dirkclod
Premium Pilot
RTH first time
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Hahaha.
Somehow that pic is awesome.
I'm doing my best. If you look back you can see I've been trying to amicably end this for a while. Apparently I'm a stubborn ***. I'm trying to tune in for this forum. I like it here. Having trouble.
You should be my spokesperson.
That said, either way, bad or not at all, how can anyone function without the ability to set a good, let alone no home point.
Scenario: you are shooting a car commercial, you need the bird to follow the car and then when you want it to land, if you have somehow lost LOS after driving a half mile and now you need to set a new home point at the RC, what do you do without a GPS reciever on your phone or tab?.
I COMPLETELY RESPECT OPPOSING OPINIONS.
I guess I just don't shoot that many car commercials. I haven't had the need to reset my home point since purchasing my P3. My wifi only Mini 4 works perfectly, and is nice and bright outside. I can understand the need for resetting the HP. I want to follow my friends boat while it's under way. A dynamic home point would be handy for that, but to date, no need for it yet. I've always landed where i took off from.
SD
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Totally get that.
I never said its a MUST that you have GPS on your reciever but I consider myself fairly techy and I, nor the Alpple Genius knew there wasn't a GPS reciever in the IPad without cell (so was just warning the uninitiated, recently myself), so again, I just brought my mini back and now I fly with a mini that has a GPS/Glonass reciever.
If you never have a reason to want a dynamic home point once the bird is in the air, it doesn't matter at all as you just use the bird to set it and all is fine.
Well @uptolevel6 , I have to admit I too mistakenly bought the Mini 4 wifi before understanding it didn't have an on board GPS. I considered returning it for the cellular version, but I decided to try it first. It has worked flawlessly to date. I think if I could do it again, I would have gone with the Air2 cellular for the larger display. I guess I'm an Apple guy. I'm still feeling it out as I've only had the P3 since Black Friday. About 45 flights and 300,000 feet so far with the current Upstate NY weather.
SD
SD
ianwood
Taco Wrangler
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So you can set a home point at the RC with the mini without GPS then?
The ONLY reason I was able to figure it out was because I NOTICED that my homepoints when I set it at me (the RC) were off and compared to my iPhone 6+ which has GPS, it made a very noticeable difference in where it set the non-bird home-point.
I use the follow me function too so I need it for that as well.
Be glad you didn't get the AIR. It's cool, almost a novelty but it's so huge and overly big for flying that if you are flying for more than 30 mins or so, its a hefty load. I made the choice to get the 2 instead of the 4. Only difference between them is the chip but I am only using it for flying and the difference in the chips is minuscule and the mini 4 is a TAD bit thinner and it has the fingerprint thingy which I never use on any of my iOS devices that have it.
Thanks for the input.
So we agree?
What I said is that the lack of a GPS receiver made enough of a difference that it is how I figured out there was an issue and I had to troubleshoot until I got to that.
No sir, I cannot set the home point to the RC. I have not had a reason (yet) to reset it. I haven't flown the IOC modes to date. Still getting used to all the functionality. That said, the flying part for me is easy as I have a long 700 size helicopter history. I'm also in the camp that I RTH multiple times per flight. It's just easier and less stressful. There isn't anything peaceful about flying a 700 size single rotor. It's a high stress activity, but very rewarding.
I thought the larger display would be beneficial helping to "see" a bit better. I've noticed when reviewing my flights on the TV, I pick up things I never noticed during flying. My girls have two Mini 2's, an original and a retina. I figured I could borrow the kids, but then thought better and got my own. I have virtually no chance competing with my 4 year old! As the only male, there's too much estrogen in my household!
I read about the Air2's A8X chip with a heat spreader, over the Mini 4's A8, but have not had a single hiccup with the Mini 4 yet. That may be due to the Upstate NY weather. It haven't flown above 50 degrees yet. It does seem to be the right size between my iPhone 6 and an Air 2, which is why I kept the Mini 4. What has impressed me is the brightness of the screen and its anti-glare properties when outside compared to the iPhone. I haven't needed a sun shade so far.
Last but not least staying on topic, I took baby steps learning the RTH functions. Started by auto-landing within the 20 meter radius, and cancelling. Went a little farther and tested the Failsafe RTH altitude, and cancelling. Went out even farther and started using the control inputs during RTH, adjusting the P3 in the various ways. Very confident now with it and use it all the time to end my flights. I still would have no problem flying it back to me in Atti mode using the radar and map if needed, but it's just so well designed and easy. I like easy.
Carry on @uptolevel6. Safe flying.
