Understanding the phone/tablet requirements

Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
35
Reaction score
1
We both have Samsung Galaxy S5 phones. We also have Kindle Fires and a Verizon Ellipsis tablet. If I understand (which is questionable), we should be okay with the S5 phones but the Kindles and Ellipsis won't work because they don't have GPS capabilities.

I'm confused about the WiFi need or no need. I thought I'd read somewhere that the phone or tablet was connected to the controller and just served as a monitor. That the signal was being received by the controller and the image was sent to the monitor via the cable. It was not using WiFi to receive the image and did not increase data usage.

From the "Recommended Devices" listed in specs on DJI's site, all of the iPads listed say Wifi + Cellular. I noticed in the DJI Phantom 3 Pro/Advanced, Quick Start Guide video on Youtube, the 4G and all bars were showing on the tablet. I hate to pay another whatever/month for a data plan from Verizon but I can see where a larger screen would be a great benefit so am interested in a tablet. If I could find one of the compatible tablets used, would I need to have Wifi on it too?

If I purchased a tablet, would the smallest (and least expensive) 16gig work well enough? Isn't the actual video stored on the card in the camera? I have a 64gig card for the camera. I'm resisting adding another gizmo to spend money for and cart around!

Sort of off this subject but I have Cyberlink PowerDirector that I use to edit video from my camera and create travel DVDs of our trips. Does anyone here use that to edit the Phantom vids? I can see this drone purchase morphing into a vampire that sucks money as well as blood!

Thanks for advice!
 
Your S5 will work fine on its own, but is a pretty small screen. I don't know about a native Kindle Fire, but the Eclipse could very well work. The need for GPS in the tablet, or whatever screen is running the controller, is only for dynamically setting your return to home point. Data is not required at all while flying and is only needed to retrieve map data for where you plan to fly. This can be done at any time prior to flying.. at home for example. There are dozens of threads talking about picking a tablet.

As far as editing... Cyberlink PowerDirector will allow you to do what ever cut/paste work you might want to do. but it affords little to nothing when it comes to color correction or adding any sort of effects.
 
I flew with a super cheapl $45 digland android tablet, it had worked a few times. We have 2 p3s and I bought it to be cheap when flying both as we only have one mini iPad new enough to work.
Well yesterday, and I blame it on the tablet, I lost apparent communication and I was plenty close enough that it wasn't signal strength but it was out of sight.
I hit the return button and eventually it came back and as it descended I could control it just fine but the screen still said no signal and the video was frozen.
So this was my experience with a non approved tablet. I think the base never lost contact so pushing rth button is what got her home, not losing signal.
 
Your S5 is the same as my Oppo 7....
Don`t forget before open the app Pilot, to kill all applications, to go "Google Services" and return the application to factory mode, turn OFF updates on Google Play.

If you don`t do it, probably you Pilot application will crash, like mine before...
Also, i remove all cases, even the original to cool better the phone.

Waiting for my cheap ChuwiVi8 tablet....
 
We both have Samsung Galaxy S5 phones. We also have Kindle Fires and a Verizon Ellipsis tablet. If I understand (which is questionable), we should be okay with the S5 phones but the Kindles and Ellipsis won't work because they don't have GPS capabilities.

I'm confused about the WiFi need or no need. I thought I'd read somewhere that the phone or tablet was connected to the controller and just served as a monitor. That the signal was being received by the controller and the image was sent to the monitor via the cable. It was not using WiFi to receive the image and did not increase data usage.

From the "Recommended Devices" listed in specs on DJI's site, all of the iPads listed say Wifi + Cellular. I noticed in the DJI Phantom 3 Pro/Advanced, Quick Start Guide video on Youtube, the 4G and all bars were showing on the tablet. I hate to pay another whatever/month for a data plan from Verizon but I can see where a larger screen would be a great benefit so am interested in a tablet. If I could find one of the compatible tablets used, would I need to have Wifi on it too?

If I purchased a tablet, would the smallest (and least expensive) 16gig work well enough? Isn't the actual video stored on the card in the camera? I have a 64gig card for the camera. I'm resisting adding another gizmo to spend money for and cart around!

Sort of off this subject but I have Cyberlink PowerDirector that I use to edit video from my camera and create travel DVDs of our trips. Does anyone here use that to edit the Phantom vids? I can see this drone purchase morphing into a vampire that sucks money as well as blood!

Thanks for advice!
In my experience, if you have anything installed on a 16 GB other than Pilot app (beast on iOS over 100 MB so make sure to install it on wifi) installed, the 2 GB video cache (for smooth flight video feed) will fill up quickly with the storage slowing down as it fills up. You will also be constantly deleting video cache off the 16 GB tablet as the smaller video files will quickly fill it up to the point of problems in flight. iPad mini 2 with bigger storage options and even cellular are now heavily discounted as Apple prepares a new launch next month. If you all you are looking is a tablet for display and small general purpose than this is your best bet as iOS app is far better than android in performance and the 7in mini 2 is the sweet spot for the Phantom 3 controller.
 
So the vids are stored on the tablet or phone or both? What does the scan disk in the camera do? I just clicked "buy" on a iPad Mini 2 with 16gig. I might use it to surf around while we're traveling but don't play games.

I'll set up the app like Phantom Help suggests. Thanks!
 
the vids are stored on the tablet or phone or both?
You cannot use a tablet and phone at the same time.

The videos are always stored on the memory card. They will also be stored on the tablet/phone if you have #7 (Video Cache) enabled at my link above.
 
You cannot use a tablet and phone at the same time.

The videos are always stored on the memory card. They will also be stored on the tablet/phone if you have #7 (Video Cache) enabled at my link above.

I'm sorry... I meant to ask if the vids were stored on the card in the cam AND the phone or tablet. If they're on the camera, why would they need to be stored on the phone/tablet? I got a 64 gig card for the camera thinking that's where the vids would be stored.

While there is quite a bit of info on the DJI Phantom pages, they assume everyone is a techie and already understand how the cam-tablet/phone-app-heli all work together. It's mind boggling for a non-tech person. I don't need to know the details but a basic understanding would be helpful when making some decisions.

Thanks for your help! The iPad will be here Wed and then I'll get the app downloaded and follow your suggestions on how to set it up.
 
Make sure you pick up an iPad cable too. You'll need it to connect your iPad to the remote controller. The Cambond Lightning cable works well since it's not as long as a standard Apple Lightning cable.
 
Last edited:
Recoding the video to the tablet is great to have if you have a crash or your p3 is at the bottom of a lake. The more evidence the better if you want to prove it wasn't pilot error
 
I ordered the iPad cable. Cha-ching. Again! I hope this is the last cha-ching I cough up for awhile for this toy.

I have another question sort of about the tablet. Does it need to be "on line" with a Wifi connection? I thought I read somewhere that it doesn't but then something I just read somewhere made me think it did.

Thanks for all of the help!
 
I ordered the iPad cable. Cha-ching. Again! I hope this is the last cha-ching I cough up for awhile for this toy.

I have another question sort of about the tablet. Does it need to be "on line" with a Wifi connection? I thought I read somewhere that it doesn't but then something I just read somewhere made me think it did.

Thanks for all of the help!
Only to cache your maps which you can do that at the house . google map cache usually stays for about 30 days to.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers