Crystal Sky Monitor

[Chesapeake]

For some reason I think that's the way to go for me. P4pro with 7.85 Crystalsky + a drone raft, extra batteries, and maybe prop guards. I like what I'm reading about more stability in a breeze on the 4. I'm wondering how many wrecks might have been caused by I pad/tablet errors and maybe not drone failure? No matter what and why you choose your set up, like anything else , there's always trade offs. You just have to try to guess the best choice for your circumstances and hope for the best. One thing I know for sure. When the 7.85 becomes available ,I'm buying the whole set up from Best Buy. I have a store near me and if anything is wrong I can take it back and they will make it good. Refund, warranty, repair, I'm even thinking Geek Squad to set it up so that when I leave the store , it's up and running. I've never had a problem on any thing I've bought from Best Buy including returns and repairs. I don't want any surprises after I make a purchase.

 

[Advexure]

Has that been confirmed anywhere?

As @Meta4 mentioned, it HAS NOT been confirmed by DJI whether or not the CrystalSky Monitors will be compatible with 3rd party apps. These monitors are still in a prototyping stage and things can continue to change. I would personally be shocked if 3rd party apps will not be supported on the CrystalSky. After finally seeing one in person person at CES they are far different from the integrated monitor on the Phantom 4 Pro+

 

[Meta4]

For some reason I think that's the way to go for me. ... + a drone raft, ... and maybe prop guards.

A drone raft?
Unless you need to land on water, handicapping your Phantom with the weight and wind resistance from something like that will make your flying less safe rather than more safe.
Prop guards also add considerably to windage and reduce the Phantom's ability to deal with wind and fight a headwind.
Usually if a Phantom owner thinks propguards are the answer, flying somewhere else is a better one.
Combining a raft and guards is probably not a good idea.

I'm wondering how many wrecks might have been caused by I pad/tablet errors and maybe not drone failure?

Probably zero, I can't imagine any tablet error that would cause a crash.
You can disconnect or switch off your tablet and it has no effect on the Phantom
You still have full control but just lose video.

 

[Chesapeake]

Only problem is the 3rd party apps still. Many good IOS apps and Android apps that won't work.

That wouldn't be a problem for me.

 

[glen e]

If I can't run litchi (or any other apps) ....not interested.

 

[Chesapeake]

A drone raft?
Unless you need to land on water, handicapping your Phantom with the weight and wind resistance from something like that will make your flying less safe rather than more safe.
Prop guards also add considerably to windage and reduce the Phantom's ability to deal with wind and fight a headwind.
Usually if a Phantom owner thinks propguards are the answer, flying somewhere else is a better one.
Combining a raft and guards is probably not a good idea.

Probably zero, I can't imagine any tablet error that would cause a crash.
You can disconnect or switch off your tablet and it has no effect on the Phantom
You still have full control but just lose video.

I will be mostly droning on the water from shore or in my boat. My landing areas would be tall marsh grass.. I don't want to use the drone as a weed whacker. A few minutes of lost flight time wouldn't bother me for the added safety benefit of landing on the water. Extra batteries are far less expensive than a drowned drone. I believe you can actually taxi the drone on the water with these also? What's the worst scenario if I don't like It? Highly doubt full considering that they can also be used to land on snow and uneven rough terrain.They can be put on and removed in 1 minute without tools. I'm out $150. I can live with that

 

[Langstonius]

Considering the last android device they made, im running the other goddamned direction from this monitor.

 

[Langstonius]

I personally don't use litchi, but I am sure there will be someone who will gain root access to the device. Android devices have a very active community of developers working on rooting new devices all the time. I am sure there will be a workaround eventually.

XDA-Developers Android Forums


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Yeah but at this cost, why the hell am i having to root it?

 

[smiller]

I personally don't use litchi, but I am sure there will be someone who will gain root access to the device. Android devices have a very active community of developers working on rooting new devices all the time. I am sure there will be a workaround eventually.

Yes and no. I'm sure that it is possible to root the P4P+ but I'm not sure that those with the requisite expertise will decide to devote the time to it. There is a difference in spending x hours rooting a major-model cellphone where there is a potential user base of millions and a specialty device like the P4P+ with a relatively few number of owners. The good news is that USB debugging is active and the OS is open to the standard Adb and Fastboot utilities but the bad news is that none of the easy exploits seem to be effective. No doubt a true expert (which I am not) could do it, but not sure this product will really get their attention.

 

[John Locke]

Yeah but at this cost, why the hell am i having to root it?

Exactly. And why would Litchi even support an app for a device that had to be rooted just to load it? I don't think so.

 

[smiller]

Exactly. And why would Litchi even support an app for a device that had to be rooted just to work. I don't think so.

Litichi is not going to care whether a device is rooted or not, many Android devices are rooted and mainstream Android apps are almost never device-dependent. But one problem could be that the P4P+ uses Android KitKat (4.4) and possibly Litchi and others could eventually end support for this version.

