Hello all,
I am a complete newbie with flying remotely controlled vehicles.
I received my Phantom 3 Standard today. I've been studying the User Manual for a couple of days while it was in transit.
I got the battery and the remote controller charged up. I downloaded the DJI GO app onto my iPhone 5. I watched some of the DJI tutorials that I found online. I tested everything inside (without propellors installed), so I got my Phantom registered and I saw all the indicators about upgrading the firmware, but I did not do that for fear of all the problems and hangups that have been being reported. I got up the nerve and I went outside to give it a go.
I managed to do a compass calibration sucessfully. I Had slow blinking green status LEDs. I did an auto-takeoff. I tried out the controls a little bit. I did an auto-landing. Whew!
I performed a couple of more of these tiny test runs successfully.
On my fourth try, I started to move around my yard a little bit. I was getting bolder about flying. That's when my iPhone 5 deceided to konk out. I was in the middle of aoverhead pass, and the Phantom was heading toward the corner of my house and some bushes. I admit it - I panicked and the Phantom collided with the corner of my house and fell into the bushes.
My big surprise came when I lifted the Phantom out of the bushes. The motors went to full on and there was no longer any control by the remote controller at all. So, here I am holding on to this raging quad buzzsaw. I tried unsuccessfully a few times to turn off the battery. It did the blinking lights as if it was turning off, but then it came right back on again each time. I finally was able to wrestle the battery out of the Phantom without getting sliced to bits by the propellors.
Aircraft status: One broken propellor, a few scuffs on the body and landing gear, and scuffs on one of the other propellors.
I went back inside, removed the propellors and got my iPhone working again. It showed no battery at all, but after a munute on its charger, it came back to life with 83% battery. I was able to successfully repeat all my indoor tests again. Whew. It appeared that all was going to be well with the aircraft.
I decided to replace all my propellors with the second set, and go out and try again. This time, completely manually, without the iPhone and DJI GO app. I was able to do a few takeoffs and landings, and I also did a few manual flights around the yard, finally getting the low battery warning from the remote controller, and coming down for my final safe landing of the day.
I am extremely pleased with my first flights, now. The apparent runaway was very scary. I guess that, since the contact with the remote controller was lost, the aircraft was attempting to RTH. Am I right? What I don't understand is why, when I was holding the remote controller in one hand and the aircraft in the other, why was the link not re-established? Was it because the iPhone was there at the start and had now disappeared?
My final question is this: Is the iPhone 5 not powerful enough to run the DJI GO app?
Thanks very much, in advance, for your thoughts and advice.
smp
I am a complete newbie with flying remotely controlled vehicles.
I received my Phantom 3 Standard today. I've been studying the User Manual for a couple of days while it was in transit.
I got the battery and the remote controller charged up. I downloaded the DJI GO app onto my iPhone 5. I watched some of the DJI tutorials that I found online. I tested everything inside (without propellors installed), so I got my Phantom registered and I saw all the indicators about upgrading the firmware, but I did not do that for fear of all the problems and hangups that have been being reported. I got up the nerve and I went outside to give it a go.
I managed to do a compass calibration sucessfully. I Had slow blinking green status LEDs. I did an auto-takeoff. I tried out the controls a little bit. I did an auto-landing. Whew!
I performed a couple of more of these tiny test runs successfully.
On my fourth try, I started to move around my yard a little bit. I was getting bolder about flying. That's when my iPhone 5 deceided to konk out. I was in the middle of aoverhead pass, and the Phantom was heading toward the corner of my house and some bushes. I admit it - I panicked and the Phantom collided with the corner of my house and fell into the bushes.
My big surprise came when I lifted the Phantom out of the bushes. The motors went to full on and there was no longer any control by the remote controller at all. So, here I am holding on to this raging quad buzzsaw. I tried unsuccessfully a few times to turn off the battery. It did the blinking lights as if it was turning off, but then it came right back on again each time. I finally was able to wrestle the battery out of the Phantom without getting sliced to bits by the propellors.
Aircraft status: One broken propellor, a few scuffs on the body and landing gear, and scuffs on one of the other propellors.
I went back inside, removed the propellors and got my iPhone working again. It showed no battery at all, but after a munute on its charger, it came back to life with 83% battery. I was able to successfully repeat all my indoor tests again. Whew. It appeared that all was going to be well with the aircraft.
I decided to replace all my propellors with the second set, and go out and try again. This time, completely manually, without the iPhone and DJI GO app. I was able to do a few takeoffs and landings, and I also did a few manual flights around the yard, finally getting the low battery warning from the remote controller, and coming down for my final safe landing of the day.
I am extremely pleased with my first flights, now. The apparent runaway was very scary. I guess that, since the contact with the remote controller was lost, the aircraft was attempting to RTH. Am I right? What I don't understand is why, when I was holding the remote controller in one hand and the aircraft in the other, why was the link not re-established? Was it because the iPhone was there at the start and had now disappeared?
My final question is this: Is the iPhone 5 not powerful enough to run the DJI GO app?
Thanks very much, in advance, for your thoughts and advice.
smp