Phantom 3 | Pilot App Android v iOS observations

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Had the Phantom 3 for nearly a week now and its already smoothing out the kinks within such a short time. I originally flew on the android pilot app v1.0.x since the iOS version was held up. It seemed kinda buggy but worked. It was weird because the app felt like it really wanted to be talking to an Inspire but was tricked into talking to a Phantom. Installed the 1.1.x update from the DJI site and that helped a lot. More settings, more functionality, and the options and configuration menus seemed to actually make more sense and actually work. The Lightbridge FPV was hitting its great distance but the frame rates were suffering. I even tried adjusting the stream bandwidth each way. The 1.1 update seemed to help out but it was still only running around 15-20 fps or so at best guess with some stuttering here and there. This was all on a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab S that I bought last week.

Last night I updated all of the firmware and was able to fire up the iOS version (finally) on my iPad Air. I noticed that the 1.1.x software for iOS was mostly the same as the Android version but with some differences that I thought were worth mentioning.

There are insignificant differences which are no big deal like the camera/video toggle being vertical instead of horizontal etc but there are also some bigger differences. The flight recorder log on iOS seems to show way more telemetry info when played back. On Android it only showed distance traveled in realtime and gave you a total distance and a general max height for that flight etc. On iOS it shows you all of that in playback but it also shows you battery time/life, horizontal speed, vertical speed, flight mode, control stick input etc. I don't know if this is just because the Galaxy Tab has a smaller, 16:9 screen vs the iPads larger 4:3 screen or if the Android version can have this switched on or configured (I personally couldn't find any options to) but I was really surprised. Also, the Lightbridge performance seemed significantly improved on the iOS/iPad version. I was getting 30 fps easily with very little stutter and even the telemetry info seemed to be updating more fluidly. It was almost like flying the P3 again for the first time. The iOS version seemed to have a few extra options in the settings too like "enable hardware decoder". Not sure what specifically that does or is referring to but I certainly didn't see it in the Android version. The iOS version also has live streaming via Youtube and the flight simulator. I didn't see these on the Android version though I'm sure they'll be coming soon or possibly even already there but only to hardware I haven't tried.

There are more little differences but this is getting long and I simply wanted to touch on some observations I thought were fairly significant. Its highly possible I could have configured the Galaxy Tab to run better but I'm admittedly not an Android guru (struggled for 30 min trying to figure out how to enable usb debugging on the galaxy tab and the 1.0 Pilot app insisted it be enabled) so these differences might just be the result of my own lack of familiarity. That being said, from my perspective in practice using the afore mentioned hardware so far, the iOS version seems to outperform the Android version by a bit. If you have the option or means, I'd consider swinging that way. I'd be curious to know if anyone on here has done the same thing and had similar or even different experiences.
 
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I can't speak to IOS but I have noticed that the app functionality seems to vary from one android device to another. My Nvidia Shield tab does not have the compass calibration feature (at least I cannot find it!) nor the ability to change camera values like frame rate and resolution. In contrast, my Nexus 5 phone has those features and adjustments available.

Is this perhaps because the device is not officially certified by DJI? It was my understanding that the Shield tab was widely being used by Inspire pilots and has no issues with compatibility. I also cannot seem to get the exposure compensation to move off of -2 EV, but that could just be due to my n00b status with this bird. I'll watch the tutorial film again and see if I can pick up anything else I may have missed.
 
I can't speak to IOS but I have noticed that the app functionality seems to vary from one android device to another. My Nvidia Shield tab does not have the compass calibration feature (at least I cannot find it!) nor the ability to change camera values like frame rate and resolution. In contrast, my Nexus 5 phone has those features and adjustments available.

Is this perhaps because the device is not officially certified by DJI? It was my understanding that the Shield tab was widely being used by Inspire pilots and has no issues with compatibility. I also cannot seem to get the exposure compensation to move off of -2 EV, but that could just be due to my n00b status with this bird. I'll watch the tutorial film again and see if I can pick up anything else I may have missed.