 

[Langstonius]

Yes and no. I'm sure that it is possible to root the P4P+ but I'm not sure that those with the requisite expertise will decide to devote the time to it. There is a difference in spending x hours rooting a major-model cellphone where there is a potential user base of millions and a specialty device like the P4P+ with a relatively few number of owners. The good news is that USB debugging is active and the OS is open to the standard Adb and Fastboot utilities but the bad news is that none of the easy exploits seem to be effective. No doubt a true expert (which I am not) could do it, but not sure this product will really get their attention.

This. Short of the SDK they were using, im not getting any further. With the RC integration, I would be worried about rooting it only to miss critical system parts. I just dont understand why it was built like this considering its not a kiosk or some other public facing system. Who the hell puts a mechanical limiter on a Ferrari?! While I work on these types of devices all the time, I normally at least have manufacturer support. Looking at the DJI dev forums, it doesn't seem im getting very on support there either...

#firstworldproblems

 

[smiller]

I think there are two reasons for the locked nature of the P4P+, one is that without additional (and possibly unruly) apps and processes running in the device it is easier to guarantee stability, plus DJI fears it may inadvertently end up owning any such problems (since it is 'their' device.) Just look at all the threads on the forum moaning about how the P4P+ is 'crippled' because it can't do this and 'crippled' because it can't do that, I can see how DJI would feel that they aren't equipped to support such issues/complaints and just don't want to deal with it all.

It will be very interesting to see what the policy is with the CrystalSky units. You can reasonably speculate either way but I personally wouldn't be surprised if they were similarly locked down.

 

[glen e]

here's my take on the situation. Just becoming a drone person after Christmas. But being in business for 35 years on the corporate side, it's apparent that in everything you read that the drone industry is about ready to quadruple exponentially and become a mainstream item. And come out of the back rooms and garages. Much like Jobs came out of the garage. DJI is currently like apple in '80 or Honda in '76, potentially ready to explode in growth. nobody's even close in market share…

Consequently DJI wants to make this whole thing as seamless and simple for people that are not going to become super drone hobbyists, and just use it like there are other hobbies, golf clubs, fishing rods, etc. all hoping it'll become a main street hobby and they make billions. To do that they want to rule out anything else that could be between all the computer innards and the owner experience. Not to mention how much a proprietary display device will cut out 50% of the inquiries the customer service, which I'm sure is overloaded. This morning I was number 15 in the queue. The Crystal monitor does that. It will run the DJ software and nothing else.

Just my insane ravings of an old man, retired , on a great afternoon to fly in Florida… and my controller is broken.

 

[John Locke]

Here's a few photos I took of the 7.9" Crystal Sky unit at CES.

 

[John Locke]

Here are some more photos. What isn't shown is the required USB cable from the RC to the display. However there is an interesting interconnect on the bottom of the unit that may be a clue for what's coming on future RCs.

 

[Langstonius]

I think there are two reasons for the locked nature of the P4P+, one is that without additional (and possibly unruly) apps and processes running in the device it is easier to guarantee stability, plus DJI fears it may inadvertently end up owning any such problems (since it is 'their' device.) Just look at all the threads on the forum moaning about how the P4P+ is 'crippled' because it can't do this and 'crippled' because it can't do that, I can see how DJI would feel that they aren't equipped to support such issues/complaints and just don't want to deal with it all.

It will be very interesting to see what the policy is with the CrystalSky units. You can reasonably speculate either way but I personally wouldn't be surprised if they were similarly locked down.

Honestly, thats fine to do. Just please tell us in advance so i don't buy something that turns out, isn't standard. I worked on a freakin car android system where the end user could install apps. Its..expected in this day and age. Concerns about 'unruly' apps and such are part of the reason people supposedly choose android, because its an embedded system with lots of training wheels and (annoying) safeties built in already. And now they own the problem of putting out the crappiest purpose built android device on the market

I should note, i dont disagree with you. im just annoyed there was no 'warning: this is a useless device that we install old versions of facebook, twitter, and instagram on but wont let you update, enjoy the potential security issues' disclaimer.

i do feel for them on some level, because ive sat in the meetings for these discussions elsewhere. It just seems they dont know the users very well or im (praying) they will release a firmware that fixes it. Also, I dont mean to crap on android. i just learned development on linux which is far less restrictive than ios or android, but you can really screw things up an worse by an order of magnitude.

Cheers and happy flying to all. dont mean to be a stick in the mud by my developer sense are tingling with a solid 'wtf'

 

[djcWI]

It would be nice if you could use the mic to record to the monitors SD card and auto-sync to the video.

 

[Dirby]

Here are some more photos. What isn't shown is the required USB cable from the RC to the display. However there is an interesting interconnect on the bottom of the unit that may be a clue for what's coming on future RCs.

what transmitter is shown in the pictures?
thx D

 

[smiller]

Here are some more photos. What isn't shown is the required USB cable from the RC to the display. However there is an interesting interconnect on the bottom of the unit that may be a clue for what's coming on future RCs.

Looks like nice hardware. Too bad you weren't able to try to load Litchi.