I have re-done the list of pointers designed to be helpful to Phantom3 Owners that do not know it all!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10YHkwoh322c0Y_dx2veB07Nx5lq6N30ojKUeVl8IvA8

You did not mention batteries !!!!  

Look at this picture and tell me what's wrong here:

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 13:53
You did not mention batteries !!!!  

Look at this picture and tell me what's wrong here:

Oh Yeah default low battery warning is 30percent. if you are a noobie dont change it, but dont panic.
oh yea and put the SD CARD IN B$ TAKE OFF OR U WONT BE RECORDING MUCH

Something else is wrong in this picture ..

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 13:59
Something else is wrong in this picture ..

read again, but im here to help you not crash i dont care if u cant video the beautiful scene you just came upon!! LOL

Lol one more thing is really wrong. Ok did you notice anything different in the voltages for the cells ?

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:01
Lol one more thing is really wrong.

you killing me, its 2 in the morning.
and wait to have at least 10 satelites b4 take off to have solid home base!!

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:01
Lol one more thing is really wrong. Ok did you notice anything different in the voltages for the cel ...

OH YEA THE FIRST 2CELLs

Did you notice the difference between the voltages in the cells ?  How far between the cells difference is safe?

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:01
Lol one more thing is really wrong. Ok did you notice anything different in the voltages for the cel ...

yea but the voltage at top right corner indicates the cell with the lowest voltage

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 14:07
yea but the voltage at top right corner indicates the cell with the lowest voltage

That's a problem because that cell is going to reach critical stage any time and I'll me a nice rock falling from the sky if it decides to fail in the air.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 13:59
Something else is wrong in this picture ..

one other thing wrong:
YOU ARE NOT FLYING, U SCARED TO TAKE OFF AND ARE STANDING 8.3' FROM YOUR P3 JUST SAYING I WISH I COULD TAKE OFF BUT MY CELLS ARE NOT THE SAME!!!

just messing with you willie, u still ROFL?

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 14:10
one other thing wrong:
YOU ARE NOT FLYING, U SCARED TO TAKE OFF AND ARE STANDING 8.3' FROM YOUR P3 ...

Yeah I am making pancakes lol but seriously is this safe ? The battery has only 9 charges and the cell difference is 0.04 volt already !?!?!

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:08
That's a problem because that cell is going to reach critical stage any time and I'll me a nice ro ...

Actually that is a very good point in all seriousness, so do check that b4 every flight

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:12
Yeah I am making pancakes lol but seriously is this safe ? The battery has only 9 charges and the  ...

i would have to say yes because there will be a +- % acceptable difference. now is 0.04 higher than the acceptable %? i dont know. the fact that the lowest Cell voltage is being shown on top right of screen is giving me more confidence to say IMO it is safe. now if the difference was more then maybe not. the % will be very little and i think it would fall whithin the tolerence.
i am sure either Tahoe ED or Sploodge will give us their thoughts

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 14:17
i would have to say yes because there will be a +- % acceptable difference. now is 0.04 higher tha ...

Exactly I hope someone will chime in and clear things up, as I know if this gap increases in a short period this battery would be either sent back to DJI or thrown in the garbage.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:20
Exactly I hope someone will chime in and clear things up, as I know if this gap increases in a sho ...

I'm going to check mine tomorrow and will let u know, I have 4 right now, it will be interesting to see. I got 6 more in order and will check them after a full charge.
1 thing just came to mind:
When u charge the batteries, maybe the lights went out indicating a fully charged 4 cell battery but In reality the first two hadn't been fully charged. This is why I leave mine another 15 mins after light has gone out

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 14:28
I'm going to check mine tomorrow and will let u know, I have 4 right now, it will be interesting t ...

No that's a problem with DJI balancing board on the battery, you charge with a plus and minus from the charger, the board decides which cell gets how much juice and when to stop, lipo batteries are explosive when they hear the word top off or trickle charge, these cells are highly unbalanced and it just needs a little nudge and then it say hell no I am buffing up or boom I am out of here.

So the tolerance of the balancer is a little vague so it does not dial in the cells like a good balance charger does.

