New P2 Owner. Question on best failsafe mode

[jondrew]

I just got my P2 vision and am working my way through things. It appears to fly (did a brief lift off in my living room, then moved to the back yard mowed the grass for a few minutes at midnight yesterday). I downloaded the dji Assistant to my iMac and I'm not sure its really working correctly (running new OS Mavericks) so I have an email into dji support. It appears my transmitter has an outdated firmware version, and since dji assistant isnt working yet, I cant update. So this begs the question, should I do my first real practice flying in the GPS mode, or the non-GPS mode? The way I understand it, if the system loses contact with the Tx in GPS mode, the P2 could try to fly all the way back to China. In the non-GPS mode it would just do its best to make a smooth landing. Right now, I don't plan to fly very high till I get some confidence in my piloting skills (I've owned a few el cheapo electric helis, but other than that I have no real flying experience).

On a side note regarding dji Assistant, It appears I may have to forgo using my Mac for updates based on what I'm reading in many of the forums. Might have to resurrect my old Win 7 laptop or try to do it with vbox (found several excellent threads on the issue). I might add I am less than thrilled with some of what I got with my P2 Vision. Especially when I realized there was no micro USB port on the Tx and I had to open it up to try to do a firmware update. I opened the Tx up and plugged the USB connector into the main circuit board. No connection was established. Even though I was not sure dji assistant was working correctly, it did connect to the P2 when I plugged it into the USB. Thinking I might have a bad Tx.

Good news is, I bought it from Amazon so I have 30 days to decide if its junk or not. Its pretty obvious one has to get their hands into the guts of these things to get them to work properly. Based on what little I've learned in the last 24 hours I can easily see myself investing in a Futaba controller/Rx at a minimum. Might even send the P2 Vision back and and order the P2 with the ZM Gimbal and use a GoPro. But I don't want to start off by watching my P2 fly off to never never land. Even Amazon wont give you a refund on an empty box.

Would be grateful for any advice/opinions

 

[amrflyingdude]

I would definitely update the phantom + TX before flying it for the first time, also, Stay in Phantom Mode for a few flights then play with the NAZA functions and such. Switching to NAA mode requires some reading and skills. in theory the IOC and NAZA modes will help you fly the quad better but all the options available at your fingertips could lead to confusion, so not knowing what they do could get you in trouble.

Welcome to the club!

 

[jondrew]

Welcome to the club!

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I've had no luck getting dji Assistant to work on my Mac. Apparently emails to dji tech support in the US go to the dead letter office. I sent two requests for help this week and neither was answered. I get it, I'm on my own. Thank goodness for internet support forums.


Of course that has not stopped me from Flying. One flight in my family room, one in my back yard and now a fairly long one (till the battery was exhausted) in my neighborhood playground that has a fairly decent amount of space to work in. Been just practicing "flying the box" and getting used to the controls for now. Have not exceeded 20 or 30 feet as of yet. I'm hoping to get my old Win 7 laptop reloaded or may have to resort to vbox on the Mac and do the firmware upgrades that way.

 

[Shrimpfarmer]

The transmitter update will have to be done using a PC as its the RC assistant you need to do that.

Whats the problem with the Mac and the Phantom 1.8 assistant software, mine works well.

Shrimpy

 

[jondrew]

The transmitter update will have to be done using a PC as its the RC assistant you need to do that.

Whats the problem with the Mac and the Phantom 1.8 assistant software, mine works well.

Shrimpy

Broke the code. The Assistant probably works, but won't let me do anything until I upgrade the Tx. Me being ignorant, assumed that if I plugged the Tx into the Assistant (not RC Assistant) it would work. And as you have stated it does not. Another fellow on the forum is running 10.9.1 too and it works fine, but had to do the Tx upgrade using a windows computer.

Thanks

 

[Funnone]

Try updating your OS on your Mac I don't think that the phantom assistant supports Maverick (Mac OS X 10.6(Lion) or above)

 

[jondrew]

Try updating your OS on your Mac I don't think that the phantom assistant supports Maverick (Mac OS X 10.6(Lion) or above)

Assistant does run on 10.9.1 just fine. I was confused because my transmitter needed a firmware update and for that you need to use RC Assistant which is not ported to the Mac yet (tech support replied to my question and confirmed this). So I ended up using Windows to update the transmitter and then was able to use the Mac assistant.