Hello everyone,

I've been aching to get to P3P. I've watched so many videos, read a ton of reviews online, and I've become enamored with the craft. I have a Syma XC5, and Syma X8G, and have spent a lot of time flying both and am ready for an upgrade. But after reading some of this forum, and the djipilots forum, it just seems like there are numerous unresolved problems with firmware, cracks, batteries, and fly aways. I do not want to spend $1200+ to get a P3P just to have to deal with shady customer service, and a bad product.

So my question, how many of you are actually happy with the product/company?

I have had my p3p for 2 months now and never had a problem with mine albeit I am worried about this
New 1.5 firmware I have installed it and had a short flight with no problems.
I'm now not going to fly mine again until someone from dji gives us conformation it's safe to fly
On this firmware

I have a P2V+ and a P3P.  I love them both and would not hesitate to buy another one.  That said, when you read the forums MOST of what you are going to see is people complaining about the problems they are having.  Remember this, since this is an 'out of the box' flying machine, there are a lot of people who have never flown an RC craft of any type before suddenly in the sky.  With little or no experience, they have no idea what to do in a given situation because they don't know really how to fly the craft. If something goes wrong, out of the box 'flyability' is not going to help.  If you have experience flying quads, then you are one step ahead of a lot of people.  Trust your own experience.

I have no problems with the quads.  No problems with the firmware versions that are currently released.  I fly as much as I can weather permitting.

I have over 50 flights on my P3 Pro, went through two firmware upgrades.  The 1.5 upgrade was painful yes but ultimately successful.  There is no major reason to worry with the P3, just a few quirks here and there.  The only issue I have had to date is a little bit of video flickering when I was in the middle of a RC plane search and rescue... It was at the tree line since I had to get close.. Need to do more testing but I believe it was just a result of the line of sight and not an aircraft defect.  I love my P3 Pro!

Just follow a few tips posted on this forum to avoid the quirks.

Charge your battery fully on the day of the flight and don't take off on a stale battery partially charged

Firmware upgrades or Go App upgrades - make sure you do all the calibrations even if not prompted by the craft.  Carefully check your settings for return to home.

Never take off until you have home position lock on the ground

Fly reasonably - this a fantastic product for flying and video - it's not a gaming speed racer

And maintaining that visual line of sight is key - no exceptions, no ducking behind buildings and structures.

Overall, incredible value for the money.

Customer service - quirky when I used it but I get the impression they are getting better.  Be prepared for uneven expertise on this forum or through support.

Eg - my radio got bricked during an upgrade and I asked if there was a way to reset.  I was told to send it in.  A simple search across this forum and phantom pilots - hold four buttons and restart - bingo. I avoided all the hassle of sending it in.
Given the complexity, use your judgement and common sense and you will be fine!

Same great experience here. I have my bird for 5 months and many of flights without any problems.

Keep in mind that there are people that think these UAV's are toys and use them that way. Let alone that they wil even take the time to read the manual. They will crash sooner or later  or have a fly-away because of not calibrating or flying in high wind speeds and blame the bird for it.

Before i bought my P3P i also did a lot of research and the P3P is without doubt the best bang for your buck ;-) I have met some other people that own UAV's from another popular brand and even they are thinking about going for the P3P because of the great functionality.

I've had my P3P for around 4 months and before that a Syma XC5 and had no problems. Of course there are always going to be system failures at times however I've come to believe 80% of the time many if these crashes are due to pilot error. You are going to have trouble at some stage in you fly in FPV via the app  so keep it in line of sight, practice in atti mode so you don't have to rely on  GPS 100% of the time.

You can never say nothing will happen but you can cut down a lot of the risks by planning flights, doing basic mantainance, and pre flight checks. Then just have fun!

I have over 75 flights on my P3P, no problems at all.

I have done 3 FW/SW updates all w/o any problems.

I have flown MRs for over 5 years and 4 of my MRs are DJI based. They all work perfectly. With thousands of flights.

