Questions from new owner.

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Hello

I received my FC40 today and have a few questions.

1) How long does the main battery take to charge ?

2) How long does the camera battery take to charge ?

3) Software
On the dii site there is Phantom RC and NAZAM software (for mac).
Which should I be using ?

4) I was trying to register on the DJI website from the application but the confirmation email they sent me the hyperlink does not work. Anyone else have this ? Not sure if I have registered or not now.

5) What is the 2nd pot in the back of transmuter (not the EU/FCC one) ?

The only thing that has thrown me so far is that the camera would not charge without a SD card inserted.
ohh and all the little packs of screws. Some I have no idea what they are for.

Thanks
 
1) How long does the main battery take to charge ?

With the stock charger about and hour more or less depending on how far down it is when before charging. and you should get about 10 minutes flight give or take 2 minutes depending on how hard you are flying and done push your luck on time till you know how long you get from your battey and flying habits. and get your self a cheap battey buzer/alarm like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/151291454087?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT
That plugs in to the ballance lead on the battery and can be set to go off at set voltage and is insanely loud and will let you know when your battey is getting low so you can land it before it runs out of juice.



2) How long does the camera battery take to charge ?
a full charge can take up to about 3-4 hours and can run for a hour or more of recording. But some pcs take a lot longer to charge it then say a phone charger wall wort.



3) Software
On the dii site there is Phantom RC and NAZAM software (for mac).
Which should I be using ?

Mostly you will use the Nazam to change any paramiters and settings for the phantom. the rc assistant is mostly for the transmitter if you need to do any thing like recalibrating it if it ever gets out of calibration or if you want to change its mode from CE mode to FCC mode which gives a lot more range. and some other advanced things. But to use the rc assist you need to open up the back of the transmitter and plug the USB cable in to a port on the circuit board inside the tx. So it will probably be a while before you need to want to mess with any of that stuff.

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4) I was trying to register on the DJI website from the application but the confirmation email they sent me the hyperlink does not work. Anyone else have this ? Not sure if I have registered or not now.

Hum not to sure about what the deal is with that But you should be able to go in and see if you can log in and see if you are registered or not. If not maybe try again or try cutting and pasting the link to your browser.

5) What is the 2nd pot in the back of transmitter (not the EU/FCC one) ?

Thats for adding a ginble tilt lever it moves that trim pot up or down to control the gimble.

The only thing that has thrown me so far is that the camera would not charge without a SD card inserted.
ohh and all the little packs of screws. Some I have no idea what they are for.
Hum mine seems to charge regardless of card in or out. Might just need longer and a tip I just found out about recently on a lot of pcs they wont charge threw the usb inless the computer is in standby or sleep mode.

The screws. are for putting your landing gear on it they are the ones with a regular head on them and they add a few extras incase you lose any. the ones with the unthreaded part on the top and the flat heads are for the phone holder to attack to the bar on the transmitter. and there should be some extra strips of tape to tape the 2 gray antennas to your landing gear. But you can use the tape that holds them against the belly for shipping. and there should also be a short pcs of sting. That seems to be a big mystery what the heck that is for. No one seems to know what its for. Tho many have tried some good guess. My best guess is its to tie on you're finger as a reminder to always remember to do a preflight check and never fly till you have just a steady green flashing LED telling you that you have found enough gps satellites and all good to take off.
 
Thanks

I will look at getting the alarm, sounds like a great idea.

The charger at present is showing the charge LED green and the 3 current ones on red.

When its fully charged does it all go green ?

-

On the camera when i plugged it in no lights came on, only after about 20 mins did I plug in sd card then it all lit up.

-

I purchased some prop guards at same time and I have painted the front 2 day-glow orange that will help with orientation as well.

-

Thanks for tips.
 
The red blinking light on the camera will go out when it is fully charged. It takes quite a while.

If you are like me, you won't be able to tell the painted and unpainted prop guards apart once your FC40 gets very far away at all.
 
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Thanks

I will look at getting the alarm, sounds like a great idea.
Ya its a great under $5 investment. and good if you leave the phantoms battery warning set to be on in the naza to set your buzzer to go off before the phantoms one does The phantoms has 2 levals first is a waring that its hit the first warning leval will make the big LED on the back start blinking orange. To tell you to get that puppy close to home then its got the 2nd level when it gets down lower and will start blinking red and will try to auto land were ever its at if you don't keep giving it some up stick on the left stick and it gradually slides the sticks level up to 90% the lower the battery gets to try and keep from letting you bring it up any higher. It can be a mixed blessing. It can save you from falling out of the sky like a rock if your battery gets to low but it can also cause you to still lose it if its some place you cant see it to even know The led is blinking and cant see ware it lands to be able to find it. I had mine do that on one of very first flights and it landed in a yard 4 blocks away and I thought i had a fly away. Luckily Some one see it land in there neibors yard. and I was able to get it back. and the next time it did it It tried to land in a tree about 60 feet up and my brand new prop guards that I had not even 15 minutes got it snagged in the tree and by the time I got it out by trying over and over again to fly it out till it broke free the battey was so low it had no power to fly and crashed to the concrete side walk and busted 2 of the guards and broke a tip off one of my props. But was glad they took the brunt of the crash.



