Phantom Pilot App for Android really that bad?

I have a
So let me just ask you this then.

Lets just assume I want to forget about all of this and just get the best...lag free...experience I can get on a tablet that is between 7-10 inches and will fit on the phantom 3 controller.

It appears I HAVE to go apple....but can you tell me EXACTLY which one to get so that I know I am 100% getting the most supported, capable device for the phantom 3?

I have an Air 1, 2 and mini2. The mini2 is my favorite and gets the most use. If you want the lowest latency possible then you might want to check out the hdmi board. Then you could use your nexus as a map display and goggles for fpv.
 
And I understand that was not how it was designed. my whole point since the start was that this is the reason it was a dumb decision...designing it the PROPER way would have eliminated these issues.

I don't do programming for android...only PC. But I have some friends that do mobile apps, and they are telling me that this easily could have been set up so the heavy lifting was done by hardware ont he controller/copter and lighten the load on the mobile app. It doesnt HAVE to run the data stream over USB and THEN decode it...the USB set up will allow you to pipe video through the connection at a fast enough rate to not need to have it heavily encoded before hitting the phone.

The other thing I am being told is that even if you DO need to make this decode....they have API's in place to allow the program to offload to the GPU without have to optimize for each individual phone/tablet. This leads me back to the statement that DJI needs to hire better programmers because they are making this harder than it needs to be.
Yep everyone wants to play armchair coders but ask him this, why hasn't ANYONE been able to beat DJI's range and or performance on a mobile device? Because, it's really not that easy!
 
Yep everyone wants to play armchair coders but ask him this, why hasn't ANYONE been able to beat DJI's range and or performance on a mobile device? Because, it's really not that easy!


Oh I have ZERO doubt that DJI is the best copter out there. I just believe their programmers need some help.

And the range really has nothing to do with how the decoding is handling and device lag.
 
I have a


I have an Air 1, 2 and mini2. The mini2 is my favorite and gets the most use. If you want the lowest latency possible then you might want to check out the hdmi board. Then you could use your nexus as a map display and goggles for fpv.

You would say that the lag/latency is very low on those..and about the same on all of them?

What is the HDMI board option...where can I find more info on that? (i am interested in FPV goggles in the future)
 
The air 2 is the fastest but at that point you're splitting hairs. There's many thread regarding the HDMI board.. Over on RCG, check out my blog, did an install thread.
 
The app is brilliant.
My guess is that the bad reviews are from people that either have no idea or they used it on a sub-performing tablet.
It is demanding of resources so you have to run it on a capable device.
I'm using a Nexus 7 which is pretty cheap and it's just great.
About 1000% improvement on the P2V+ app.
The app is loaded with great functionality. Here are a couple of screenshots to give you an idea of just part of what it does.
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Where can I get this app ?
 
they have API's in place to allow the program to offload to the GPU without have to optimize for each individual phone/tablet
The app does this now... but not all devices have the same GPU (whereas they do in the Apple ecosystem), which means even GPU acceleration will behave differently on differing devices, and there's no way to defensively code against a hardware base as deep as the Android ecosystem..
 
People dont understand the concept of android devices... Put simply - you want something with less options but more stability, go for Apple. You want something with more options - go for Android but bear in mind theres a price for its flexibility and ability to have an app for literally everything - and the price is stability. Too many manufacturers too many software developers and too many variations...

So I simply do this when I wanna launch the drone:

1) turn on Airplane mode (in android device - it cuts off all networks)
2) restart the android device (do this AFTER you turn on airplane mode - reason is - after the restart the device is already in airplane mode which means its not trying to connect to anything = less system reasources drain etc...)
3) disable auto lcd brightness and raise it to max - usefull when shooting during sunny days
4) launch the DJi app and it should all be good!!!


Btw - I do not have anything fancy like samsung s5 or anything like that I am using my supercheap Xiaomi Redmi (first generation of it) and its running like a charm with DJI App!

And one more thing to remember - those are Android devices which means - if its not working on my Android OS - just switch to a different android OS ;-) theres a plenty of those on xda-developers :)

EDIT: forgot to mention the reason for step 2) restarting device. Its very simple - you just clear your device memories of all the **** thats been piling up there since its last restart...
 
@bbfpv & @trigon

Great post guys.. been trying to explain this since yesterday.
 
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People dont understand the concept of android devices... Put simply - you want something with less options but more stability, go for Apple. You want something with more options - go for Android but bear in mind theres a price for its flexibility and ability to have an app for literally everything - and the price is stability. Too many manufacturers too many software developers and too many variations...

So I simply do this when I wanna launch the drone:

1) turn on Airplane mode (in android device - it cuts off all networks)
2) restart the android device (do this AFTER you turn on airplane mode - reason is - after the restart the device is already in airplane mode which means its not trying to connect to anything = less system reasources drain etc...)
3) disable auto lcd brightness and raise it to max - usefull when shooting during sunny days
4) launch the DJi app and it should all be good!!!


Btw - I do not have anything fancy like samsung s5 or anything like that I am using my supercheap Xiaomi Redmi (first generation of it) and its running like a charm with DJI App!

And one more thing to remember - those are Android devices which means - if its not working on my Android OS - just switch to a different android OS ;-) theres a plenty of those on xda-developers :)

EDIT: forgot to mention the reason for step 2) restarting device. Its very simple - you just clear your device memories of all the **** thats been piling up there since its last restart...

uhhh...you dont switch to a different android OS. Those are ALL android, just different builds. The core OS is the same...and it comes from google. Companies like samsung stick their own skin on top and make some edit..but the core is android.

And stability/lag has never been an issue for me with ANYTHING else i run except the DJI pilot app, and it started with a firmware update FROM THEM....so don't give me all this "apple is better crap" Apple is a thieving bully with overpriced hardware for tech sheep that simply lay down money without having a clue what they are doing.
 
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Hehe :D this change OS part was just joke its for an experienced users of course... But - trust me - ALOT can happen between OS core and its so called skin from phone manufacturers :D Of course the core is the same but this app is built for this so there should be no problem with it.

And I completely agree with this:

Apple is a thieving bully with overpriced hardware for tech sheep that simply lay down money without having a clue what they are doing.

although I tend to say it in a bit more subtle way.... and thats Apple is a fashion accessory but...when you wanna work with drones you dont give a **** about fashion :D
 
Hehe :D this change OS part was just joke its for an experienced users of course... But - trust me - ALOT can happen between OS core and its so called skin from phone manufacturers :D Of course the core is the same but this app is built for this so there should be no problem with it.

And I completely agree with this:



although I tend to say it in a bit more subtle way.... and thats Apple is a fashion accessory but...when you wanna work with drones you dont give a **** about fashion :D


Well..i work in the tech industry and I have built up a hatred for apple LOL...so i stopped being as subtle lol.

I really wish DJI would write an app for windows phone, cause then I could run it on my surface pro. Better yet...just write an x86 version so people can use any tablet/laptop/etc. If this thing still bogs down a core-i5 proc then they REALLY have an issue.
 
It's fairly obvious that the iOS application is preferred to dji as it probably uses less resources to maintain and develop for due to it being a closed ecosystem (just a guess, I have no knowledge of developing apps). However that seems to be alienating a large % of users that have android stuff. There public relations are absolutely awful, even a generic statement to say that they are working on it would probably be enough for me.
 

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