I have only had one problem with a DJI product and that was a faulty NAZA about 4 years ago, it caused a semi hard landing. I returned it to DJI and they sent me a new NAZA i about 10 days. I had bought another overnight from my dealer, and I sent the replacement back to my dealer and he credited me for this one. So in effect I had a new NAZA over night after the incident.

So my one experience with DJI support is AAA, about as good as it gets. And this was when DJI was still pretty small.

The P3P is the easiest to fly MR or any RC model I have ever flown. Just follow instructions and care for your Lipos. And don't get in over your head and you will be fine.

I have two P3P's and have had my share of problems all of which were operator caused. One flew into a tree and I had to replace the camera and gimbal. Expensive repair I did myself, following several videos showing how to do it off YouTube. The other flew into a marsh, was caught by the saw grass, and landed upside down, engines stopped and the camera and internal stuff was still running when I got to it. No damage, cleaned it off and flew it about an hour later. Both "Crashes " were operator failure, and the bird did well considering both cases.
I have had them since the opening bell when they were put on the market, updated the firm wear many times, and have had zero problems flying the beasties.  One has 44 flights and the other 35.
Update them following the instructions DJI provide, and cool the bird before IMU calibrations. Make sure all calibrations are done on none metallic, non-magnetic, areas that are dead level, and I guarantee you that you will have the most fun of your life. These are not fly out of the box devices. They are serious machines that work marvelously, but require operator attention at all times. If when flying, people come by and take your attention away from flying, land the bird, answer the questions, and then go back to flying. All my crashes have been when distracted by well wishers. You didn't really think I was going to blame myself for the crashes did you?

 DJI sells thousands of these things world wide every day. By far most people are happy and problem free.
I wish DJI would provide me with the total number of units sold (Phantoms & Inspires). I think it would help my discussion here. I remember hearing that B&H Photo at one point last year was selling 200+ Phantoms a day. That is just one store. Think about that!

So we are all shaped by our perceptions!!! Here is my perception, and my personal opinion:

There is an extremely large number of Phantoms and Inspires flying everyday. And they are being flown by a wide variety of people with a wide variety of skill and experience. Some guys with zero experience and some like me with 20 years and some with much more than that.

I think the number of guys having trouble is so extremely small compared to the guys that are not. I fly in a very urban environment where everyone knows a lawyer. I also am on the internet everyday in this forum and several others. I read all the horror stories. If anyone should be nervous to fly it should be me. Now, if all of a sudden we had the internet totally flooded on every forum with “flyaways” or "update nightmares"  you bet I would stop flying and not update my personal Inspire or my Phantom3. But it is not and I am not nervous to fly or update. I am not going to stop flying or updating because I keep it in perspective!  Because I see all the good stories also. Like guys with 300+ flights on their Inspire with no problems.
Also because of my personal good experiences. I have about 200 flights on mine.
I have 3 good friends that all bought Inspires because of my personal recommendation. All 3 fly all the time and have never had a problem other than 1 of them was having some video drop out. They are not nervous about flying because they are never on the internet.  I also belong to a flying club where 4 other guys that I know, but are not close friends, fly Inspires. They all know I work for DJI and I would be the first call they make if they had a problem, and so far no calls. I own a total of 12 DJI multirotors and I have been flying DJI for about 3 years with no trouble. So that is what is shaping my perception and my opinion.

That and this...
(Stating the obvious so please do not take offense)
Do not believe everything you read on the internet. We have a lot of competitors that love to lie on the internet to make us look bad. We also have a lot of DJI haters, for various reasons, that also love to lie on the internet. They see a thread with someone complaining  or any other negative thread and love to pour fuel on the fire. So of all the bad stories we read. A big portion are lies or user error, most ((user error)) from what I have read and researched. (But not ALL I know that.) And there is always some risk, nothing is perfect. Also there is a huge number of people flying everyday with zero trouble compared to the number of guys with trouble, that I know for sure!
Think about it. If you go buy a new car and drive it down the road, if it works you just drive it down the road. You don't get on the internet and tell everybody, “Hey guys, my car drives." No, you just drive it and enjoy it. However if your new car breaks down, then you bet, the first thing you do is get on the internet and tell everyone. I understand that and I would do that too.
So I personally keep this in mind also. The internet can skew your perception in a unrealistic and negative way. Most of the guys flying the Inspire are too busy working to be telling everyone how great the Inspire is.

