Phantom 3...Starting to fall out of love.

1. At first I really thought the P3 was a great UAV, for the money and I have been recommending it.

But now, I'm not so sure. Ever since the last firmware update (1.1.8) I have been getting "Aircraft Warmup" periods of over a minute...sometimes more...hey, I live in Florida...eveything is warm enough here.

Another proplem is I keep getting this alert about the Optical Sensor and I should land immediately...except I haven't taken off. BTW, the Optical Flow does not really work until I've been in the air for a while and then it "seems" more stable...but when I first take off...I'd better not be in a tight space or it will drift quickly outside the advertised radius.

The camera is so-so and tends to overexpose. I don't mind this as much since I do a lot in post anyway.

I have brought some of the concerns up in other threads...but they have been ignored. I am assuming the long warmup time may be unique to my P3.

Since the calibration of the IMU to try and get the horizon straight I to am now experiencing long warmup times of over a minute, it did not happen before and ironically the horizon is still on a skew, I am still in the learning to fly and build confidence phase so am hoping to resolve the long startup times and camera skew soon.

Well..it's too bad for you...but, at least there is more than one of us. I'm just trying to figure out if my P3 is defective or not. I could call tech...but I have found that to be a waste of time.

So I'd hoped that the time between powering up the P3 and actually getting it in the air with GPS and the green go ahead light would have been a lot quicker but with experience the last couple days it feels like the time needed for the P3 has been longer then the P2. For several minutes the Pilot app tells me "IMU Warming Up" and takes longer then expected to be ready to fly. Seems this either from update 1.1.8 or my IMU Calibration. Hope it gets fixed soon.

Turn the VPS off - most people have absolutely not need for it.

The craft takes a while to warm up - but I think that warming up includes gaining enough satellites.

"IMU" can be a catch-all word. It can be used to describe the sum total of all the instrumentation in the bird.

Maybe DJI is damned if they do and damned if they don't? If they let people take off without all the instruments being perfect and lots of GPS - well, then, more people will crash and lose their birds.

Has anyone seen if the time is cut down when you are in ATTI mode? Well, maybe I'll try it and report back

Falling in love with my P3P!

http://youtu.be/ncbiiFvo8Pw

Add another one to the group. I don't think it's that bad an idea to "warm up"....I just want to be sure it's a normal thing.

Still takes two minutes in non-GPS mode, so there goes that theory.
Also, I have never upgraded my firmware - so that's not the culprit.
using 1.1.5
and android app 1.1.0

After first warm up it only took about 30 seconds.
That it, I turned everything off - removed the battery. Then did it again. 30 seconds.
So it may just be the first flight of an outing that takes that long.

Warm up does a couple of things.  It allows all the code to load on the device.  It also allows the electronics to get up to the temperature they work best.  I have a thermal scope I use to hunt with.  It works best when I let it warm up and then I leave it on.  It's the nature of the sensitive electronics.  Has less to do with ambient temperature.    Code also has to load

hawk89 Posted at 2015-5-11 03:55
Falling in love with my P3P!

http://youtu.be/ncbiiFvo8Pw

Flipping beautiful

Too bad the horizon isn't level (we need some answers from DJI )

Could be fixed in post production. But still, it ought to be level as per standard. It seems less level more of the time than my P2V+.

FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-11 21:49
Flipping beautiful

Too bad the horizon isn't level (we need some answers from DJI  )

Agreed, definitely lower on left side of screen than the right !

I´m also having the same issue with horizon level.
Since we are a few at least with the same problem, it would be nice to hear from a DJI representative to know at least if they are aware of this problem.
The other thing is making me upset with the P3 are the freezes and jerky video signal while recording 4k 30fps. It literally jumps frames like crazy, not great for production level recording, not safe either. Today I was coming back from my flight thinking that I preferred the lower resolution but superfluid video from my P2.
On the camera  front, I think I prefer the GOPRO quality, but I really love to be able to change settings and start/stop recording while flying.
The only thing I love in the P3  is the Pilot app. It´s very well done and you can change everything from there.
I hope with a few firmware updates they can make the experience better.

edumlz@outlook. Posted at 2015-5-12 08:36
I´m also having the same issue with horizon level.
Since we are a few at least with the same proble ...

