Insult to injury...

[gunslinger]

I've been trying to get to an area on the golf course I spend a lot of time at, where there's a pond and an old dirt road. I'd love to get up to around 350 feet and get some video and stills from over there. The weather today has been... unsettled. It's drizzled for a while, rained for a while and we've seen some nice bright sunshine. Right around 6:30PM the sun broke through, but there were still enough clouds to let me easily see the Nexus screen.

I schlepped my case a little over 500 yards to the spot I'd picked out, went through my checklist and everything was go. I looked at the P2V and had the nice slow blinking greenies. I looked down at the app and the camera was suddenly grayed out. What ??? I finally looked at the extender and... battery was out of gas.

If I had a P2V+ I WOULD HAVE KNOWN ITS CONDITION ON THE PREVIOUS FLIGHT !!!! :shock:

I remember seeing a thread on here, that I can't seem to find, where someone had put a digital readout on both the TX and extender showing voltage... I'd love to find that thread and work that mod... This sucks.

-slinger

 

[BManCan]

I looked down at the app and the camera was suddenly grayed out. What ??? I finally looked at the extender and... battery was out of gas.


-slinger

A good reason to carry a portable power pack to be able to charge your wifi extender or cell phone in the field (while flying).

I just picked up one of these from my local electronics store.
http://www3.pny.com/PowerPack-7800-...t-colordc0431Special-Offerfont-P3264C600.aspx

 

[BenDronePilot]

The extender has a power indicator that will change from green to red indicating you're running low on power. Either way I never need concern myself with this happening for two reasons. One being I always top off the charge on my extender after I finish flying. And two I always have a portable usb battery with me just in case as well as to use with my Sunhans wifi amp should I want extended FPV range.

 

[Pull_Up]

I really rate this one - two outputs so I can also top off the phone because a three-battery sortie can take it out of the mobile as well as the extender: UK Amazon link with product details - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EHEEFWY

Video review I did of it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3COlgrgvLFs[/youtube]

 

[gunslinger]

I looked down at the app and the camera was suddenly grayed out. What ??? I finally looked at the extender and... battery was out of gas.


-slinger

A good reason to carry a portable power pack to be able to charge your wifi extender or cell phone in the field (while flying).

I just picked up one of these from my local electronics store.
http://www3.pny.com/PowerPack-7800-...t-colordc0431Special-Offerfont-P3264C600.aspx

Ah... good advice, dude... thanks...

-slinger

 

[gunslinger]

The extender has a power indicator that will change from green to red indicating you're running low on power. Either way I never need concern myself with this happening for two reasons. One being I always top off the charge on my extender after I finish flying. And two I always have a portable usb battery with me just in case as well as to use with my Sunhans wifi amp should I want extended FPV range.

I swear my extender went from green to red while I was putting the props on the P2V... (could I have missed that? certainly not, I miss nothing... :roll: ) And, yeah... portable battery... sigh... Check... (but if I had the P2V+, I would've freakin' known!!!)

-slinger

 

[gunslinger]

I really rate this one - two outputs so I can also top off the phone because a three-battery sortie can take it out of the mobile as well as the extender: UK Amazon link with product details - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EHEEFWY

Video review I did of it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3COlgrgvLFs[/youtube]

Just to put another ironic spin on this... I went through all of your YouTube vids this morning to make sure I didn't miss any... and made note, to myself, about that one... Of course I didn't do anything about it, because I needed to let the karma swing around and strike me square in the forehead...

-slinger

 

[BManCan]

The extender has a power indicator that will change from green to red indicating you're running low on power. Either way I never need concern myself with this happening for two reasons. One being I always top off the charge on my extender after I finish flying. And two I always have a portable usb battery with me just in case as well as to use with my Sunhans wifi amp should I want extended FPV range.

I swear my extender went from green to red while I was putting the props on the P2V... (could I have missed that? certainly not, I miss nothing... :roll: ) And, yeah... portable battery... sigh... Check... (but if I had the P2V+, I would've freakin' known!!!)

-slinger

I wonder if DJI would be able to update the range extender firmware for the Vision so that it would also report the battery level like the Vision+. Maybe this would not be possible due to other hardware differences on the range extender. I agree that it would be nice to know the range extender battery percentage.

 

[Geoelectro]

The range extender seems to run down even when off! I just ordered the power pack. Good call.

Geo

 

[gunslinger]

The extender has a power indicator that will change from green to red indicating you're running low on power. Either way I never need concern myself with this happening for two reasons. One being I always top off the charge on my extender after I finish flying. And two I always have a portable usb battery with me just in case as well as to use with my Sunhans wifi amp should I want extended FPV range.

