Flew My First Litchi Mission!!!

[Paul A Byers]

Just wanted to get on here and say how cool having this forum is. Very useful advice and information from all of you guys. I've got a P3P with 135 flights and 18 hours 11 minutes of flight time. The only complaint I have regarding my bird, definitely not the forum, is I was really disappointed with my stock range. Other than that, the P3P is a dream. That could be related to my area and all of the interference. I have also not done the 32 from 8 channel hack. So, I turned to you guys for advice and settled on the Itelite DBS02 range extender. Fabulous! Doubled my range. However, I am one who likes to push the envelope, and since it is so easy once you've done that mod, to simply clip on the even bigger antenna by Itelite Maxxrange, I did that too. Spending the time on here that I do, I heard about Litchi and was intrigued. Now I am here, I flew my first Litchi mission this evening. 12 waypoints, 20 minute flight. Loved it! The intuitive experience of the app and completely automated flight was a blast! Don't get me wrong, flying without automation is fun, but it's also a lot of fun to plan a mission and press the button and just watch your bird fly on autopilot! Not to mention the unbelievable professional smoothness and look of the recording that you can have as the result of using POI and interpolation. I could not have achieved all of this without the help of you guys! No video to show yet because it was just a test run at night, but I am sure I will have video to share later. Until then, Happy Flying.

 

[TnHwyman]

Paul, glad you are here. Looking forward to seeing more posts from you.

 

[MacCool]

It's interesting. I've been flying R/C for over 40 years, and it was always about the flying. With the Phantoms, P4 running Litchi in particular, I find that I get a lot of enjoyment out of creating and then tweaking the missions to get just the right effect. I'll fly them over and over, different times of the day and night, different lighting, even different times of the year, looking for just the right photographic effect. I don't really enjoy the actual flying as such...it's not challenging in any way...but I did just pick some VR Box goggles and have been playing around with FPV using Litchi. That's very intriguing.

 

[rstekeur]

Never get's old. the P3P and Litchi does everything I need and then some. The waypoint missions are so well done.

 

[Neon Euc]

Haha I agree. When I done my first litchi mission the other week I was scared. I knew it would be a "loss of signal" straight away. And I would have no control whatsoever. Couldn't even press the RTH as controller I'd not connected. There I was crapping it, will it come back? Did I set it night enough? My heart was beating. But when it came back... Man... What a feeling lol

Sent from my Power using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Paul A Byers]

Haha I agree. When I done my first litchi mission the other week I was scared. I knew it would be a "loss of signal" straight away. And I would have no control whatsoever. Couldn't even press the RTH as controller I'd not connected. There I was crapping it, will it come back? Did I set it night enough? My heart was beating. But when it came back... Man... What a feeling lol

Sent from my Power using PhantomPilots mobile app

Do you know what Maxxrange is by Itelite? With that at least my reach will be farther to take control. I flew out 10,000 feet the other day and back with DJI Go. Highly recommend it!

 

[Paul A Byers]

Haha I agree. When I done my first litchi mission the other week I was scared. I knew it would be a "loss of signal" straight away. And I would have no control whatsoever. Couldn't even press the RTH as controller I'd not connected. There I was crapping it, will it come back? Did I set it night enough? My heart was beating. But when it came back... Man... What a feeling lol

Sent from my Power using PhantomPilots mobile app

Glad you got it back!

 

[Cloud Chaser]

It all sounds amazing. I'm looking at the 2 antennas you mentioned but the 2nd seems so big and bulky. Do you think it's really worth the additional size? Sometimes I've been flying/shooting in urban areas and the interference is really bad.

 

[Neon Euc]

Glad you got it back!

Thank you I just uploaded my latest one too

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[Paul A Byers]

It all sounds amazing. I'm looking at the 2 antennas you mentioned but the 2nd seems so big and bulky. Do you think it's really worth the additional size? Sometimes I've been flying/shooting in urban areas and the interference is really bad.

