Sooooo..... Whose returning their P4?

[Marc Hufnagel]

I exchanged mine once at the apple store. Kept getting a pesky 'gimbal at end of range' in both normal and sport mode. New one doesn't do that. No issues at all , apple stores are always stellar

 

[Baldrick]

BWAHAHA Phantom 2! Upgradeable, interchangeable and invincible.
No in all honesty I'm very glad I haven't upgraded. I can upgrade camera whenever, and it's made to be easily stripped and parts changed and add-ons.

 

[pomonabill220]

He doesn't deserve even an answer. We're talking about quality of the still and he answered talking about how funny is to scare cows and how rich he is like if he is the only one that can buy a p4 without problems. [emoji1]

Yeah... isn't he special! Could care less!
As Benny Hill would say.... "BIIIIIGGGGGG DEEEAALLLL!"

 

[Noble 1]

I regret selling my original P3P. It was dialed with DBS.

I don't regret buying the P4.

I'm keeping it for sure, even if I hadn't sold my P3P. However I spent so much time and money and energy trying to improve the P3P; it's like- I knew it was an unfinished product. I spent hours in post production... Why?! Can you believe I tried to mod the battery for flight time and hack the software to allow unrestricted speed? I contemplated adding OA, and when I realized the P4 had it already figured out for me it was a no brainier. The P4 is a finished product.

Do we agree with DJI's new "FCC compliant range 3.1 (5 km)" hell no! It's bs. I don't think Apple had anything to do with it- Apple ID just the smartest marketing decision for DJI... They market to the right crowds. DJI is a big corporation, it's covering it's rear by being FCC compliant.

From my personal testing I'm getting more range with the P4 and substantially more flight time. I plan to buy an older original transmitter and put DBS on it. If I could replace the actual transmitter modules with 1 watt (also FCC compliant - technically) I would. Not for range necessarily but to reduce signal loss in all situations, whether it is long range or just highly congested area.

Besides I originally bought the P3P so my youth boys group could film each other doing sports with active track / formerly "follow me". It was a setup catastrophe! Tethered!!??. The boys gave up! Now with the P4 it's literally "tap and go"... Amazing!

And to top it off I don't have to worry too much about the youth group boys decapitating each other.

Safety first. If someone said I'll mod your P3 to be safer, fly longer, and have less accidents for couple hundred dollars you'd do it. And I'll guarantee you'll spend way more time and money tuning and working out bugs with a voided warranty!


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[Justgregg]

Mine wouldnt upgrade, faulty usb port on the ship. Exchanged it in ten minutes at the apple store and everything is fine now.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Hmmm, did I not read elsewhere that Apple won't accept returns as they're not Apple products and therefore they are subject to 3rd party warranty conditions? Which = DJI returns policy which is that as soon as you fly it, you can't return it. You can exchange but not return.

Apple will accept them back even if flown within 14 days.
DJI will allow a return within 7 days, if flown, only with a manufacturing defect, according to the written return policy on their website, but they will lie to you on the phone, including their managers, and tell you they do not offer refunds if you have ever flown the aircraft. Don't let them discourage you! Demand your refund request form and get your shipping label anyway. Three manufacturing defects are common to all P4's: defective controller which will not sustain signal past 6,700 feet at sea level at 400 feet AGL when it should be 3.1 miles, defective battery which will not support a 28 plus minute flight in Atti mode (12 minutes instead), defective charger which will not top off a 95% charged battery. Lastly, defective gimbals are also common, which squeak and squeal, and generate "maximum gimbal angle exceeded" errors and lock up the gimbal in flight. Pick one or all, on your reason for a refund within 7 days, if you have activated and flown the aircraft. If they send you a "Return" shipping label, instead of a repair one, your return has already been approved. Knowledge is power!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm trading mine in for one of these.

ALTA 8

Starting at only $1154/ mo! Yup! That's the ticket!

 

[peterepeat69]

China on newer products purposely lower their MAH to save money, it's quite normal actually. They need a company like apple usa to monitor their quality control.


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[GadgetGuy]

I'm NOT. This is a great flying camera and with only a few flights I can tell a big difference in image quality and flight time. I'm not understanding what is 2-5 miles away. Where I live here in Texas we have roads that will get me within 1/4 mile or closer from anything I want to shoot. I don't think I'll ever need to exceed 1 mile.

