Going on a boat

[delrayfly]

I am going to venture out tomorrow on a boat and want to get some footage. I want to be as cautious as possible. I know I need to be still to establish GPS lock. I just want to confirm before I run into any issues, if I am on the dock and get home lock, I can keep the phantom on as the boat leave and then take off fine when I am x yards away from the dock, correct?

I will later be in waist high water so can get GPS lock by holding it. Does anyone have any other words of wisdom from experience for things I should do/not do? Any advice is appreciated!

 

[ianwood]

GPS fix is not going to be your problem. It's going to be the IMU. When you turn on the Phantom, the IMU goes through an initialization process for a couple of seconds. The Phantom needs to be flat and still during that time otherwise two things can happen. The first one is not so bad but it's the second one you really need to worry about.

1. It fails initialization and you have to start over.
2. It gets just enough stability to pass initialization but most of the initialization information is bad and at that point the Phantom may fly just fine or it may take off in one direction because it has bad inertial data. Doesn't happen to that many people but it has happened.

 

[pokercop]

Can't wait to see the videos you make!