Turning off vps?

sandman259 · May 21, 2016

Has anybody turned there's off before to see if they got better battery life?

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

CactusJackSlade · May 21, 2016

I have never used mine from day one.... I get 19-21 minutes of actual video/flight time if I want to - that is landing at 23-25%

sandman259 · May 21, 2016

I might play around with it and see if I notice a difference. I never fly indoors or without gps so I probably won't miss it...

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

With The Birds · May 21, 2016

I turned vps off at flight 10 (first over watet flight) and havent had it on since. Dont recall and significant change in flight time.

msinger · May 21, 2016

It will not make a noticeable difference.

sandman259 · May 21, 2016

I wonder why the standards flight time is 2 mins more then? I was thinking this would be the only difference...

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

msinger · May 21, 2016

The P3S is lighter and does not use Lightbridge. Perhaps those are factors.

matti · May 21, 2016

Does turning VPS off affect landing (outside with good GPS) in any way?

msinger · May 21, 2016

matti said:
Does turning VPS off affect landing (outside with good GPS) in any way?

No.

matti · May 21, 2016

msinger said:
No.

Thanks for the info. I presumed VPS would fine-tune the AC horizontal position more than GPS could.

sandman259 · May 21, 2016

I was thinking the vps made it more bouncy on landing. My standard would land softer where as the advanced seams to touch ground for a sec then kind of bounced before landing if that makes any sense...

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

msinger · May 21, 2016

sandman259 said:
My standard would land softer where as the advanced seams to touch ground for a sec then kind of bounced before landing if that makes any sense

A lot of previous P3S owners have noted this. The landing is not as soft with VPS disabled either.

DefaultIT · May 21, 2016

Landing is 90% of the reason I have mine off most of the time. P3P really resists setting down in atti mode with VPS on, to the point where it can be difficult to nail a small landing mat since the craft shoots back up to 18 inches or so when it senses the ground is too close.

I have not noticed any improvement in flight time.

BVC · May 21, 2016

matti said:
Does turning VPS off affect landing (outside with good GPS) in any way?

Yes it does. VPS will make for a rough/bouncy landing.

msinger said:
No.

Incorrect - see above.

sandman259 said:
I was thinking the vps made it more bouncy on landing. My standard would land softer where as the advanced seams to touch ground for a sec then kind of bounced before landing if that makes any sense...

I agree. My father has the P3P and I the P3A.

Just flying on my own I noticed that VPS caused my landing to be jumpy/bouncy. I did not like this. I turned VPS off (didn't know I could until I found it trying to find another option) and instantly noticed after that flight that my landing was far more smooth and easy going. I have to say.. the bird was a bit of a flirt at this point in time.

So I took notice in this and went on my way with my new few flights. Then when met up with my father a few days or weeks later I noticed his landing vs my landing (VPS on his, off on mine). The difference is night and day!

I'm personally not a fan of VPS. I don't think the system really works. I tried using it in the Redwood forest in CA and just following the road (paved/maintained) it did not do a very good job. I couldn't get a GPS signal and the **** bird was just all over the place as if it had a six pack of beer after doing some body shots off some hot unicorns.

msinger · May 21, 2016

BVC said:
Incorrect - see above.

He's asking if turning off VPS will have a negative impact. The answer is most certainly no. Thank you for sharing your experience though.

jonebk12 · May 21, 2016

I've never turned VPS off and I can pretty much always set my P3A down gently. Really, I've never had an issue, but I've never compared so maybe I'll turn it off next time just to see if there's a difference.

Scotty88 · May 21, 2016

I have experienced the same with my p3a with vps on, just before touch down it climbs a bit and then comes down smoothly. Going be Turing vps off [emoji1303]

BVC · May 21, 2016

msinger said:
He's asking if turning off VPS will have a negative impact. The answer is most certainly no. Thank you for sharing your experience though.

Again, incorrect.

He asked if it affected the landing in any way (Does turning VPS off affect landing (outside with good GPS) in any way?). The answer is clearly yes - VPS does affect landing in one way or another. So turning off VPS will indeed change the affects, yes?

sandman259 · May 21, 2016

I would think it also uses a little bit of battery power to operate so it should give you a smidge more battery life....

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

BVC · May 21, 2016

jonebk12 said:
I've never turned VPS off and I can pretty much always set my P3A down gently. Really, I've never had an issue, but I've never compared so maybe I'll turn it off next time just to see if there's a difference.

Give it a whirl. I found turning it off turns the bird into a manual vertical control vs assisted control.