Video link loss and choppy video

[blacksmithden]

I'm a complete newbie to the quadcopter scene, so please bear with me.

I bought a DJI P3 Standard so my son an I could spend a little time together. We put it together tonight and took it for it's first flight. The flight part went great, except the thing would lost the video link between the camera and my phone after only 40 ft of altitude, straight above us. It was still recording....just no FPV to the phone. The light was fading, and upon examination of the video, I found that it was VERY choppy when rotating the bird, even fairly slow.

I'm hoping somebody is going to tell me that the video link loss is due to all the wifi routers here in our neighborhood. As for the choppy....strike that...massively jerky would better describe the video, I'm at a loss. I'm using the stock micro SD card that came with it, and we were recording in 2.7k. Is this possibly due to the low light conditions ? I'm planning on having another go at this tomorrow as soon as I get home from work, before I return this thing to Amazon. I can see SOME degradation of the signal due to local interference, but 40 ft straight up and then having total video signal loss every single time doesn't seem acceptable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to the forum
Am new to the P3 also and had the bad video to start with . Changed my settings from 2.7 to this and that fixed that
Seems I didn't have enough computer to process the higher .
As far as your distance issue make sure you are out of Beginner Mode .
Hope this helps and don't be so quick to send it back as the folks in here are the best
and if it's just setting issues someone will help you

 

[GoofyBird]

BlackSmith what phone are you using?

 

[blacksmithden]

Thanks for the replies guys. I took your advice dirkclod and turned the video down to 720p. That got rid of 99% of the chop/jerking. I think I'm in the same boat as you, and my laptop just doesn't have enough jam to process detail that high.

GoofyBird. It's a Samsung Galaxy S3. I know it's older, but it's handling everything just fine. I don't have a lot of stuff on it.

Tonight, we took it to a field that isn't surrounded by houses running wifi routers. I got it directly overhead and the video link was lost at 132 ft. Bring it down to 100 ft, and you get it back...take it back up, and lose it again. The place that I bought it from suggested that flying directly overhead is one of the worst places to try and maintain signal, and to try it out horizontally a ways. I did do one short hop away from where we were standing, but not very far. Honestly, I was keeping an eye on the bird, not on the phone at that point. I don't know if it lost the video link or not. More experimenting tomorrow. when I get home from work. It'll be so nice when the 2nd battery gets here and our flight time is doubled. My contract on my S3 is up at the end of November. I'm shooting for a Galaxy Note 5 if the budget permits.

Thanks again for the replies guys. I'm a ham radio guy from way back, and I'm just getting into the higher (above 440 mHz) frequencies, figuring out what works, and what doesn't. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute a fair bit more back into the community after I've had a chance to really play with the hardware end of things for a while. Right now, I just don't want to create a $1050 Cdn crater in the ground with the thing. Baby steps.

 

[GoofyBird]

Thanks for the replies guys. I took your advice dirkclod and turned the video down to 720p. That got rid of 99% of the chop/jerking. I think I'm in the same boat as you, and my laptop just doesn't have enough jam to process detail that high.

GoofyBird. It's a Samsung Galaxy S3. I know it's older, but it's handling everything just fine. I don't have a lot of stuff on it.

Tonight, we took it to a field that isn't surrounded by houses running wifi routers. I got it directly overhead and the video link was lost at 132 ft. Bring it down to 100 ft, and you get it back...take it back up, and lose it again. The place that I bought it from suggested that flying directly overhead is one of the worst places to try and maintain signal, and to try it out horizontally a ways. I did do one short hop away from where we were standing, but not very far. Honestly, I was keeping an eye on the bird, not on the phone at that point. I don't know if it lost the video link or not. More experimenting tomorrow. when I get home from work. It'll be so nice when the 2nd battery gets here and our flight time is doubled. My contract on my S3 is up at the end of November. I'm shooting for a Galaxy Note 5 if the budget permits.

Thanks again for the replies guys. I'm a ham radio guy from way back, and I'm just getting into the higher (above 440 mHz) frequencies, figuring out what works, and what doesn't. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute a fair bit more back into the community after I've had a chance to really play with the hardware end of things for a while. Right now, I just don't want to create a $1050 Cdn crater in the ground with the thing. Baby steps.

Don't know if I mentioned it but the Galaxy S4 that I use for Follow Me mode has very choppy FPV and with the small screen it is annoying but my ipad mini 2 is just wifi so no GPS. The mini is great with all else, clear and smooth. If I find myself using follow me a lot I may upgrade to the Mini 2 cellular, that way I won't have to switch and deal with the small screen.
Hope you get it figured out and you might as well invest in that 3rd battery, this is one addictive hobby, you will want that bird in the air as long and as often as possible.

 

[Amckim2084]

I'm new at this too. I have Standard and use galaxy S3 and galaxy tab 3 lite. I get choppy video in high quality but like others said, it most likely not enough juice in the laptop or phone to process it. I was lucky enough to not lose video but return to home would initiate at about 300ft up and 300ft out. There are cell towers near where I was flying though. I'm still having fun and trying new areas. We're both learning and I'm sure we'll catch up with the others

 

[dirkclod]

Don't know if I mentioned it but the Galaxy S4 that I use for Follow Me mode has very choppy FPV and with the small screen it is annoying but my ipad mini 2 is just wifi so no GPS. The mini is great with all else, clear and smooth. If I find myself using follow me a lot I may upgrade to the Mini 2 cellular, that way I won't have to switch and deal with the small screen.
Hope you get it figured out and you might as well invest in that 3rd battery, this is one addictive hobby, you will want that bird in the air as long and as often as possible.

