Any warnings, advice or tips on brand new P3S?

[AvionicsAussie]

I am shortly about to unpackage and initialize my brand new P3S, also I am in Australia (CE).

But before I go ahead and do so, I would love to hear any advice or tips that may save my butt for down the track.

I do plan on modding my P3S, Magic Power?Icarus? DBS antenna and then boosters, possibly AC antenna and battery mod.

I want this thing to be able to fly to Narnia and back lol. Why you may ask? Just because I can, and most likely will do it once at that will be it. But I like the idea of always having possible range and no FPV dropping out more than anything really!

So being new to all of this, is there anything that I am about to do following the instructions that may inhibit future possibilities? I.e. should I be back dating firware before anything? Or is there any others things to do with apps, software, flying etc. That I should avoid for now?

The thing just arrived half way through writing this and I am keen to jump in head first, but I want to play it smart just in case!

Thanks in Advance

Brayden

 

[WV. Rootman]

Modifications may void your warranty.

 

[AvionicsAussie]

Modifications may void your warranty.

I fully aware of that, I like to live life on the edge ;-) I will be waiting a couple of weeks before I do anything that may void warranty just to ensure all is what it's supposed to be first. After that for only $600 AUD I would just by another one lol

Regards
Brayden

 

[AvionicsAussie]

^^^ In saying that though if I can keep the warranty and not void it where possible, that would be good!

 

[tevek]

This appears to be your first DJI drone, so the usual advice applies.
Read the manual until your eyes bleed, practice in beginners mode until you understand what the controls and various RTH modes do and then slowly increase your range and confidence.
With respect to your proposed mods, you may want to consider saving your cash and upgrade to the other non wifi phantoms out there. My first phantom was a PS3 and whilst it was a great learning experience, I soon found too many limitations when flying in wifi congested areas and moved up to a P4 and then took out a second mortgage to get it to where it is today

 

[AvionicsAussie]

This appears to be your first DJI drone, so the usual advice applies.
Read the manual until your eyes bleed, practice in beginners mode until you understand what the controls and various RTH modes do and then slowly increase your range and confidence.
With respect to your proposed mods, you may want to consider saving your cash and upgrade to the other non wifi phantoms out there. My first phantom was a PS3 and whilst it was a great learning experience, I soon found too many limitations when flying in wifi congested areas and moved up to a P4 and then took out a second mortgage to get it to where it is today

I will be doing both I think. I am about to do a whole lot of FLIR training (have used it in the past). But it seems I may have a bit of drone work ahead of me which would allow me to spend some big $$$.

Thanks for the heads up though, as for beginners mode.... maybe lol.

 

[Meta4]

But before I go ahead and do so, I would love to hear any advice or tips that may save my butt for down the track.

You'll find that it's much easier to fly than you imagine.
It takes about 5 minutes to learn - but a lot of practice and experience to become proficient.
Don't let the simplicity make you get too adventurous too early.
There are many things that can go wrong and you need to understand what they are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.

Do your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.
Be afraid, very afraid of trees, buildings etc. They are involved in most incidents.

Read up on return to home procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can resume control in an RTH situation.

 

[Ian222]

Had mine a couple of weeks now and it's a awesome drone but I am now feeling the wifi connection is a weak point in terms of flying it around built up areas even if I am down the beach being in the uk buildings are not far off the beach and I am still getting warnings coming up saying strong interference.

Are there any regulations to follow in oz? Going out there later this year so can you fly them anywhere within reason

 

[tevek]

Had mine a couple of weeks now and it's a awesome drone but I am now feeling the wifi connection is a weak point in terms of flying it around built up areas even if I am down the beach being in the uk buildings are not far off the beach and I am still getting warnings coming up saying strong interference.

Are there any regulations to follow in oz? Going out there later this year so can you fly them anywhere within reason

We are governed by CASA and national parks (amongst others) in each state, with respect to professional and recreational flying, so in the cities, it is certainly restrictive. Out in the regional areas, less so but you can use the new CASA 'can I fly there' app to give you some guidance. The beauty of the place is that you are spoilt for choices if you do the right thing.
Thanks for sending us here as convicts!

 

[macoman]

I remembered when I took my Phantom for the first time. I couldn't take it to the air at only 6 feet. I was scared to take it any higher than that. Now I go as far as the P3 can.

 

[RodPad]

@AvionicsAussie

DJI Phantom Accessories & Tips - Phantom Help
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Crashing Sucks
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Rod

 

[dchao]

+1 for reading the read paragraph about the DONT's of compass calibration.
It will also help you to understand how your RC talks to the P3S. The RC uses a one way 5.8G uplink to control the bird, it pings the bird regularly, if the bird doesn't get the pings, the bird will initiat a RTH automatically. Before it loses the signal, you will see a warning "Weak RC Singal" on the GO app.
The video and telemetry are broadcasted on a standard 2.4G WiFi network, from the AC to your GO app. Your RC is the WiFi router. A "Weak image transmission" warning is diplayed before you lose the video. When you get this warning, don't panic you can still control the bird, only the video feed is lost.
IMO, the weak link in this setup is the downlink video signal, you are more likely to lose the video feed before the control.

 

[Philltayl]

Just remember the old saying.....'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread'

 

[Dronezin]

I also recently got the p3s and watched all recommended videos. For some reason didn't see this one and found very helpful.

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[jlcinga]

Sounds like you have it figured out!