I think I'm ready to get some great footage on the water

[Ronnie]

@buckbuck , I don't mean to burst your bubble but the follow me capabilities are a little disappointing too me. it only works when the quadcopter is a minimum distance and altitude from the remote both of which are too high for me. however it does work and allowed me to set the relative position of the heli so that I could get it to take footage of me from in front of and to the side of me. It made me set the position, altitude and distance at the begging of the session so i was free to work the camera tilt, pics, video and settings during the session.

Other than the follow me function, the point of interest function is the only important one too me (it fly's the drone in a perfect circle while freeing me up to work the camera if I want). The rest of the "new" functions seemed to give me the same functionality that previous generation phantoms have such as intelligent orientation control which is fine for new rc heli pilots but hard for me to use as an "old school" rc pilot.

Incidentally. Flying with the goggles is still very challenging for me. Also because of the smoke cover caused by a nearby wildfire I had to adjust the settings on the camera which is another hobby entirely that I don't have the time or patience to learn. If the air dog and/or lily do the follow me thing better and take footage with less interaction from me this entire phantom 3 system with fpv googles may be put on sale, possibly at a huge loss too me.

 

[biffdotorg]

I've seen plenty of the FPV goggle setups, but unlike yours, they had the actual receivers and antenna on the goggles. I was not real excited about that option as it totally eliminated your line of site option without taking your hands off the controls and lifting the goggles off your eyes. So far, having the 7" FlySight display has worked out well for me.

DJI just sent me a survey asking what I use for FPV and if it is a tablet, phone etc. What I liked or disliked and what I would be willing to spend to have it integrated into the remote. I do believe we are one version away from integrated FPV in the next revision. Or at least have a DJI authorized version as an option. This of course would free up users phones.

I think they will have the FPV much more integrated and not rely on the users tablet or phone. I actually like capturing with my GoPro and just using the FPV to view for navigation, lining up shots and telemetry. The only real downfall with this setup is not being able to control the camera on/off and video/stills.

 

[Ronnie]

Speaking of integrated fpv screens yuncee and a few other companors already build them into the face of the remote. Dji is going the other way with it right now by offering an Hdmi module for the light bridge enabled remotes. It's $100 but I couldn't wait so I went with the andoid tablet that has an Hdmi port I can still use my iPhone but not with the goggles.

 

[Ronnie]

Here is the video I put together from this past weekend's DJI footage.

 

[biffdotorg]

Speaking of integrated fpv screens yuncee and a few other companors already build them into the face of the remote. Dji is going the other way with it right now by offering an Hdmi module for the light bridge enabled remotes. It's $100 but I couldn't wait so I went with the andoid tablet that has an Hdmi port I can still use my iPhone but not with the goggles.

That actually makes sense, as my FlySight 7" has HDMI input on it. And the Lightbridge technology is better than most of the stock offerings.

That being said, I did a flight last night with an antenna I had as a vendor sample. I do large WiFi network deployments, and this particular patch antenna was given to me by a vendor to test. So what does uber geek do? I mount that sucker to my remote and connect it to my FlySight. The image below was shot from 1Km away from my home while streaming live video to my FlySight!!!

I was up about 260m from the ground and out at exactly 1000m! I was blown away. The antenna has both 2.4 and 5.8Ghz connectors, so I could fit the remote up to it as well. But the remote runs out much further than video will. So I had no need.

It's obvious by your video that the FPV goggles are more for the pilot experience than the video viewer. As the only thing noted by the video was the fact that you flew the copter more as if you were in it. I would bet it is nice not having to worry about glare on the screen. Otherwise, framing a shot from a 7" display is not difficult, other than glare.

 

[Brad_Ct]

@Ronnie how long do you think that will stay on the other site? I bet not long.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

@Ronnie how long do you think that will stay on the other site? I bet not long.

I would be shocked if that goofball takes it down.

 

[Brad_Ct]

Great footage, mine just shipped today. Can't wait to try it out.

 

[Ronnie]

Too my knowledge none of my posts have ever been edited or removed. Thanks for the compliments.

 

[Julian]

Nice shots....so what is the minimum distance for the follow me function to operate....sounds like you are saying it is too far out?

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Won't be long until somebody hacks the DJI code and allow unlimited follow me distance.

 

[biffdotorg]

Too my knowledge non of my posts have ever been edited or removed. Thanks for the compliments.

Have they actually pulled posts/comments?

 

[Brad_Ct]

They did on the Facebook page the other night.

 

[Ronnie]

@Julian , I didn't get an exact distance but recall that I kept getting an error message (something like "error/warning increase altitude / distance before attempting to enter advanced flight mode") when the copter was less than 50' up or out. I'd like to keep the copter within 20' of the subject most of the time so 50' sucks for my purposes. However, I think this will be easily resolved by another firmware patch or app by a third party.

@biffdotorg , you are clearly more into photography and videography than I am. Do you just use the default settings when filming with the phantom vision camera? I tried to mess with the settings the last time out to adjust for all of the smoke in the air but can tell by the resulting video that I just made things worse.

As for censoring on the other site, if it's happend too me I am not aware of it but it has definitely happend to other members on that site many of which no longer frequent that sight but are active here instead.

 

[Julian]

I didn't get an exact distance but recall that I kept getting an error message (something like "error/warning increase altitude / distance before attempting to enter advanced flight mode") when the copter was less than 50' up or out. I'd like to keep the copter within 20' of the subject most of the time so 50' sucks for my purposes. However, I think this will be easily resolved by another firmware patch or app by a third party.

I can see how that would be less than optimal!

Now they just need one that had a proximity/crash protection mode so it won't run into anything!

 

[Ronnie]

@ Julian , I couldn't agree with you more. The current phantom has sonar to keep it at a set altitude above objects so supposedly if I flew it over a hill it should rise with the grade but it nothing where hoizontal object avoidance is concerned. I don't think he lily will address this and am Not sure about the airdog.

By the way the dji instructions on using the new flight modes are non existent. I had to surf YouTube to learn how to activate the features and they made no mention of the altitude of distance minimums.

 

[Julian]

I recall reading the Lily site and it said that if you were in follow me mode and went under a bridge (or chair lift etc) the lily would happily fly into the bridge....so unless they've done a big upgrade....no collision avoidance there.

I love shopping for these things....someday I'll buy one! LOL

 

[biffdotorg]

@biffdotorg , you are clearly more into photography and videography than I am. Do you just use the default settings when filming with the phantom vision camera? I tried to mess with the settings the last time out to adjust for all of the smoke in the air but can tell by the resulting video that I just made things worse.

Actually I have been using my GoPro Hero 3+ Black as it has been a great camera for this work. I could have spent about the same on the vision, but in the Phantom 2 world, the Go Pro was superior and had the potential to go up to the Hero 4 series. Of course this was just before the P3 was released. But good deals were to be had at that time.

Default settings for 1080p/60fps and let her buck!