Couple quick questions. Thanks!

[kmccoy831]

Hey guys,

Just got into Rc Quadrocopters and got a DJI Phantom 1 for christmas. Love it and can't spend enough time researching.

Just a couple questions:

1. It was pretty cold today. Would that cause the flight time to drop substantially? (I just want to fly it so bad even though its 20 degrees)

2. Is there a way to find out/live track my flight info? Like height, distance, etc.? Also battery status?

3. What is your best recommendation for my GoPro selection? Not going to be doing any major cinematography, just like doing outdoors stuff and want to record it from a different perspective.

Thanks for any and all info that you veterans have to offer me!

 

[SteveMann]

Welcome to the forum. Put your location in your profile and you may find other Phantom owners near you.
Cold will reduce battery capacity, so keep the battery warm in your car before flying.
The Flytrex Live 3G is probably the most popular FDR because it tells you where you Phantom is if it flies away, but if all you want to do is record the flight data, then look at the Flytrex Core.
I am using the GoPro Hero4 Black on my Phantom 2 NV with the 3DHD gimbal. I am not the right one to ask about Version 1.

 

[RoyVa]

Cold reduces the battery power, however if you keep the battery warm right up until the time you fly you can fly in cold weather. I have quite a few video I did where it snowed and was at 20 degrees or less. The only problem I had was me being able to stand the wind and cold for the full 20 minutes or so of flight time. Had to get in to warm up.

 

[Ti22]

Yes, RC Lipo perform very poorly when cold. They perform best when above 80F. Good 50-80F. Very bad 20-50F. Don’t even bother much below 20F. By perform, I mean voltage sag and IR (internal resistance). High IR and resulting heat waste capacity.

Older cells will be more noticeable regarding this degradation and without cell level discharge monitoring and/or rigging a cell level IR test, it’s very hard to tell if/when you may have a bad/duff cell in these Phantom 3S packs/bricks.

Obviously, storing, charging and placing into service @ room temperature will help. Using them will heat the brick so if they’re reasonably warm to begin flight they will probably stay in a good range.

I’ve used high C rate RC Lipo for several years over wide ranges of temperatures and generally speaking, the warmer the better.

 

[IflyinWY]

Hey guys,

Just got into Rc Quadrocopters and got a DJI Phantom 1 for christmas. Love it and can't spend enough time researching.

Just a couple questions:

1. It was pretty cold today. Would that cause the flight time to drop substantially? (I just want to fly it so bad even though its 20 degrees)

2. Is there a way to find out/live track my flight info? Like height, distance, etc.? Also battery status?

3. What is your best recommendation for my GoPro selection? Not going to be doing any major cinematography, just like doing outdoors stuff and want to record it from a different perspective.

Thanks for any and all info that you veterans have to offer me!

Welcome to the party kmccoy831, it's a blast and you can learn some stuff too.

1)
Keeping the batteries warm until you plug them in helps out a great deal. I keep them in my pockets, closest to my body when flying in the cold. I've flown at temps down to 5 above zero. I've read here about folks flying at 20, or 30 below zero. My flight times seemed pretty good. The battery will keep itself "somewhat" warm once you start flying. The bird flies fine at very low temps.

2)
Inflight data is easy to obtain once you have a way to get it from the bird to your viewing device. Lots of P1 folks use what's called OSD (on screen display). The two ways I know of to get the info from the bird to you is trough WiFi, or FPV.

WiFi is NOT an option I would suggest for you if your P1 is controlled on 2.4Ghz. The GoPro uses 2.4Ghz for WiFi. You won't be missing much though, WiFi sucks without a booster, it lags and has very poor range.

FPV (First Person View) is pretty cool and worth checking out.

3)
I don't have a recommendation of one GoPro over another. I have the 3+ Black and love it.
There are some inexpensive knock-offs... under a hundred bucks. Folks really like them.

Here's the best way I know of to search within our forum. Enter your text in the middle, not at the top of the page.
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=014775389315664725445:ejku2ysgyhi

Enjoy the show