new p4

[jetlag]

I just had an unexpected pleasure today. A good buddy received a P4 for Santa. He knows zero about drones or anything RC related. He called me last weekend and asked me to come help him get it off the ground today. I fly RC helis and have a P2V2+ without any altitude or location restrictions. I refused to keep upgrading the firmware, so it is fast and loose and dangerous, look out DJI!! Anyway, I know nothing about the P4 except all I have read in this fine site. I told him to charge everything and download the Go App. and read and read all he could on this thing. Of course he neglected to read and learn, and when I arrived at his house he had it all ready to go. I had to quickly read the quick start manual and fumble my way through this, In the process we had to upgrade the firmware and calibrate. The calibration took a bit longer and had to redo a few times and it kept sending us back here and there. If it had been mine, of course it would have been far smoother. Eventually and by the divine providence the controller turned green and said it was ready to go. It is setup in the beginners mode so it was very slowwww for me, however perfect for him. Initially I was not figuring out how to even turn on the TX, God help us. Who would have thunk it you had to run a similar procedure as when you turn on the battery!! It is flying and acting well, but I know I missed a lot of stuff, plus I noticed that some of the features don't appear to work in the beginner mode. He is under strict orders to read all the tutorial stuff on the GoApp. And here is a kicker, his wife bought him an extra battery and it is dead. We plugged it in the charger and nothing happened. The other spent battery, showed the green lights as it charged. I then started my old P2 and let him fly it some. He then landed it and had a bit of trouble killing the motors, and it skidded sideways under his Ram 3500 Truck. I dove under it and grabbed it before it was destroyed!! All is well I am happy to report. The P4 I am quite sure is a wonderful machine, once off the beginner mode. The SD card would not let him take pictures and I am thinking it needs formatting. However it allowed videos!! The camera appears to be outstanding, puts mine to shame. And I learned it fits perfectly in my fancy P2 case. Now If DJI will get off their rear end and make a Phantom that will integrate with their recently announced fancy goggles, I am in. FPV with goggles is my next challenge and I have no desire to go buying cables or whatever from another source. I want it all in a package. That P4 is a sweet machine, and the P4 Pro probably even more so. My buddy made a statement that the lights on mine were easier to see than his, and he is right. Mine has a row of lights, whereas he has single lights. Happy new year to all and keep all the good stuff coming, I can now say I flew a P4 but have little clue as to how I did it, lol.

 

[alokbhargava]

I was reading your long note and getting nervous that one is trying to fly new machine without going thru the docs and videos. Anyway all well if it ends well.

Happy new year


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[rumrunner]

Luckily i had nothing but time (was away on business when my arrived) so I read everything I could find. Was still so excited I forgot the two presses on the power buttons and had to go back and re-read [emoji13]. Hope he takes it serious enough to read up, takes it slow and stays safe.


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[jetlag]

My buddy is not the type, and although extremely smart, he is not the type to read unless forced to. I had not done much research on the P4. I kept going to the IPad looking for the Wi-Fi to show me the phantom to connect to, never happened. Days later I am reading and realized what Lightbridge was all about. Very impressed to say the least. Wish I could have the GPS and Lightbridge on my helicopters, but then it would take the challenge away I guess. Again where are the fancy DJI "cordless" goggles??? I will jump on the Phantom 5 or whatever at that point