DJI Neo 2 Battery And Speed Test: Real-World E-Bike Tracking Results

Good day folks, Shawn here from Air Photography. Today we’re doing a battery performance test of the new DJI Neo 2 to see how long it can track in a real-world situation.

Usually the battery ratings for these drones don’t translate into real-world use. So I just wanted to see how long we can track for while on an e-bike.

At the same time, we’re also going to do some speed tests.

Testing the 12 m/s Tracking Speed Claim

The Neo 2 is rated to track at 12 m/s, which is about 27 mph or 42-43 km/h (26-27 mph).

I haven’t had it that fast yet. I have had myself being tracked at about 31-32 km/h (19-20 mph). But we’ll see if we can push it to the top speed.

We may not be able to on this e-bike, but it’ll be a good test to see how fast we can get it.

I also have the prop guards off and the digital transceiver module removed just to make the drone a little more efficient.

It is fairly breezy today, so that is going to play into the battery usage.

On windy days, the drone has to exert more power to keep itself stable. So that will definitely come into play.

Using the DJI Fly App for Tracking

I’m tracking using the DJI Fly app here. It’s a great little feature that allows you to get a visual feed.

You always know the drone is still behind you because sometimes you can’t hear it.

One last thing before we get started. I want to keep this test safe.

There’s one car parked at the trailhead. This is a rail trail that goes on for about 30 km (18.6 miles). We probably will pass somebody at some point.

In that event, I’m going to stop the drone and go by them safely. I don’t want this thing to go whizzing by anyone.

The Tracking Test Begins

I actually moved down the trail a little bit after seeing somebody walking. I figured I’d just get past them so we don’t have to worry about it.

So the drone is tracking us. Off we go.

Right now we’re traveling at 30 km/h (18.6 mph) and the drone is having no issue keeping up at all. It’s nice and smooth.

There’s a lot of small low-hanging branches along this trail. Hopefully the drone doesn’t run into them.

It does have obstacle avoidance, but those thin branches at this speed, I don’t know how well it will avoid some of that stuff.

Pushing to Maximum Speed of the DJI Neo 2

Okay, let’s get some speed here. Let’s see if the drone can keep up.

I think the max I can get to on this bike is about 38 km/h (23.6 mph). We’re doing 32, 33, 37, 38, 39 km/h.

And the drone was struggling a bit there. You can see it was starting to lag behind.

But it did pretty good keeping up. That was actually going pretty fast.

The wind might play into that as well. As mentioned, it’s actually really breezy. So if it wasn’t a breezy day, it may have been able to go even faster without lagging back.

Let me check the battery here. Says we have 10 minutes of flight time left. We’ve been recording for 2 minutes and 51 seconds.

So far so good.

Why the DJI Neo 2 Works for Cyclists

This trail is a little bumpy. I can hear the drone behind me.

That wind is really making those motors rev up as it’s trying to keep itself stable.

Honestly, I think the DJI Neo 2 is going to be a great tracking drone for cyclists.

It can go at a fairly fast speed as we just demonstrated. And you can change some of the settings on the fly.

Right now it’s following us from behind, but we can put it over to the side just with a tap of a button. We don’t even have to stop recording.

We can change the follow height all on the fly with a simple tap.

I’m not going to do that here because there’s not much room on either side of me. But yeah, in theory if I wanted it to start following me from the side, I just have to tap on the screen.

Highway Crossing and Obstacle Avoidance

Now there’s a highway here we have to cross. So we’ll stop for a minute and make sure it’s safe.

I’m kind of regretting my decision not to wear gloves today. It’s about 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit) here in Ontario. You sure feel that on your hands when you’re on a bike.

No one’s coming, so I’m just going to go right across.

The obstacle avoidance actually works pretty good on the Neo 2, especially when you’re using some of the autonomous features like droney.

You’re not going to fly backwards into a tree. It’s not foolproof. I actually have had it run into a branch.

But it definitely does help.

There might be some times where you want to turn it right off if that obstacle avoidance is being a little too sensitive. It might prevent you from getting a shot that you want to grab.

Battery Running Low

I see something up ahead. I don’t know if that’s a person or just a marker. It’s orange.

Going to slow down here so I can read the screen. It says we have 5 minutes and 28 seconds worth of recording time left. We’ve been recording for almost 7 minutes now.

If you’re going to be doing a lot of biking and recording, you’re definitely going to want to invest in some extra batteries.

I’m actually going to turn around because I do see somebody up ahead. Let’s start heading back the other way.

And yeah, the Neo just stays locked onto us even when we change directions.

We’re down to 3 minutes and 37 seconds of recording time left.

Speed Averages and Final Minutes

We’ve been averaging about 38 km/h (23.6 mph). Sometimes we’re dipping down to about 25-26 km/h (15-16 mph), but on average we’ve been going about 30 km/h (18.6 mph).

Nobody’s coming at the highway, so we’ll just go right across. We don’t have terribly long left to film.

“Battery level low. Return to home promptly.”

It’s telling me low battery level, but I’m going to hit cancel. We’ll just keep on going.

Another gate here to go through. That’s a narrow one. Just hit my handlebar.

It says we have 53 seconds left to fly, 12% left of the battery. We’ve been recording for almost 13 minutes.

Critical Battery and Auto-Landing

“Critically low battery warning.”

It just stopped tracking.

There it is on the ground. The drone stopped tracking us when it got to critically low battery. It stopped, then landed.

We still have 7% left on the battery.

Test Results and Final Thoughts on the DJI Neo 2

I didn’t get a total cycling time on camera, but I’ll verify the file size when I get home.

This thing has been really impressing me. I think this is going to be a great drone for a lot of people.

If you just want something that’s easy to use, one button and it’s tracking you. And as you can see in this wind and the speeds I was traveling, it’s extremely capable.

Didn’t hit anything and it stayed locked onto us.

Due to its ducted design, if it does happen to have an impact with a tree branch or a tree, it’s probably going to be just fine.

Unlike a traditional drone for tracking, which can be kind of inconvenient because what do you do with the controller? And they’re a lot more fragile.

Those propellers, if they clip one of these little branches hanging down, the drone’s going to crash and there’s a good chance it’ll be damaged and need to be sent back for repair.

So yeah, that is my tracking test of the DJI Neo 2. Hopefully you enjoyed this video and found it had value. Thanks a lot for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.

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