When you say 70,000 feet , your talking round trip , correct?The FPVLR mod with circular polarization will always outperform the DBS at long range. I get 5+ miles out of mine easily with a battery mod to get 26-28 minute flight times at full throttle throughout. Broke 70,000 feet last week on one flight, without even trying to set a new record distance for me. It just happened!Try that with a P4!
That whole thread is pretty bizarre. One guy with a very big axe to grind and, at least when I last looked at it, no evidence that the replies were anything but wishful thinking.
The return shipping label issued by DJI said "Refund" on it under the classification of the return, instead of Repair, which was the classification of my last Warranty return shipping label. The P4 will be in their hands Monday. I expect a refund by Tuesday. We'll see..
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for DJI to also admit that the initial batteries were also less than 28 minutes in flight times and will be replaced with new 10,000 mAh batteries in all new P4`s!
I demanded a full refund, so I can acquire a P4 from another source that has a more liberal refund return policy. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I'll wait for the second version, and hope they also have a satisfactory solution to the 12 minute battery life, at full throttle, in Atti mode, instead of the advertised 28 plus minutes!
I'm glad you're doing a lot of meticulous work exposing the massive disappointment known as the Phantom 4 --- you honestly deserve a medal in here for all this detailed analysis.
I feel ashamed when I see other people in here living inside their own delusions about the P4 being a fantastic machine that eclipses the P3P in every way. Nobody with half a brain is going to believe that when cold, hard facts tell us otherwise. Stop floating in fantasy and get grounded in reality, I always say.
I might utilize Amazon's liberal 30-day full refund return policy to see if the P4 is as horrible with range and flight times as you have discovered. Gut feeling tells me all your statements will be proven correct about this over-hyped product.
Indeed! Anything past 5 miles, except out to sea, loses LOS for signal, so I generally stay within that radius.
I'm going to agree. It is still a great bird. It has some limitations. If I was buying my first bird it would be close but I would still get the P4.
1. My P4's battery life is 24-25 minutes and I am very happy with it because I cannot reach advertised flight time with my P3P as well. So real flight time / advertised flight time percentage of P4 and P3P are very similar.
The originally intended 20% reduction transmitter power (over the GL300A) is, unfortunately, only half the equation. The GL300C power reduction is, based upon the post, and my P4 range data of signal loss at 6700 feet, is clearly more than that 20%!
That is also true of the P3P battery charging. It works on a P3P battery with its charger. It did not work for me with the P4 battery with its charger. The P4 battery immediately shuts itself off, instead of topping itself off to 100%.
If I had more than 7 days, and was assured that flying wouldn't void my right to a refund, even with a manufacturing defect, I would have played with the P4 more, and tried different batteries, and spent more time with stock controllers. The deal killer was the gimbal squeak combined with the "maximum gimbal angle exceeded" error, and the gimbal locking itself to a 45° angle, in midflight on my 3rd and final flight, with my P4 lemon!
Others have said their P4 chargers are topping off just fine. Topping off before each use also rebalances the cells, which can be critical. DJI still hasn't changed their battery algorithm that shuts off the battery whenever any single cell reads less than 3.0V, even if the aircraft is in the air!
All good points. Your charger and battery operate like mine did. No mention in the P4 literature that DJI had disabled topping off above 95%, which is essential for a long range flight, after customizing the settings, and wanting to still start flying with a 100% fully charged battery. Rumor has it that the P4 battery readout of 10% remaining is the same as 30% remaining on the P3 batteries. If true, then the percent calculation algorithm for the P4 is way too conservative, and cell voltage readings will be more important in establishing a more accurate picture, or just add 20%, but that still won't stop the Autoland when the P4 decides it's at 10% (even if it's really 30%!)I'm happier using voltages rather than percentages as you never know for sure if my 95% = your 95%
I just did a quick check on a pack I have here which it shows as '97%' and that one will certainly not charge. If it is turned on and put on the charger you get one cycle of the lights running up then down and it shuts off.
I'll take other opportunities to narrow down what voltage it considers as high enough not to charge but I strongly suspect that there is a voltage limit for all the chargers, but some degree of manufacturing tolerance may determine exactly where it cuts in for each charger.
Balancing the cells is always important, but if you have a pack where it is 'critical' to re-balance at 95% then that is probably a pack you don't want to be using at all
Your point about the 3.0V cut-off is well taken though and is one reason why I've mapped one of the buttons on the back to toggle the battery information. I love the fact that DJI give you cell level data during flight so you can get into the habit of checking for any significant cell voltage deviations before they become a real problem.
