Reliable, Dependable, Consistent FPV Range of P2V+

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Yes, video feed/FPV range is awesome. Very consistent and stable. Of course, *part* of that is because it defaults to 320@30. If you set the P2V to 320@30, it's not much different.
 
dbcch said:
Yes, video feed/FPV range is awesome. Very consistent and stable. Of course, *part* of that is because it defaults to 320@30. If you set the P2V to 320@30, it's not much different.
With stock antennas, I got 1650 feet away at an altitude of 175 feet before I lost connection at the beach. Switched to home lock, pulled back on the right stick and reestablished FPV connection.
You can double this distance with mod antennas, but you can't see the thing that far and I believe you should maintain visual contact. Real FPV is really cool, really nerve wracking, and will be really illegal very soon.
 
Was up at 1660 feet overhead with only a few video drops.

I am getting video drops now erratically. Even only a few feet away...I have a message at DJI waiting return.
 
I've only done two short flights so far. My experience thus far is not encouraging, but I'll spend some time tweaking to see if it improves. I'm in a rural area with very little interference.

With my android phone (Moto X), the DJI-vision software is utter garbage. The live feed works fine when I'm in my house, but as soon as I start flying it breaks up and the image freezes. When I get a chance I'll try again with my Nexus 7 tablet, and Nexus 5 phone. I'd say the usable range was maybe 3 feet. Or less. Effectively non-functional.

I tried an old iPod Touch that I keep in my car, and the experience was quite a bit better (aside from logging in to DJI, which was tricky since the 'login' button is almost invisible on the smaller screen). The video streamed smoothly, but it had serious lag that makes it useless for "real-time" FPV. Furthest distance was about 500 feet, and the video feed was lagging about 10 seconds behind real-time. So it was passable, but not what I was hoping for.

I'll hopefully get a chance to experiment using my wife's iPhone 5. Maybe the lag is due to decode problems on the iPod? A newer iPod Touch might also work better. I also haven't experimented with adjusting the stream quality. I think I had it on 15fps.
 
What do you guys do with your phones for the FPV? I was thinking perhaps putting the phone in 'airplane mode' to shut off the gps, the phone itself, Bluetooth, etc. and just turning Wifi back on might result in better FPV experience. Has anyone tried that?
 
My original Phantom 2 Vision in stock form had a good reliable video feed at 320x240 15fps to 1,300 feet at around 400 foot altitude. That was at my local park which has quite a bit of wifi near me. My same Phantom modded with 6.5 turn helical on the range extender and two cheap skew planers on the Phantom just went out to 4,500 feet or basically 1.4km with smooth uninterrupted any position fpv at 640x480 15fps (using the new appon iPhone 5). I could have made it further I had pretty much full signal still.

Anyway just thought I'd throw that in as food for thought, that the original Phantom can go as far or further than the new Phantom plus with the right antennas mounted to it.

P.S. If you want to further improve your P2V+ it's actually easier to mod the antennas on the aircraft itself than the original P2V and it will give you a nice improvement in consistent overall FPV performance.
 
deejay1947 said:
What do you guys do with your phones for the FPV? I was thinking perhaps putting the phone in 'airplane mode' to shut off the gps, the phone itself, Bluetooth, etc. and just turning Wifi back on might result in better FPV experience. Has anyone tried that?

I think airplane mode is a good idea, especially on older phones that don't have dual or quad core processors. Also make sure you are not running other unnecessary apps that could be using the processor.. Also it will avoid incoming calls and texts while flying. So u can focus on your current task.

I will be testing this for sure when my plus finally gets here.
 
deejay1947 said:
What do you guys do with your phones for the FPV? I was thinking perhaps putting the phone in 'airplane mode' to shut off the gps, the phone itself, Bluetooth, etc. and just turning Wifi back on might result in better FPV experience. Has anyone tried that?

On the iPhone a call no big deal, you can take the call or ignore it.
More than once I have put a call speaker while flying in FPV and it works just fine.
 
Scottrod said:
DrJoe said:
Real FPV is really cool, really nerve wracking, and will be really illegal very soon.


Oh geez. Here comes another nay-sayer. What do you base your large assumption on?