Yeah thats really weird. I'm surprised to see such a wide variance between devices so far. I wonder if its a combination of hardware capability vs screen size, format, resolution etc. the iPad version I'm using lets you do multiple frame rates like 1080p can do 24, 25, 48, 50, 60 and can also switch between mov and mpeg but the Galaxy Tab could do 24, 25, 60 and i couldn't change the video file format at all... at least that I personally could find.
 
I can't speak to IOS but I have noticed that the app functionality seems to vary from one android device to another. My Nvidia Shield tab does not have the compass calibration feature (at least I cannot find it!) nor the ability to change camera values like frame rate and resolution. In contrast, my Nexus 5 phone has those features and adjustments available.

Is this perhaps because the device is not officially certified by DJI? It was my understanding that the Shield tab was widely being used by Inspire pilots and has no issues with compatibility. I also cannot seem to get the exposure compensation to move off of -2 EV, but that could just be due to my n00b status with this bird. I'll watch the tutorial film again and see if I can pick up anything else I may have missed.

I run a Sheild with my P3. Click the Status icon to Calibrate the compus.
 
I can't speak to IOS but I have noticed that the app functionality seems to vary from one android device to another. My Nvidia Shield tab does not have the compass calibration feature (at least I cannot find it!) nor the ability to change camera values like frame rate and resolution. In contrast, my Nexus 5 phone has those features and adjustments available.

Is this perhaps because the device is not officially certified by DJI? It was my understanding that the Shield tab was widely being used by Inspire pilots and has no issues with compatibility. I also cannot seem to get the exposure compensation to move off of -2 EV, but that could just be due to my n00b status with this bird. I'll watch the tutorial film again and see if I can pick up anything else I may have missed.
I have a Shield, and those settings are available in v1.1.0. Could it be that your Nexus is running 1.1.0 and your shield is running 1.0.10? The type of device does not matter, the software version definitely does.
 
I'm positive the Shield is running v1.1, I side-loaded the apk after uninstalling v1.0.

I just connected my Nexus 7 II on lunch break and it seems to work very well. Probably could've gotten by without buying the Shield. I did notice the map/compass overlay is on the lower right on the Nexus whereas the Shield map was tacked to the lower left corner as i recall... anyone else notice a location difference between devices?
 
I'm positive the Shield is running v1.1, I side-loaded the apk after uninstalling v1.0.

I just connected my Nexus 7 II on lunch break and it seems to work very well. Probably could've gotten by without buying the Shield. I did notice the map/compass overlay is on the lower right on the Nexus whereas the Shield map was tacked to the lower left corner as i recall... anyone else notice a location difference between devices?
Yeah I meant the other way around, Shield running 1.1, nexus 5 running 1.0.10
 
I'm positive the Shield is running v1.1, I side-loaded the apk after uninstalling v1.0.

I just connected my Nexus 7 II on lunch break and it seems to work very well. Probably could've gotten by without buying the Shield. I did notice the map/compass overlay is on the lower right on the Nexus whereas the Shield map was tacked to the lower left corner as i recall... anyone else notice a location difference between devices?
Are you able to sync flight data and view the flight record on the Shield? I'm not able to do either. How about the Nexus 7 ?
 
Is there the ability to burt-shoot bracketed stills? Those are listed as two different bullet points on DJI's website, but I couldn't figure out how to do either on Android.
 
Hi guys i havent got my p3 yet but i do have the nexus 7 II 2013 version that i plan to use with the P3 does the app work well with this device or do you recommend buying a different tablet?
 
Hi guys i havent got my p3 yet but i do have the nexus 7 II 2013 version that i plan to use with the P3 does the app work well with this device or do you recommend buying a different tablet?
Works well.
 
Hi guys i havent got my p3 yet but i do have the nexus 7 II 2013 version that i plan to use with the P3 does the app work well with this device or do you recommend buying a different tablet?

I flew with the Nexus 7 II last night and it performed great. No complaints here.
 

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