Solution for P4 range/battery life issues - Updated with Contact from DJI!

My P4 is 3 days old, first 5 flights came in around 14% to 25% battery. Yesterday left at 98% flew over 7000 meters under 2 km range, P mode all ON, 5mph+- wind. Flew 24 minutes and landed at 18%. Nothing wrong with that! To chicken for distance, for now.
 
I believe he was suggesting that even a windsurfer on the stock P4 TX will vastly improve results, when it is pointed directly at the aircraft. It can almost triple the lousy range of the stock P4 Tx. Without a windsurfer, I get 2,500 feet. With one I get 6,700 feet. However, with an FPVLR v2 mod with boosters, I easily get 3+ miles with the P4, and with my boosted ITE-DBS02 setup, I have gotten up to 5.8 miles, which is at the very edge of the stock battery's flight time for a direct out and back flight, under ideal conditions, in the hands of an expert long range pilot, who can squeeze every last drop out of any setup!:D Eat your heart out Keith! ;)
View attachment 51515
Nicely done bro!!


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24 minutes? Hmmmm..... Seems like an exception to the rule.....
My best time flying with no wind, very little hovering and starting at 98% battery is 22 minutes, and landing at 11 % Battery left [emoji15]. Really scary, and still way far from the claimed 28 minutes.....


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24 minutes? Hmmmm..... Seems like an exception to the rule.....
My best time flying with no wind, very little hovering and starting at 98% battery is 22 minutes, and landing at 11 % Battery left [emoji15]. Really scary, and still way far from the claimed 28 minutes.....


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The P3P never got 23 minutes, either. I average 15-17 minutes on my original W323 P3P's with original motors without a battery mod. Stock flight time on the P4 (from 100% to 10% remaining) can range from a low of 12 minutes up to 25 minutes, depending upon how you fly. On average, it's about 22 minutes for me. Still needs a battery mod, too!
 
This story I am about to say is so amazing, I wanted to start a thread about it but didn't think it was worthy of a thread so I'm glad this one is alive.

This actually happened. I will be paraphrasing obviously but it's generally verbatim (I know that's an oxymoron for all my lits).

So I noticed that one of the four little pieces that let you get into the landing/gear to reach the antenna exists. At least I think the antenna is still in there. Was on the P3Xs.

The point is that there are four removable "caps" for lack of a better word that are held on by 3 little pieces of plastic that pop in and out of place so if you want to you can get in the bird at that location to check or move the antenna, add a new one? I dunno, it's there. I noticed that one of my four was quite loose on my newer one (the one that I love).

I called the Burbank DJI USA headquarters and told the girl that answered the phone after a lengthy wait (maybe 25-30 mins) :

"Hi there, how are you today?" I say to her. "Fine, what can we help you with today". I say "The four little part on the legs where the antenna is, I have one that is loose because the three little prongs has a loose one and this thing is less than a week old."

She says "the antenna? So you mean the remote". "No mam, I meant the legs on the phantom itself where the antenna is". "The antenna is on the remote sir". At this point, I knew she knew nothing but I didn't care, I just wanted the to send me the little piece so I can make sure it doesn't fly off in flight. "No mam, I mean in the legs of the craft where the antenna receiver is for the bird"....After I hear her speaking quietly to someone "ohhhhh, you mean the landing gear". Me, "oh yeah, sorry I should have been more clear". So once she figures out what the piece is she tells me "You need to send it in and we will fix it for you". "You want me to send it in for a .03 part that I can snap on and off myself?" I say and she says "Yes sir, it's the only way we can do it".

I say "well thats a problem!". Now I'm all of a sudden pissed just because I can't believe how bad their US service is. For the record, their China service is really good. They just hire people that say this:

Being annoyed, I turned into a jerk and I apologized to her but I was just curious so I say "I'm just curious, this is DJI Customer tech support, right?". "Yes sir.". I ask, literally testing her and letting her know I'm doing that (cant believe she didnt just hang up on me. Mam, do you know what two different GHZ the Phantom operates on?"...."Excuse me sir?" like she didn't even know what I meant! And then I ask again and she didn't know and she admitted it but after taking a break for a second and asking me to hold on she magically comes back with an answer, I then ask "ok, mam do you know what the ISM radio signals are that the Phantom legally operates on". Now she really has no F'n idea what I am talking about and then she admits she doesn't know what the MC settings are, let alone where they are and I just said "Mam, I feel bad for you. It's obnoxious of DJI to put you in the position you are in. It's not your fault and I am sorry for degrading you like that but I was just curious how unwell they train you. I don't blame you one bit and I hope you don't feel degraded, I think it is wrong for DJI to do this to you or to us".