In the 20+ years I have been flying RC the Inspire is the best thing I have ever flown, and the Phantom3 a close second!

I have been a DJI customer a lot longer than I have been a DJI employee.  I was using DJI products for about 3 years before I was hired. However the statement should be modified. It's not that I was a DJI customer and now I am a DJI employee. I am still both. I do have empathy and sympathy for our customers.   And I need to make sure I always stay in that frame of mind. That way I can be better connected to you guys, and that will help me provide better support.


Dave

Dave-r Posted at 2015-12-12 04:28
I have had my p3p for 2 months now and never had a problem with mine albeit I am worried about this
...

You said you are not going to fly until DJI confirms there is no problems with the new 1.5 firmware?  Have you heard from others that there is a problem?  I have had none in 3 separate flights so far.  You said you had a short flight with no problem yourself so I was wondering why you have grounded yourself?  I am wondering if I have missed something.

I bought a P3P on Black Friday.  When it arrived I charged the battery and the remote, updated the firmware to the latest version on both the aircraft and the remote and started flying.  Did a couple of short flights and then a long flight.  Everything handled like a dream and I am very impressed with the product.  Just my experience, but I do agree with others that say that some people cause their own problems and then complain about the product.

I got my P3P a few days ago but didn't get a chance to fly it until today. Good thing I got 2 extra batteries, I've been through several runs on each battery all ready. Previously I had a cheapo quadcopter that was a nightmare to maneuver, so I am thrilled at how easy this thing is to control. Before I flew I updated the firmware in the aircraft and the remote controller without issue. I then did an IMU, gimbal and compass calibration. Although I just got the thing, it is the older version W323, but everything seems to be working perfectly. I am using a Nexus 7 2013 WIFI running android 6.0.1 and it works perfectly too. I am in the process of printing a lens cover / gimbal support on my 3d printer now.

I am a real happy camper right now, hopefully that will continue to be the case.

Good luck.  

I agree with most posts here. You are reading a small percentage of P3 pilot experiences that turn bad - mostly pilot error.

I've close to 100 flights, no issues at all. Some flights over water, some in very high wind (not recommended). All returned safely, though a couple of them demanded fresh underware.  I've upgraded the firmware 3 times, always calibrated everything after. If you're in No California, I can come and hold your hand for a couple of flights. ;-)

Sir Edward K Posted at 2015-12-12 18:41
You said you are not going to fly until DJI confirms there is no problems with the new 1.5 firmware ...

Reading on this forum and others,about all the issues people are having after the firmware upgrade
It's got me spooked abit.
The flyaways and phantoms dropping from the sky video issues gimbal problems,to name a few
Something can't be right,OK like I said I haven't had any problems since my upgrade to 1.5 but it is worrying. I hope someone can figure it out.

Dave-r Posted at 2015-12-12 22:56
Reading on this forum and others,about all the issues people are having after the firmware upgrade ...

Aloha kaploop & Dave,

     This is a forum.  There are two main reasons for having a forum, camaraderie and problem solving.  To solve problems - there has to be a problem to solve.  And camaraderie is just plain having fun with each other like we have fun in the air with our P3s and Inspires.

     Why is it surprising to find problems with DJI products when DJI provides this venue to discuss problems with DJI products.  We are here to discuss problems.  If there are no problems, we have less to discuss.  Just because we discuss problems does not mean they are your problems.  It is highly probable they are not your problem and very probable that you will have no problems as long as you fly safely and responsibly.  Read the manual and threads of interest here at the forum.  You will learn a lot about your bird and interesting things you can do with your bird that you cannot learn elsewhere.  Most of all, use your brain and figure out what you are doing with this amazing technology.  

