P3 firmware vs P4

B- Scene Films · Mar 2, 2016

I wonder how long before the P3 devs all get sucked into the P4 line and we see no more firmware updates on the venerable old P3 series...

TBH I am perfectly happy with the current FW BUT... The POI issue with the P3 pointing to the left of the POI would be nice to have fixed. POI demo I saw of the P4 was spot on.

robinb · Mar 2, 2016

I am staying with 1.4

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

robinb said:
I am staying with 1.4

When I got my first P3P, 1.4 was the most up to date firmware. I tried upgrading it to 1.6 and it started doing all kinds of funny stuff. Went back down to 1.4 and it again flew just fine. In "atti" mode it has topped out at 50.2mph and I have flown it out over 22,000' with no lose of signal. I am convinced that every time they do an upgrade, they take away some of the capabilities of the P3P. Call me whatever you will, but I'll be staying in 1.4 until it falls from the sky.....due to something DJI put in the program.

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

Deputy Dog said:
When I got my first P3P, 1.4 was the most up to date firmware. I tried upgrading it to 1.6 and it started doing all kinds of funny stuff. Went back down to 1.4 and it again flew just fine. In "atti" mode it has topped out at 50.2mph and I have flown it out over 22,000' with no lose of signal. I am convinced that every time they do an upgrade, they take away some of the capabilities of the P3P. Call me whatever you will, but I'll be staying in 1.4 until it falls from the sky.....due to something DJI put in the program.

Many would like to know the magic trick you did to downgrade to 1.4 from 1.6

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

dirtybum said:
Many would like to know the magic trick you did to downgrade to 1.4 from 1.6

When I first got my P3P, I down loaded 1.4 onto my computer. Just went back and and loaded it into the P3.

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

That would seem to be a one in 1 million because as far as I know you can only go back one from 1.6. I'll see if I can find that file 1.4 maybe you can PM it to me or post it here for everyone

Oso · Mar 8, 2016

dirtybum said:
I'll see if I can find that file 1.4 maybe you can PM it to me or post it here for everyone

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

I've actually already tried before to downgrade from 1.6 to 1.4 to no success and I have also read on this forum and in the DJI notes that you can only go down one from 1.6 but I will give it a try tonight just for giggles

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Mar 8, 2016

I for one would like to see the new 120FPS slow-mo video mode that the P4 has trickle down to the P3P. So, feature, not a fix.

Josh Curtiss · Mar 8, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
I for one would like to see the new 120FPS slow-mo video mode that the P4 has trickle down to the P3P. So, feature, not a fix.

I agree, that would be great!

So... Question. I'm one of the opportunists finally joining the P3P club because of plummeting prices precipitated by the P4 release. When it arrives, what should I do regarding firmware? Try it first as-is (whatever FW it was released with)? Then upgrade just to 1.4 and stay there?

Josh

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Mar 8, 2016

If it's a new purchase, it could easily already have 1.6.

I'm on v1.6 for both of my P3Ps (one early generation, one newer) and both fly fine.

The risk you're taking with staying with older firmware is not getting improvements, such as crash-producing cold-weather operation and battery efficiency improvements.

I have yet to hear of a case that would cause a large number of P3 owners to stay on old firmware. Individual people posting here are telling of their own personal experiences but do not reflect the whole.

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
If it's a new purchase, it could easily already have 1.6.

I'm on v1.6 for both of my P3Ps (one early generation, one newer) and both fly fine.

The risk you're taking with staying with older firmware is not getting improvements, such as crash-producing cold-weather operation and battery efficiency improvements.

I have yet to hear of a case that would cause a large number of P3 owners to stay on old firmware. Individual people posting here are telling of their own personal experiences but do not reflect the whole.

That's a good point. Go with what works for you. If your bird flies great, I say don't mess with it. Only my opinion. The fact the newer P3's don't go as fast, tells me something.