Hung up in shock and without out my .03 piece of plastic of which I will get when I call China in a few minutes.

Tech service my arse.
 
This story I am about to say is so amazing, I wanted to start a thread about it but didn't think it was worthy of a thread so I'm glad this one is alive.

This actually happened. I will be paraphrasing obviously but it's generally verbatim (I know that's an oxymoron for all my lits).

So I noticed that one of the four little pieces that let you get into the landing/gear to reach the antenna exists. At least I think the antenna is still in there. Was on the P3Xs.

The point is that there are four removable "caps" for lack of a better word that are held on by 3 little pieces of plastic that pop in and out of place so if you want to you can get in the bird at that location to check or move the antenna, add a new one? I dunno, it's there. I noticed that one of my four was quite loose on my newer one (the one that I love).

I called the Burbank DJI USA headquarters and told the girl that answered the phone after a lengthy wait (maybe 25-30 mins) :

"Hi there, how are you today?" I say to her. "Fine, what can we help you with today". I say "The four little part on the legs where the antenna is, I have one that is loose because the three little prongs has a loose one and this thing is less than a week old."

She says "the antenna? So you mean the remote". "No mam, I meant the legs on the phantom itself where the antenna is". "The antenna is on the remote sir". At this point, I knew she knew nothing but I didn't care, I just wanted the to send me the little piece so I can make sure it doesn't fly off in flight. "No mam, I mean in the legs of the craft where the antenna receiver is for the bird"....After I hear her speaking quietly to someone "ohhhhh, you mean the landing gear". Me, "oh yeah, sorry I should have been more clear". So once she figures out what the piece is she tells me "You need to send it in and we will fix it for you". "You want me to send it in for a .03 part that I can snap on and off myself?" I say and she says "Yes sir, it's the only way we can do it".

I say "well thats a problem!". Now I'm all of a sudden pissed just because I can't believe how bad their US service is. For the record, their China service is really good. They just hire people that say this:

Being annoyed, I turned into a jerk and I apologized to her but I was just curious so I say "I'm just curious, this is DJI Customer tech support, right?". "Yes sir.". I ask, literally testing her and letting her know I'm doing that (cant believe she didnt just hang up on me. Mam, do you know what two different GHZ the Phantom operates on?"...."Excuse me sir?" like she didn't even know what I meant! And then I ask again and she didn't know and she admitted it but after taking a break for a second and asking me to hold on she magically comes back with an answer, I then ask "ok, mam do you know what the ISM radio signals are that the Phantom legally operates on". Now she really has no F'n idea what I am talking about and then she admits she doesn't know what the MC settings are, let alone where they are and I just said "Mam, I feel bad for you. It's obnoxious of DJI to put you in the position you are in. It's not your fault and I am sorry for degrading you like that but I was just curious how unwell they train you. I don't blame you one bit and I hope you don't feel degraded, I think it is wrong for DJI to do this to you or to us".

Hung up in shock and without out my .03 piece of plastic of which I will get when I call China in a few minutes.

Tech service my arse.
So do you speak Chinese, or can anyone from the U.S. call China and speak to a more responsive person than they get in Los Angeles? What's the number you call in China? We could all benefit from this...:cool:
 
So do you speak Chinese, or can anyone from the U.S. call China and speak to a more responsive person than they get in Los Angeles? What's the number you call in China? We could all benefit from this...:cool:
+86 0755 26656677
And they speak better English (at least the people I've spoken to) better than most of the people on this forum. ;)

Call them using international skype and it costs basically nothing.
 
After that "brief" intermission ....

Back on topic about range/battery life....

Flying in P Mode with OA on
f0cdf06fb95a5d4dd993f4225336b75a.jpg

[emoji106]


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After that "brief" intermission ....

Back on topic about range/battery life....

Flying in P Mode with OA on
f0cdf06fb95a5d4dd993f4225336b75a.jpg

[emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
To be fair, the app Flight Log Summary page always rounds up to the nearest whole minute, so even if the flight lasted only 1 second longer, 27:01 is reported as 28 minutes. However, your flight times are impressive, and P mode with OAS on is the way to achieve them, primarily because it limits speed to a maximum of 22 mph. At what speed are you flying, on average?
 
660da0dc4dee6584c6e61495f86840cd.jpg

Next time I'll hover for 14 more seconds and it will say 29 minutes... Feet flown is right on the page... I fly according to the terrain... Take some pics and vids.... Hover and look around etc... These flights aren't to see how long the battery lasts... These are my "real world" flights... Just like the 20791' flight AND return to home flight... Wasn't trying to push it, it just happened that way... Stock P4 and RC w Taco RC Windsurfer.


