hard-sided case. This is very similar to the Simic cases that I use. I use Simic for all of my drones – love Simic. They have high quality plastic, awesome latches, they have hard EVA foam, waterproof, dustproof, just really good storage cases.

Now this is kind of a little cheaper version of that. So this is the StartRC. It’s IP67, so it’s waterproof. It’s also crush resistant – I don’t know what that means, I kind of want to test it out but I haven’t tested it yet. It has room for three batteries plus the charging bank with three batteries in it. So you can store actually seven batteries in here if you have one in the drone.

It can store the Mini 4 Pro or the Mini 3 or the Mini 3 Pro. It can also store your charging brick right here. You can put extra propellers here or cables, and then you can store the RC-2 or the RC-N2 controller. And then there’s a little more storage underneath that space as well. So everything you need in this case fits in here.

Now a couple of things I don’t like – the foam that they use, it’s very cheap squishy foam. It’s not high quality foam at all. So that’s one big difference between this and the Simic. The Simic uses that hard EVA foam, very very sturdy, makes me feel very secure when I have my drone in there.

The other thing is this only has one level, where the Simic cases have the pullout like the P330. You can take out the top layer, and then in the bottom you can put your landing pad, you could put your Trip Tech 9 Pro – that’s what I use it for. You can put other accessories in there, some more propellers and cables and gum if you want to or whatever underneath. So that dual layer case is so so useful.

So what’s the benefit of this one? It’s cheaper. Okay, so right now it’s 18% off with a coupon on Amazon – 38 bucks for this case. $38 for a waterproof hard-sided case for a drone is very very cheap. If that’s your goal, to spend the least amount of money possible, get the StartRC. But I’ll tell you this – if you spend like $8 more, you can get the Simic P330 case with two layers, better foam, better latches, and I know it’s crush resistant, not sure about this one.

So you know, eight bucks to get a little better case. But if eight bucks is something that you want to save, get the StartRC, because it totally is capable. You can leave this out in the rain, your stuff’s not going to get wet in there. So it’s definitely worth checking out if budget is what you’re looking for.

RC-2 Protector and Sun Hood

Now the next thing that I want to show you from StartRC is this right here. When I first opened it I’m like “I’m never going to use that.” But I think there’s a lot of people that would use this, because it’s a protector for your RC-2 but it’s also a sun hood, and it’s very very cool.

It attaches but then it clicks up and down and you can adjust it to different levels. It’s mostly useful for very bright sunny days. So I tried it out this morning – there was no clouds in the sky, it was super bright, and it acts as a sun shade for your screen. So it takes out all the glare and you’re able to see better on your RC-2 screen.

Now I don’t use my RC-2 very much when I fly my Mini 4 Pro. I use the RC-N2 with the Trip Tech 99 Pro because I love that super bright screen, that awesome awesome bright screen. So I use the triple tech 9. But if you use a RC-2 on bright sunny days, you’re going to need a sun hood. And right now for $20 you guys, this is a great option, because it just folds up and folds down and it fits in the StartRC case while it’s on the RC-2. So I really don’t think you’re going to find anything better for 20 bucks or less. So check out the StartRC screen protector / sun hood.

Concert and Hyperlapse Filming

A couple of tips that I have for you guys. Number one, the reason this came up today is because this weekend we went on a road trip. We went to see Kane Brown in concert – amazing concert, if you have never seen him, go see him, it’s an amazing show. But I wanted to capture a hyperlapse of the traffic, okay, because traffic is awesome to capture hyperlapse with so many cars in town for the concert.

So I went out with my Mini 4 Pro the morning of the concert. I was going to practice getting a hyperlapse of this busy intersection. So I put the drone up, started the hyperlapse, and after a couple of minutes I got this warning popped up on the screen. I’m like “What the heck? I’ve never seen that.” So I started it over, I did it again – same thing, I got that same warning.

So I brought the drone down and I took out my microSD card, and I had this one right here. This is the SanDisk Extreme Plus. This is not the Extreme Pro which I thought I had in my drone. And I can’t tell you enough you guys, how important it is to have the right microSD card if you’re going to be recording 4K 60 or slow motion or hyperlapse with your Mini 4 Pro, or pretty much any drone nowadays. Because the bitrate is so much higher, the frame rates are getting higher, the quality is getting better, and you need a fast microSD card.

MicroSD Card Recommendations

So the Extreme Pro, which is the red and the black one, that’s the one that I use the most. I also use the Lexar Professional which is the 1066x card. And the reason I go between the two is because I’ll just go on Amazon, find the card that I need, whichever one is on sale, that’s the one that I get. And that Lexar card has been good for me as well.

That one’s on sale a lot more than the SanDisk. Usually the SanDisk is only on sale during Prime days and during Black Friday. But that Lexar card goes on sale all the time – it’s on sale right now, $25 off, so 45 bucks for 512GB. You’re not going to find a high-speed card cheaper than that right now – $45 for that Lexar, and that’s a good card, it’s just as good as the SanDisk.

So those two cards are the ones that I use. I regret not having that with me. All I had was my SanDisk Extreme Plus. So get the Extreme Pro and don’t be left out in the cold like I was this weekend when I was trying to capture hyperlapse.

Fast Charging Recommendations

So the last tip I have for you guys to make life easier – it’s not necessary, none of this is necessary, but you want to get stuff for your drones right? To make life easier and to make it a little more convenient and efficient for you.

Get yourself a high-speed charging block or charger for your drone batteries. So I use the DJI 100 watt adapter charger right here. I use this for everything – I charge all my drones, my cameras, my phone with this right here. Because it’s super super fast.

You don’t have to spend the money to get this though. Like this is great, but you can go online and get a 45 watt charger from Anker relatively cheap. Like there’s so many different brands out there, you can get fast chargers, 35 watt chargers even, for 20 bucks.

I recommend going with a more notable brand like Anker. Anker’s been around, they put out high quality stuff. So 45 watt – I can’t remember the price, I’ll put it up on the screen here. But that charger works really well. And like I said, it’s not necessary, but just being able to reduce your downtime while your drone batteries are charging is so much more convenient than having to wait for a slow charger.

And then also you guys, if you do get a charger like this, make sure you get a cable that can handle that speed. Okay, you have to have a high quality USB-C cable to be able to get the maximum charge out of that charging block. Okay, so keep that in mind – get them both, don’t get a cheap cord and a really nice charger, because it’s not going to work.

So I’ll put links for those in the video description. I’ll put links for everything that I went over for you guys today. Thanks for watching the video today you guys.

They did, I’m going to, I can’t wait to review this thing. So this megaphone goes on top of your Air 3, and I think it will fit on other drones as well. But um, and then they sent me some LED propellers for the Air 3 which I’m going to try. Kind of changes the color of your propellers, so that’s pretty interesting, I’m going to check that out.

So yeah, StartRC, I think they’re starting to come around as far as offering some high quality stuff. So anyway, if you got any information of value out of this video, click on that thumbs up, I really appreciate it, that really helps out the channel.

Check out the links in the video description, that really really helps the channel if you want to get any of these things. I’ll also have a link there to my Amazon store that has all of my tools and things that I use for my real estate, for my video production, for my YouTube. Check out all of the lighting, all of the accessories that I use for my drones and cameras. That really helps the channel as well.

I appreciate you guys, as always fly safe and fly smart. See you next time.