Smart phone and P2 Vision Plus

[flybill2]

I'll be ordering a Phantom 2 Vision Plus to be delivered to my address in the southern U.S. from Canada.

My cell carrier doesn't work there.

Since the FPV for the Phantom is wireless, if I have the app download to my phone before I travel and the cell phone won't connect to a service in the south, will I still be able to see the FPV on my smart phone?

Thanks much.

Flybill2

 

[CityZen]

You only need wifi to work. Cell service isn't needed.

 

[flybill2]

Thanks mate. I appreciate the info.

Flybill2

 

[aartsf]

You only need wifi to work. Cell service isn't needed.

+1 However, you do need an internet connection if you want to use ground station and you did not have preloaded the map of the area you are flying.

 

[flybill2]

Still struggling with this.

If I have a tablet with WIFI connection, can I use the FPV on it instead of a smartphone, since I don't want to pay the huge roaming charges my provider inflicts on us when we try to use our phone in the Southern U.S.

And if a tablet works, what happens if I am in an area with no WIFI connection? Will the FPV work?

Any recommendations as to the right (lower cost) tablet to acquire if the Pv plus FPV works with it? Since I don't have the Phantom yet, any ideas where I can get the app from to run on a tablet, if the tablet suits?

My thanks, all.

Flybill2

 

[CityZen]

The wifi connection comes from the Phantom and its wifi extender.

Nearly any cheap Android tablet will run the Phantom app and display FPV. However, many of the cheap ones don't work for the Ground Station portion of the app.
(Even if the tablet says you can't load the Phantom app from the Play store, you can still download it directly from DJI and install it that way.)

 

[mede8er]

Still struggling with this.

If I have a tablet with WIFI connection, can I use the FPV on it instead of a smartphone, since I don't want to pay the huge roaming charges my provider inflicts on us when we try to use our phone in the Southern U.S.

And if a tablet works, what happens if I am in an area with no WIFI connection? Will the FPV work?

Any recommendations as to the right (lower cost) tablet to acquire if the Pv plus FPV works with it? Since I don't have the Phantom yet, any ideas where I can get the app from to run on a tablet, if the tablet suits?

My thanks, all.

Flybill2

The Phantom is your wi-fi connection...no worries about that....

 

[aartsf]

Still struggling with this.

If I have a tablet with WIFI connection, can I use the FPV on it instead of a smartphone, since I don't want to pay the huge roaming charges my provider inflicts on us when we try to use our phone in the Southern U.S.

And if a tablet works, what happens if I am in an area with no WIFI connection? Will the FPV work?

Any recommendations as to the right (lower cost) tablet to acquire if the Pv plus FPV works with it? Since I don't have the Phantom yet, any ideas where I can get the app from to run on a tablet, if the tablet suits?

My thanks, all.

Flybill2

The Phantom is your wi-fi connection...no worries about that....

However, in order to use your the ground station of the app, you needs to have the local maps pre-installed; if not you need an internet connection in afterall.

 

[flybill2]

And, any ideas what maps you refer to and where I would get them?

Thanks.

 

[dbfletcher]

You just have to use the app once while you are connected to wifi with an internet connection. The DJI App will download and cache the maps for you location. Then you can use the DJI app without an internet connection and it will used the cached maps. If you go to another site, just make sure you download the maps for that area too... if you have a smartphone, you can always turn the wifi hotspot and use that as you internet connection.

 

[flybill2]

Thanks much. Sorry to be such a noob.

So looking forward to doing some aerial photography with the Phantom.

Cheers,

Flybill

 

[justin00]

When your at home/with internet you open the app go into ground station and navigate around to where you want to fly. Zoom in and out and scroll around a bit. This will cache the maps. I believe they are deleted every 30 days, not sure if its Start of the month or 30 days from downloading.

 

[Bister]

If you want to use your Canadian phone to fly outside of Canada, put it in airplane mode, that will turn off the cell service and your data services, etc. it also turns off Bluetooth and the wifi, then turn the wifi back on to connect to the Network created by the Phantom. By doing this you will not be connected to any cell or data services so there will be no charges. This is what I do with my phone so I don't get phone calls, text, etc. while flying and it reconnects automatically to the Phantom network if I have to shut down to change batteries or I move locations.

Also in this mode, if you leave the wifi on, you will have Internet service from any wifi service you are able/allowed to connect to.

 

[flybill2]

Excellent advice Bister. Thank you.

Flybill2

 

[happydays]

Alternatively, you could just switch off data roaming on your phone and this will still allow you to take calls but not use data at all.

I live right on the border in Ireland between the UK and Ireland - so we're always roaming (expensively) from O2 UK to O2 Ireland (AT&T). Settings - Cellular - switch data roaming off. When you're in hotels or coffee shops etc you can hook onto their wifi networks to catch up with mail etc.

 

[flybill2]

Indeed, anytime you drive near a border, the cell carriers love to whack you with inordinate roaming charges, and if you spend much time in another country, their user rates are atrocious. Typically, we shut out phones down when we travel, and just have them handy for an emergency.

All tips for foreign phone use with the Phantom are very much appreciated. Great group of folks here!

Flybill2

 

[BlackTracer]

When you are where your phone's voice and data cannot be used and want to fly:
-- Leave your phone in airplane mode. Turn on wifi. Turn off automatic network switching.
-- Connect to the phantom extender wifi per the manual.
-- fly.
-- this will use no voice/data that you have to pay for.

If you cannot connect to the internet at all, you will not have map data for use in the Ground Station feature or Find My Phantom feature. If you can connect to the internet via wifi in this area, go into GS and navigate to the area you are going to fly and cache the maps (already said in other post). Same for Find My Phantom I think.

 

[aartsf]

And, any ideas what maps you refer to and where I would get them?

Thanks.

You need to have the google-maps-app loaded on your tablet/phone. When you want to go flying in a different area then where you live, you need to get wifi-acces to the internet in the neigbourhood and open the groundstation within the dji app. The area map will be loaded automatically from google maps within the cache-memory. Then you can close the the internet-wifi connection. Now you can go out in the area and you will be able to fly in the area using groundstation without internet/cellphone connection, because you will have the area maps already on you device. The wifi will then we used for the connection of your (groundstation) app with the bird.
Sounds possibly more complicated than it is [emoji12] Nontheless understandable?

 

[flybill2]

Thank you all.

My P2 V3.0 arrived yesterday, flew it today following all your guidance about connecting up the smart phone to the Phantom.

Marvellous.

Oh, and do pay attention to the warnings when the battery is running low. Otherwise, the "brains" take over and fly it home... which is fine, unless you are under some trees when that happens!

Cheers,

FB2