I use the Mini 2 Retina with both and other than just the old screen not as bright as ya want problem that's always been there it works great
and have all new updates with no issues .
As far as

this is one addictive hobby

It only get's worse ! LOL
on my 5th one

 

[blacksmithden]

Ok. I've been doing a little experimenting since my last update. After taking this thing 25km out of town to the middle of nowhere, flying it to 400ft altitude (the altitude DJI makes their distance claims at)....making sure the antenna was at 90 degrees to the bird....making sure there were zero metal object/buildings/etc around me, I managed to maintain video out to 600 ft. At 700 ft, it lost the data signal as well and went into the return to home mode.

I took my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3) off the controller and had my son hold it....wifi still connected...airplane mode...bluetooth off....all other applications closed. At 400 ft altitude, we managed to get 1200 ft out of it before I lost the video link. That's much better, but still barely over 1/3rd of what DJI claims I should be getting. Aside from an antenna upgrade (which I'm seriously considering), I just don't know what else to do with this thing to try and get it out to the range they claim. Even 2/3rds I'd be more than happy with.

 

[happytreefriends]

Sorry man, but chalk it down to old hardware. Can't blame the Phantom for that.

I am running it on a 1 year old LG G3 as well as a cheap Insignia Elite 8" Android tablet I bought just for the Phantom ($150 at BestBuy) and my Video seems to outlast my Controller Signal on both.
Now over 2000feet in a suburban area with trees surrounding me.

Try a newer phone/tablet first.

 

[GoofyBird]

HTF is right Blacksmith, your equipment is antiquated tech, I had issues with the S4 and upgraded to ipad mini 2, no longer any issues.

 

[blacksmithden]

My cell phone contract is up in 6 weeks. I'm going to see if I can renew early and get a Galaxy Note 5.

 

[GoofyBird]

From what I've heard that will work.

 

[zibj1]

VLC player go to settings and change codecs....

 

[zibj1]

Antennas on rc must be horizontal when flying straight up

 

[blacksmithden]

I just wanted to update everyone. After updating my phone to a Galaxy Note 5, and going to one of the remotest locations I know (closest inhabited building is a mile away, zero wifi signals anywhere, and almost no cell reception...... I ran through a variety of tests. I ran through 5 batteries over an afternoon. I flew with me sitting at several different elevated positions, as well as on flat ground. I even climbed up on the metal roof of one of the structures where I was to try and see if having a better ground plane would help. No dice. I began losing video off and on after 500 ft, and once the bird had reached 1100 ft from home at 400ft agl, that was it. I never got further than that. Often I would be completely losing all signals at 700 ft, and did have one go home event at 400 ft.

Sorry gang, but I have given up on the Phantom 3 standard. As we speak, it's on it's way back to where it came from, and there's a new advanced on the way.

I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, this bird was just a little more deaf than most and after preforming I don't know how many different tests and tweaks, it was time to come to terms with reality.

Thanks...Den....

 

[GoofyBird]

I just wanted to update everyone. After updating my phone to a Galaxy Note 5, and going to one of the remotest locations I know (closest inhabited building is a mile away, zero wifi signals anywhere, and almost no cell reception...... I ran through a variety of tests. I ran through 5 batteries over an afternoon. I flew with me sitting at several different elevated positions, as well as on flat ground. I even climbed up on the metal roof of one of the structures where I was to try and see if having a better ground plane would help. No dice. I began losing video off and on after 500 ft, and once the bird had reached 1100 ft from home at 400ft agl, that was it. I never got further than that. Often I would be completely losing all signals at 700 ft, and did have one go home event at 400 ft.

Sorry gang, but I have given up on the Phantom 3 standard. As we speak, it's on it's way back to where it came from, and there's a new advanced on the way.

I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, this bird was just a little more deaf than most and after preforming I don't know how many different tests and tweaks, it was time to come to terms with reality.

Thanks...Den....

Hey Den,
I am real interested to hear how things go with the P3A when you get it, make sure to update us.

 

[dirkclod]

You get any grief from whom you bought it sending it back Den ?

 

[happytreefriends]

Any newer than 1 year old and current tech teblet or smartphone will work.

Heck even my 2.5 year old galaxy s4 worked smoothly with my P3s.

 

[Matthewd5]

Googybird, were you able to mount the iPad mini to the transmitter? Id love to use my mini than my iPhone 6

 

[GoofyBird]

Googybird, were you able to mount the iPad mini to the transmitter? Id love to use my mini than my iPhone 6

Yeah np but a 1st gen mini won't work, has to b a mini 2 or higher. I was using a galaxy s4 and I couldn't use the touch screen(fingers way too fat)It worked ok but the mini2 is much better. And it goes in the bracket sideways, just push in the two buttons on the side of the brkt (it slides up) will accommodate up to 8" wide.