     Sure, I like looking at my P3 while it sits idle waiting for me to take it up.  And I get a strange thrill looking at all the cool stuff I have to do cool stuff with my bird while it sits there until it is used.  But it is way more thrilling and fun to get my P3 up in the air doing seriously cool things.

     I have a non-compliant Android Tablet (Galaxy Tab Pro) and it is not supposed to work with my P3.  Should I get mad or stupid because I bought it before I bought my P3 and it does not work?  DJI tells you up front that it is not expected to work with the P3.  OK, so I have a problem with my system because of my non-conforming device.  Hmm, what should I do?  Oh yeah - the forum - they help you solve problems there.  

     Now firmware update v1.5.0030 comes along and a few people have problems with it and maybe the 2.4.2 DJI Go app update gives someone grief.  Ohhhh, I should not try it!  What will it do to my system???!!!???  I should just look at it there on the shelf until DJI says there are no more problems and there is nothing to discuss on the forum anymore.

     Well, it turns out that my non-compliant Android Tablet works smoothly and compliantly with all my amazing technology - especially my P3 - since I updated my firmware to v1.5.0030 and DJI Go to 2.4.2.  If I had just let it sit there and never took that step, it would still be sitting there and I would not be having the thrills of a lifetime!

Hey DJI-Dave!  Finally, I am not the long-winded one in a thread!  Tag - you are it!

Aloha and Drone On!

I agree with Cetaman, the forum is a place to discuss problems and techniques. My P3P has over 150 flights, and there have been problems as the software evolved (Android tablet here), but the bird is flying strong. I think we have all learned a lot since early summer. Don’t forget there’s also pilot error (including judgment error) behind a lot of those horror stories. I find the photographic potential of this tool fascinating. I would go with the P3P again, that’s for sure…
Good flying!

i've owned my P3A since august 12th with no problems.. very happy

Had my P3A for less than 2 months.  Worked  like a dream till the update.  It's on its way to DJI for repairs that I hope they cover.  Before update it worked flawless.  Easy to fly, great features!  I'm a photographer/graphic imaging professional with some RC helicopter experience.   Still images great for online use, not great compared to a SLR with pro lenses.  Video is very impressive for cost of unit  when shooting with good light.  If DJI covers repairs and stands behind their product I will be customer for a long long time.  If not I'll wait and look for another company who does.

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-13 10:43
Aloha kaploop & Dave,

     This is a forum.  There are two main reasons for having a forum, camar ...

Can I say again I have had no problems with the update and and in the short flight I had I didn't have any issues at all.
It's a brilliant piece of kit but there have been a lot of problems after the lasted update,could it be the vast amount of devices you can connect the rc too.i have the iPad air2 and don't have issues
Just a thought.

Dave-r Posted at 2015-12-13 03:56
Reading on this forum and others,about all the issues people are having after the firmware upgrade ...

Figure what out?  There is nothing to figure out.

Thanks for all of your replies! I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a P3P in the next few days. It definitely seems like a fantastic machine, I can't wait to fly it!

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-13 02:43
Aloha kaploop & Dave,

     This is a forum.  There are two main reasons for having a forum, camar ...

Very well said!


Dave

Hi Tec in our Drones...

Flight Recorders
Wi-Fi
HD video cameras
Live video downlink
Smartphone Apps
Sophisticated sensors
Pressure sensors
Ultrasonic altimeter
Accelerometers
barometric sensor
Gyroscopes
GPS
ESC
Live video streaming
Live picture updating to the InternetCircuit boards and computer chips.
And they all need to work together... Perfectly

kaploop Posted at 2015-12-13 07:52
Thanks for all of your replies! I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a P3P in the next few days. ...

Good to hear, I think you'll love it. And if you have problems come here and we will help you.

I have had no issues with my Phantom 3P and have done all the firmware and software upgrades without a hitch.  249 flights, 41 hours of airtime 396km distance traveled.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-12-13 06:07
Very well said!

Aloha,

     My non-compliant Android did three miles with roughly a one mile diameter in the jungle / farm community of Kahalu'u, Oahu, Hawai'i.  Can you imagine what a thrill that is!!!  All thanks to v1.5.0030!

