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How much does DJI’s Mavic Mini drone actually weigh?

A drone with a weight of less than 250 g has significant regulatory advantages in many countries. However, there seems to be some uncertainty about the actual weight of the new DJI Mavic Mini.

I weighed mine on an A&D GX-400 precision balance, which has a readability of 0.001 g and uses an internal motorized weight to adjust (“calibrate”) itself.

With the gimbal cover removed and a battery installed, but without a micro SD card, the Mavic Mini came in at around 247.23 g:

DJI Mavic Mini weight without Micro SD card
Creative Commons LicenseDJI Mavic Mini weight without micro SD card by DigitalScalesBlog.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The takeoff weight including a micro SD card was 247.49 g:

DJI Mavic Mini weight with Micro SD card
Creative Commons LicenseDJI Mavic Mini weight with micro SD card by DigitalScalesBlog.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Before anyone asks, I don’t have a traceable calibration certificate for this demo scale. However, I did test it using a 200 g and a 50 g class F1 weight, which gave me readings between 250.002 g and 250.004 g. I’m therefore confident that my drone has a takeoff weight of less than 248 g.

What does this mean for your Mavic Mini? Not that much, as we don’t know DJI’s manufacturing tolerances. However, I have not yet seen a credible claim that any Mavic Mini weighs more than 249 grams. Speaking of tolerances, my three batteries have the following weights:

  • 99,15 g (used above)
  • 99.29 g
  • 98.75 g

The Japanese version of the drone uses lighter batteries with a lower capacity to stay below 200 g.

Note: You are welcome to use the two photos marked above under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Please contact us regarding the acquisition of license rights if you are unable to comply with the CC terms.

Easily weigh aquatic animals using submersible scales

Regularly recording an animal’s weight is essential for keeping track of its health. However, weighing can be a traumatic experience particularly for aquatic and semi-aquatic animals as they have to be removed from the water where they spend all or most of their life.

Fortunately, several weighing instrument manufacturers have addressed this issue with new submersible scales. One such scale is the Ohaus Valor 2000W, shown below being partially submerged to facilitate the weighing of one of our company’s turtles:

Weighing a turtle on a semi-submerged scale
Turtle “Alpha” basking on top of the scale.

Thanks to it’s unique “flow-thru design which channels fluids that may enter the housing through strategically located drain holes”, this scale immediately sinks to the bottom of the aquarium while remaining fully operational. All that’s left to do is to wait until the animal takes a rest on the weighing pan and record the weight. There’s no better way to weigh aquatic reptiles, fish and marine mammals!

Available in capacities from 1.5kg to 15kg, Ohaus’ Valor 2000 can be found here.

World’s smallest wheel load truck scale

Today, I finally received my sample of the world’s smallest wheel load scale! I’m happy to share my first impressions with you.

Made by Siyue Yiri Electric Weighting Machinery Apparatus Manufacturing Co., Ltd. from Wanxiao in China, this scale has an impressive capacity of 12t and fits easily in the palm of your hand:
World's smallest wheel load scale

Driving a vehicle onto the small raised platform can be a bit tricky. If you’re not careful, you could easily obscure or even scratch the display. The photo below shows how the tire should be positioned:
Wheel load scale

While smartphones are becoming so big that soon we’ll all be carrying a purse, this scale is a remarkable example of the miniaturization of weighing technology.