The smaller one, Itelite DBS02 which cost me $130 with shipping is most definitely worth the money. More than doubled my range. You have to open up the controller to install it(Youtube videos show how), but once you get it installed it is very easy to take on and off. The weight and feel of it are barely noticeable compared to the stock antennas. Once the smaller one is installed it is detachable for putting in a case for traveling. Then for $88 more dollars you can order the larger one, panel only without the internal parts because you already have those that came with the smaller one. It is very large and bulky, but the range with it is unbelievable. It is worth it to me just to break out when I want to go really really far. It is a hobby, which I'm always up for trying new things. If you don't like it you can always put it up on ebay or the classifieds section of the forum. There is also another antenna called fpvlr that people are talking about that some say offer really good penetration through trees and such. I believe it can be attached using the same internal parts that come with the DBS02.All that being said, I really believe you would be satisfied with the smaller panel antenna by Itelite. I know I was. Hope this helps and is not too much information, just know that the Itelite antennas do work well!

 

[chazzm]

Where can I find info on the fpvir antenna?, do you know of any that work well that I don't have to take theRC apart to use?


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[Paul A Byers]

Where can I find info on the fpvir antenna?, do you know of any that work well that I don't have to take theRC apart to use?

Link below for fpvlr. If you look at the pictures you will see some that have amplifiers added and some that don't. You can go as crazy as you want with this stuff. I've heard windsurfers are descent, but not excellent.


Phantom 3

Here is another link where you can get the Itelite antennas. They have others as well:

Maxx UAV - UAV Long Range Solutions


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[Cloud Chaser]

Thanks for the info.
I rely on portability and having the small one sounds like the way to go. I flew 8k feet today unobstructed but in an urban area with interference and I think that was it's max distance. It will be nice to get a boost.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Just wanted to get on here and say how cool having this forum is. Very useful advice and information from all of you guys. I've got a P3P with 135 flights and 18 hours 11 minutes of flight time. The only complaint I have regarding my bird, definitely not the forum, is I was really disappointed with my stock range. Other than that, the P3P is a dream. That could be related to my area and all of the interference. I have also not done the 32 from 8 channel hack. So, I turned to you guys for advice and settled on the Itelite DBS02 range extender. Fabulous! Doubled my range. However, I am one who likes to push the envelope, and since it is so easy once you've done that mod, to simply clip on the even bigger antenna by Itelite Maxxrange, I did that too. Spending the time on here that I do, I heard about Litchi and was intrigued. Now I am here, I flew my first Litchi mission this evening. 12 waypoints, 20 minute flight. Loved it! The intuitive experience of the app and completely automated flight was a blast! Don't get me wrong, flying without automation is fun, but it's also a lot of fun to plan a mission and press the button and just watch your bird fly on autopilot! Not to mention the unbelievable professional smoothness and look of the recording that you can have as the result of using POI and interpolation. I could not have achieved all of this without the help of you guys! No video to show yet because it was just a test run at night, but I am sure I will have video to share later. Until then, Happy Flying.

Since you love Litchi check this method of planning missions. Set to waypoint mode, maximize map. Fly drone to a spot and altitude and heading you want. Touch drone icon on map. Now fly to next desired point and height and heading, touch drone icon again. You have just planned a mission in live time seeing where the drone would fly on it's own, doing it this way is better and sometimes safer than using HUB to plan missions. It takes a battery doing it, but will be useful in certain instances.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The smaller one, Itelite DBS02 which cost me $130 with shipping is most definitely worth the money. More than doubled my range. You have to open up the controller to install it(Youtube videos show how), but once you get it installed it is very easy to take on and off. The weight and feel of it are barely noticeable compared to the stock antennas. Once the smaller one is installed it is detachable for putting in a case for traveling. Then for $88 more dollars you can order the larger one, panel only without the internal parts because you already have those that came with the smaller one. It is very large and bulky, but the range with it is unbelievable. It is worth it to me just to break out when I want to go really really far. It is a hobby, which I'm always up for trying new things. If you don't like it you can always put it up on ebay or the classifieds section of the forum. There is also another antenna called fpvlr that people are talking about that some say offer really good penetration through trees and such. I believe it can be attached using the same internal parts that come with the DBS02.All that being said, I really believe you would be satisfied with the smaller panel antenna by Itelite. I know I was. Hope this helps and is not too much information, just know that the Itelite antennas do work well!

I easily still had full control 5.9 miles away with the DBS-02 and amps on my P4. I only turned around because the battery was at 51%! Try the amps!