The DJI assistant 2 is a god-send for some types of DJI drone pilots and a nice tool to have for most DJI users. Whether you’re a professional who needs every bit of information that they can get on their flight, or just a power user who wants to pull up the hood on their drone and see what’s happening behind the scenes, the DJI assistant 2 is a great addition to your repertoire of drone tools.
Why? Because with the DJI Assistant 2, you simulate flights before actually flying your drone, calibrate your drone’s vision sensors and update the firmware. It also acts as a sort of black box, telling you exactly what happened during a crash and why. It’s available on both Mac and Windows.
This article will act as a complete step by step guide for the DJI Assistant 2 app. We’ll go over what it does in detail, how you can install, download and begin using it to make your drone flights easier. We’ll also cover its uses for flight simulation and as a black box. This is going to be a long article so buckle up.
Before we go further into this guide let’s first look at the app, what it is and who it's for. The DJI Assistant 2, unlike apps like DJI Go 4, is designed primarily for advanced users who have use for the features of the app.
The DJI Assistant 2 app is part of the DJI ecosystem, designed for power users and professionals. Although it’s known for being able to update your drone’s firmware, that’s not its main use since the DJI Go 4 app can do that. DJI Assistant 2’s focus is other more advanced uses. Uses like:
So now that we defined what the DJI Assistant 2 is, you may be wondering if you really do need the app or if it's simply something you’d like to try out.
As I said, if it’s only for basic tasks, you can use the DJI Go 4 app to accomplish it. The DJI Assistant 2 shines when it comes to advanced stuff that are more than just firmware updates. Things like Flight simulation, flight logs, VPS calibrating and more.
So do you need the DJI assistant 2? If you’re a professional who regularly does flights, yes. If not, it still wouldn’t hurt to try it out.
Now with that out of the way, let’s get to the actual guide. Downloading the DJI Assistant 2 is fairly simple.
You can go here to download the general version of the DJI Assistant 2, make sure you download the version that’s compatible with your computer. Downloading it as a .pkg (for mac) or as an .exe (for windows) is easier than downloading it as a ZIP file and then decompressing it.
The installation process is also simple. Assuming you downloaded it as an executable (not ZIP file) and assuming you downloaded the correct app for your computer, here is what we’ll be doing after that:
There are actually different versions of the DJI assistant 2 app that vary depending on the model of your drone. Sometimes it can be hard to know which version you should download (there is also the risk of downloading a virus thinking it’s the official app)...
Which is why I’ve added this section to better guide you to the right version for you.
The standard version that you can download here. This version is available as a .pkg file for Mac computers and .exe for PCs, it’s 229 Mb and works for the following drones:
This version is for the Mavic drones and can be downloaded here. It’s available as a .pkg file for Mac computers and .exe for PCs, it’s 389 Mb and works for the following drones:
A version is for the Mini 2 and other consumer drones and can be downloaded here. It’s available as a .pkg file for Mac computers and .exe for PCs, it’s 389 Mb and works for the following drones:
The Mac .pkg version is 403 Mb while the windows file is 256 Mb.
The DJI Assistant 2 version for the Phantom drone series comes at 359 .pkg file for Mac and 200 Mb .exe file for Windows users and can be downloaded by going here. It works for the following drones:
You can download the DJI Assistant 2 version of the Mavic Pro, which stopped its updates back in 2019 by going here.
Both the Mac and PC versions are 225 Mb and can be downloaded as either a pkg or exe file.
The DJI Assistant 2 version for the Mavic Air is the same as the one for the Mavic pro. So you can download a pkg file version V1.2.4 for Mac or get an executable or zip version V1.2.5 for Windows computers.
Similarly to the DJI Mini 2, the Mavic 3 uses the “consumer drones” version of the DJI assistant 2 which you can download by going here. It’s 446 Mb and comes in both Mac and PC versions.
This is a separate DJI Assistant 2 version for professional pilots who fly enterprise level drones. Like the rest of the versions this one comes in both the Mac and PC at 229 Mb and you can download it here. The drones that are compatible with this version are as follows:
The DJI Matrice 30 is probably also compatible with this version, but since the drone itself is fairly new and still unreleased that remains to be confirmed.
