Highest temperature I have flown is probably 35C, two batteries worth of flying and the iPad Mini 2 was fine. I'm not entirely sure if the choppy video is a heat thing as many people mention it with many different devices, perhaps it is the luck of the draw. If you read back through threads people generally attributed the heat problems with the later versions of the Pilot app. But as I say while I have been lucky with the iPad Mini 2 performance I have suffered from VPS issues with 1.2.8 ;-)
Of all my devices the one which get hot to touch is the iPhone 6, the Mini is cool as a cucumber.
My 1st gen iPad Air is perfect for my P3P setup. Large screen, lightweight, and they are starting to go for under $300 if you look around. I just bought my wife one for $265 new off a store on eBay.
Oso
Premium Pilot
The Mini 2/3 are widely reported to overheat in hot climates, but not so much in cooler climates or in the mornings when it's cooler and the Mini 2 should be fine. Do you have hardware decoding enabled in the app to use the Mini 2's GPU to decode the video stream vs a software decode?
Keep in mind that most tablets have a certain operating temperature and they are lower than you may think. iPads for instance have a listed max operating temp of only 95F/35C. The Shield has a listed max of only 86F/30C.
Tablets with more processing power (Air 2 or Shield for instance) are less taxed, so are less impacted by higher ambient air temps. Lower powered tablets like the Mini 2/3 or the Air 1 (all with the A7 processor) are more taxed by the app, and then of course more impacted by higher ambient air temps.
Individual performance will vary of course. Some will say a Mini 2/3 worked fine for them in 105 degree heat. I can't image that being true, but strange things do happen. In general, heat is the enemy of electronics.
Last edited:
Add me to the list that uses an iPad Mini 2 with the Hoodivision. It's the perfect size and rock solid. I also own an iPad 2 Air as well as an iPhone 6+, so I have choices, but the mini is perfect. And as others have mentioned, you really need to upgrade, for $30, to the Inspire tablet mount, rather than the plastic one that comes with the P3.
Something strange happened. I just tried another test flight and now that its a lot hotter (I live in South Florida). There was hardly any video lag/choppiness. The iPad itself did seem to get hot in a short time. I wouldn't say over heat. But, it was warm to the touch. I only flew 1 battery to 50% so I didn't give it enough time to get hot or overheat. I'm not saying the heat caused the video feed to perform better. I'm just saying it weird that it did perform better in the hotter afternoon compared to what it was like earlier this morning.
Is everybody suggesting the iPad Air 2 does not overheat? If thats the case I'm really going to return this iPad mini 2 for the Air 2. I really can't have my iPad shutting down on me during a gig so it can cool down.
Oso
Premium Pilot
When it's hot outside, the Air 2 works far better for me than did the Mini 2. Still, the Air 2 will overheat if I stay in the full sun and run several batteries. With a bit of shade and some short rest between batteries, the Air 2 is not an issue for me but I can't say it does not overheat, just much less likely.
The best thing to do is try the Mini 2 and fly as you would predominantly be flying. If it still works for you and you are confident, go with it. That's what I did which is how I realized it would not work for me so I got an Air 2. Now the Mini 2 just sits uncharged in a drawer, so I wish it would have worked better!
Happy flying whichever way you go!
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2015
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 3
- Age
- 51
I'm in the same boat as the OP. I've been using my Note 4, and have HORRIBLE choppy video. One question I have, is do I need to get an iPad with a data plan to utilize GPS?
I have never had an Apple product and never wished to get one, android has always done me just fine. Just purchased P3A and tried several android products that just weren't doing the job good enough. Against my better thoughts (I'm not wealthy) I purchased a iPad mini that wasn't compatible with the DJI - Go software. So returned it for an iPad mini 3 and it works fantastically with the pilot app. So I am now an Apple user and primarily just for my P3A. 
I have never had an Apple product and never wished to get one, android has always done me just fine. Just purchased P3A and tried several android products that just weren't doing the job good enough. Against my better thoughts (I'm not wealthy) I purchased a iPad mini that wasn't compatible with the DJI - Go software. So returned it for an iPad mini 3 and it works fantastically with the pilot app. So I am now an Apple user and primarily just for my P3A.
Blame goes to DJI app designers, not the android platform. I really wish they can pay more attention to the android app. You can get a decent 7-8" tablet for less than $200, especially if you are just using it for flying the phantom. iPad does seems pricy in a way.
My Mini 2 works good with my P3P. I got the cellular version for other reasons. I'm an Android fan too, but DJI apparently doesn't have good Android app engineers. I went through 3 android tablets before I broke down and bought the Mini2. I was in 108F heat last weekend at the river and the Mini2 seemed to do fine. Make sure you do the setup for iPad as described in this post link below. The hardware encoding setting in the Pilot/Go app is key, the iPad runs cooler using hardware encoding/decoding. However the mini can get warm, I just haven't see it being a problem yet.
http://www.phantompilots.com/thread...for-the-best-dji-pilot-app-performance.48388/
Last edited:
I agree... Bought the best quad copter so felt I should buy the best device designed to work with it.
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2015
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 3
- Age
- 51
The answer is not exactly black and white. You need the cellular version of the iPad if you want to have GPS, as the wifi only model does not have GPS. However, you can still obtain a GPS signal through the wifi only model by tethering to an iPhone or other device, or portable GPS like Bad Elf. That being said, you don't have to have GPS unless you want to reset your home point to your current location (comes in handy when flying from a boat), or if you want to use future modes like follow me. I had the wifi version and it works fine, but resetting home point location did not work through tethering, so I exchanged it for the cellular version, just so I would have that feature. Hope this helps.
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2015
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 3
- Age
- 51
Similar threads
