JarvieDigital Photography Blog

200 Beginner tips for Quadcopters and the DJI Phantom

If you’re interested in this hobby let me save you a bunch of hours and catch you up to what I’ve learned in the last week.

Spend 30 minutes learning what took me 10-20hrs
From beginner to beginner you’re welcome.
This should help “get you off the ground” … get it?

GROUP?
I’m gonna start a photographer-centric group with +Barry Blanchard and a few others who got the phantom, to discuss ideas and upgrades and answer questions. Who else is out there flying?

PART 2 of the 2 part video

THE FULL LIST

1. It’s more expensive than you think
2. It takes more time to learn than you think
3. It’s addictive
4. It attracts a lot of attention from onlookers
5. Most multi rotors – quadcopters are diy builds
6. DIY – is do it yourself
7. DJI Phantom is one of the only mass produced pre-built ones
8. Therefore I’m telling you what I learned about DJI
9. But first LEARNING: MQX is a great small one to start with
10. MQX is pretty tough and made to take crashes
11. Learn with the MQX as it’s tougher
12. MQX costs a lot less
13. Even batteries are only about $10
14. You can easily fly the MQX inside
15. Even if you’re just considering the phantom or bigger just get the MQX right now to try it out
16. You don’t really need a flight simulator if you’re gonna practice with the MQX
17. but a flight simulator wouldn’t hurt and may facilitate your interest in other RC flying things.
18. TERMINOLOGY: Helicopter is traditional,
19. Quadcopter is 4 rotors
20. Octocopter is 8 rotors and so on
21. Thus they often call them Multirotors
22. They call them props- propellers
23. Or UAV – unmanned aerial vehicles
24. Or even drones
25. Let’s call them by their more toy names so we’re not confused with killing machines
26. Kits and DIY are popular terms
27. FPV is first person view
28. TX is the transmitter
29. they rate the transmitting devices
30. usually smaller number goes farther
31. phantom has been known to go maybe up to 1000meters
32. MORE TERMINOLOGY : GPS you know
33. ATTI – is attitude
34. CL HL are more common on Phantom Home lock and course lock… flying methods
35. That’s called IOC – intelligent orientation control
36. DJI made the best how to videos on youtube for most of this stuff
37. the phantom doesn’t come with a paper manual
38. there is one online somewhere
39. most people learn stuff via youtube or forums
40. GIMBAL is what keeps a filming device level
41. There’s so many opinions about gimbals
42. Gimbals use servos which are motors.
43. They are rated in torque and speed of response
44. They are controlled by the phantom itself
45. The phantom knows if it’s level, acceleromitor etc
46. NAZA is the brain of the system that controls pretty much everything in the phantom
47. There are other brains out there including open source type stuff for DIY enthusiasts
48. They aren’t mainstream once they get larger
49. Small toy ones and pre-fabricated ones are at bigger stores and amazon
50. but kit ones are usually at specialty stores
51. There are a ton of RC stores … more than you think
52. They often hook you up on shipping Which is good because they’re not on amazon prime
53. There’s a huge community of hobbiests in Europe so they tend to recomend stuff out there
54. You may end up joining your first ever forum just because of the DIY Upgrade nature
55. Yes there are lots of upgrade options
56. Upgrade propellers
57. Buy lots of batteries
58. in fact I bought 4 extra fantom batteries
59. They cost 30-40$ usually
60. Specs on those batteries are 11.1v and 3s LIPo 2200mah
61. 3s means 3 cells – s stands for cells apparently
62. LIPo is lithium pollymer and they pack more of a punch for the size and weight
63. They are more prone to fire I hear
64. They say not to leave them charging unattended and be careful they don’t start to bulge or look damaged.
65. They have fireproof bags you should charge them in
66. Explosion is not common it’s just a precaution
67. 2200mah is how long they’ll last.
68. More mah means heavier
69. Mah means more flight time
70. Heavier means less flight time
71. Can’t just get whatever you want for phantom because it’s the opening for the battery is specific
72. They connect with chords and connectors
73. the phantom connector is xt60
74. ec3 is another popular conenction
75. You can indeed rewire the connections
76. You may end up buying solder iron and electric tape
77. solder iron is spelled solder
78. If you change the connector on the phantom you’ll need to change it on battery charger
79. I’m told the phantom charger isn’t that great.
80. But this is from people that super geek out about this stuff
81. Most of what you learn online does not seem to have consensus but it’s like the people that comment on youtube… everyone has an opinion
82. Some of the people seem lots of fun
83. some seem like crotchety older men that have strong opinions about everything
84. However they’re a nice community and there’s not much animosity
85. SAFETY – There are lots of opinions on safety
86. These aren’t more killer than a car… but they are dangerous
87. Specially since they’re harder to use than a car
88. Be careful around people… in fact when in doubt don’t fly them around people
89. gov managed Parks don’t want them there so don’t get caught with them there and ruin it for us
90. Don’t look into going into business with these things.
91. Yes many aspects like everything in this world is illegal
92. every country has different laws
93. some countries require insurance
94. some countries require licence
95. united states at the very least stay under 400ft and away from airports
96. there is rare possibility of fire from batteries
97. RISK – You will probably loose your phantom one day as long as you keep using it
98. Write your name on it maybe