"that's a problem with DJI balancing board on the battery...."


Exactly. White board section (from 6:08) explains "why and how"...

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 14:34
No that's a problem with DJI balancing board on the battery, you charge with a plus and minus from ...

Ok willie here are the four batteries, i think mine are worse than yours!!

Great post, love all the info packed into one area!  So I JUST ordered my P3A and have been reading as much as possible and watching TONS of videos (including the one above).  Seems the biggest concern right now is FW updates.  What recommendation do you guys have for brand new, out of the box, P3 owners when it comes to FW? I'll be running the app on my Samsung Note Tab 10.1 It's currently running Android v4.1.2 and I have read the help files from Phantomhelp.com to get it to give the best performance possible.  But with that being said, what should I do about the bird/RC FW, and for that matter DJI's Pilot App?  I just want to get as many things ready in advanced as I can as when the package arrives I won't have but a day or so a week to play with it. Love all the info from everyone here!

Ok . i just charged up batt 1 and batt two and the results are:

batt 1: from left to right
in the pix above :   cell1 4.26   cell2   4.30   cell3  4.29    cell4  4.31
        next charge:  cell1 4.26   cell 2  4.32   cell3  4.31     cell 4 4.32
        08/09/15       cell1  4.31  cell2   4.32    cell3  4.33    cell4   4.31      Charge #27
batt 2:   from pix above        cell1  4.30  cell2 4.30  cell3 4.30   cell4 4.30
                        last charge  cell1 4.32   cell2 4.32  cell3 4.32   cell4 4.32
         08/09/15                    cell1  4.30   cell2 4.30  cell3  4.30  cell4  4.30  Charge # 14    This battery was only charged to 98% when the lights went out on charger!!!!

Batt3: from pix above    Cell1  4.30   cell2  4.29  cell3 4.30   cell4 4.30
    last charge              Cell1  4.32   cell2  4.30 cell3 4.32  cell4 4.32
          08/09/15            cell1  4.31   cell2  4.33  cell3 4.32  cell4  4.32   Charge # 40

Batt4:  from pix above   Cell1 4.29   cell2  4.29   cell3 4.30   cell4   4.29
         last charge         Cell1  4.31   cell2   4.31   cell3   4.31   cell4   4.31
        08/09/15              Cell1 4.28    cell2  4.31   cell3   4.32   cell4  4.31   Charge # 26

as you can see there is a lot of fluctuation on cells, they are less tha a month old. i personally dont think these fluctuations mean the battery is going bad, i believe it takes around 40 to 50 charges to get the batteries to optimum capacity. just do not discharge them fully, dont run them to 1%, the lowest i ve let batteries go to is 10% but now i dont even do that, around 25% and i land P3!!!

jayhkr Posted at 2015-8-9 01:19
Great post, love all the info packed into one area!  So I JUST ordered my P3A and have been reading  ...

dont worry about FW, as long as you do exactly as described above and hoping you havent got a lemon, you will be fine. most of problems with fw update is user lack of knowledge and impatience. put sd card in and walk away for min 30 mins. for rc , get urself a small 1gb thumb drive and again follow above mentioned procedure and walk away for 15 mins.
if you are in doubt do not turn off device, come back to forum and seek help or if battery running low u can email me rayrokni@gmail.com and i will try to help as much as i know and can, i answer emails quickly or i can call u to help. dont worry so much P3 for most part is a great platform
so go get ur usb thumb drive and unzip the fw bin file in to the root directory
id u already have a fast mini sd card, do the same for it, if not use the one on p3 when u get it
download the app on your android, sign in the user profile part so its ready, dont try to make any changes in the settings until u hook up the p3.

Much appreciated.  I'll more than likely use the mini SD card from my Go-Pro as it has a very quick write speed to it.  I'll dig around in my drawer for a USB drive and should be good to go then!  Thanks again for the help!  

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 23:53
Ok willie here are the four batteries, i think mine are worse than yours!!

