Does this seem right

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okay I recently bought a phantom two and this is my setup.

Phanton 2
Immersion rc 5.8ghz 600mw tx
Spiro antennas
One patch antenna on FPV black pear
H3-3d gimbal. Hero 4 camera
Dji ground station 2.4 data link
Iosd


right so my question is I am charging my battery 100%
Then I am counting how long it lasts in the air to about 30-25%

I'm getting around 13 minutes flight time max.
On the software it has been discharged six times
I am basically hovering going left and right not doing nothing too hard.
I live in the UK the temperature is 11° slightly windy.
Now I have never owned a phantom before Are these flight times less than they should be? Has the company sold me a dud product
 
that "20 minute" flight time is for a raw Phantom with no gimbal/gopro anything like that. every gram you add decreases flight time. Strong climbs eat battery real hard, and in terms of lateral movement, the more and harder/faster you move the faster you drain battery.

in GPS mode, the Phantom is constantly fighting to hold it's position. the more windy, the harder it has to work. peripherals also drain battery, the iOSD Mini barely not sure about the ground station.

basically yours is as loaded as it can be, I'm not surprised you're seeing around that time. I don't have a ground link and I get around 15 minutes on a battery max.

most of us get several batteries, I have 4 :)

dud? no.
 
I think your flight time based on weight and battery percentage is spot on. I get about 14 minutes to 25% without a ground station link but otherwise similar setup.
 
On DJI website it says 25 minutes! What a scam. Have you guys seen the video on YouTube of DJI Phantom 2 hovering for 25 minutes with gimbal camera.
A lot of videos on YouTube of guys with similar setups flying 15 minutes plus how!!??!?!?! :evil:


So non-GPS mode you'll get more battery life?
 
Turbazz said:
On DJI website it says 25 minutes! What a scam. Have you guys seen the video on YouTube of DJI Phantom 2 hovering for 25 minutes with gimbal camera.
A lot of videos on YouTube of guys with similar setups flying 15 minutes plus how!!??!?!?! :evil:


So non-GPS mode you'll get more battery life?
Yes.
You didn't see the string :eek: ;)
 
I haven't seen the video, but I have some theories.
-no FPV transmitter sucking power
-no ground link sucking power
-power gopro from battery not Phantom or even remove the battery and the gopro isn't on
-calm, not windy day
-hovering with zero movement in no wind is obviously going to use less power than doing ANY movement.
-lowering battery warning levels to zero or near-zero

it's like cars doing tuning specifically to hit high numbers on the dyno... you don't get that kind of performance on the street. Comparing your "normal use" flight times against the best possible performance of some guy on youtube that has tweaked his setup specifically for max flight time isn't really fair at all.

Fine, maybe even with a gimbal and gopro and just hovering in no wind the device will do 20+ minutes... but when you kit up with iosd, Ground Link, FPV transmitter, GoPro, etc. it's now heavier and there are additional power draws on the battery so obviously your flight time is reduced, and also the "max flight time" numbers probably don't factor in returning to home at a "normal" battery level of 25-30%. you can eke out a few more minutes by lowering those thresholds to 0-10%, but imo that isn't worth the risk if the phantom goes into auto-land over water or some other obstacle and crashes.

complaining isn't going to increase your flight time, we've told you that you're getting normal performance. either buy some additional batteries (2-pack on Amazon saves some money) or sell/return it.
 
I've gotten 16min ( from a new battery) with a loaded P2 (2.9lbs) but that is from the time it is powered up until it auto lands at 14% and powered off. Normal flight time is between 13 - 15 minutes. For every oz of weight you add to your quad you lose about one sec of flight time. This formula is fairly close to being right on because everything you add also uses power.
 
Thanks guys for your reply I completely understand what you're saying. I didn't know because I went on information I seen videos and off DJI website.

Here are the videos I was talking about

One is a video of a phantom two with the camera gimbal recording and if you read the description it will have more information of setups

Another video is a long flight with a very big setup.

http://youtu.be/ZkyqPLyR3j0

http://youtu.be/--kV_PNcYE8

Let me know your thoughts I'm not complaining just curious now thanks.
 
cool man. right there in the description of the first video "until the battery was completely drained" - not something you'd ever do in the real world. That's also a P2-Vision so the electronics are slightly different, overall drawing less power from the battery. The comments are full of people saying they get 15-17 mins max, and one guy nailed it imo "hover time is not the same as flying time" .

that second video doesn't really have any specific mention of time, he's going for distance. The youtube video is only 11 minutes, and the on-screen display of his "running time" ends at about 11 and a half right where he took off from, and he says he's at 10% battery which is pretty low. As you can see, since he's flying at full speed (ATTI mode) he goes a long way but his flight TIME is reduced down under 12 minutes.
 
