Curious how any of the Typhoon Quads compare to the Phantom 4 Pro?   My experience with a CGO2 was extremely poor, so the fact that they have a "CGO3" is a bit of a red flag to me.  I also don't like the "start/stop" button that seems to be very easy to bump/hit on the controller of the Typhoon.

But I'm beginning to second guess my purchase descision of a Phantom 4.

Thoughts?

Apart from using wifi rather than Lightbridge, having a crappy camera and controller, lower grade tech in general and poor performance, they are really good.

Bawhahaha... OK that confirmed what I thought would be the case.  The Phantom has so much potential... I just wish China would test the software more before releasing it =\

mhoppes Posted at 2017-7-2 19:12
Bawhahaha... OK that confirmed what I thought would be the case.  The Phantom has so much potential... I just wish China would test the software more before releasing it =\

Simple, stop updating. The aircraft will fly fine without updates. Switch off automatic updates on your phone/tablet so the Go app stays the same, then shut off Wi-Fi altogether. As far as I can figure, there has not been a useful feature added for ages now.

@Geebax - yeah except this was a new bird... literally came out of the box broken.

mhoppes Posted at 2017-7-2 20:18
@Geebax - yeah except this was a new bird... literally came out of the box broken.

Well, once you get it going, then shut off the updates. My aircraft is a P3P running on the same firmware without any issues whatsoever, since December of 2015.

So ... what's the last stable version of P4P controller & drone firmware, without all the 'limiting' features?

I've actually had good experience with the Q500 4K. The CGO3 camera is not bad. I've not done a really detailed comparison, but that's because I've never noticed the CGO3 to be  bad quality.  I really like the fact thta you can  use the gimbal to record stabilized video using your cellphone, that functionality is very sweet.

Compared to the DJI drones (I have P4P+ and Mavic), the Typhoon is the one that I can trust to "just work", and that's saying a lot.

Now the stuff that I do not like:

* The Typhoon is larger than the DJI drones. It's much less portable, forget about having it as a carry-on on a plane if you use the otherwise very sweet hard case that comes with the quad. Als larger drones scare people more so I feel comfortable flying the Typhoon only away from people who could hear it.
* If you crash a Typhoon, there will be carnage. I've crashed both my Typhoon and my P4P. The P4P survived with only grass stains on the propeller, the typhoon needed crazy glue on a part that I could not find for sale on the web. I had to hand-repair the gimbal as well. My impression is that the Typhoon is more fragile in favor of reducing the weight.  On the plus side, my Typhoon is back to 100% operations, but if you look closely, it has battle scars.
* The Typhoon battery lasts less. Maybe 50% to 60% compared to the P4P.
On the plus side:

* It's been a couple years since firmware updates. The software aspect is really stable. (Learn something here, DJI!)  The drone just works every time I try to use it; there is never a surprise update or the like.
* The Typhoon is FAR less expensive than the DJI drones, and comes with more stuff, like hte gimal cellphone holder thing, plus it comes with two batteries.  The hard case is very nice too (though large).

Stuff I do not know about:

* I have no idea how the range compares. I let other people do the "Let's see how much I can bend it before it breaks" tests :-)

I would not trash the Typhoon completely, I would just be aware of the limitations.

Labroides Posted at 2017-7-2 19:13
Apart from using wifi rather than Lightbridge, having a crappy camera and controller, lower grade tech in general and poor performance, they are really good.

That sums it up!

mhoppes Posted at 2017-7-2 19:12
Bawhahaha... OK that confirmed what I thought would be the case.  The Phantom has so much potential... I just wish China would test the software more before releasing it =\

All you have to do is look at some of the video the typhoons provide.