Josh Curtiss · Mar 8, 2016

Cool. Will be interesting to see what version it's on out of the box.

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Mar 8, 2016

Deputy Dog said:
. . . The fact the newer P3's don't go as fast, tells me something.

Yeah, it tells me that DJI was probably catching hell for people burning up either motors or batteries and put in the failsafe controls to save them, so that's a plus. I have now had several warnings on the RC's DJI Go app telling me that it had to reduce power to the motors when I had both sticks full up and was high in the sky. I was impressed and pleased.

If I were interested in speed, I would have got a racing drone.

One rule of taking great video: go slow.

But I can always switch from P to A mode if I want the speed back. It's a trade off of not having GSP while racing around.

rmfa · Mar 8, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
If it's a new purchase, it could easily already have 1.6.

I'm on v1.6 for both of my P3Ps (one early generation, one newer) and both fly fine.

The risk you're taking with staying with older firmware is not getting improvements, such as crash-producing cold-weather operation and battery efficiency improvements.

I was about to say the same exact thing. Always run the newest firmware! Its there to fix issues that you might not even know about it.

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
Yeah, it tells me that DJI was probably catching hell for people burning up either motors or batteries and put in the failsafe controls to save them, so that's a plus. I have now had several warnings on the RC's DJI Go app telling me that it had to reduce power to the motors when I had both sticks full up and was high in the sky. I was impressed and pleased.

If I were interested in speed, I would have got a racing drone.

One rule of taking great video: go slow.

But I can always switch from P to A mode if I want the speed back. It's a trade off of not having GSP while racing around.

You're right! Even better, for great video, go low & slow. I've never gotten a message telling me to reduce power. I wonder if that's in a newer firmware version? I'm flying in 1.4 because I've never had any problems even flying at 50mph or out to distances above 22,000'. I believe in leaving good enough alone.

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

rmfa said:
I was about to say the same exact thing. Always run the newest firmware! Its there to fix issues that you might not even know about it.

It's like I said though. I tried to upgrade to 1.6 and had problems, mostly with the stability of the craft. I returned to 1.4 and have never had another problem. I'd rather fly safe then into the unknown.

rmfa · Mar 8, 2016

Deputy Dog said:
You're right! Even better, for great video, go low & slow. I've never gotten a message telling me to reduce power. I wonder if that's in a newer firmware version? I'm flying in 1.4 because I've never had any problems even flying at 50mph or out to distances above 22,000'. I believe in leaving good enough alone.

This is a bad idea. I had 200+ flights on early firmware. I had an issue on my 209th flight. You have not had a problem but why was there new firmware released? To fix issues before people have them. New firmware isn't going to do anything after the bird hits the ground. Please update your bird. The instability you think you have is all in your mind. Placebo effect if you will.

kphantom · Mar 8, 2016

robinb said:
I am staying with 1.4

I have 1.4 also, but 1.32 worked better if you ask me.

Deputy Dog · Mar 8, 2016

rmfa said:
This is a bad idea. I had 200+ flights on early firmware. I had an issue on my 209th flight. You have not had a problem but why was there new firmware released? To fix issues before people have them. New firmware isn't going to do anything after the bird hits the ground. Please update your bird. The instability you think you have is all in your mind. Placebo effect if you will.

LOL, The instability almost caused several crashes during my first flight after upgrading to 1.6, I guess I was on drugs that day! I've flown my P3P 600 miles now on countless flights and have had no problems. And if it was going to fly away or lose signal, it has had it's chance when I've been out over 22,000', still no problems. I think a lot of the problems people are having are caused by how and where they fly. DJI writes a program to fix things that are going wrong, and everyone's happy. If 1.4 wasn't any good, they wouldn't have put it out to begin with.

I'm flying in the Arizona desert and there's nothing to interfere with my signal.

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P3 firmware vs P4

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Not A Speck Of Cereal

Josh Curtiss

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Not A Speck Of Cereal

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