Not a naysayer. Fpv is a lot of fun and very cool. But without a spotter, especially here in the Northeastern US, you are risking low level aircraft collision. Medical helicopters, news copters, military flights, light aircraft and ultralights are allowed to fly between 0-700 feet in class G airspace. That's where we fly. Without the ability to provide "see and avoid" separation (impossible in FPV) you risk collision. Without thorough testing and certification, you are flying over people without having any idea how many hours of life to expect from your engines. Props can fail. the NAZA can get a divide by 0 error and fail, or altitude and data can be corrupted. Without transmitting on UNICOM or alerting radar control for your area of flight, you are going BLIND into the airspace. That will kill someone. Without redundant systems, a quad-rotor plummets uncontrollably from the sky. Powered gliders and hexa-rotors have some ability to control given an engine failure (though not in control system failures). Don't drop one of these things on someone's kid, please.
 
man will you SHUT UP!? We get it already.....just stop with it already...we know you are a pilot ...OKAY????

We are all grown men on here and when flying and no one is doing anything that is stupid...but the every other post pleading your heart out is getting OLD!

now to respond to the OP...


1340 ft high and 2000ft out are the marks i have hit as my records..

the 2000ft with fpv was at around 350ft
 
Big Chips said:
man will you SHUT UP!? We get it already.....just stop with it already...we know you are a pilot ...OKAY????

We are all grown men on here and when flying and no one is doing anything that is stupid...but the every other post pleading your heart out is getting OLD!

Don't be rude. Many people don't realize what they are risking. Good luck, ace.
 
Dr, Joe,

let me say this...I apologize for being rude...I understand your concern and agree...BUT it just seems you are over doing it a bit...IMHO...with all things said...I understand...BTW...I enjoyed your video,sport.

Last thought...I too know our time is limited...it is only a matter of time before these things are outlawed or regulated to death...so better have fun now...cause these are too much fun...and you know the authorities dont like it.
 
At my niece's house on Maryland's Eastern shore yesterday for Easter dinner with the family. Rural farmland, flat terrain, lots of great scenery. Stock Vision+, fifth flight, flew around a bit, climbed to 250' altitude, and headed due north to range test. 3950' before receiving a "Control Signal Lost" alert. My relatives were crowded round watching my phone's display in awe as the Vision+ stopped, turned towards home, returned, and landed herself gently a few feet from the initial launch point. Video feed was never lost...not even a hiccup. I think I may have gotten even more range but there were about 10 people crowded around me trying to view the phone and I had to keep reminding them not to block the antenna. The Vision+ performed flawlessly on three subsequent flights. Thus far I have to say this thing is pretty damned amazing! :D

On a sad note, I am really kind of crushed because all of my video footage from yesterday appears to be lost. I had installed a Sandisk Ultra 32GB memory card I had laying around. I used the card the night before to record my "Night Flight" footage, but I had forgotten it was a memory card that had previously failed in my Galaxy S3. The card now appears blank to the Vision+. No files are showing up, and every computer I try it in insists it is needs formatting. I have a few more computers I can try reading it from but it doesn't look promising. Sigh... :(
 
I too agree we don't need name calling or rudeness for those that expressing their opinions, we all have them and are entitled to them but also agree one can over do their opinions. I don't think anyone on here is being reckless.

I have to ask those that have flown over 300, 400, 500ft++++ how long did it take you to venture out? I got my P2V+ over the weekend and got up about 150ft and almost crapped myself LOL. Maybe someday I will grow a pair...

I assume anything over 200-300ft is all FPV, Are you guys in NAZA mode? I think if I were to fly that high that far I would want to initiate RTH manually and from my understanding that can only be done in NAZA mode?
 
Loving my Vision plus too!.. I've only been flying around over 1200 feet vertical and almost 2800 feet away with ZERO loss to FPV around my house. This weekend though I was around a theme park and almost immediately lost FPV when I got off the ground and was flying blind and only line of sight... too much RF interference for WIFI to be reliable I guess.. I have one MP4 from a flight last night that won't play.. so I have to try and repair that one, otherwise I've had good luck so far!

I've been flying in GPS mode (all settings stock) and the bird gets to those altitudes and distances in almost under a minute.. and I've been up to speeds of 45 MPH so far.
 

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