Phantom 2 - DJI Have a Winner!

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blusnapper

Member
View attachment 15440View attachment 15441

Christmas came early! I received my Phantom 2 with Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal from Geoff at Quadcopters on the day before Christmas. Gale force winds and rain here in the UK so it was Boxing Day before I could out to carry out a couple of test flights. Erring on the side of caution I flew the first two flights without the gimbal and I am pleased to confirm that DJI's claims of 25 minutes flight time are correct. My first flight taking the batteries to 25% lasted 27 minutes. My second flight flight flying more aggressively lasted 22 minutes. I'm well pleased.


I fitted the gimbal (10 minute job) and the added the DJI iOSD and Immersion transmitter. DJI have made the job easy with a Can-bus connector for the iOSD on the leg and a short bare ended link cable with power and video feed from the Zenmuse poking through the bottom of the craft. No need to dismantle the Phantom. I just cut, soldered and heat shrinked the supplied cables (see attached photos). We are still experiencing dreadful weather in the UK and I've only had one flight with the added kit. Flight time with the gimbal, OSD and transmitter was around 17 minutes.


IMHO DJI have a winner!
 

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nisouck

Member
1) It's the Hero 3 Black Edition at 1920x1440.
2) Yes, the distortion was corrected with GoPro Sudio.
3) NO post-stabilization at all!

Picture were taken at 50 fps then reduced at 25 fps to slow down the motion nothing else.
 


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adanac

Member
I have just purchased the Phantom 2 with gimbal and look forward to it's arrival. If any current owners have tips or warnings I'd love to hear them. I will try to maiden this weekend.
 

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DWA

Member
adanac said:
I have just purchased the Phantom 2 with gimbal and look forward to it's arrival. If any current owners have tips or warnings I'd love to hear them. I will try to maiden this weekend.
Click to expand...
I would say the first thing you should do is connect to the Phantom assistant and make sure you have updated everything. Also do basic and advanced IMU calibration.
Then when you go to the flying field make sure you do the "GPS dance" which is the compass calibration at the field.
Read through the manual real quick and it will tell you exactly how to do the GPS dance.
Other than that you should be good, these things practically fly themselves.

Dave
 
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DWA

Member
Another quick tip is that if this is your first phantom you should fly without the gimbal first to make sure you get used to everything.
No need to risk damaging your gimbal while you are learning.

Dave
 

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deluge2

Member
I guess it should be 'the Compass Dance' since it has nothing to do with GPS calibration per se. Agree that performing compass calibration should be a part of pre-flight sequence except when repeated flights are being done from the same location in the same session. It only takes a few seconds and MAY reduce the chances for the Flight Controller to get confused with bogus direction data.

DWA said:
I would say the first thing you should do is connect to the Phantom assistant and make sure you have updated everything. Also do basic and advanced IMU calibration.
Then when you go to the flying field make sure you do the "GPS dance" which is the compass calibration at the field.
Read through the manual real quick and it will tell you exactly how to do the GPS dance.
Other than that you should be good, these things practically fly themselves.

Dave
Click to expand...
 

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adanac

Member
It's my first Phantom but I've been flying an F450 a bit. In any case, I do plan to fly it without the gimbal a bit first.

DWA said:
Another quick tip is that if this is your first phantom you should fly without the gimbal first to make sure you get used to everything.
No need to risk damaging your gimbal while you are learning.

Dave
Click to expand...
 

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Jusfloatin

New Member
Total nube.... Just fitted the h3-2d gimbal and Hero 3+ to my P2. Not flown it yet due to weather. Updated all software in assistant and calibrated compass as suggested. Everything appears ok apart from the tilt control which is not as smooth as I would wish. Any suggestions would be welcome. Justin
 

Kilby

Kilby

Active Member
The only thing that kills me about it is how much they charge for those batteries. I just bought our first Phantom for my wife after spending many years building larger aircraft. This seems to be a common issue in the Phantom world, overcharging for items. $125 for a 5000mah 3S battery? Are you ****in' kidding me? I actually got us the first version Phantom. I plan to get close to the same flight time with much cheaper batteries and a few careful mods of my own.

Other than that, we love that little thing so far. It flies great and like someone else mentioned, pretty much anyone can fly it!
 

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rilot

Member
Think yourselves lucky in the US with your $125 batteries. I just dropped £108 for one in the UK, so about $175
 


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blusnapper

Member
Jusfloatin said:
Total nube.... Just fitted the h3-2d gimbal and Hero 3+ to my P2. Not flown it yet due to weather. Updated all software in assistant and calibrated compass as suggested. Everything appears ok apart from the tilt control which is not as smooth as I would wish. Any suggestions would be welcome. Justin
Click to expand...

Have you upgraded the RC firmware? If you haven't then follow these instructions from the DJI web site and you should see some improvement.


1) Use the PHANTOM RC Assistant software to upgrade the remote controller firmware to V1.0.1.11.
2) Calibrate the sticks and X1 channel of the remote controller using the PHANTOM RC Assistant software.
3) Use the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to upgrade the Gimbal IMU firmware to V1.8 via Upgrade page.
4) After the upgrade is completed, calibrate the X1 channel of the main controller using the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to ensure compatibility of PHANTOM 2 and the Zenmuse H3-2D.


Doing the above improved the smoothness of the tilt on my P2 but I was still not happy with the somewhat flimsy plastic control lever on the P2 remote. I have since upgraded my radio to the Futaba T14SG. This binds to the stock P2 receiver without removing the cover and the ability to slow down the servo controlling the tilt produces a silky smooth action.
 

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kwflateau

New Member
Brand new to the Phantom 2 vision. All of the things I have been reading about "fly away" phantoms has me concerned. I know there is a problem with wi-fi networks etc interfering with the 2.4 MHz transmitter/receiver. Perhaps this is a cause of many fly away situations. The new phantom 2 vision sends and receives its command and control via 5.8 MHz signals and it's video on 2.4 mhz. Does this eliminate much of the problem?
 

Kilby

Kilby

Active Member
adanac said:
Mine cost $159 at B&H. I'd love to find a $125 battery!
Click to expand...

This proves my point even more. They charge this premium price because they have locked users in with a proprietary battery connection. Do you know how much "normal" battery you can buy for $160? That's insane!

Has anyone pulled theirs open to see how they might be able to convert over to a normal battery connection? At some point in the electronics, there has to be a spot to solder your own battery leads in, right?
 

Flydigital

Flydigital

Member
That was the big shock I got when unboxing - seeing the proprietary battery, then the price of a spare! £110 ($190)
I googled for a hack but haven't seen anything and I'm certainly not expereinced enough to know what I would be doing.

I was impressed with battery flight time. I've been flying a heavily laden 550 and the unloaded P2 seemed to fly forever. Maybe not so good when the gimbal and goPro are on board.
 

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