Newbie with some questions

[wat17]

I am really intrigued about using the Phantom 2 for aerial photography, however I have some questions on how they operate which I can't seems to find:

1) Wind. Is there a limit to the amount of wind it can operate in. Any guides at what wind speed will star effecting video? How good is Adobe premier at stabilizing?
2) Camera. From what I understand you either get the Vision or attach a Go Pro. The vision is better for photos, but the GoPro better for videos. Is there any other recommended camera which are better? If you run the Go Pro you need to sort out your own FPV (not as eay as vision)?
3) How do you get the photos/video off the Vision. Does it run an SD card?
4) Water. Is there something you can install to save an unfortunate trip in the water?
5) Autoflight. I am having trouble finding any information where you could set the autopilot up to fly a pre defined track. Is this possible or an upcoming feature?

Cheers

 

[LeoS]

Hi there..

1. The phantom needs to compensate against the wind to maintain its position. Phantom's speed is supposed to be 10 m/s which is around 20mph. So you can assume if the wind speed reaches 20mph then the phantom will have to go full speed against the wind just to maintain its position. It'll drain the battery quicker too when it's doing this.

On PV, since it only has a 1-axis semi gimbal, it can only compensate on forward/backward tilts. So if you're fighting winds from your sides, the video will be tilted to one side. With the zenmuse, it'll be less visible, except for the rotors getting into view when you do a full forward tilt.

Ps: Also.. The higher you go, generally the faster wind gets. So you have to take this into account, and you can use this to your advantage when the wind gets hard. Try to fly lower before attacking the wind. Btw, also keep in mind how fighting the wind will drain the battery faster and take this into account when flying far from the home point.

2. Yup, you've got it right in regards to vision vs gopro camera.

Zenmuse h3-2d is designed to be used with gopro hero 3. I don't know if it can be hacked at all to use other types of camera. I assume it's physically specifically designed to accommodate gopro (size, weight, center of gravity).

3. It saves the video and photos to a microsd card on the back of the camera. You can pull this out to access on your computer (preferable)! r you can use the app to 'sync' it with your controlling smartphone/tablet over the wifi link (slow). What's kind of cool about this is that you can review the full size photos taken with the PV when it's still on air, in case you need to adjust some settings and retake it.

4. I've seen videos of foams strapped on the phantom' landing gears that enables it to take off and land on water, no idea how that works if you don't have control of the quad to do a soft and level landing.

Best to familiarize yourself with all the phantom's features and subsystem to identify problems if they crop up and what to do to mitigate them, than to rely on floatations device.

5. It's an upcoming feature that'll be enabled through firmware + app update. It's called 'Ground Station'.

 

[wat17]

Thanks for your response Leo.

In regards to using the Go-Pro, does this then mean that you lose FPV functionality of the DJI Phantom app? Rather you would have to use the specific Go-Pro app.

Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I have read people have had issues taking photos/videos with the Go-Pro once the Phantom moves too far away.

Edit: Actually it appears you can't run Go Pro wifi at the same time as the 2.4ghz clashes with that of the transmitter.
Edit 2: Seems funny that the Vision runs on 5.4ghz while the 2 runs on 2.4ghz.

 

[LeoS]

No problem.

That's correct, the DJI Phantom App only works with the FC-200 wifi camera... the camera that comes preinstalled on Phantom Vision. It's a wifi camera, and the phantom vision kit comes with a wifi repeater that enables it to work at 2-300m range. Some people has boosted it to double or even triple its range by using a bigger antenna on the repeater.

I'm not familiar with GoPro's remote ability, but I know it also run on wifi (without repeaters). So the max range is probably around 50m.

Yeah, Phantom Vision and Phantom FC-40 (phantom 1 w/ low end wifi camera) comes with 5.8ghz control frequency, while the original phantom and phantom 2 uses 2.4ghz for the control frequency.

If range is your absolute requirement, forget about Phantom Vision and look into buffing up the Phantom\Phantom2's tx\rx with Futaba's or Dragonlink.

 

[wat17]

Thanks. I may just stick with the Vision to start off with. Easier to get started. Once I get the hang of what's going on I may upgrade to a bit more complex set up. Cheers