If you you lived in an urban area, with gridlock traffic, and it took 30 minutes in that traffic to drive 3 miles to the beach, so you could then spend another 10 minutes hunting for a parking space, you'd learn to appreciate flying over all that congestion at 30-45 mph in under 5 minutes from home, for photography and video at the beach. The return flight in under 5 minutes is just as enjoyable!

 

[GadgetGuy]

You cant return it to DJI if you flown it, and you would only know if you have issues if you have flown it lol

Unless you have gotten it from apple

You can still return it to DJI within 7 days even if you have flown it, but not if you believe their lies on the phone. Their written return policy on the website controls, not what some guy on the phone is told to tell you! Demand your return label, if you want a refund.

 

[GadgetGuy]

No, issues. I think I'm the only one who got increased range with the Phantom 4. Its gone way farther than my P3P. Battery Life seems about the same though.

You must have had a bad P3P.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I personally would hang onto it if I had spent the cash to get one, there is a high chance that they will fix the issues with a firmware update. The p4 has some great features, OA, SPORT MODE, FOLLOW ME ect...
Be a shame to send it back, buy a p3p then read a week later on this forum about how updated firmware is giving everyone 3.5 miles and back with 20% battery remaining every day of the week !!!

Agreed about the great features on the P4. However, that firmware update is about as likely as the FAA eliminating all NFZ's!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Im looking forward finding the company that will be selling all the returned P4s. I will buy a used one for a back up. Great ship!Love mine.

PixelHub has first right of refusal on all of them!

 

[GadgetGuy]

There is no battery or range problems on mine. I got 20,100 feet and had no signal issues. I flew it for 24-25 mins and had 9% left on the battery. Same flight.


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Want to trade for my P4?
Oh, DJI has it back now, but I'm sure they'll be happy to send me another lemon!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I got 21 min five seconds on the first flight of my p4 this morning.

Glad you got a good one!

 

[peterepeat69]

Well a chinese company that made 1 billion last year im sure they can afford to take returns


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[Tenly]

I currently own 2 Phantom 3 Advanced units and I was originally pretty hyped about buying the P4 - based on the announcement. I was waiting for my bonus in June to actually make the purchase and I think I'm glad I did! There's no doubt the P4 has got some cool new features, but the big ones for me were the "increased" range and the increased flight time. The object avoidance was nice - but without a 360 degree camera gimbal, I don't get why the sensors are only on the front? To get the shot i want, most of the time I am flying the drone with a yaw >90 degrees.

On a whim, I emailed DJI and asked if they had plans to offer the new Lightbridge system with the increased range as an upgrade to to the Phantom 3 A/P and I was surprised by their response which stated that the P3 A/P and the P4 used the exact same Lightbridge system! I opened up my P3 manual and sure enough - it stated that the range was "up to 5km" just like the P4. So - I'm not sure I believe the posts here which claim that the P4 is providing longer range. Unless there's a change in the antenna type or position, it's unlikely that the P4 would provide any increase in range.

Reading the posts here about the battery life being disappointing has sealed the deal for me. I'm going to skip this upgrade and spend some money upgrading the P4A. First up will be the ITEDBS02 antenna, a headlight, some flashy LED strips, a couple extra batteries and possibly a 3D FPV system (already have the Sony 3D goggles).

Are there any other "must have" upgrades to the Phantom 3 Advanced that anyone would recommend?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm guessing reduced P4 flying time is the result of output to power the object censor. If I'm right the question is whether or not object avoidance is worth sacrificing some flying time.

If that is the situation I suppose it would depend on terrain where one usually flies. If it's a wide open space with no trees or buildings, then object avoidance is not worth the trade-off. But if one needs to contend with trees, buildings, power-line pylons, telephone poles, etc., then object avoidance is an extremely valuable feature which is well worth sacrificing some air time for.

All three of my P4 flights were with OAS turned off. 16 minutes, 15 minutes, and then finally 12 minutes in all Atti mode (95% to 7%).

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well a chinese company that made 1 billion last year im sure they can afford to take returns


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Doesn't mean that Chinese company won't still tell their Customer Service reps to lie to customers on the phone, telling them it against "company policy" to accept a return, if you have ever flown the aircraft, even if it is still within 7 days, and you have also discovered multiple manufacturing defects, and their written website return policy states otherwise.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I exchanged mine once at the apple store. Kept getting a pesky 'gimbal at end of range' in both normal and sport mode. New one doesn't do that. No issues at all , apple stores are always stellar

That's the exact same error message I got on my 3rd and final P4 flight, after a squeaky gimbal during bootups! During the error message, the recorded video flipped to a 45° angle from horizontal! Glad a replacement fixed it!