SD
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Sorry, this is just for people that want to get a couple "experts" thoughts on the IMU and Compass calibration and they are without anyone saying otherwise, you can't over-calibrate and then the need to calibrate is absolute the first time and occasionally, at the very least, afterword.
Go to 10:20
At the end of it, this conversation has left me with the feeling that you do need to calibrate occasionally, not every time but you don't want to find out at the wrong time that you should have if you have a major IMU off calibration. Everyone says you can't over-calibrate so why not. It's simple to do and you can't hurt anything if you are careful enough to do it that often then you should because you are doing a pre-checklist anyway.
I understand that not everyone agrees but I think if people would do more calibrating, there would be less crashes that are "fly-aways" which are a huge problem for RMAs.
Not to bring this back up again, but...
Go to 10:20
At the end of it, this conversation has left me with the feeling that you do need to calibrate occasionally, not every time but you don't want to find out at the wrong time that you should have if you have a major IMU off calibration. Everyone says you can't over-calibrate so why not. It's simple to do and you can't hurt anything if you are careful enough to do it that often then you should because you are doing a pre-checklist anyway.
I understand that not everyone agrees but I think if people would do more calibrating, there would be less crashes that are "fly-aways" which are a huge problem for RMAs.
Not to bring this back up again, but...
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I can think of no reason for you to use your phone to fly. Use the air2. It will work great. It doesn't need to be GPS enabled. Home points are set by the GPS on the Phantom not your mobile device. So... Use the iPad Air2. I have a cell version and I have yet to use any feature that the cell version allows you to do that the wifi version won't.. I actually should have saved money and purchased the non cell version.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
Did you try using you're phone as a hotspot to your wifi iPad? All phones have GPS. It lets you get the maps, it should provide the GPS data too, or am I wrong?
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There is are some fundamental things wrong with what we were talking about here.
With IPHONES, ALL phones have GPS. With iPads, none have them unless they have the cellular option. YOU DO NOT NEED cellular. Just the ones that have a GPS receiver is the only iPads that have GPS.
What we also figured out, I think, in this thread is that iPads without wifi will still make a GPS homepoint at the RC (YOU) while a droid phone won't. I think that's the better move because the crowd-sourcing triangulation to form the homepoint at the RC using no GPS receiver is not good enough for my taste.
There was definite answer and people who believe one thing, think the other is dead wrong but unfortunately we have some heavies on both sides and I'm not talking about us but rather engineers and the like.
If I we anyone, I would make it easy. GET AN RC WITH A GPS RECEIVER. There is definitely no harm in it and if I'm right, something can go wrong and at the very least you won't have "Follow Me" which alone is reason enough for me.
They make tiny GPS receivers both connected and non for the iPads or anything else that you are using for telemetry that are $99. Well worth it.
To better explain, this is the LEAD ENGINEER at Digital Elf (the best GPS receiver for the iPads by far. Don't buy another one).
There are several Apple-approved external Bluetooth GPS receivers for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Check out the Bad Elf GPS Pro, Dual XGPS150, and Garmin GLO. They work with any generation of the iPad and add GPS functionality to Wi-Fi only iOS devices. Many pilots use them even with their WiFi+Cellular iPads to ensure they have a rock solid GPS lock at altitude and high speeds.
The GPS Pro has some additional features including a 100+ hour standalone datalogger, LCD display with backlight, and 16-32hr battery life. It also supports up to 5 iOS devices simultaneously.
[ disclaimer: I'm the lead engineer at Bad Elf ]
It is important to note that you do not NEED the cellular for the iPad, just that they are the only ones that have the GPS option. It's confusing because DJI doesn't tell you this. It's very odd some of the things that DJI refuses to put on the box so people know before buying. For example, that there is not a giant CSC warning, and barely a mention is amazing. There is also a lot of things on this forum the say calibration of compass and IMU is almost a one time thing. There is only one good thing that can come of that, that one day, you will learn that one day IMU and Compass calibration is much too little. These are digital items that need exact precision and you don't want to find out when it's too late. Keep reading and figure out how to believe because there is A LOT OF bad info flying around here.
There should be a person that is in charge of changing facts that are definitely incorrect. Some are subjective and the argument is necessary but there are lot of just wrong facts around. FLY SAFELY! FLY FUN!
Ok so I tested this and the only difference I noticed was a change in how I react. I don't really use follow me for any functional reason although it's neat to have.
With the gps version setting home is more efficient. The non gps version I had to set my home point to the craft location before takeoff and then go rather then update it whenever I feel like it. I guess it is the ability to set your home point without landing first... imo. Maybe it does other stuff too.
That was really the only thing I noticed. Didn't think it was such a problem honestly. Functionally it's not a big deal.