The charger at present is showing the charge LED green and the 3 current ones on red.

When its fully charged does it all go green ?

Yup if green on the big led It should once its past 75% charged start to blink red and green. Then should go solid green when its done. If its balancing any of the 3 cells you will see 1 of the 4 lit tiny red leds blink on and off as its balancing cell 1 2 or 3 towards the end of the charge if it needs to balance any of the cells individually.




On the camera when i plugged it in no lights came on, only after about 20 mins did I plug in sd card then it all lit up.
If its a solid red and plugged in to a computer its the computer thinking its just a card reader or some other devise. Tho I just tested mine and it does it with out with out the card in it. If its charging the led should blink on and off red. If fully charged tho it will have no led. So it may just be at full charge. if not getting any lights blinking.

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I purchased some prop guards at same time and I have painted the front 2 day-glow orange that will help with orientation as well.
ya that does help esp in the day time.

-

Thanks for tips.
no problem and make sure you read the instruction manual a few times before flying and also one other tip is to make sure you go in the naza assistant and make sure your s1 switch is set to go in to fail safe when flipped to its bottom position. And also then go in to eh fail safe settings and you will see 2 choices one is landing on the left and go home and landing on the right. way make sure thats not set to the default of just landing. That will tell it to just land ware ever its over if fail safe is triggered. way uncool to have happen if you are expecting it to come back and it lands some place else.. The other setting if its lower then 66 feet it will rise up to 66 feet so it don't hit any thing lower then that height. then it will head to the homepoint it took off from in a straight line from wear ever its at
then start to land when its over the home point. IF higher then 66 feet it will just stay up at how ever high it is and then come home and land. Way way better to have it set that way. also if you are ever in some place flying and lose site of it and arnt sure if it will clear any thing in its path thats higher then 66 feet or you don't know how high up you are its best to lay on the throttle and let it go up high then flip it in to fail safe just to be sure it will be high enough up to clear any thing that might be in its path home.
 
J.James said:
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[quote]Thanks for tips.[/quote]  no problem and make sure you read the instruction manual a few times before flying and also one other tip is to make sure you go in the naza assistant and make sure your s1 switch is set to go in to fail safe when flipped to its bottom position. And also then go in to eh fail safe settings and you will see 2 choices one is landing on the left and go home and landing on the right.  way make sure thats not set to the default of just landing.  That will tell it to just land ware ever its over if fail safe is triggered.  way uncool to have happen if you are expecting it to come back and it lands some place else..    The other setting if its lower then 66 feet it will rise up to 66 feet so it don't hit any thing lower then that height.  then it will head to the  homepoint it took off from in a straight line from wear ever its at 
then start to land when its over the home point.  IF higher then 66 feet it will just stay up at how ever high it is and then come home and land.  Way way better to have it set that way.    also if you are ever in some place flying and lose site of it and arnt sure if it will clear any thing in its path thats higher then 66 feet or you don't know how high up you are its best to lay on the throttle and let it go up high then flip it in to fail safe just to be sure it will be high enough up to clear any thing that might be in its path home.[/quote]


I have ordered one of those alarm buzzers off ebay so that will be with me soon I hope.
I won't be flying it until I have read the manual some more.

I also powered it all up without the blades in place and ensured I could get a home lock and then spooled up the motors to check that all works.

In the NAZA software it is set to fly home and land.
However is the default on S1 lower position failsafe ?

Also what voltage would you recommend for protection levels ?

This is the screen I have in Naza :-
 

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I dont think the fail safe for S1 is set by default. But not sure as its been awile sence i had any of the default settings. BUt to see if its set or not go to tab that says basic then the tab that says RC and at the bottom of that page it should say control mode switch. and You should see a bar with some boxes in it that say GPS, fail safe, atti. fail safe. Then the box on the far right should have a drop down that will let you set the bottom S1 position to manual atti or fail safe.

Tho if fail safe is not set for the bottom position you can also always go in to fail safe by turning power off to the transmitter. Even if you switch fails or set to any other mode turning off the tx should always make it know to go in the fail safe.

There also is a setting for the S2 IOC (intelligent orientation control) modes that I think by default is off. but if you want to use the IOC modes which are home lock course lock and off on the s1 switch. Go to advanced tab then IOC and check the box for "intelligent orientation control" and you should be able to then see the slider move to what ever postion the switch is in.

battery settings I'll let some one that knows that better then me feild that. But for now you should be alright with the default settings. But you could go a tad lower on the 2nd levels. But always try to be mindful of the time you have been up for any time and try to make sure shes close to home before any lints are tripped. Its always better to bring her in to early rather then too late.
 

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