See what u mean I didn't first see it like that but you're completely right! Video seems to be made by Dji? Why would they drain battery completely flat and claim hovering takes more battery ridiculous!
 
Turbazz said:
See what u mean I didn't first see it like that but you're completely right! Video seems to be made by Dji? Why would they drain battery completely flat and claim hovering takes more battery ridiculous!

Here is a video I posted 3 months ago about a battery that was auto landing when it had 40% battery life left. When 2.6 battery update was available I updated all my batteries. This video starts at motor startup and ends at 7% battery life left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjOZGMAfyG4
 
Is it good for the battery to go to 7% what is considered a safe level?
 
Turbazz, Welcome to the forum!

I agree that your flight time seems correct. As for batteries, I have 3 for my P2 and 5 for my P1.
 
Turbazz said:
Is it good for the battery to go to 7% what is considered a safe level?

Normally it will auto land at 15 - 14% of battery life. My first low level is set for 20% and I bring it close by and let it auto land. I also drain the battery down using the assistant software while I'm editing footage to 8% then recharge it. I have total of 5 batteries.
 
I get 16mins from takeoff until autoland with Phantom 2 Vision+ with H3-3D & GoPro 4 Silver.

I used to get 18mins with the original Vision+ camera. Never did I get the 25mins that they advertise :roll:
 
First off, make sure you all understand the difference between Return To Home (where the Phantom flies back to home point then tries to land) and autoland, which is when the Phantom says "no matter what you do, I'm going DOWN".

I believe there are 2 triggers for autoland: 1 is overall battery level and the other is battery voltage... if the Phantom senses the battery's VOLTAGE dropping that could indicate a bad cell or some other battery fault, it'll autoland no matter what "capacity" the battery has left (50%, 80%, 100%).
Then of course there's a low battery level autoland.

Turbazz there's no exact answer to your question, it's whatever level you feel is safe. Once you start flying a lot you'll notice the battery level can drop FAST, imo 7% is too low. The default for warning is 30% and critical is 20% I think? I dropped those levels 5% so it warns me at 25% and considers 15% critical, but I NEVER let it hit critical. Especially as batteries age and discharge faster, I feel like making sure you're basically back near "home" (not way off somewhere) around 30-25% is a good threshold . this gives you enough extra time to deal with any issues that arise... wind, whatever.

I just prefer to play it safe with my $2000 toy... why push the battery and risk losing it :)
 
QYV said:
First off, make sure you all understand the difference between Return To Home (where the Phantom flies back to home point then tries to land) and autoland, which is when the Phantom says "no matter what you do, I'm going DOWN".

I believe there are 2 triggers for autoland: 1 is overall battery level and the other is battery voltage... if the Phantom senses the battery's VOLTAGE dropping that could indicate a bad cell or some other battery fault, it'll autoland no matter what "capacity" the battery has left (50%, 80%, 100%).
Then of course there's a low battery level autoland.

Turbazz there's no exact answer to your question, it's whatever level you feel is safe. Once you start flying a lot you'll notice the battery level can drop FAST, imo 7% is too low. The default for warning is 30% and critical is 20% I think? I dropped those levels 5% so it warns me at 25% and considers 15% critical, but I NEVER let it hit critical. Especially as batteries age and discharge faster, I feel like making sure you're basically back near "home" (not way off somewhere) around 30-25% is a good threshold . this gives you enough extra time to deal with any issues that arise... wind, whatever.

I just prefer to play it safe with my $2000 toy... why push the battery and risk losing it :)

QYV have you watch the video I posted and read why the test was done in the first place? Yes 7% is to low and a normal battery will auto land at 15 - 14 percent.

I'm a videographer so my flight range is no further than 500m (1640') and rarely go that far out so I'll being it back at 20% (first warning) and land at 15% (second warning). As I have mentioned before I discharge to 8% using P2 assistant software before recharging and I monitor the discharging while editing footage.
 
gotta admit I didn't, I just saw you said you had an early autolanding battery before and I assumed either the battery was bad or a firmware update fixed it, I remember when there was a rash of early auto-lands and a new firmware came out very soon after.

like I said it's different from person to person and how you fly... if you're going long range imo you should plan ahead and get back soon... if you're short range and very confident in your battery then sure you can push it a little further... I was mainly trying to encourage the new guy Turbazz to be conservative and not push his batteries to the limits, at least at first and especially in cold weather when batteries drain faster than normal.
 

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