Did I purchase the wrong phantom? 1+ Mile farm use

kmad86 · Oct 24, 2014

I ran into a "deal" on a phantom Vision + and ended picking it up. What I thought was a deal might not have been. On my first flight and learning to fly, the camera and first axis separated from the second and ripped the cable. I believe this was from the previous person and they rigged it up for my fail. I ordered a new flex cable, and now the camera just shakes around when I turn it on.

Back to my main question.
I had originally purchased this in hopes to use as a tool to locate and do daily counts of our cattle on a 700 acre ranch. The furthest point is around 1 mile from where I would be flying. I'd like to go even get to 2 miles if possible, but 1 mile would be the ideal distance.

1. What is the best setup for me?

2. Can I use the copter and get a new camera, or is the frequency internally in the copter different than I need?

4wd · Oct 24, 2014

It probably would be best to fit a new camera.
You could get by with an alternative camera attached directly but the Vision plus does have a very nicely integrated FPV and telemetry which you have barely seen yet by the sound of things.
The wifi details do not change with a new camera - that is set by the internal wifi module.
You can swap over without doing any changes, but in any case the rebinding is not difficult.

The range is not really as far as you have been led to believe.
Under ideal conditions it might go that far and back on one battery.
By about 1000 feet out you will lose sight of it, and be depending on it's ability to come back towards you from the GPS lock before it took off..
It takes time and many flights to be fully confident flying it beyond line of sight.
A more realistic reliable range is probably half a mile or so.
You certainly could use it to locate and count cattle but you won't get much detail to pick out an individual cow for any reason.

Meta4 · Oct 24, 2014

DJIs specs for the Phantom 2+ mention 800 metres - or half a mile, so out of the box it isn't going to do the distance you want.
Under some conditions or with some modifications, it is possible to make it fly further and there are some distance specialists on the forum that can help with that.

Sounds like you've bought a crashed Phantom and it's probably best that you replace the camera and gimbal unit.
It's expensive (approx $700) and probably why it was sold. If the seller passed it off as being in good condition, you may have a claim against him for misrepresenting ??