Some Newbie Questions

[kmaluo]

I fly 3D helicopters and I always thought I was too good for drones. That sounds horrible, but I guess I thought I'd never find them a challenge and would be bored pretty quickly. Well, I think I've been wrong! My brother called me up a couple days ago saying that he got some crazy Target deal on two Phantom 3 Standards. He's been waiting for some time and managed to pick them up on clearance, and after talking to a store manager, they were $225 each. So he asked me if I wanted one, and I knew it was a crazy price so I accepted.

I was blown away by how high tech these things are. I love gadgets and tinkering, so the Phantom 3 is right up my alley. Today I got a distant high altitude video of Pearl Harbor and checked out my Photo Voltaic panels on my second story roof. I was ecstatic.

I apologize if these has been covered, but couldn't find much on Google. So a few questions if you guys don't mind.

1) I lost contact with the Phantom and it returned home, but in the process, the 2K video on the SD stopped recording until reconnection was made. Is this normal? Any way around it?

2) What's the best way to land in grass without it getting into the camera lens?

3) Is FCC mode standard for all of the U.S.?

4) I was able to pan my camera right and left with rudder input once when I was on the ground, but can't figure out how to do that in the air.

5) What is the reasoning for the RTH feature landing where ever it is if it's within 20 meters of home? Anyway around this?

6) And finally, anyone try rolling their Phantoms mid air by giving extreme aileron input, cutting the power and restarting motors? Ha ha, had to ask since it's possible on the Phoenix flight simulator with an original Phantom.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Meta4]

1) I lost contact with the Phantom and it returned home, but in the process, the 2K video on the SD stopped recording until reconnection was made. Is this normal? Any way around it?
2) What's the best way to land in grass without it getting into the camera lens?
3) Is FCC mode standard for all of the U.S.?
4) I was able to pan my camera right and left with rudder input once when I was on the ground, but can't figure out how to do that in the air.
5) What is the reasoning for the RTH feature landing where ever it is if it's within 20 meters of home? Anyway around this?
6) And finally, anyone try rolling their Phantoms mid air by giving extreme aileron input, cutting the power and restarting motors? Ha ha, had to ask since it's possible on the Phoenix flight simulator with an original Phantom.

1. No ... that's not normal as the camera recording is unrelated to your wifi connection.
2. Hand catching
3. Yes .. and much of the non-European world
4. Rotate the Phantom right or left with left stick
5. I've never heard a good explanation, it's just the way it is, but you're not often going to RTH from <20metes away.

 

[kmaluo]

1. No ... that's not normal as the camera recording is unrelated to your wifi connection.
2. Hand catching
3. Yes .. and much of the non-European world
4. Rotate the Phantom right or left with left stick
5. I've never heard a good explanation, it's just the way it is, but you're not often going to RTH from <20metes away.

1) Here's the footage of video loss. 48 to 54 seconds into the video. Video resumes after about a minute of returning home.

2) serious? Throttle down while you're standing underneath? Wouldn't dare attempt this with one of my Helis. Chop my arm off. Lol

4) The actual camera was panning right and left on the ground. Maybe it was displaying following mode characteristics somehow even though it was not in the air.

5) It would have been handy for this boring video today if I had lost signal so close to the transmitter.

 

[kmaluo]

Ah ok I see the hand catch and release methods on YouTube. Does Home mark an altitude as well? Say I release the Phantom by hand on a sloped Sandy beach, will it sit at the height it was powered on at, or will it try to physically land?

 

[Tony Cowan]

Agree with what was said. No panning left to right. But you yaw left to right the bird. Don't forget home lock in your intelligent flight mode. This will allow you to be orientated regardless which way the nose points. Also. Adjust your antenna for strong video recording. If it is pointed at aircraft or directly overhead you might lose video feed. I had it stick for 10 secs the other day. But even though I lost feed it was still on the sd card. Glad to hear you've enjoyed your phantom. It's awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Meta4]

Does Home mark an altitude as well?

The altitude is recorded and used as the zero reference for altitude for the whole flight.
But it isn't used in landing.
The Phantom in an RTH auto landing situation will fly back to a point above home and descend until it can't descend any more.

 

[msinger]

1) Here's the footage of video loss. 48 to 54 seconds into the video. Video resumes after about a minute of returning home.

Did you pull this video off your mobile device or the memory card?

2) Throttle down while you're standing underneath?

It's best done like this:

4) The actual camera was panning right and left on the ground.

It does move to the sides ever so slightly. I wouldn't call that a pan though. Either way, you'll need to yaw in the air.

 

[KDFrosty]

I cant give much more input than what's already been said, but I will say that your video makes me want to move out of the desert. Thanks for sharing.

 

[kmaluo]

Thanks for the help! Yeah Hawaii makes for some great video opportunities. I want to take it to the beach sometime this week. But yeah, the first video was pulled straight off the Micro SD card, so I'm not sure why the glitch happened.

 

[Sabalon]

As for the landing in the grass, you can get longer legs off Amazon so that the camera is not right there on the ground. Keeps the fingers in tact too. No idea of quality or anything, but Amazon.com: Hobby-Ace Widened Extended Tall Landing Gear Landing Skid for DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advanced Standard（White）: Toys & Games

 

[kmaluo]

Great video quality today, but I didn't have the guts to go out of range again. But I believe the video discrepancies from the first video are related to the little blip in this video at the 6 second mark. Is that a low voltage to the camera issue? Or perhaps vibrations?