How reliable is the P4?

[PeterW_R]

Hello guys,

A couple of years ago I had great fun with my Phantom 2 Vision + until it flew away. I bought a second one and after hundreds of flights it also flew away. I'm almost sure it wasn't pilot error the first time and I'm absolutelly sure it was NOT pilot error the second time. I ended up tired of burning money with the phantoms as the P2 clearly had some reliability issues and I saw in this forums that the P3 had some propeller crackdown problems.

Now I'm wandering how good is the P4 in terms of reliability?

 

[flpholt]

p3 is best bang for he money

 

[John Locke]

Hello guys,

A couple of years ago I had great fun with my Phantom 2 Vision + until it flew away. I bought a second one and after hundreds of flights it also flew away. I'm almost sure it wasn't pilot error the first time and I'm absolutelly sure it was NOT pilot error the second time. I ended up tired of burning money with the phantoms as the P2 clearly had some reliability issues and I saw in this forums that the P3 had some propeller crackdown problems.

Now I'm wondering how good is the P4 in terms of reliability?

I'm unaware of any reports of "propeller crackdown problems" in P3. There were reports of body shells cracking, but that's long gone I think. Those reports have pretty much gone away. I own 2 P3Ps and never had a body shell crack yet. The P3P is good value, the fly away scenarios with the WiFi communications in P2 do not happen with P3 or P4 craft using Lightbridge. There are virtually no fly away reports of P3A, P3P or P4 craft.

 

[PeterW_R]

That's what I needed to know, thank you. I agree the P3A is very good value. Do we know of any P4 upgrades soon? DJI is notorious of implementing minor updates a few months after the release of a drone, just wanted to check if that's the case for the P4.

I'll be buying a new drone soon and my candidates are P3A, P4 and Gopro karma.

 

[Phantom-Four]

The P3A and P4 are both great quads. Can't really go wrong with either of them. As for the Karma, who knows but I'm curious to see what exactly they'll put on the market

 

[KevMo Photog]

I would just say that I'm sure the P3P is one hell of a deal at 900+ or so. But man I am loving my P4 for over a month now! Super stable flying and great build quality as well. I'm into mainly flying in closer for filming purposes. It has performed flawlessly pretty much! Except for the dropping altitude issue at full speed stop. Which is not a huge deal for my flying. But hope that will be fixed for sure!

 

[John Locke]

That's what I needed to know, thank you. I agree the P3A is very good value. Do we know of any P4 upgrades soon? DJI is notorious of implementing minor updates a few months after the release of a drone, just wanted to check if that's the case for the P4.

I'll be buying a new drone soon and my candidates are P3A, P4 and Gopro karma.

I have no confidence in Karma at all. GoPro is brand new at this market and their stock has taken a beating. I think the Karma is a Hail Mary move, and I'm not optimistic. The software alone is a major challenge and there's no way GoPro will have the software sophistication of a Phantom out of the gate. Also, GoPro refuses to remove the fisheye from their GoPro camera line like DJI and Yuneec have done, so you can expect fisheye in the camera they implement, really dumb. The 3DR Solo was expected to be the DJI killer and here we are a year later, their software has been a flop, not to mention battery life (~12min). And don't forget that 3DR IS NOT NEW to the market, GoPro is. Unless someone else (such as Broadcom) releases communications technology that can mimic what DJI's Lightbridge provides, there's really no competition to DJI from a technology point of view. Everyone else uses WiFi, and that limits the distance capability to about 3500'. Yesterday I went over 2 miles with Lightbridge without the aid of a range extender, stock antenna. These craft can do amazing distances, limited only by battery duration of 16 to 20min.

 

[snowghost]

I have over 120 flights with the P3, no cracks and only one incident when I first got it. Took off from the driveway and threw a compass error. The compass is more sensitive than my old P2 V+.

The few flights I've had with the P4 were all good. And the Sport Mode is crazy fun. I like the quick release props--seems a safer option than threaded. Plus you have redundant compasses and IMUs. Like others have stated build quality on the P4 is awesome.

 

[PeterW_R]

I have no confidence in Karma at all. GoPro is brand new at this market and their stock has taken a beating. I think the Karma is a Hail Mary move, and I'm not optimistic. The software alone is a major challenge and there's no way GoPro will have the software sophistication of a Phantom out of the gate. Also, GoPro refuses to remove the fisheye from their GoPro camera line like DJI and Yuneec have done, so you can expect fisheye in the camera they implement, really dumb. The 3DR Solo was expected to be the DJI killer and here we are a year later, their software has been a flop, not to mention battery life (~12min). And don't forget that 3DR IS NOT NEW to the market, GoPro is. Unless someone else (such as Broadcom) releases communications technology that can mimic what DJI's Lightbridge provides, there's really no competition to DJI from a technology point of view. Everyone else uses WiFi, and that limits the distance capability to about 3500'. Yesterday I went over 2 miles with Lightbridge without the aid of a range extender, stock antenna. These craft can do amazing distances, limited only by battery duration of 16 to 20min.

I wouldn't wait for the Karma release if it weren't for he following:

-The P4 camera varely records at 4K, I've found the 30fps framerate of the P2 V+ at 1080p too low to keep with the drone movements, specially when doing a left or right turn, 40 fps might suffice but I don't think 30fps will allow a smooth record at 4K.

-I would love to see 360 degrees recording with the phantom, unfortunatelly the drone does not have retractable legs.

 

[Sinisalo]

Hello guys,

A couple of years ago I had great fun with my Phantom 2 Vision + until it flew away. I bought a second one and after hundreds of flights it also flew away. I'm almost sure it wasn't pilot error the first time and I'm absolutelly sure it was NOT pilot error the second time. I ended up tired of burning money with the phantoms as the P2 clearly had some reliability issues and I saw in this forums that the P3 had some propeller crackdown problems.

Now I'm wandering how good is the P4 in terms of reliability?

P4 is very reliable, dual compass and dual imu sold me