Upgrading to P3 Pro this week

Joined
Jul 20, 2015
Messages
1,318
Reaction score
266
Age
58
Location
East Providence, RI
I've been a regular in the P2 forums since last July, but now I'm going to make the jump to the P3 Pro, hopefully this week. The P2 Non-Vision served me well, and it's in great shape, but it's time to move onward and upward.

Since I'm not in touch with the P3 community I'll be scouring these thread for useful info. As I do this, does anyone mind posting some quick tips or things I should do/not do?

I can't wait!!!
 
1. Set the transmission quality to 4mbps to maximize your distance.
2. Get a Windsurfer for those times you want to go farther, only $20.
3. Install the KIller RC aluminum Gimbal protector ($50) as well as a carbon fiber camera guard ($15), this saved my camera and gimbal once.
4. Install the channel hack in your GO app to get 32 channels instead of only 8. The upper channels 29-32 are usually very quiet to maximize distance.
5. Buy the Taco ND filter set. ND8 and ND16 help mitigate video jitters when yawing the craft. On really bright days the desert or ocean environments an ND32 may be needed. These ND filters also help photos turn out better, slowing down the exposure to get a richer color capture.

You're going to love Lightbridge.
 
Last edited:
One thing I noticed is the video flicker. It doesn't happen all the time but you don't see it till you're reviewing the video. A lens hood is recommended so I'm going to try that out soon unless one of my ND filters helps with it.

Oh and I had no idea about the channel hack. Will have to try that when I get home.
 
In addition to the above, I'll add what I found useful when mine was delivered a week or so ago. It'll probably need a firmware upgrade. The RC can be updated through the DJI Go app. The bird, camera, and battery will likely all need upgrades as well and you use the SD card to do that. I found this video helpful as the "done sound" at the end is important to recognize. Note that it took mine exactly 20 minutes to do the upgrade, presumably because it needed to update all three: P3P, camera, and battery. The video intro gave me a seizure but after I recovered from that, I found the video great. ;)

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

For whatever reason, mine came with the Lightbridge set to "Custom" and channel 13 which is really noisy in my area so my first flight had a lot of interference. Make sure you select a good channel and do an IMU, compass, and gimbal calibration. First flight, wait for home lock and good GPS sats and hover for a couple minutes before leaving home base to make sure you're not getting any compass errors or other warnings. Some of the "near flyaways" I've seen online could have been avoided by just hovering for 2-3 minutes (first flight anyway, less after that) and checking the controls and such. A lot of people hear "home point updated" and take off like a bat out of hell. :)

Mike
 
  • Like
Reactions: meissner58
Get familiar with training yourself to use the map tracking feature in the lower left hand corner (or expanded to full screen). Initially, you may feel a little uncomfortable in the transition to fpv. The map will be your saving grace for navigation if you lose sight or orientation without having to rely on RTH. At first it's a little awkward to get used to using it but just remember, the yellow kine is your way home. Great advice above. I'm currently at those settings on channel 31 and can comfortably get one mile or more without issue. The hack can be found in youtube. Hard to find the file but it's in a link embedded in the users website. 64kb. Has to be extracted. I highly recommend reducing your brake setting to 90% to reduce the harshness of braking... i.e. prop fly off. Always make sure your battery is snapped in snug. I found initially that there was a tendency not to lock in initially unlike the Phantom 2.
 
Great advice. I didn't learn that until after a couple flights. For the first couple flights, I found it more disorienting than I thought trying to fly back toward home using the FPV. "That's my house". "No wait, it's not!" As soon as I realized how that home line worked on the map, never a problem after that. I can fly straight back home. :)

Mike
 
Good decision to upgrade to P3P. You will definitely enjoy it. Be systematic and careful before upgrading your SW/FW to the latest.

Any reason for not upgrading to P4?
 
It will fly way way way further than your P2, you are going to love the extra flight times, better gps, live video feed.
 
It will fly way way way further than your P2, you are going to love the extra flight times, better gps, live video feed.


Hi Robin
what channel do you use? I'm off to the UK in 2 weeks time for the summer??? few months and will be upgrading from my V1.1.1 to the P3P, my mate back in the UK is trying to persuade me to get the 4 but the pro will do for me.

teccing rather crap this year
Ray
 
Good decision to upgrade to P3P. You will definitely enjoy it. Be systematic and careful before upgrading your SW/FW to the latest.

Any reason for not upgrading to P4?

Price... lol...

But I found out that the brick-and-mortar store here in RI (an authorized DJI dealer, with a repair shop) will do a trade-in on my P2, so MAYBE I can get the P4... my P2 is pristine, and I added the miniOSD, anti-interference board, and did the compass chip upgrade. I also have an ImmersionRC 600mW vtx on it with a Circular Wireless antenna... so maybe after all that they can give me a decent price...
 
Price... lol...

But I found out that the brick-and-mortar store here in RI (an authorized DJI dealer, with a repair shop) will do a trade-in on my P2, so MAYBE I can get the P4... my P2 is pristine, and I added the miniOSD, anti-interference board, and did the compass chip upgrade. I also have an ImmersionRC 600mW vtx on it with a Circular Wireless antenna... so maybe after all that they can give me a decent price...
Don't expect much from the business guys :)
 
One thing I noticed is the video flicker. It doesn't happen all the time but you don't see it till you're reviewing the video. A lens hood is recommended so I'm going to try that out soon unless one of my ND filters helps with it.

Oh and I had no idea about the channel hack. Will have to try that when I get home.
Stay very much away from adding weight to the gimbal. It is small difference of weight but nonetheless not something I would do. Especially given this quads propensity to have gimbal level issues. Just my .02.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Stay very much away from adding weight to the gimbal. It is small difference of weight but nonetheless not something I would do. Especially given this quads propensity to have gimbal level issues. Just my .02. Once you get the horizon tilt it never goes away.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app



Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
1. Set the transmission quality to 4mbps to maximize your distance.
2. Get a Windsurfer for those times you want to go farther, only $20.
3. Install the KIller RC aluminum Gimbal protector ($50) as well as a carbon fiber camera guard ($15), this saved my camera and gimbal once.
4. Install the channel hack in your GO app to get 32 channels instead of only 8. The upper channels 29-32 are usually very quiet to maximize distance.
5. Buy the Taco ND filter set. ND8 and ND16 help mitigate video jitters when yawing the craft. On really bright days the desert or ocean environments an ND32 may be needed. These ND filters also help photos turn out better, slowing down the exposure to get a richer color capture.

You're going to love Lightbridge.

Just checked out the Windsurfer... does that REALLY work?? I have been an IT guy for almost 20 years, and I see people try this sort of thing on wireless access points but never works...
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,054
Messages
1,467,297
Members
104,919
Latest member
BobDan