Out of all the batteries keep a VERY close watch on battery 1, same like battery 4 on mine.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-9 01:59
Out of all the batteries keep a VERY close watch on battery 1, same like battery 4 on mine.

take a look at the new results i reposted, cell 1 batt1 is the only one that has not improved

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-9 02:06
take a look at the new results i reposted, cell 1 batt1 is the only one that has not improved

Still the difference is 0.06 volts, larger than mine which is at 0.04 volts difference.

Watch for that ratio if it increases then you have a cell that is going to say bye bye anytime.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-9 02:12
Still the difference is 0.06 volts, larger than mine which is at 0.04 volts difference.

Watch for ...

that surmounts to 0.15%, i wonder what the tolerance +- is acceptable?

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-9 02:26
that surmounts to 0.15%, i wonder what the tolerance +- is acceptable?

Thats what i am searching the forums for and could not find an exact answer.

My Batteries

Voltage / mAH Remaining / mAH Capacity / % of Charge / Cells ………………....... / Bat Life / x Charged

1) 14.7             305                    4371                     8                  3.66-3.66-3.67-3.66      100%          25
2) 14.9             714                    4203                    17                 3.71-3.73-3.74-3.74        96%          13
     w/ cell under-voltage protection due to over discharge & over current during discharge (recorded in history 1 time each)
3) 16.9            4018                   4275                    94                 4.18-4.23-4.21-4.25       100%          4
4) 15.2            1972                   4482                    44                 3.81-3.81-3.81-3.81       100%          4
5) 15.2            1976                   4491                    44                 3.81-3.81-3.81-3.81       100%          4
6) 15.4            1980                   4487                    45                 3.82-3.81-3.81-3.82       100%          4


SHOULD I SEND BATTERY # 3 BACK ?
I PROBABLY SHOULDN'T USE BATT # 3 ?

greenbean Posted at 2015-8-9 03:01
My Batteries

Voltage / mAH Remaining / mAH Capacity / % of Charge / Cells ………………....... / Bat ...

1 is nice and healthy BUT don't let it reach 8% untill it gets 45 chages, 2 is loosing capacity fast, 3 has a bigger difference between the highest cell and lowest cell which scares me, 4-5-6 watch them till they reach 8 charges then see what there levels are at.
If you just bought these with 4 charges on them then you might want to call up DJI about the 3rd battery, that is what i am going to do if my gap increases between the lowest and highest cell.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-9 03:24
1 is nice and healthy BUT don't let it reach 8% untill it gets 45 chages, 2 is loosing capacity fas ...

Batteries 1 & 2 are first purchase of P3P w/extra….the other 4 I bought from DJI and received all at the same time.
As noted above, #1 is already @ 8% ….I did that per instructions. #2 seems good even with it's history, but #3 makes me nervous since I received 3-6 all in the same box and treated them all identically. I think I wil only use the two questionable batetries in my other P3P thats had a crash already   lol

greenbean Posted at 2015-8-9 03:38
Batteries 1 & 2 are first purchase of P3P w/extra….the other 4 I bought from DJI and received all  ...

Ok great you have a good attitude about it, and if you fly with them till 50% you won't get to the critical stage of rapid cell voltage loss, but by all means don't let it stop you from getting your money worth, i used to return buffed up 4 cell batteries that cost 40 bucks, this costs 150$ we paid for its insurance 3 times !!!

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 23:53
Ok willie here are the four batteries, i think mine are worse than yours!!

The first battery is not perfect, but it's not that bad.

If you have a battery where a given cell is already at .05v difference, I would keep an eye on it. It's possible that the next charge cycle (or two or three) will rectify the problem. If the same cell on the same battery is close to "out of tolerance" and starts to get worse, it's time to get rid of it.

With conventional LiPo batteries used in RC planes, the chargers generally have all kinds of options that are not available with the Phantom 3 charger. To my knowledge, you cannot "fast charge" 'em and the balancing is automatic. Also, instead of choosing a "storage charge" the intelligent battery can be set to self-discharge over a period of time - I think the default is 10 days.

My personal opinion is that the batteries DJU is using for both the Phantom 2 and the Phantom 3 are pretty much state-of-the-art and there isn't much we can do to improve on that.