I swear my extender went from green to red while I was putting the props on the P2V... (could I have missed that? certainly not, I miss nothing... :roll: ) And, yeah... portable battery... sigh... Check... (but if I had the P2V+, I would've freakin' known!!!)

-slinger

I wonder if DJI would be able to update the range extender firmware for the Vision so that it would also report the battery level like the Vision+. Maybe this would not be possible due to other hardware differences on the range extender. I agree that it would be nice to know the range extender battery percentage.

I'm still looking for the thread that shows an LED readout of remaining voltage on both the extender and TX. When you think about it, the extender is THE weak point as far as dealing with low battery voltage issues. You can SEE what's up with the "smart" battery, you can carry extra AA batteries for the TX... but you have no idea at all regarding the state of the extender's battery. Which is why DJI so elegantly placed that readout on the app for the PLUS ONLY !!!!

-slinger

 

[gunslinger]

The extender has a power indicator that will change from green to red indicating you're running low on power. Either way I never need concern myself with this happening for two reasons. One being I always top off the charge on my extender after I finish flying. And two I always have a portable usb battery with me just in case as well as to use with my Sunhans wifi amp should I want extended FPV range.

I swear my extender went from green to red while I was putting the props on the P2V... (could I have missed that? certainly not, I miss nothing... :roll: ) And, yeah... portable battery... sigh... Check... (but if I had the P2V+, I would've freakin' known!!!)

-slinger

I wonder if DJI would be able to update the range extender firmware for the Vision so that it would also report the battery level like the Vision+. Maybe this would not be possible due to other hardware differences on the range extender. I agree that it would be nice to know the range extender battery percentage.

I wonder about that too. If they didn't add any specific HARDWARE to the P2V+ extender that allows it to share the state of its battery charge... they should be able to modify the P2V firmware. If it IS a hardware change... they should STILL be able to offer some sort of upgrade (expensive or not) that would allow us that view...

-slinger

 

[RCRookie]

Exactly the reason I bought this power pack....It can charge 2 devices simultaneously. It can charge an Iphone up to six times.
I never trusted the battery level indicator on the RE because you can take it off full charge...plug it in a few minutes later and it charges again. I keep a constant charge on it with this battery pack. As well as power my tablet if needed.

black or white
http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-PORTABLE-10400mAh-Thunderbolt-Incredible/dp/B009V5X1CE

 

[MrTommy]

Interesting thread. I picked up one of these power thingies at a local gun store about 6 months ago. Power to spare. I've charged my cell phone several times while out hiking. And like the advertisement says, it'll start your car as well. And more than once. I've used it on my son's car (more times than I care to mention . . .).

http://www.amazon.com/PowerAll-PBJS1200 ... s=powerall

I find the suggestion of keeping the WiFi extender plugged in all the time interesting. In another post I've been complaining about losing distance with my P2V, and now I'm wondering if this maaaaay have something to do with it.

 

[jimdenburg]

You might want to pick up 2 portable chargers just in case you forget to charge one of them

 

[Pull_Up]

I find the suggestion of keeping the WiFi extender plugged in all the time interesting. In another post I've been complaining about losing distance with my P2V, and now I'm wondering if this maaaaay have something to do with it.

Logically it shouldn't make a difference whether it's 100% or 40%, and I haven't seen any empirical evidence to show otherwise, but it certainly "feels" like it makes a difference to me - I've never achieved a "best ever" distance with anything but a fully topped extender - and as I have the power bank strapped to the tx for keeping the phone topped up anyway it doesn't do any harm to plug in the second output... Indeed it would seem rude to leave it unused.

 

[wildcatter]

This is my 60 dollar custom MCM case. I never run out of power... http://youtu.be/MeyZua6V_tY link for the case http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/D ... -/22-17815

 

[JimDE]

I just ordered the one BManCan showed in his post except I got it through Amazon for $5 less and free shipping.

I will mount it as Pull Up did his and probably just plug it to the wifi all the time... then that is one worry gone. Plus I can use the other jack to plug into my Nexus 7 as well.... 2 problems gone. I only have 2 P2V batteries so my other batteries only have to last as long as it takes to run these two batteries down to 30% each.

 

[Pull_Up]

Word to the wise on my setup - don't use too much "industrial strength" velcro! I had a big square patch of it at first and rather than detaching the power supply when I pulled it took the whole battery compartment lid of the transmitter off with it! I have now used just two finger-width size parallel strips of it and I can get the thing off without having to resort to blunt edged tools... :roll:

 

[JimDE]

RCRookie's method of mounting looks good too and may offset the balance issue I have using the Nexus 7.......

 

[Firestat]

You guys are killing me here. Just picked up the charger from Amazon. I wish they made it a little harder to order. It's like I have a direct hard line to Amazon. Odered three things for the Vision in the last 3 days.