In over my head?

[staeziak]

Hello all,
My name is Shawn. I am new to flying drones outside of the one I purchased for my son which takes video and all of that and folds up it's a rather small one but it flies okay however it is nothing compared to the upgrade I purchased for him off of Facebook Marketplace. I got a sweet deal on a DJI Phantom 2 which has been upgraded including the gimbal to a phantom 3 and in the pictures it did not look as intimidating as it did once I received it and all the parts for it. This piece of Machinery is far beyond my skills as of right now but I'm hoping for some guidance or any information on how I would find the proper videos or text to help me understand and fly this properly before I make the decision to give it to my 8-year-old son. And you never know it might be something that I end up being interested in I just want to make sure I do not destroy this thing the first time I try to fly it. I've had some experience with smaller RC hobby cars but this once again is something I'm going to need some advice on so if anybody can please help me out I would really appreciate it. Thank you

 

[RodPad]

Welcome to the forum!

My first flying bird was a P2V+ $1400 with extra battery etc.
Short story lost it July 2015, With friends 40 hrs looking for it.

Personally, I'm curious how much did you pay for this?

I would take some pictures of it.
At least one picture that shows all the parts you got.

Hear you can look at all the Phantom models.

DJI Phantom Drone Forum

DJI Phantom Drone Forum and Quadcopter, UAV site for Information, Help, Forum, Discussions and Online Community

phantompilots.com

"In over my head?"
You will make up your mind pretty quick. .

Rod ..

 

[captainmilehigh]

Welcome to the Forum.

A P2 with P3 camera & gimbal? Like @RodPad said above, take some pics and post back here.

Check out 'Phantomhelp.com' by msinger, an approved vendor here on the forum. Just select the drone model from the drop-down menu for information on that model......including a downloadable owners manual.

Let us know a little more about your 'new' drone......like, have you seen this drone fly?.......batteries included and condition,.....r/c (controller) included? ......and what device you plan on using to fly it..(phone, iPad)etc.

The more info the better......that way we can point you in the right direction and get you flying safely.

Again, welcome to the Phantom Pilots Forum.

 

[staeziak]

Welcome to the forum!

My first flying bird was a P2V+ $1400 with extra battery etc.
Short story lost it July 2015, With friends 40 hrs looking for it.

Personally, I'm curious how much did you pay for this?

I would take some pictures of it.
At least one picture that shows all the parts you got.

Hear you can look at all the Phantom models.

DJI Phantom Drone Forum

DJI Phantom Drone Forum and Quadcopter, UAV site for Information, Help, Forum, Discussions and Online Community

phantompilots.com

"In over my head?"
You will make up your mind pretty quick. .

Rod ..

They were actually asking $150 for it or I mean 175 and then after talking to them and telling them that I'm a disabled veteran and that I was hoping to get it for my son he literally sent it to me for free! It's a Phantom 2 but he upgraded everything to a phantom 3 including the gimbal. I will take pictures of it when I get home and post them here so you can see what I'm working with because I'm a bit lost lol and I've been struggling to find the Phantom Vision 2 fly app as it has been discontinued and the one I did find on up to down site was not supported by my s22 Samsung phone

 

[RodPad]

Here is the Phantom2 help as @captainmilehigh, that's were you find the drop down.

Rod ..

 

[staeziak]

Here is the Phantom2 help as @captainmilehigh, that's were you find the drop down.

Rod ..

Here are the pics
. And what do you mean by "find the drop down?"

 

[staeziak]

Here are the pics
. And what do you mean by "find the drop down?"

 

[staeziak]

Welcome to the Forum.

A P2 with P3 camera & gimbal? Like @RodPad said above, take some pics and post back here.

Check out 'Phantomhelp.com' by msinger, an approved vendor here on the forum. Just select the drone model from the drop-down menu for information on that model......including a downloadable owners manual.

Let us know a little more about your 'new' drone......like, have you seen this drone fly?.......batteries included and condition,.....r/c (controller) included? ......and what device you plan on using to fly it..(phone, iPad)etc.

The more info the better......that way we can point you in the right direction and get you flying safely.

Again, welcome to the Phantom Pilots Forum.