The two worst enemies of LiPo batteries? Heat and over-discharging. These guys who fly waaaaay out there and write that when they landed with only 5% battery power (or less!) are crazy. They're not doing their batteries any favors. When I'm out flying (regardless of whether it's Phantom quads or RC planes) my friends and I make sure we keep our batteries out of the sun!

latest update on the battery question:


Ok . i just charged up batt 1 and batt two and the results are:

batt 1: from left to right
in the pix above :   cell1 4.26   cell2   4.30   cell3  4.29    cell4  4.31
                        :  cell1 4.26   cell 2  4.32   cell3  4.31     cell 4 4.32
        08/09/15       cell1  4.31  cell2   4.32    cell3  4.33    cell4   4.31      Charge #27
batt 2:   from pix above        cell1  4.30  cell2 4.30  cell3 4.30   cell4 4.30
                                        cell1 4.32   cell2 4.32  cell3 4.32   cell4 4.32
         08/09/15                    cell1  4.30   cell2 4.30  cell3  4.30  cell4  4.30  Charge # 14    This battery was only charged to 98% when the lights went out on charger!!!!

Batt3: from pix above    Cell1  4.30   cell2  4.29  cell3 4.30   cell4 4.30
                                 Cell1  4.32   cell2  4.30 cell3 4.32  cell4 4.32
          08/09/15            cell1  4.31   cell2  4.33  cell3 4.32  cell4  4.32   Charge # 40

Batt4:  from pix above   Cell1 4.29   cell2  4.29   cell3 4.30   cell4   4.29
                                 Cell1  4.31   cell2   4.31   cell3   4.31   cell4   4.31
        08/09/15              Cell1 4.28    cell2  4.31   cell3   4.32   cell4  4.31   Charge # 26

as you can see there is a lot of fluctuation on cells, they are less tha a month old. i personally dont think these fluctuations mean the battery is going bad, i believe it takes around 40 to 50 charges to get the batteries to optimum capacity. just do not discharge them fully, dont run them to 1%, the lowest i ve let batteries go to is 10% but now i dont even do that, around 25% and i land P3!!!

Hi, this is my first post on the forum which by the way is great.
I have had my P3A for about two months now and it has been flawless straight out of the box, 18 flights with no problems
The first part of this post is great for noobies like myself but i have a few questions i need advice on and hope somebody can help

1. I have a lipo bag for storing my batteries in, can i charge the batteries in the bag or do they have to be in the open to let air round them.

2. Can i have the motors running without the props to discharge the batteries faster

3. Someone on this forum recommended using the custom setting in the Image Transmission Settting, for some reason the app will not let me select it

4. What is the best format to record video in, Mov or MP4

5. What is the best video size to record in, eg is 1920x1080 50 the best

I installed the new DJI Go app and updated the firmware then recalibrated everything on sunday but the weather turned bad so i haven't had a chance to fly yet but i got a success on all updates so hopefully everything will be ok.

Thanks in advance for any advice

derek Posted at 2015-8-11 17:53
Hi, this is my first post on the forum which by the way is great.
I have had my P3A for about two mo ...

Hey Derek
The Lipo bags are used to store and charge

I personally don't run motors without any load, If I had to discharge batteries quickly I would just hover it inside

Do u live in USA cuz in some countries u can't change the channels to custom settings

Mov or MP4, makes no difference to quality, I use MP4

Since I got the p version I shoot at max resolution possible


Have fun

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-11 22:00
Hey Derek
The Lipo bags are used to store and charge

Hi rayrokni
Thanks for your advice, i live in the UK and can't remember if it was selectable on the old DJI pilot app
The other thing i can't find on the new app is how to select continuous shooting for the still camera

I'am just in from trying the P3 after the updates, not going to high or to far but the aircraft is as steady as a rock, i will try longer and higher after a few shorter hops.

Cheers

derek Posted at 2015-8-12 01:52
Hi rayrokni
Thanks for your advice, i live in the UK and can't remember if it was selectable on th ...

Make sure u r in camera mode, keep ur finger on the red shutter button on the app for I think 3 seconds, the menu for what u r looking for will pop up and then u can choose from there
Tx

I certainly do not agree in calibrating the IMU for the sake of it,   I think this is bad information and will cause more issues than it fixes