Here's my 2 bucks worth:
I am a self employed photographer, and stay-at-home dad. Photography is how I (barely) eke out enough of a living to break even. So, when I decided to pick up the DJI Phantom 2, it wasn't an impulse "hey, look, a cool new toy!". It was an investment, and a rather large one. Here in Canada, authorized DJI Vendors are few and far between, and after over 6 weeks of trying to find someone in Canada to deal with, I finally found an outfit in Vancouver called Flying Cameras. (
www.flyingcameras.ca) I bought the Phantom 2, the Zenmuse gimbal and the Black Pearl 5.8 FPV system. THEN went out and bought a new GoPro Hero 3 + Black Edition. All told, I'm in about $2800 CDN. This is money I could ill afford, really, and it took a lot of convincing the wife that this would be a good investment for work. For what is essentially a single income family, since my wages as a photographer are mostly seasonal, and very feast or famine, almost 3 grand is a HUGE sum of money.
Now, no matter what way you cut it, the product is defective. And it was defective when sold. The fact that it was defective was WELL documented, and WELL known to DJI - AND their dealers.
Now, where my frustration comes in, is that I am using this product EXACTLY as DJI intended for it to be used. I haven't hacked it, put unauthorized software on it, I did nothing whatsoever that wasn't within DJI's from-factory specs. And still, I cannot use it as is, for the purposes it was designed and purchesed for. I'm happy the you, ianwood, have found a way to work with a defective product, but for me, flying around for 8-10 minutes BEFORE I can start using it properly and reliably is... well.. Unacceptable. That's like saying "Well, sure your car will go straight if you turn your wheel all the way to the left to compensate... It'll straighten out ofter 3/4's of your drive!". It's not safe, it's not reliable, and it's not practical.
I want DJI to stop ignoring the people who are loudly displeased with their defective product. In my case, I spend $1,300 on their product, and now they're refusing to even acknowledge their customers. And to be clear - while a fix would be nice, I'm not DEMANDING a fix. I'm DEMANDING some input, some recognition, some... ANYTHING from DJI. They're not answering their phone (metaphorically speaking) or communicating with us, and THAT'S not acceptable. I have a product that I cannot trust to do the job I bought it to do.
Now, as to the other questions from earlier about my compass calibrations... I fly (mostly) in a school field in front of my house. ( 49.152715, -123.953765 ) At it's narrowest width, it's 75 yards. And it's widest, 105 yards. And it's total length is 210 yards. I fly from dead center, and there is NO interference. There's a couple of residential powerlines, but those are 100 yards from me in any direction. I don't have my cell on me, and I'm nowhere near the TX or controller. The conditions are ideal. So, this is pure TBE and compass error. I have connected my Phantom to the PC and calibrated the controllers and all that - the TBE is still HUGE. Probably 30-50 feet, depending on the day. That is NOT acceptable, and I want DJI to do something about it, even if for now it's just a "hey guys, be patient! We know there's a problem, we're working on it and home to have it fixed by XX".