Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Trigger pulled :D



Pretty chuffed managed to get it for £370 with argos staff discount plus got a £10 gift card :) also had a £25 argos voucher that's been in the draw for ages.

Being my first ever quadcopter and never flown anything before I've got a lot of reading up to do. Need to look for some good beginer vids.
 
Still surprised me people spend £400 on something they've never touched before :p

You'll love it though. Yes read up on it and ensure you're aware of battery safety :)
 
Still surprised me people spend £400 on something they've never touched before :p

You'll love it though. Yes read up on it and ensure you're aware of battery safety :)

Know what you mean but what is there not to like about flying gadgets :cool: I know I'm going to love it and to me this seems the best bang for buck drone at the price I got it.

What's with the battery safety?
 
Nice price. Good to see another P3S owner here now! :D

Read the manual from cover to cover. Stay in beginner mode until you have learned the basics. When flying, adjust the angle of the antenna to point at the quad. Don't think as I mistakenly did that you just fold the antenna out so it points straight ahead and you are good to go. The edge of it (as it runs up and down) needs to be pointing at the quad for optimum performance. Only time it should be pointing straight out in front of the controller is if the drone is flying directly above you. Adjust it 'on the fly' as your P3S moves position.

Make sure you run through all the preflight checks correctly each and every time you fly, make sure the calm female voice tells you the home point has been set before you take off. And make sure you know what to do (and how to do it quickly) if the P3S starts acting funny, loosing signal and not flying where you tell it to in P-GPS mode - switch to ATTI mode and fly 'manually'.

Finally, and I dunno if you have already switched everything on for the first time or not but be aware that the latest firmware update which is 1.6.80 has screwed up many peoples range. Although mine has been fine, YMMV. There is however a 1.7.82 firmware floating around the PhantomPilots forums unofficially (goodness knows where the guy got it from) which hasn't been officially released as yet but 'should' be out this week sometime:-

http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/new-firmware-1-7-8-01-07-0082-p3s.85478/
 
I'm on the latest firmware and I didn't know about the reduced range but when out taking the photo's on the previous page I had a warning at around 500 meters so brought it straight back. could have been a bad antenna angle but I wasn't taking any chances with the best part of a grand lol.

Got a week booked off work so I'm going to be out as much as I can next week :D
 
Going to have to look into this, not sure which firmware I am using.

RC range is fine but i regularly lose video signal even sometimes only 300m away. Previously I have had video signal 2.5 miles away!
 
1.7.8 is the one you want, 1.6.80 is the one causing issues. so either stay on 1.5 or jump to 1.7.8

Is 1.7.8 officially out yet? I haven't checked the DJI website yet nor have I switched on my P3 to see if it indicates an update is available. Last night 1.7.8 was available but in an 'unofficial' capacity.

Have you ever had to rescue your dji? That firmware is a bit worrying. How much has it shortened the range?

I've had one 'flyaway' as detailed a few pages back in this thread. It was my first flight ever so I didn't have the savvy to switch to ATTI and take control unfortunately. :( I had also got overconfident and decided I'd bin beginner mode and try out the fancy IOC flight modes which is why I'd recommend as a new owner you stick with beginner for a bit until you grasp the basics, unlike me! :p Fortunately my flyaway only resulted in a broken prop but it was enough to give me a fright and re-evaluate my familiarity with the P3 until I fully got to grips with it.

For some people on 1.6.80 their range was seriously shortened. As I said, I appear to have been lucky and have had no real issues with range on 1.6.80. I didn't know any better as far as the firmware was concerned though, I took my P3 out of the box after the delivery driver arrived with it, charged the battery and switched her on to be told I needed to upgrade the firmware. So I did. In hindsight if I had read up on things a bit first, I more than likely would not have upgraded the F/W. :cool:
 
Just checked the my firmware and I'm on v1.9.60 which I got from DJI's site :confused:

Edit, Ignore, I have the P3P.

A little video of the ZMR250 with the Kiss fc and ESC's, Not my best flying as my rates need tweaking and the sun was blinding but gives you an idea of performance without any pid tuning. Had to drop down to 5030 props as the 5045 were cooking my batteries so it feels a bit under powered and that's not helped by having a fat GoPro instead of my Mobius which I lost in this field and was destroyed by the farmers grass cutting tractor before I could get back out to look for it ....RIP Mobius :(

 
Last edited:
Aye, the Phantom 3's seem to have different firmwares, depending on what model it is - Pro, Advanced or Standard.

Nice vid, got my birthday coming up next week, think I might pick up a little FPV racer from Banggood or somewhere. :D
 
Seems 1.5 has the 'battery shut off' problem when in midflight :eek: jees these phantoms are temperamental things. Gona be pooping it on my first flight .

I've never updated the firmware beyond the first upgrade I did on my P2. I just saw the geofencing/airspace and other improvements as potential problems. Not that I'm stupid enough to want to fly in restricted airspace, I just didn't want the risk of one fix causing more issues. :p
 
Aye, the Phantom 3's seem to have different firmwares, depending on what model it is - Pro, Advanced or Standard.

Nice vid, got my birthday coming up next week, think I might pick up a little FPV racer from Banggood or somewhere. :D



They are lots of fun but can get quite expensive replacing broken parts all the time, You might be quite good and not crash and lose stuff like me though :D

Got a week off work so I'm going to go out and try and find somewhere with some trees and stuff, It's great having that field all to myself but it can get boring with nothing to try and fly around.....I just want a tree :(

Having the geofencing/airspace warnings are a good thing, I knew there was an airfield near me but not how close and I get a warning every time I start up the P3P at home. Better to be safe than sorry in this game.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom