Few starter questions for the phantom please!

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Hey guys, I'm waiting for my phantom to ship and it's so exciting. However a few questions that I have while waiting:

1) I'm curious why you would charge the gopro from the phantom. The gopro have an hour+ battery, while the phantom have 7-10 minutes. Is there a reason to do this and put the load on the phantom?

2) Is there a battery indicator for the phantom anywhere? How do I know that the battery is running out? Do I just set my own timer on the phone? But even then how would I know the exact full battery duration from a full charge?

3) I've heard rumours that by enabling wifi with the Hero3, it might interfere with the signal with phantom. Is this true? Should I turn off Wifi?

Thank you!!
 
1) No point. I just use the GoPro on battery.

2) There's no display of charge remaining, just the flashing red light when you get low. The only way to tell is a timer.

3) Yes, WiFi can interfere with the Phantom's tx so should be turned off.
 
Rilot beat me to it... but seeing as i typed it out....

Welcome aboard... I strongly advise a really good reading of all the manuals (on the DJI support site). This is not a simple 'plug and fly' device and if you don't know the kinks you can lose it and stand a chance of damaging property/people in doing so.

So to answer your questions in brief:

1) You wouldn't... it can be done but you would have to buy equiptment to do so. Stock Phantom doesn't charge your GoPro.
2) Yes on the back a very bright LED, it flashes red when dying and then faster red when you are really pushing it, yes use your own timer, you don't.... unless you by an FPV setup and an On Screen Display that lets you see the battery voltage through the goggles/on screen
3) Yes... Wifi is on 2.4ghz and so is the Transmitter.... it is unlikely you will get interference but if you do you will likely loose control, your Phantom and your camera (so not worth the risk).

Enjoy!
 
yalag said:
Hey guys, I'm waiting for my phantom to ship and it's so exciting. However a few questions that I have while waiting:

1) I'm curious why you would charge the gopro from the phantom. The gopro have an hour+ battery, while the phantom have 7-10 minutes. Is there a reason to do this and put the load on the phantom?

2) Is there a battery indicator for the phantom anywhere? How do I know that the battery is running out? Do I just set my own timer on the phone? But even then how would I know the exact full battery duration from a full charge?

3) I've heard rumours that by enabling wifi with the Hero3, it might interfere with the signal with phantom. Is this true? Should I turn off Wifi?

Thank you!!

Hi,

You will love the Phantom when it arrives. They are so easy to fly and great fun ! In answer to your questions;

1. This is only really the case if you have the Zenmuse gimbal. the gimbal plugs directly into the interface of the GoPro 3 and charges the battery whether you like it or not !
2. There are two levels of battery indication which can be manually set on the Phantom thru the software. The first level warning will give you rapid flashing red led on the Phantom. The second level will slowly decend the Phantom and land - be aware though that if you are over water (or anything else nasty) the Phantom will just descend and land! Better to use a timer and fly to that or set your low battery warning conservatively and land as soon as you see the flashing red led.
3. YES !!... Don't do it!... Do not use WiFi while flying. This is mentioned in the manual.
 
Thanks everyone for the info! Forgot to mention that my ordered phantom comes with the gimbal. So I can't unplug the gopro connection? It'll just have to put load on my phantom I guess. I will have shorter fly time?

Also, any idea what timer I should set to start for my battery? I'm really anxious of losing the phantom. On the safe side should I set it to 5 minutes?
 
If you are using the phantom with the gimbal, expect a max of around 6 minutes with an OEM battery. When I say max, I mean that it will try to auto land soon. Now, YMMV, due to gps use, aggressive flying, etc. And as long as the GoPro is charged, it won't pull any major load off of the phantom.
 
netphreak said:
If you are using the phantom with the gimbal, expect a max of around 6 minutes with an OEM battery. When I say max, I mean that it will try to auto land soon. Now, YMMV, due to gps use, aggressive flying, etc. And as long as the GoPro is charged, it won't pull any major load off of the phantom.

Thanks, is there battery that can last longer? Where can I buy these?
 
netphreak said:
(shameless plug) DSLRpros.com sells a 2400 mAH battery, plus a better charger and battery checker. (/shameless plug)

**** after visiting your site, I wish I purchased the whole package from you guys! Could you help me put together a package for a few better batteries and also a charger that can charge them all at the same time? PM me if needed. Thank you!
 
Sorry for more questions, but what range can I expect out of the phantom. I read that it's only 300 meters but in youtube you can see that people have flown really really far. More like a 1000 meters!! Are there any tricks?
 
The range on the stock transmitter really is only 300 meters, after that it's pretty iffy. It will come home if it loses connection, but that to a radius of about 3 meters from where it took off from. You can upgrade the radio system to a Futaba or Spektrum system that will get a range of around 1km. It all depends on what you want to pay for :)
 

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