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660da0dc4dee6584c6e61495f86840cd.jpg

Next time I'll hover for 14 more seconds and it will say 29 minutes... Feet flown is right on the page... I fly according to the terrain... Take some pics and vids.... Hover and look around etc... These flights aren't to see how long the battery lasts... These are my "real world" flights... Just like the 20791' flight AND return to home flight... Wasn't trying to push it, it just happened that way... Stock P4 and RC w Taco RC Windsurfer.


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You give the rest of us hope. :cool:
Maybe the early P4 batteries were substandard!
I now have 7 batteries. Must be a couple good ones among them!
My P4 battery mod will supplement them. I've heard some are reaching close to 40 minutes, with two 2800 mah MaxAmp externals hooked up in parallel! Everything still fits in the original styrofoam case. Good times ahead!
 
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24 minutes? Hmmmm..... Seems like an exception to the rule.....
My best time flying with no wind, very little hovering and starting at 98% battery is 22 minutes, and landing at 11 % Battery left [emoji15]. Really scary, and still way far from the claimed 28 minutes.....


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
Nah, not for me, I did a LOT of hovering in atti mode today, got bored and took it to the presiding max altitude limit of 1640', then drove it around in sport mode a little, landed with 3% battery at 24m so, at top end you prolly can get 26-28 minutes. I cannot believe 24-25 minutes isn't good enough, I mean, if they made 45m batteries, how many would people buy then!? I bet 1/2hr batts will be top for a long time, even at 24m ave flight times, I got along with one battery pretty good, but I fly from backyard around the "island" (really a peninsula into a resort area lake golf course) and after 24 minutes I'm ready to come back anyway.


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This is without running bats to zero or anything.

IMG_0049_zpsagob1uav.png
The one time I ran a LiPo to zero, it was on a 1/18th scale ground up AWD street racer, first electric car I built the whole thing, hand picked everything from servos to motor, anyway, being new to the electric cars coming off 1/10 nitro my whole life, I ran the **** $100 battery to zero (like you would a NiMh or certainly a NiCd) and the next day drove back and bought another, I coulda said I had a bad battery, but that's not my way. So even at 3% I get a little nervous, have you run these to shutoff?


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The one time I ran a LiPo to zero, it was on a 1/18th scale ground up AWD street racer, first electric car I built the whole thing, hand picked everything from servos to motor, anyway, being new to the electric cars coming off 1/10 nitro my whole life, I ran the **** $100 battery to zero (like you would a NiMh or certainly a NiCd) and the next day drove back and bought another, I coulda said I had a bad battery, but that's not my way. So even at 3% I get a little nervous, have you run these to shutoff?


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I have before, yes.

I've run a couple by accident down to 5-8 but generally I always return it above 10.
 
Are you the one that zero'd one out in the air?
You can't zero one out in the air. It will land on its own. You can have a bad battery that goes from like 7 to 0 but at some point it will land itself whether you want it to or not.

And no, I wasn't the guy that ran it to zero.
 
The one time I ran a LiPo to zero, it was on a 1/18th scale ground up AWD street racer, first electric car I built the whole thing, hand picked everything from servos to motor, anyway, being new to the electric cars coming off 1/10 nitro my whole life, I ran the **** $100 battery to zero (like you would a NiMh or certainly a NiCd) and the next day drove back and bought another, I coulda said I had a bad battery, but that's not my way. So even at 3% I get a little nervous, have you run these to shutoff?


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I have, unintentionally! :eek: It's not pretty! The bottom end of the battery percentage remaining is not linear. If you are not within sight by the time 10% Autoland kicks in, you are asking for trouble, or one heck of a ride, while fighting the Autoland, trying to safely navigate it back. When in doubt, find a safe spot to ditch it and just let it Autoland, while you still have a few percent left on the battery! Then go get it! Battery shutoff at even 30 feet will usually total your aircraft!
 
You can't zero one out in the air. It will land on its own. You can have a bad battery that goes from like 7 to 0 but at some point it will land itself whether you want it to or not.

And no, I wasn't the guy that ran it to zero.
Uh, yes, you can! Ask me how I know! :eek: You can prevent the Autoland from descending with full left throttle stick, which maintains altitude, while you try and navigate it with the right stick. But you are correct: at some point it will "land itself" whether you want it to or not---it will crash to the ground when any cell reaches 2.99V, as that is the battery shutoff trigger voltage, whether in the air or not!
 
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