As to the idea of triangulation on gps failure... who knows what happened inside some random android platform. It could happen I guess and is a little scary.
With the gps version setting home is more efficient. The non gps version I had to set my home point to the craft location before takeoff and then go rather then update it whenever I feel like it. I guess it is the ability to set your home point without landing first... imo. Maybe it does other stuff too.
That was really the only thing I noticed. Didn't think it was such a problem honestly. Functionally it's not a big deal.
As to the idea of triangulation on gps failure... who knows what happened inside some random android platform. It could happen I guess and is a little scary.
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Oh and with RC revB I like the interchangeable tablet because of usb 3.0 controller so upgrading video processing power is possible with a good tablet. As opposed to revA which was built in. I am assuming that is more of the reasoning behind having a removable processing unit with or without a cell modem and gps. The rest is fancy tricks I think. Live streaming and gps aware rc unit give cool options.
I really wish they would bring back auto update of the home point maybe even at a specified interval...
that would be the cats ***.
I really wish they would bring back auto update of the home point maybe even at a specified interval...
that would be the cats ***.
I have used the RTH many times when I lost sight of the bird, and whether using the take off point or the device as the home point, it has always come back to me within a radius of about 15 feet. That radius, however, can be too large if there are obstacles in the landing area, so when you see the bird above you, you may want to just cancel RTH and bring it down manually. As someone else pointed out, however, make sure you set the failsafe altitude high enough to clear obstacles along the way. Also, keep in mind that the bird will take some time to climb to the failsafe altitude and is programmed to return to home at a speed of about 11 fps, which is much slower than its max speed of about 33 fps, so it's going to take longer to return. If, in addition, you have a strong headwind, conditions may be adding up where the remaining battery power may be a factor. In that case, instead of RTH you may want to set the IOC to home lock and pull down on the throttle all the way to make the bird come back to you as fast as possible. Again, make sure it's high enough to clear all obstacles in a straight path.
Oso
Premium Pilot
Unfortunately, tethering your phone to a wifi only iPad does not share the phone's GPS.
No matter how many times you say this, it will always still be incorrect. A wifi only iPad will not allow you to set the home point at your RC's location.
You'd think that with so many people telling you that you are not correct on this point, including the mods, that you'd eventually stop propagating it. What if we say please? If that will help, I'm all for it. Will you please stop saying this? I'll be your best friend. ;-)
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Oso
Premium Pilot
My experience has been the opposite of what you said. I see here on the forum that it is suggested far more often to not over-calibrate. It comes up most often with regards to compass calibration which is one of the videos you posted. It seems that the experienced fliers here overwhelmingly suggest to not calibrate your compass every time. Note that I didn't say "all" experienced fliers here because there are a couple who still like to calibrate their compass every time. I am saying only that the overwhelming majority of people here say to not do what you suggested, including myself. Everyone can make their own decision as always.
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First of all, you are hitting on the wrong point. Also, that wasn't the argument. If you were paying attention, it wasn't everyone, it was Meta4 and we discovered that he was using an Android tab which was causing the "will not set homepoint" and it also won't "follow me".
So we were miscommunicating from that and indeed you can set a homepoint with a non-GPS iPad although not follow me, however unadvisable. I don't care anyway because I only had my non-GPS unit for a day and didn't even care. It was a select few that had their panties in a bunch.
Thinking is starting a community that focuses on art and leave the "figure out how to fly" to forums like this.
Now go smoke a bowl, watch Seinfeld, eat a gronola bar, make love to your wife, hug your daughter, reach around your husband or have mineral spring water. Whatever makes you happy.
I also informed people of the best wifi GPS unit to add to your non GPS tabs and phones.
However, since you are talking about IMU and calibration WHAT IN THE F does that have to do with what we are talking about.
Having a conversation with someone that is so sure of something when they don't even know what conversation they are having is mind boggingly frustrating.
In the meantime, quit trying to be Mr. Man and please don't hit your neighbor's tree.
When this was what you were doing several years ago, come talk to me:
On the third clip, which was the cold open to Last Man Standing's 5th season (this season) season premiere which has 97 layers and one drone shot. If ONE person here can tell me how I pulled off this shot, all by myself, will be a winner and I will listen to. Anyone that doesn't even have a clue how to go about shooting something that strong, (and it's a way dialed down render), it would take a month to render at full caustics, I will bow down to.
Level 6 2013 reel:
How do I do this cold open???? Please tell me. (hint, there were 1-50 UAS shots).
Last Man Standing: The Wolf Returns
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Oso
Premium Pilot
I really did try to give you another chance when you asked us to, but it is clearly hopeless. I just hope you dont lead someone who doesnt know better into a crash or worse. Best wishes to you sir.
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