     Oh, and if you Android users have not noticed - we now use 2.4.3 and our RC has v1.5.0070.  I am a real person finally!  I feel like Pinocchio!!!  Go to the downloads page and check it out.  Unfortunately, my device is still an outcast - but I think DJI keeps me here because I speak so strongly for the outcasts!

Aloha and Drone On!

Aloha and Drone On!

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-12-13 06:07
Very well said!

Aloha,

     My non-compliant Android did three miles with roughly a one mile diameter in the jungle / farm community of Kahalu'u, Oahu, Hawai'i.  Can you imagine what a thrill that is!!!  All thanks to v1.5.0030!

     Oh, and if you Android users have not noticed - we now use 2.4.3 and our RC has v1.5.0070.  I am a real person finally!  I feel like Pinocchio!!!  Go to the downloads page and check it out.  Unfortunately, my device is still an outcast - but I think DJI keeps me here because I speak so strongly for the outcasts!

Aloha and Drone On!

Of the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands sold, and though many issues/complaints are legitimate, overall they are a very insignificant percentage. If all were here to express what a fantastic time they are having this forum would be inundated and nearly non-navigable .

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-13 10:43
Aloha kaploop & Dave,

     This is a forum.  There are two main reasons for having a forum, camar ...

Cetaman great post.Its not just the flying and perfecting ariel video/ photography techniques.One example was the feeling of pure satisfaction in curing a non-recomended device (tab s 10.5) with its lag/latency problems using various device scenarios and forum members inputs to achieve a platform that is error freeOH one thing Cetaman does your novel come in hardback/paperback versions.
As you say
Aloha and drone on                    



























9

pi-inthesky@hot Posted at 2015-12-14 06:00
Cetaman great post.Its not just the flying and perfecting ariel video/ photography techniques.One  ...

Aloha pi,

     Really, DJI Dave and I should put together our posts from the forum in book form for the drone novel - Droning On!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-13 22:40
Aloha,

     My non-compliant Android did three miles with roughly a one mile diameter in the jung ...

I will inform DJI of the success you're having with your noncompliant device

Dave

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-14 12:03
Aloha pi,

     Really, DJI Dave and I should put together our posts from the forum in book form f ...

We should write a book. Heck we've already done all the hard work


Dave

It's a great product. Go for it!

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-12-15 06:22
We should write a book. Heck we've already done all the hard work

Aloha Dave,

     Yeah, but RedHotPoker thinks I am repetitive.  Must be because I like Androids.  Must be because I like Androids.  I cannot think of any other reason!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-16 05:54
Aloha Dave,

     Yeah, but RedHotPoker thinks I am repetitive.  Must be because I like Androids.  ...

Oh Cetaman are you suggesting that our RedHotPoker is biased is this the same RedHotPoker that shares all those little gems he posts on the forum.

Only about 10 flights so far, but no issues yet.

I also trained on the Syma copters before hand, so that should allow you to be familiar iwth the flight characteristics and know what to expect with the phantom

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-15 21:54
Aloha Dave,

     Yeah, but RedHotPoker thinks I am repetitive.  Must be because I like Androids.  ...

Repetitive just means you are consistent. Consistent is good.

I drone on all the time...
Dave

Cetaman Posted at 2015-12-15 22:54
Aloha Dave,

     Yeah, but RedHotPoker thinks I am repetitive.  Must be because I like Androids.  ...

I only wish you would post more awesome home grown video, to make me daydream.
We have snow on the ground here now, and it's below -0*C most of the time.
So some sand, surf, and the odd Hawaiian shirt would be Devine. Haha

I will take a large double pineapple daiquiri too. Please!! Hahaha

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2015-12-16 20:54
I only wish you would post more awesome home grown video, to make me daydream.
We have snow on the ...

Aloha RedHot,

     Hey Dave!  See what a slave driver Poker is!  He knows I cannot turn down a request.  The tourist police would arrest me!

Aloha and Drone On!