The super fluid Video of the P2? I dont know what you mean but you can swutch to 1080/60 as well, its super smooth. As far as i know the GOpro dont offer 4K in 60fps, so its not smooth either. The gopro uses the same sony sensor and i have a gopro3 and i can say the P3 camera is better in video quality, more data rate. The Gopros have horrible fish eye lenses thats why i modded mine

I too have the skewed video and pictures. I spoke via chat with Dji China and they seem to be aware of it. The suggested I manually set the gimbal roll, which I did and it does correct a certain amount. But it does not save your settings after a power off.
Today I called North American Dji support. Spoke with a nice lady. She of course asked all the the 10 ten questions: Are you updated, did you calibrate etc etc.
She suggested I do another IMU cal and I did but no change. She sent me an email I could reply to and to send some pictures which I did.
I went as far as setting up my 4 foot carpenters level, and turning on the grid lines to show the amount its out. Very telling!
So waiting for a reply from both support from China and America.

Daninho Posted at 2015-5-12 08:53
The super fluid Video of the P2? I dont know what you mean but you can swutch to 1080/60 as well,  ...

Daninho when I said that I prefer the super smooth video transmission from the P2 I´m referring to the video you see in the screen while flying NOT the video from the recording in the SDcard. I meant Lightbridge vs 600mW analog transmitter.
Regarding Image quality, I have a GoPRO Hero 4 Black with my P2 in Protune Mode with Log Color and I can tell you that, right now, the GoPRO has and edge over the P3 camera in good light. With low light, P3 camera it´s better. As for the fisheye, it´s so easy to remove that I do not take into account.

edumlz@outlook. Posted at 2015-5-12 14:06
Daninho when I said that I prefer the super smooth video transmission from the P2 I´m referring t ...

You will have latency and less FPS in the live stream, thats correct but its usually only for framing your shots. I also have a P2 with analog FPV and the downside is you just cant see a thing in your goggles/monitor because the resolution is so low. I often realize later in the recorded footage that i was flying over deer or other animals for example. I also saw the Gopro4 material, both use the same Sony sensor but the 94 FOV of the phantom is only comparable with the Gopro narrow mode which is 90 degrees. As far as i know there is no pro tune mode at narrow mode, right?

The other important advantages are the gimbal, the H3/4-3D is just not as stable as the P3s gimbal. It will give you more vibrations and jello, in narrow mode in particular. Yes you can correct the fisheye but it will cost quality

bluemagic@comca Posted at 2015-5-12 12:28
I too have the skewed video and pictures. I spoke via chat with Dji China and they seem to be aware  ...

If you correct the level with the gimbal roll adjustment, then calibrate the gimbal, that locks in the changes! now the horizon should be good.

bluemagic@comca Posted at 2015-5-13 12:46
If you correct the level with the gimbal roll adjustment, then calibrate the gimbal, that locks in ...

Interesting, will try that as soon as possible!

Problem is, when on the ground, the horizon appears level. The skewed horizon seems to happen when when flying around.

It is possible to use the Gimbal Roll Adjustment when in air to fix a tilt and get the shot. But after a while it is likely it gets off again.

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Buy your DJI-gear, batteries, cases by using this link - it'll help me out

If you are falling out of love with your P3. I'll buy it for $500.00. It really is terrible and I think that you need to sell it to me.

Actually...I lost it in a mishap. I sold the other stuff.

hawk89 Posted at 2015-5-11 03:55
Falling in love with my P3P!

http://youtu.be/ncbiiFvo8Pw

says video is private......

For you guys having long warmup times and gimbal issues do a mother IMU calibration BUT make sure your bird is as cold as possible,  you also need to start the calibration as soon as it turns on as the IMU has a heater in it and warms up quickly, you need to start it from cold so it can see the full temperature range  

Basically

put your bird somewhere cold with battery out for tales half an hour, you want the battery and bird as cold a possible, ideal time is at night, put it on the patio for half an hour along as its dry, battery out.

get your level surface setup and ready for the P3, i setup a table with a spirit level to ensure it perfect.

Get your app open and connected to the RC before you power up the P3, we need to start the call as soon as its turn on, , turn the RC on and put the mode switch in the middle position non GPS,  open the app and get to the IMU calibration screen with the button grayed out.

put the P3 on your level surface and put the battery in, Turn on and as soon as the calibrate button lights up press it, i did mine with in a second of turning on,  let it perform the calibration, may take up to 10 minutes, once complete do a gimbal calibration again.

this has helped a lot of folks on another forum, the trick is to get the bird as cold as possible