I posted about 12 pictures of the Drone itself and all the extra stuff he sent but here's a picture of the controller itself the gentleman said it definitely flies and everything was calibrated but I'd have to recalibrate something I can't remember what he said when I started up and the extended legs were both broke when it came in to me so I had a super glue them after I took them off and put them back on but I have yet to fly it because I can't find a downloadable version of the app that is supposed to be used with the Phantom 2 which is what the gentleman told me because of the fact that the actual body and everything is a fandom too but he added the Gimbal and everything else after the fact. I've been trying to read up on it but I've only had it for like a day and a half so learning all the parts and what I should or should not have is a little challenging and I just want to make sure that I know everything I need to know before taking it up in the air

 

[captainmilehigh]

May be the drop down menu from 'Phantomhelp.com' I mentioned earlier...

Boatloads of info for your P2.

 

[RodPad]

Correct on the drop down.

Rod ..

 

[Meta4]

Here are the pics

That's a weird looking homebrew, hybrid beast.
It's probably a Phantom 2 with some sort of gimbal and what looks like the camera from P2 Vision.
It's not the camera from a Phantom 3 (which probably couldn''t be made to work with that drone).
Even if it works, that camera has a fisheye lens and produces distorted images ... like this:

At least you didn't pay too much for it.

Perhaps it could be made to work?
But it's an oddly modified dinosaur from back when drones were very primitive compared to what's around now.
Modern drones are much simpler to work and understand.
If I was you and wanting to get a good, inexpensive drone to fly, I'd look out for a DJI Mini 2 (or later).
You should be able to find one of those without breaking the bank.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yeah that's from way back. Even those aftermarket antennas are old and outdated. They were eventually replaced by other aftermarket antennas that are also old. Dipole? It's hard to remember the names. My first concern would be Does the gimbal work correctly? If not, I would not even mess with this frankenstein drone. Second thing would be Do you have a mobile device ancient enough to work with that 12 year old drone? Your smart phone is not going to do the trick. Third thing Does the FPV even work? Almost certainly not. 1% chance or less. You'd have to repair that which means flash the NAND. Personally, I would not mess with that thing. Way too much time, and the end reward is not worth it, IMO. If it flies, it might be fun to just push the button on the camera and fly around and take blind video which you can later watch at home. Make sure you shut the camera off before you turn the drone off. Good luck.

P.S. Phantom help is a great site but I don't think it provides much help for P2 drones. Yeah, that's a P2V frankensteined out.

 

[captainmilehigh]

Yep, I kinda' agree with others that it may be one headache after another just trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

The combo of different model parts, and then aftermarket dipole antennas makes research of the drones design and function far from a normal 'stock' drone.

It would be interesting to see if it will still fly, but I wouldn't put much money or time in it myself. But that's me.

 

[RodPad]

@staeziak

My Post on #2
***********************************************************
"In over my head?"
You will make up your mind pretty quick. .

Rod ..
****************************************************

I have been here awhile
Everybody that posted.
They know a lot .

Rod ..

 

[staeziak]

Thank you everyone.. I had bo idea it was so old and that it wasn't common for drones to look like that..lol..

 

[staeziak]

Do you think I should even bother letting my son work with this if it flies? He is 8. I do have an old galaxy s20 I was able to download the vision 2 app on

 

[captainmilehigh]

Do you think I should even bother letting my son work with this if it flies? He is 8. I do have an old galaxy s20 I was able to download the vision 2 app on

Might as well try and see what you're dealing with. Be sure the batteries charge up for the bird and the R/C. Create a preflight checklist of required steps to get started.

Note : If you do any bench testing INSIDE, be sure to take the props OFF the bird before power up. You don't want an inadvertent takeoff chasing you across the room....

 

[staeziak]

Lol.. yeah I am completely new to this type of drone as I said the other two I've used with my son are literally just turn on and take off little foldable ones. I had no clue about the age of this or whether this was normal or not but I do know it's much more advanced than anything I've ever had to deal with and much bigger. I have done a lot of YouTube searching and on their site but it is hard to get information on this older model but I have figured out how to do the PreFlight checklist with the rotation and everything and I got as far as getting to calibrating the compass. My biggest issue is I was told the only way to fly it is with the vision flight app. I'm wondering if I could fly it without the flight app and just the controller itself so I can at least see if it flies and moves properly.

 

[Meta4]

Do you think I should even bother letting my son work with this if it flies? He is 8.

It's definitely too complicated for an 8-year old.

 

[Rock Shelter]

And it has zero collision avoidance...