P4 for mapping or P3P?

No i am not going for p3 standard, either p3a or p3p or p4.
Which is the best battery mod for p3a or p3p and how long it lasts?


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Dbs mods just did a phantom 4 battery mod 35 mins,I am sure you can get 40 mins with the right battery set up!!
 
Hi,
I am surveyor and want buy a Phantom in order to use it for mapping and 3D modelling.
I can't decide which to buy, the Phantom 4 or the Phantom 3 Adv/Pro.
I like the extended battery of the P4, but I read in the forums that the real battery life is about the same with the P3P.
If this is true then i suppose that the P3 Adv/Pro is a better buy for the price and the usage as a mapping tool.
I want also to ask what is the best and most reliable mission planning software to use with the phantom.
I have found pix4d capture, dronedeploy and "map pilot for dji". Currently only the dronedeploy supports P4 and the others will follow i suppose.
If any user have experience with mapping please let me know.
Hello,

I own a P4 and have never owned a P3 so I cannot comment on one. But I think you may want to look at this from another angle (Pardon the pun). The P4 is simply a newer technology and vendors are wanting to update their apps and specs to the latest and greatest aircraft. Of course that comes with a certain degree of risk (as firmware and software is new) but on the other hand comes newer and possibly safer functionality.

It is true that the P4 offers what looks to be more or less the same battery life as the P3 so maybe that's not a decision maker. P3 users claim to have a better range with their Quads .. Is this a requirement for you? P4 users are seeing up to 3-4km with the range testing that's been going on. P3 is a mature platform and this is of course true.. But it's a model that is at the end of its life too and DJI are moving on.

Personally I bought the phantom because overall it's concept is mature, prompting me to wait for as long as possible for an advanced Phantom.. A P4. Now I have new technology that is 'more' future proofed thus making me feel a little more comfortable with my investment. Of course a P3 is cheaper so again, maybe money is a factor for you here.

This is of course just my opinion on how I would base my decision. The P4 is great machine either way and I'm getting some great, very stable footage.

With regard to mission planning apps, again I have not used any other than the DJI Go app. But mission planning is something I want to get into. I have been following with interest over the last six months, the AutoPilot app which appears to offer the most advanced mission planning and control over camera position and aircraft telemetry. The Litchi app appears to be popular (as well as half the price) - there are users better suited than I in this forum to tell you about that particular software. Just keep trolling the YouTube videos as I do!

Good luck.
 
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Like I said above the apps let you use multiple batteries per mission and the thing with P3A's is right now you can buy several of them for the price of one p4 that if you crash it you're done, time to go home, I can just chuck another one into the sky, they are basically consumables. Plus can fly many batteries back to back and swap the drone out if it gets too hot. Go for a few P4s if money is no object though I guess and hope the range issue many report is sorted.
 
I seem to be the only one in this thread using the phantom for 3d map making in large areas but I guess the hobbyists and photographers experience is useful as well. Check out Pix4d, that's what you want for the 3d maps, not lichi or any of those kinds of photography apps.
 
I've been playing around with Agisoft Photoscan and I'm impressed how powerful and easy to use it is.

Agisoft PhotoScan

Here's a couple of videos that show you all about it. Cheers

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I've got a P3 Advanced and I just got my P4, so I'll give you an update when I fly it tomorrow.

I'm liking that you can update everything from the RC to the Aircraft right from the GO app - no need to download on your computer etc.

Early days but I'm liking what I've already seen.

The P3A and Pro are good machines.

The Collision Avoidance is why I decided to buy a P4.
 
Just had a look at Pix 4D and its impressive. I'll give it a try tomorrow on the Phantom 3 Advanced. I'm liking that it takes pictures automatically.
Cheers
 
I have downloaded demos of pix4d, agisoft photoscan and contexcapture. These are the main s/w I am considering using.
As for the mission planning so far only the dronedeploy and altizure app supports P4 .
The pix4d capture have nice and simple interface but it has some limitations (for example the phantom can only fly max 7 grid lines, don't know why).
Anyway if someone wants to test the P4 for mapping please share your experience!
 
