Do i need vps at all??

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As far as i can understand, VPS allows the drone to hover in place indoors but there are many drawbacks to vps outdoors (especially over water).

Anyway since i fly outside exclusively, is there any reason at all for me to ever have vps enabled? does it do collision detection below (when landing)? or is it strictly for positioning?
 
It is basicly for indoor use, auto takeoff and landing. Dont have it on if flying over water.
 
There's obstacle avoidance and vision positioning. You can only turn off the OA.

If you were low and lost gps signal outside, you could benefit from the vision positioning.
 
VPS has a lot of uses when flying outdoors under trees & bridges or down in canyons where you can't get a good GPS lock. It gives you the ability to hover - that is lost in atti mode. The big thing is that on the P3's, the VPS only works to about 10 feet off of the ground, so if you have an emergency when flying under a canopy of trees or whatever, in order to get it back to where it will hover and hold position, you will need to lower down until you have VPS control again. That's where having the 30 foot VPS limit on the P4 shines. You can cover the lenses on the P4 if you want to disable it, or (not being a P4 owner) didn't they add a switch for it in the go-app now?
So it's not something that you use every day, but it is handy to have when needed. Plus being able to turn it on or off is easy.
 
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VPS will also keep the Phantom at the same hight above ground when lower than 10 feet. That is, if the ground rises, so will the Phantom. I'd not count on this but it does work.

So a better question is why not leave it on.
 
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All valid points. I appreciate the replies. I guess the thing I always hear about with VPS is flying over water causes strange behaviour. How low do I have to be before the strange above water behaviour happens? And what exactly happens?
 
I leave mine on. I don't have water within 200 miles. I see no reason to disable it. I figure the engineers know what they are doing.


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I have just removed the VPS it is now 12 grams lighter!! Going to see if it makes any difference. I never use it anyways.
 
VPS will also keep the Phantom at the same hight above ground when lower than 10 feet. That is, if the ground rises, so will the Phantom. I'd not count on this but it does work.

Yes... VPS works very well when flying at 3 feet (1 meter) when you can't count on the less accurate GPS or barometer. I just did this video yesterday.

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Check out my river crossing video on You Tube. While practising I experienced the VPS locking onto the surface of the flowing river. I have that recorded, it's just not in the final video. I might put it online for anyone interested.


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Check out my river crossing video on You Tube. While practising I experienced the VPS locking onto the surface of the flowing river. I have that recorded, it's just not in the final video. I might put it online for anyone interested.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
WTF...I just threw this together...

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I have experienced the P4 locking on a sea wave, at around 3-4 meters high. He suddenly surfed over the wave so I climbed up for few meters to make VPS out of range (as well further Atti mode).

Wanna reproduce? Easy, take a big carpet, hover on it, move the carpet!


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