Stupid beginner questions

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Greetings all, I have enjoyed reading this forum and have learned a lot! I am in the process of ordering a Vision+ ( and a roll of tinfoil back tape) <:
But have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with.

I ran a search for available satellites through http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com/ for my location ( NW Coast of Costa Rica) and saw for next couple of months, the most satellites I could acquire during the day is 8. I am reading about guys getting up to 12...should this be a major concern for a newbie pilot..
For the start of my flying I want as many satellites as possible to ensure the HL option.

Now i know nobody can answer this..but...should I wait and see if a new and improved Vision is coming up...has anyone heard of a possible replacement for the Vision plus...

Thanks in Advance, and I am happy I found this forum.
 
:D I wouldn't wait either. Vision + is awesome and you are in a beautiful location!
On the satellite concern, I would not do the tin foil mod until you see a problem.
Looking forward to seeing your pictures and videos.
 
Thanks for the replies....I am still unsure about ordering...need to decide soon tho..
Here is a small clip made by a travel blogger who came through our little town last Xmas. The hillsides are brown because the rainy season was over...right now it is all bright green..

Watching this video convinced me that I needed a Vision+
Our town...we refer to it as a drinking village with a fishing problem !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGl7jfrvvuo
 
I realize it doesn't happen to everyone, but, normally when you turn on recording, how many satellites do you lose? If you start with 8 you should be ok? I think you need 6 to maintain gps?
Thanks for the help for the newbie
 
What about a P2Z? I would definitely not exchange it for a Vision+...
 
I run a program on my phone that tells me there are only 9 "GPS" satellites in my area... however when I connect the phantom I get more.. so wouldn't worry to much.. perhaps the apps are not aware of new sats or something.
 
Depends on how much cash you have. I got mine when it was first released. Love it. I've been flying with it for several months. But there are lots of areas to improve. The gimbal is flimsy. The ribbon cable is horrible and rips easily and replacement ribbons are impossible to find. The video is on the wrong frequency to be compatible with the FatShark FPV goggles. The WiFi module overheats and fails. There have been a rash of bad batteries.

None of this stuff is a deal breaker but DJI knows about these issues. If they come out with another model it will probably address at least some of them and be an improved model. A logical time to release would be late October to early November for the Christmas season.

So if you have mountains of cash and you are always buying new stuff then go ahead and buy today. If this is going to be your only drone for the next few years then you should hold off a bit and see what DJI releases.

Don't forget CES2015 is coming up in January. DJI sometimes shows off products then. I guess you could end up waiting and waiting always worried a new model was just around the corner. In the end it's your call.
 
SSR99 said:
I realize it doesn't happen to everyone, but, normally when you turn on recording, how many satellites do you lose? If you start with 8 you should be ok? I think you need 6 to maintain gps?

Just do the foil mod ... the improvement is great.
Instant lock on for about 10 sats for me since I did it and up to 16 in the air.
 
In all the places I've flown, in a number of states and even Quebec, there was only one time I failed to get satellite lock. 5 satellites but no matter how long I waited could not get a 6th. Even 200' up it didn't get more. That convinced me to do the shielding mod (plus I never had that problem in 150 flights with the P2V). Now I routinely get 8 satellites on the ground and more than 12 in the air. So don't worry about that (although I think it's pretty lame that the shielding they added works so poorly). Before the mod I didn't lose more than 1 satellite while shooting - now, none.

Buy now or buy later? Well you should've seen how many people were so pissed off when they announced the P2V+ last spring. Get over it. The "old" one is still good. I wouldn't hesitate but if this is a one-shot deal for you or you think you might hate yourself, then wait a month or two. That's probably all it will be. My SLR is 7 years old and takes absolutely wonderful photos.
 
SSR99 said:
should I wait and see if a new and improved Vision is coming up...has anyone heard of a possible replacement for the Vision plus...

No-one has heard anything and any talk is purely conjecture. DJI probably won't leak any info either.
But perhaps you could wait 6 months or more.
If you want to fly Phantom, just do it. The P2+ is great.
 

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