Well that's one opinion. Another one and the one I hold is that the P4 is overweight, over priced, it has an under powered transmitter and is full of useless deadweight like object avoidance. The end result is a low range shiny and unnecessarily large pile of cash floating about the sky. Great toy for the local baseball diamond or to annoy your (nearby) neighbors or for large flat wastelands with no interference but that's about it.
Well that's one opinion. Another one and the one I hold is that the P4 is overweight, over priced, it has an under powered transmitter and is full of useless deadweight like object avoidance. The end result is a low range shiny and unnecessarily large pile of cash floating about the sky. Great toy for the local baseball diamond or to annoy your (nearby) neighbors or for large flat wastelands with no interference but that's about it.
 
I've been evaluating P3P on Pix4d Capture and flown various missions. My mosaic processings were on Pix4Dmapper Pro. Here are my comments;

1. You can't do a mission above 100m altitude from where you took off. The copter just won't proceed with the mission if you selected any height more than 100m despite having all the checklist checked, that includes the mission waypoints uploaded to the drone. This is bad because if you are into vegetation related mapping eg. plantations, forestry, then you will not be able to achieve desired orthomosaic result. You will need to go up higher to map these high homogeneous landscape.

However, over urban area, I've had good results. That's due to the linear man-made features which enable the S/W to get good matching points.

2. For P3P, maximum duration per mission is only 11 min 30 sec to 12 min. I usually have up to 50% battery remains after each mission. I would say, user should be able to do up to a 15mins mission.

Even though Pix4d said you can proceed with larger and longer mission at your risk, but I tried that and it just won't work. If you are familiar with the Capture App, the mission only commences when the box is Green (not yellow or red).

3. There's BIG issue with the geotagging process.

If you captured 120 photos in a single mission, you don't always get all the photos geotag, usually due to lost link connection between the remote controller and the drone. You will find that the full complete number of photos taken and stored in your P3P micro SDCard doesn't tally with the geotagged sequence by the Capture App. This is a problem because it affects the photo locations. You can manually inspect these but it's time consuming.
 
I don't do mapping, but I can tell you the P3 is a more mature platform and it's supported by many more software vendors. If you need to do mapping right now, then the P3 is probably going to be your best bet. If you can wait a month or so for the software vendors to release P4 compatible versions, then the P4 is a better buy.
Is there a better 3D mapping tool than DroneDeploy? And they are P4 compatible, almost immediately. It's amazing software but I admit I have not much to compare it to but I've found amazing results.
 
The P4 is advertised as having lens improvements. Sharper images would be important for mapping.
 
I've been evaluating P3P on Pix4d Capture and flown various missions. My mosaic processings were on Pix4Dmapper Pro. Here are my comments;

1. You can't do a mission above 100m altitude from where you took off. The copter just won't proceed with the mission if you selected any height more than 100m despite having all the checklist checked, that includes the mission waypoints uploaded to the drone. This is bad because if you are into vegetation related mapping eg. plantations, forestry, then you will not be able to achieve desired orthomosaic result. You will need to go up higher to map these high homogeneous landscape.

However, over urban area, I've had good results. That's due to the linear man-made features which enable the S/W to get good matching points.

2. For P3P, maximum duration per mission is only 11 min 30 sec to 12 min. I usually have up to 50% battery remains after each mission. I would say, user should be able to do up to a 15mins mission.

Even though Pix4d said you can proceed with larger and longer mission at your risk, but I tried that and it just won't work. If you are familiar with the Capture App, the mission only commences when the box is Green (not yellow or red).

3. There's BIG issue with the geotagging process.

If you captured 120 photos in a single mission, you don't always get all the photos geotag, usually due to lost link connection between the remote controller and the drone. You will find that the full complete number of photos taken and stored in your P3P micro SDCard doesn't tally with the geotagged sequence by the Capture App. This is a problem because it affects the photo locations. You can manually inspect these but it's time consuming.

Thanks for the info, I suppose the Pix4D Capture is not that good app for autonomous flights. Have you tried Dronedeploy to see if you get better results? They say that terrain following is on their plans.
 
I haven't tried but am eager to try it ASAP. A user in here said he flew the mission on Drone Deploy and post processed it in Pix4D Mapper. I'm keen to find out if that's possible.
 
I use P3 pro, Autopilot for planning mapping missions as you can adjust the flight speed to save battery. You can also set the speed that the camera will take still photos so that they overlap adequately...then pix4d to produce 3d models. Success so far and great photos from p3p.
 

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