Is a tablet necessary to fly the P3

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I've been flying a P2 for almost two years and have a P3 coming soon. In the meantime, I want to know if I require a tablet/smartphone to fly the P3, I know a tablet/smartphone is useful and has many advantages, but if I want to fly the P3 for 30 seconds to test something or to drain the battery, is it necessary to have a tablet/smartphone connected?

I do own a tablet/smartphone, my question is not about never using a tablet, I just want to understand if a tablet/smartphone is absolutely necessary.

Thanks,
 
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Absolutely not necessary! Just yesterday, while shooting images for a spherical panorama, while 500 feet over water, my iPad Air 2 suddenly rebooted itself, leaving me looking at an Apple logo, while the green RC transmitter light remained fully lit, unaffected. After a minute, the tablet rebooted, and I reopened the DJI Go app, and continued shooting the rest of the images I needed. The P3P remained stationary and under full control of the transmitter during the entire time the app was closed.:cool: What triggered the iPad Air 2 crash remains a mystery. The only thing different about this mission was the hand drawn flight path on the map, which, of course, was lost during the reboot. A bug perhaps?
 
You can fly with line of sight using the controls without visual through the phone/tablet.
 
You can fly with line of sight using the controls without visual through the phone/tablet.

at the moment I'm using a v1.1.1 but as soon as, I'm going to get a P3A with my v1.1.1 I'm now so used to flying FPV using Fat Shark goggles which I'll have to update with the P3A at a cost so I'd rather not have to buy a tablet as well so is it possible to use a P3A setting it up on my PC by flying it solely LOS and goggles, I do have a Samsung s4 mobile that maybe I could fit to the P3A if I have to,so if I have to could I still plug in my goggles somewhere?
 
You can certainly FLY a p3 without the app, but I don't think you can make any settings changes without it. My understanding is, prior to the p3, there was some sort of desktop app or website that allowed you to make changes to the settings. I've never seen that for my P3. So OP, yes you can, but Teccer, you'll need a tablet or smartphone to change settings, calibrate, etc.
 
Hi Viral
thanks for your quick reply, so If I use my Samsung S4 on the TX so that I can do all the settings/calibrations etc, then I could use my goggles still leaving my phone on the TX, correct?
I have already down loaded the DJI GO onto my Samsung S4 so hopefully when I get my P3A everything should work ok.
cheers
 
I've been flying a P2 for almost two years and have a P3 coming soon. In the meantime, I want to know if I require a tablet/smartphone to fly the P3, I know a tablet/smartphone is useful and has many advantages, but if I want to fly the P3 for 30 seconds to test something or to drain the battery, is it necessary to have a tablet/smartphone connected?

It can be done but I highly recommend against it. The Pilot/Go app reports things such as errors, signal and RTH information that you may need to know about before and while flying. Without the app, you would be flying "blind".
 
Agreed. The op was asking if it is technically possible. And it is. But sounds like he meant just hovering to run the battery down or something. Of course, without the app, he wouldn't know what the battery level was... Until it fell out of the sky! :)
 
he wouldn't know what the battery level was... Until it fell out of the sky! :)

so you don't get osd when using goggles as I do on my v1.1.1?
then the only answer if I prefer to use goggles is to get a holder that my samsung s4 phone will fit into and put that on my head?
at the moment my thoughts on a tablet (don't have a P3 yet) is that I hear about so many apps crashing, can't see the display because of the sun, having to (in my case) wear glasses so I can see what's on the tab screen,
of course I might feel different about all this when the time comes but I still think the biggest problem is even with a sun screen it's still a problem seeing the display
thanks for your reply's
 
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I only use my tablet (Samsung Tab 4 ) to verify no warnings. Once the Phantom is warmed up and ready to fly I never look at it again. All the info I need is on the 22" HD monitor I use for FPV. The HDMI upgrade is fantastic.
 

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