Any and all advice needed: DSLRPros Sundance Kit...

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Hello!

I am a brand new owner of a DSLRPros Sundance kit with Zenmuse H3-3D and upgraded anti gravity motors that I received TODAY. I have never flown a quadcopter, in fact the only experience I have is a small heli I bought my 6 yr old for Christmas. I have spent the last couple of hours watching videos, reading supplied paperwork, etc. But being the absolute newb that I am, I am scared that I have missed something or may have done something wrong. Even though I can't wait for my 1st flight, I want to cover all of my bases and take my time.

If you have any advice I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
 
First flight? Go for a wide open park (emphasis on grass, not concrete; for obvious reasons) that is also nowhere near people nor water. :lol:
 
First, remove the gimbal and fly without it until you get comfortable.

But, after that, it sounds like you've done more research and prep than 80% of the Phantom pilots out there... so just trust yourself.

Take it out for your first flight. Make sure you do a compass calibration. And get a good GPS and home point lock. Then just take her up a few feet off the ground. Get a feel for it's responsiveness and stability. See how the GPS keeps it in place. Keep it in the air, low, for as long as you can stand it. Then land it, walk away for a few minutes, then repeat the process again and again, getting a little more adventurous each time.

Soon you'll have it at a hundred feet and flying like a pro.

Once you're comfortable, put the gimbal back on and start playing with photo and video.
 
Thank you for the responses. Some other questions I have:

What is the Jello effect and how do I correct it?
I have 5 total batteries for my Phantom, how long do they last and what is the best, fastest way to charge them?
It also came with the Futaba receiver and one battery, approximately how long will it's charge last?

Thanks!
 
OverheadAerial said:
Thank you for the responses. Some other questions I have:

What is the Jello effect and how do I correct it?
I have 5 total batteries for my Phantom, how long do they last and what is the best, fastest way to charge them?
It also came with the Futaba receiver and one battery, approximately how long will it's charge last?

Thanks!

Jello effect is usually from highly unbalanced propellers and/or camera isn't on rubber dampeners that'll minimize vibrations. You shouldn't have a problem with jello effect anyways since stock propellers usually are balanced-ish and the Zenmuse gimbal that it comes with also has the rubber dampeners. If you want to try out balancing propellers, I would go for this balance rod and a Tru-Spin Balancer. Check out a YouTube video for prop balancing since it's pretty hard to describe. :lol:

Phantom 2 batteries theoretically each would last for 25 minutes, that's if you hover for that long all the way to 0% (and going to 0% is a big no-no). I usually fly about 10-15 minutes and start to come back home at 30%. One stock charger to one battery IMO is the best way to charge and I believe it usually takes me about an hour (or less) from 30% to fill up.

Controller battery should last for more than a day (depending on how long you keep it on). I have stock controller and I typically charge all my batteries before flying. I don't think the controller is a huge battery sucker.
 
Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to research the prop balancer as you suggest. I have charged my batteries and I have installed the carbon fiber blades as well. Should I switch to the stock blades? I've read they are more forgiving than the carbon fiber.

Even though DSLRPros test flies every kit before shipment I went ahead and completed the advanced calibration. So, I don't think there is anything else I can do except pray for good weather tomorrow. But if you have anymore advice, I will be thankful.
 
For calibrations, I want to make sure that the surface is completely leveled. I usually use a phone app for that.

While doing that, you should also check out the MOD values (mouseover the "?" and it should show the normal values) to see if everything there. Usually you'll get error pop-ups if something is out of value when you've got the Phantom connected to the assistant.

I can't vouch for the DSLRpros CF propellers since I've never tried them, but a lot of people agree the stock propellers are the way to go.

I also highly agree with ProfessorStein on removing the gimbal when test flying. Mainly because they're really fragile and a hard landing could be fatal to it. I'm not saying that it would, but it does happen.. a lot. My current setup is adding "extensions" to the landing gear so that it's like 1 inches higher because if you haven't noticed yet, the motor side of the gimbal goes lower than the landing gear so IMO that's probably gonna absorb a lot of the fall. There's also a "guards" that can be used if you don't want extensions.

IMO. :geek:

Good luck!
 
Ok, good news! I flew my Phantom for the first time and did not crash it! But my Futaba receiver started beeping after a few minutes and then kept beeping. I charged it fully per the instructions and the voltage meter read 8.3 when I shut it off. Any idea why it would do this? Thanks!
 
OverheadAerial said:
Another silly question, when I do attach the H3-3D and Hero 3+ Black should I put some type of lens protector on the GoPro? Thanks!

While transport? I usually don't, but it may protect the lens from unnecessary scratching. Same goes for while it's flying I guess.

OverheadAerial said:
Ok, good news! I flew my Phantom for the first time and did not crash it! But my Futaba receiver started beeping after a few minutes and then kept beeping. I charged it fully per the instructions and the voltage meter read 8.3 when I shut it off. Any idea why it would do this? Thanks!

Congrats on your successful flight!

Beeping can mean different things, so I would double-check the Futaba manual for that. For my DJI controller, the beeping either means I haven't touched the controller for a while when it's on (for me it's usually because I forget to turn it off or I accidentally turned it on while putting it back to the case) or low batteries.

On my Specktrum DX6i however on my old drone, the beeping is usually from a timed countdown which may actually be your case. It's pretty much a reminder that you've been flying for an X amount of time and you might start to go low on batteries and it's time to fly back. This is usually used on other RCs IMO because they don't have OSDs or indicators for low batteries.

Hope this helps!
 
The beeping on the Futaba in this case, I'm 99% sure is the stock timer, telling you that you've had the throttle up for X amount of time. Flipping the SH switch on the front right will silence that, but it will also reset the timer.
 
So? Have you flown it again?! As a new "pilot" myself I can agree with the comments made. I too had a nervous first flight, stayed just a few 10's of meters away. Now 8 flights in I dare go about 100m before I get scared and come back.

I believe practice, practice, practice is the way forward. I got my phantom for my videography/short movie making. I'm still in wide grassy open fields at the moment and want to be super confident before getting up close and personal for filming.
 

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