Phantom 4 Has Finally Arrived

pdmike

pdmike

Extremely Popular Member
Got it about a week ago. Haven't taken it out to fly yet. I have been studying the User's Manual, watching videos on YouTube and collecting peripheral stuff. I got a case for it that seems pretty good. I got two extra batteries and a 3-battery charging hub. I got an iPad Mini and a sunshade and, of course, downloaded the DJI Go app.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to focus the camera. Everything was very fuzzy on the screen. I could see my window and my bookshelf vaguely, but it was like they were in a deep fog. Surely, that wasn't right. I hunted and hunted for videos on how to focus the camera on the P4. Nothing. I scoured the manual. Nothing. Then I took the gimbal protector off ....

I think I am going to take it out tomorrow for first flight. I have it set on Beginner's Mode, so I don't plan on going very far with it once it's in the air. I'll just go over to my baseball field where I have been flying the Syma. I think I have the pre-flight and takeoff steps down pretty well. I don't plan to pay any attention to the camera - I just want to make sure I can take it off, fly it and land it safely.

Much of my studying has had to do with the batteries. They really require a lot of care and feeding.
Initially, I charged all three of them up to 100% but quickly saw that was not too wise, since I probably won't be using all of them in the next 10 days. So I ran one of them down to 49% just messing with the quad and the app on the table and then I put it back on the Hub in "Storage" mode, which keeps it at 50%. I will probably be able to use both of the others in the next couple of days.

I'm a little nervous, but am optimistic about the first flight. Anything I need to be reminded of?
 
If your going for a joy ride, one does not care how or what happens to that ride. Hence the term "joyride" have fun, no cares. All equal to having a good time. Ok
 
Then I took the gimbal protector off ....


Mike, I smiled when I read that. Something I would do haha. But as you may have noticed the gimbal goes through some gyrations on startup. And you were of course preventing that.
'
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!
 
Congrats on your P4, hope your maiden goes well. I'm about to do the same with the Spark. Although much smaller, most of the functions are similar in the DJI GO app. But yeah, there is a surprising amount of research and preparation to be done before the first flight. I still can't believe I actually had to do a firmware update on the batteries !! haha. Speaking of the batteries, if you do some research on them you'll see they actually self-maintain and after a certain amount of time they'll actually go into different stages of storage so you don't really have to run them down to a certain voltage like you would a regular lipo.
 
So I go over to my baseball diamond around ten this morning. Wind 1-2 mph if that. No one on the field. Looking good. Turned everything on, made sure the quad was facing away from me. I wasn't able to calibrate the compass because I couldn't find the right buttons to press on the app, so I went ahead without doing that. I hit auto-takeoff, slid to the right and that's exactly what it did. From then on, everything was FLAT PERFECT. I had two fully-charged batteries. I flew the first one in Beginner's Mode. Flew a square and then a reverse square. Then a circle. Had a little trouble with that at first. Then I just boogied around the field, pulling up to light poles, storage sheds, bleachers, etc. Second battery. Now I'm no longer in beginner's mode. Time to MOVE OUT! And we DID! I kept the bird still inside the ball park, but went much faster (of course). Flew several circles, fast and true.

The difference between the P4 and my little Syma is huge. No longer am I fighting to keep the wind from blowing my quad away. The P4 handles like a dream. I felt like I was an old hand by the time I put the second battery in. I took a few pics, just to do it. I also did an auto-land, which scared me for a moment, because when I hit it, the quad immediately began to rise up to a new height before it began to move toward the landing point. But it came down nice and soft.

I am extremely pleased with the P4. As I see it, flying it shouldn't be the hard part - working the camera and getting the good shots is the thing to concentrate on now.
 
Awesome, glad it went well. But you're taking a huge risk of a flyaway or at the least becoming disoriented without compass calibration. On the top-left corner of the main screen of the Go app, tap on the IN Flight (GPS) symbol. that'll take you to the IMU and Compass calibration screen.
 
RENOV8R said:
Awesome, glad it went well. But you're taking a huge risk of a flyaway or at the least becoming disoriented without compass calibration. On the top-left corner of the main screen of the Go app, tap on the IN Flight (GPS) symbol. that'll take you to the IMU and Compass calibration screen.
Click to expand...
Will do next time out. Thank you.
 
holtneil said:
Hi pdmike don't power up with the gimbal lock on it can smoke the gyro board not a cheap fix
Click to expand...
It just dawned on me - I did that. I didn't fly the drone with the gimbal lock on, but I had it on the table with the power on. For some time. It didn't seem to affect anything when I flew it today. But I sure won't do that again.
 
RENOV8R said:
Awesome, glad it went well. But you're taking a huge risk of a flyaway or at the least becoming disoriented without compass calibration. On the top-left corner of the main screen of the Go app, tap on the IN Flight (GPS) symbol. that'll take you to the IMU and Compass calibration screen.
Click to expand...
I don't see any "IN Flight (GPS) symbol" in the top-left corner of my Go app screen. All I see up there is the DJI logo and a flight status field which shows whether I am connected to the quad, not ready to fly, ready to fly, etc. Further, I'm not sure I have to actually do a calibration because, the first time I took my P4 up, it hovered perfectly at 5 feet and sat there as long as I wanted it to. I had no trouble controlling it whatsoever during flight. Also, I have a screen that has "Compass" on it and the the right of that, it says "Normal."

I will keep checking, but does it sound like I really need a calibration? True, I have never done it, but perhaps it came calibrated?

EDIT NOTE: I checked it again. OK - if I tap on what I call the flight status field, it takes me to the Aircraft Status screen, which contains links to both the Compass and the IMU. To the right of both the Compass and the IMU, it says "Normal." If I tap on either of them, nothing happens - I don't go any deeper.

This would seem to indicate to me that I'm good. What do you think?
 
Last edited:
If your IMU is in the green, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd do the compass cali every once in a while though, especially if you're flying in a new location (more than 100 miles fom original cali location)
 
RENOV8R said:
If your IMU is in the green, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd do the compass cali every once in a while though, especially if you're flying in a new location (more than 100 miles fom original cali location)
Click to expand...
Yeah, but the thing is, the app won't LET me calibrate the compass. I can never get to a screen that has "Calibrate compass" to tap on.
 
Back
Top