99. RTH – means return to home.
100. Yes it’ll fly back to the place it had gps lock
101. meaning wait to fly your phantom until it gets a lock
102. this doesn’t help much if you fly in the more fun ATTI mode
103. Don’t bank on RTH
104. Stop flying as soon as battery is low
105. it should lower itself if battery gets too low
106. don’t bank on it
107. Don’t be over water when this happens
108. phantoms don’t float… they sink
109. It may have transmitter problems and fly away
110. don’t use gopro in wifi and carbon fiber causes some problems (not sure about these things)
111. Cold causes the brain to not work super well
112. cold causes the batteries to not work as well
113. You can get about 8-10 minutes but it depends on the cold and weight
114. MQX is the same 500mah compared to 2000mah
115. Count your minutes yourself because battery indicator may fail
116. There is soooo much stuff on youtube
117. I spent dozens of hours watching
118. Everyone is trying to find a solution for best video
119. VIDEO PROBLEM: The camera shakes because the phantom does
120. When you bank or turn or go up or down the film is uneven
121. The frequency of the vibration causes jello effect on gopro
122. There are suspension mounts
123. Using moon gel to absorb vibration
124. Lower shutter on gopro to have a more smooth video
125. This can lead to grainy higher ISOs
126. You can put a ND filter on the camera
127. and uneven is fixed by a gimbal
128. from gopro or adapter to use regular camera type small filters
129. Different Props for more sturdy flying
130. but they don’t have as much give and can break more
131. buy extra props
132. consider graupner – 8×5
133. You really really need to balance your props
134. balanced props mean both sides weight the same
135. it’s silly they don’t already come this way but they’re cheap i guess
136. a prop balancer is 20-30$
137. be ready to drill them or ream them to install them
138. Get 8mm washers if you go that route
139. Weird DJI has a product that specializes in Gopro but needs lots of work for it to be actually good
140. film in 60fps
141. gopro3 allows 1080 60fps
142. even though you’re actually gonna watch at like 24fps online etc
143. 4k and even 2.7k get jello a lot
144. position gopro so you don’t see the legs
145. some people change legs to accomodate different gimbals
146. Using isolation configurations of every type
147. Do you keep the gopro protected in hard case or not.
148. Sound is annoying but lets other hobbiests understand what’s going on (how hard motor is going)
149. BUY – MQX, controller seperate or with
150. D5e is great but D6i is way better
151. You can reprogram the phantom to work with some controllers
152. You can get a hard carrying case
153. A typical gimbal is anywhere from 150-400 for the phantom
154. Carbon fiber is popular do to weight
155. you can buy another battery charger
156. There are people who’ll upgrade stuff for you for a price
157. FPV is a whole other ballgame
158. goggles or a portible screen
159. hard to switch between the two for fear of loosing view
160. Some countries require you to have a spotter for visual view even still
161. they use their own transmitter
162. it’s said to be super scary on your first few flights
163. but also seems to be a more natural way to fly specially for the video gamers
164. you can view using the gopro
165. use a special chord
166. you’ll need to open up phantom to do it
167. open phantom for the gimbal as well
168. telemetry is when the quadcopter tells your controller the actual readings of the battery
169. otherwise you’ll need to see red blinking lights
170. the phantom communicates to you with blinking on the back of the phantom
171. green means your in GPS
172. yellow ATTI
173. red lights are about lack of GPS signal
174. no gps signal means no return to home
175. Red blinking when you get going means lacking battery
176. Always have your transmitter on when battery is plugged in
177. unplug battery before turning transmitter off
178. turn on transmitter with throttle down
179. special turn on command
180. helps to avoid mistake starts
181. start off harder than expected in order to not just tip over
182. much easier to fly than mqx
183. one that carries a dslr is many many thousands of dollars
184. their is a right and left joystick
185. there is a proper way to control the joysticks
186. easier mainly because it knows how to keep itself level
187. GPS mode will counteract momentum
188. Atti will allow momentum
189. People film in Atti over GPS
190. you can let go in GPS mode
191. If it kind goes to one side then recallibrate IMU with software
192. recallibrate IMU advanced
193. it lets the phantom know which is level and it’ll make it stay level in the air
194. Callibrating IMU is different than callibrating compass
195. their is a compas that needs to stay away from magnets
196. if it gets too messed up the compass callibration won’t work and you’ll need to use another magnet to hopefully get it in a range that the compass callibration will work
197. this callibration is the main one you’ll need to do at the beginning and whenever you go a far distance
198. it’s super easy and quick to do
199. IMU callibration is when you crash
200. it requires software and a computer
201. Lights on phantom are super handy to fly at night
202. even helpful at night
203. meaning you can fly at night if you want
204. windy days are tough to fly obviously
205. usually fly with it pointing away from you
206. it’s extremely tough to fly with it pointing at you because everything is suddenly reverse
207. you can quickly become disorianted
208. cut off proppelers if it’s gonna hit something so they’re not spinning fast when they hit something.
209. when in trouble sometimes it’s best to just cut power
210. specially when you’re learning on mqx
211. practice practice