Little advice

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Hi all

Just after a little advice I have a P3S I have flown it a few times.
It seems first flight back garden it was losing signal at 20m. Second flight open field no problem only when up to 100m (high enough for now) third flight my work after hours it struggled to calibrate but then eventually did, flew to 80m took some pics then lost signal and had to fly back to 20m to regain signal.
The machinery at work are using GPS will this affect the P3S or is it something else I may be doing wrong.

Thanks in advance

Sam
 
Are you talking distance or height or both?

Are you sure you're aiming the controller/antennas correctly?
 
Hi Marknmd

it seems to have happened pretty much directly above me on the 1st and 3rd flight on the 2nd flight i had no problem and was flying directly above and around 100m away.
i have the antenna at 90 degrees to the controller pointing up.

on the third occasion the video feed went black and it lost GPS i could still fly manual.

im rather new to the more advanced quads and a little nervous of damaging/crashing it.

thanks
 
The antenna works best when the side is pointing at the Phantom -- like this:

P3-Antenna-Position-Single.jpg


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ok i think i had the antenna right but i will make sure next time out, is this the most common fault with the signal, i had to do an update when i first turned it on, i have heard how people have had issues but i dont think this is it.
the 3rd flight bothered me the most as it lost GPS signal not controller signal.

thanks
 
third flight my work after hours it struggled to calibrate but then eventually did
There's a big red flag right there.
You don't need to go recalibrating your compass every flight and if you do in a magnetically bad area, you risk giving your Phantom a bad compass calibration and causing problems for yourself unnecessarily.
Any time you have trouble calibrating the compass, there is a high probability you are too close to a lot of steel.
Like a car, structural steel, buried pipes or (most commonly) reinforced concrete.
You probably didn't "lose" GPS but may have caused a compass error which forced the Phantom to switch to atti mode to deal with a data conflict caused by a compass error.

Also ... flying straight up is always going to be the trickiest angle for good signal.
Fly straight up and you will lose signal much closer than if you fly out and up.
 
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@Meta4 Thanks for that I was told that i would be best calibrating the compass before every flight in a new area. so if i dont get a prompt to calibrate do you suggest that i should not need to do this.

I struggled to get calibration but we have nothing much on site in the way of structural steel, reins=forced concrete the plant was parked well away from me but the GPS base station in the office was still running and the dozer had the GPS receivers attached.

thanks

sam
 
@Meta4 Thanks for that I was told that i would be best calibrating the compass before every flight in a new area. so if i dont get a prompt to calibrate do you suggest that i should not need to do this.
The short version is .. get a good compass calibration and stick with it.
But this thread gives a lot more detail about what compass calibration does and when it's really necessary.
Compass Calibration, A Complete Primer
 
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From reading your post #7 it would seem you're in a industrial or construction area during these test flights, which is not the best place for testing the Phantom. Especially if it's during business hours when companies have equipment powered up.
 
@wmcvey you are right but it was a the end of the day and all plant and machinery was off we are a good mile away from any buildings and our site is just a muck shift operation so basically a muddy field, but like i say the GPS base station was turn on and the bulldozer still had the receivers on the posts but other than that the site was empty.

thanks

Sam
 
Hi All

ok i have an update i have been out to a large open field today after completing a IMU calibration, I Calibrated the compass and the P3S flew great until i got a little more confident and took it to 110m and it lost Video signal and entered RTH mode.

is there something wrong do i need to take it back to the supplier.

Thanks

Sam
 
Hi All

ok i have an update i have been out to a large open field today after completing a IMU calibration, I Calibrated the compass and the P3S flew great until i got a little more confident and took it to 110m and it lost Video signal and entered RTH mode.

is there something wrong do i need to take it back to the supplier.

Thanks

Sam
You should be getting somewhere between 300m to 500m in CE mode, and 500m to 1000m in FCC (USA) mode in an open field with no interference.
Just as long as you're flying out in front of you, not straight up when you say 110m, and there's nothing (trees) in between you and the craft. And your antenna is vertical on the RC with the drone out in front of you, not above.
 
If you're still under warranty, than yes I would start thinking about getting it serviced. Give it a few more test runs, try different places, but if you're not getting at least 300m in CE mode (non-usa) your having some issue.
 
@wmcvey thanks I only had it delivered at the start of the week. I brought it from PC world I just got off the phone with them they said to call back tomorrow and they will organise a replacement.
A little disappointed with this as i had really high expectations from the phantom.

thanks

sam
 
@wmcvey thanks I only had it delivered at the start of the week. I brought it from PC world I just got off the phone with them they said to call back tomorrow and they will organise a replacement.
A little disappointed with this as i had really high expectations from the phantom.

thanks

sam
Nothing wrong with the Phantom 3, it's just that it seems the Standard is being problematic recently. Even though I have one with very little issues, this might your chance to upgrade to the Advance model. Personally if I knew then what I know now, I would had gotten the P3A. Better technology, more range, less issues.
 
@wmcvey hi thanks for reassuring that the P3 is a good choice, i would love the Advanced but just can't afford another £250. is it the firmware thats the issue i had to do the upgrade out of the box?
 
In your 2nd post you said the P3 was directly over you with the antenna at 90 degrees to the controller, it needs to be horizontal to the ground if its overhead. In other words, don't point the tip at the bird.
The local gps signals are more likely to make your phone/tablet have problems. My iphone keeps trying to connect to everyones home broadband if I fly from our garden but is always ok out in the countryside. Back garden flights, I have had video signal drop out at 20m and I am convinced its local interference.
Need to be patient as well, after turning everything on, it can take a while for the P3 to warm up an recognise where it is and confirm its home point.
Another issue I had to learn was, make sure, with iphones at least, that the dji app and maps are turned on in mobile data and that privacy is on. The dji app seems to take a long time to show correct location on its map.
As for firmware, i have accepted the 2 full updates since I got mine in March and honestly I have no idea if they made anything go sour as my only problems have been the garden ones mentioned. Out and about I have been up to the 400ft height limit, not been further away than 700ft yet though...can barely see the **** thing.
 
Hi all

I have just got back from exchanging my P3S. So I did not update the firmware and the current version is 1.2 is this ok to fly with I tried to get firmware from the app but it's not finding it what is best to do.

Thanks

Sam


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