Phone connection required and other questions?

DaveC1964 · Mar 4, 2014

Hi,

I was going to get a Phantom 2 vision. I then heard about the fact that you need to have an account and login just to use the app. What! So now I am required to have phone access to play with a toy? The problem is that I wanted to use a small 7" Android tablet that only has wifi, no phone service. Does this mean I will be unable to use the main feature with no network access? I don't want to use a tiny cellphone screen, my eyes aren't that good. This makes no sense and I don't know why I would need to make an account just to use a camera over wifi, seems a bit overbearing to me. Are there any workarounds?

Also what would happen if DJI in the future goes under or just stops supporting the app, would I be locked out of using the camera? That would be a waste of $1200.

AnselA · Mar 5, 2014

You need an access to internet (WiFi), and create the "account" in DJI services. No phone connection/account needed.

bernardb · Mar 5, 2014

Toy?.... :ugeek:

nintendrone64 · Mar 5, 2014

Wow, look at you, presumably a grown-*** man, crying about having to sign into an account for a company you just bought a 600-1200 dollar product from.

First off, I'm fairly certain it only wants you to CREATE an account, ONCE.
You DO NOT need to sign in to operate or receive a signal on the Phantom 2 Vision.
I mean, did you even try troubleshooting before posting?

And NO. Just because a company closes doesn't mean a piece of independently running software
will just disappear off you phone. You would still be able to use the app. Does a video game disc lose it's data when
the company goes under? No.

The WiFi creates itself, as is the job of the Vision WiFi Booster.

Pull_Up · Mar 5, 2014

Registration and then entering those register details into the app is a one-time only deal. Every subsequent time you open the app you just go straight in. Some people put the cellular radio on our phone into airplane mode so as to keep the WiFi connection with the aircraft nice and stable. The only thing it uses cellular for is maps in the Find My Phantom feature - and even then you can cache those before you leave him if you prefer.

DaveC1964 · Mar 5, 2014

nintendrone64 said:
Wow, look at you, presumably a grown-*** man, crying about having to sign into an account for a company you just bought a 600-1200 dollar product from.

First off, I'm fairly certain it only wants you to CREATE an account, ONCE.
You DO NOT need to sign in to operate or receive a signal on the Phantom 2 Vision.
I mean, did you even try troubleshooting before posting?

And NO. Just because a company closes doesn't mean a piece of independently running software
will just disappear off you phone. You would still be able to use the app. Does a video game disc lose it's data when
the company goes under? No.

The WiFi creates itself, as is the job of the Vision WiFi Booster.

Well since you felt compelled to be a smartass....You may try reading better "I was going to get a Phantom 2 vision." GOING as in not having yet.

No the software won't "disappear off of the phone", but the phone could just plain break, wear out, crash and need to be factory reset etc. That wouldn't be so far fetched either for something that you are waving around clipped to the end of a TX, and they still haven't come out with the phones that last forever. So say DJI goes bust in 4 months and my phone breaks later. Now WHO will be around to enable the app on the new phone? I load the app onto the new phone but when it asks for the login and account info to unlock and tries to contact a non existant server to verify then what, wise-***?

This isn't a game disc, I don't need an account or log in to play a game disc. It would be like if you wanted to move a Steam PC game to another computer but their servers were down, Or transfer a digital 3DS game to another if the server/internet connection was down, you couldn't!

This is the first time a quadcopter had DRM on a major piece of their software. There is no point in it, you get nothing for it, and it can just be a hassle later if something goes wrong. You want to rely on servers being up somewhere in China when you need them? For what? It should be removed and be made optional. You want to register, fine, but it shouldn't lock you out of your "600-1200 dollar product".

Pull_Up · Mar 6, 2014

You're going to haute the fact that you have to use the same login when you use the Assistant software to download firmware to your aircraft.

It's just an email address that's required. I suspect it's mainly so they can mail users if they're ate critical updates that you need to do that affect safety, etc.

Like I said, the registration is a one off. There is no remote check or server side data swapping after the first registration. You can open the app and use it on a non-cellular tablet in the middle of a desert with no internet connection. If DJI goes under then the fact you might not be able to install an app on your new phone is a minor issue compared to the lack of flight critical updates for the aircraft!

If it's a big concern for you then the Vision isn't for you. You could always wait until Apple launches its iDrone...

DaveC1964 · Mar 6, 2014

Pull_Up said:
If DJI goes under then the fact you might not be able to install an app on your new phone is a minor issue compared to the lack of flight critical updates for the aircraft!

If it's a big concern for you then the Vision isn't for you. You could always wait until Apple launches its iDrone...

Well if the firmware you have works good enough you really don't need any update, as all functions work even if they could be improved a bit. If you can't transfer the camera software to a new phone a major part of the system is locked out and unuseable. To me that is worse and not minor.

Apple. Yeah because Apple is so open in their policies, it isn't like they force you to use a certain software as a gatekeeper to use your phone/tablet right? Apple is completely free of DRM :lol: I guess the Vision isn't for me then. It is for me really except for a stupid and unnecessary decision from DJI that makes it not.

Oh well, I guess I could get an AR Drone and an Nvidia Shield as a controller. The AR drone is cheaper and just as good as the P2 anyway right?