Now that we’ve covered all of the app’s versions, connecting your drone to the DJI Assistant 2 won’t take long. Simply follow these steps:
One of the primary features of the DJI Assistant 2 is firmware upgrade, which can be done easily as long as you have an internet connection and your drone is properly connected to the app.
You can update your drone’s firmware using the DJI assistant 2 by choosing your drone in the app, navigating in the left panel and clicking on “update firmware”.
The process looks like this:
From then on the process is hands-off. The app downloads the latest firmware and flashes it on your drone, it should take from 20 minutes to an hour for the process to be done.
While this video is specifically made for the DJI mini, I’ve found that it covers the process fairly well:
The DJI assistant 2 not only upgrades your drone but can also upgrade your Smart Controller. In fact, upgrading your smart controller isn’t only recommended but actually necessary, as you’ll get a warning message whenever you fly your drone if your remote controller’s firmware isn’t up to date. The process is almost identical to that of upgrading your drone.
You can update your Smart Controller’s firmware using the DJI assistant 2 by choosing your smart controller in the app, navigating in the left panel and clicking on “update firmware”.
Step by step, the process looks like this:
The process of the RC’s upgrade is pretty much the same with the drone, it’s automatic. You should expect your smart controller to be fully updated within one hour.
This video showcases this process perfectly:
Sometimes issues may come up with your vision sensors mid flight. When that happens, it’s strongly recommended to hit the “home” button on your remote controller to safely get the drone back to you. After all, if you try to fly it manually in that state crashing is almost guaranteed.
Fixing issues with your drone’s vision is quite easy in most cases. You can use the DJI assistant 2 app to automatically check for any vision issues and fix them. We call this process “calibrating”.
Step by step, here is how to go about that:
Once the vision is finely tuned and calibrated, the app will upload all the data to your drone. Once that’s finished you’ll see the prompt “Calibration Success” which means… Well, success!
Even though it sounds tricky the process is actually simple and easy to do, I’ll link a video that I think explains it perfectly:
Moving on… if you’ve already opened the DJI assistant 2 and saw it for yourself, you might notice that we’re covering the features of the app top to bottom as they’re ranked within the app. That’s intentional and meant to make this easier for you.
To get your flight logs from DJI assistant, open the app and navigate to your “profile” then look for “Flight Data Center”. From there you can view your SD card’s data.
In more detail, the process looks like this:
Of course, during this entire process make sure your drone is plugged into your pc and is turned on.
The flight logs provided by the DJI assistant 2 are actually very detailed and can be a goldmine for some power users and professionals. Here is the kind of data the app provides:
You’re probably already familiar with the concept of the black box when it comes to airplanes. Well, it’s not much different when it comes to your drone.
The black box in your drone contains detailed flight data that, in case of crashes or weird behavior, helps technicians pinpoint exactly what’s wrong with your drone so they can fix it. Making use of this feature is simple:
NOTE: Although your logged Blackbox file will be in the path you’ve chosen on your computer, without specialized software to read the data, it’ll be indecipherable.
Data upload is another feature in the DJI Assistant 2 that allows you to upload data from your drone to your computer. This data is usually aerial pictures and footage.
The reason you’d use DJI assistant 2 to import your footage instead of doing it manually from your SD card is because the process is faster and easier by using the app.
In order to do that, simply follow these steps:
And that’s really it. The DJI Assistant makes it so that pretty much most of your “after flight” tasks with your drone are easy and automated for the most part.
The final feature we’ll be covering the app is a really important one called the flight simulator.
Put simply, the dji assistant 2 simulator is a virtual 3D environment created from flight info transmitted to your computer. It gives commercial pilots the ability to simulate flight beforehand and carefully plan out their footage.
As complicated as it might seem, it’s actually a simple process. To use the DJI Assistant 2 Simulator, follow these steps:
Below is a video showing the flight simulator in action:
This has been a complete guide to the DJI Assistant 2 app. I’ve tried to include as much detail as I can without bombarding you with too much information at once. If you’re still a little bit lost, you don’t have to be. The DJI Assistant 2 app is at the end of the day simply a utility app for DJI drone users.
Sort of like the DJI Go 4 which you may be familiar with. If you’d like, there is a really good video that I’ve found which goes through the DJI assistant 2 app in its entirety: