Finally DJI gives Phantom Vision autonomus navigation.

Great news. Program the route and altitude then watch it take-off, fly and land the designated route all hands off.

http://www.cnet.com/news/dji-phantom-vision-vision-plus-get-ground-station-support-for-autonomous-flight-paths/

They've been flying DJI Phantoms autonomously since last year but they use the term waypoints instead of autonomous. Myself I would not trust trying those posted flight parameters knowing that because of the quads size you no longer have eye contact. Another problem is flight time having tested battery life in flight is much shorter than advertised. This could be due to the fact the Phantom 2 battery has to supply power to the Go Pro 3+, iOSD and video transmitter.

Personally those who have lost their unit either have not set them up correctly. Or that they could fly them out of eye sight using either FPV goggles, monitors, iPads, cell phones but keep in mind that what ever device you're using there is no depth perception. Oh yes almost forgot about battery life and that is anything below 15% these units will land by themselves where ever they are and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. For get about the flashing RED warning lights that your battery is about to die remember it's 1000m down range.

Or over water. That's my biggest fear. Thinking of springing for a kit from DSLRPros with the better Tx/Rx, props, batteries, etc. Given my lack of success with anything based on cell phone app integration, I would never trust it. Looking at the Waterbuoy addition too. Better get into this before the guv'mint regulates it to death. Of course I've got an extra few years before Alaska gets over-regulated (I hope). We always need more bait for the crab pots, and the guv'mint knows it.

Here's a clip that remind me of my mishaps with phone cables.


Who's going to turn you in Gene?

I fly the new Phantom Vision 2 plus. It has it's own camera and not powering a GoPro. Much better stabilization. Also this one will fly for 20-25 minutes and full control over 2,000 feet. This also uses the smart phone app so it is not like the old ground station. It does not take an extra transmitter like you are thinking Jason (like the ones flying up till this week.) This is completely new and not as you described. It also will not let you program a route longer than the available battery power, not within 8 miles of an airport and many other safety programs. With a simple switch I can take control and manually fly it. Yes Jason if the battery hit a level that the operator sets it will land and then you use your smart phone to walk right to it. The older Phantoms and even the Phantom 2 (I had one and it's long gone peace of junk) had a problem with flying away, poor range and bad stabilization.

I doubt I will fly it over water since I really don't want to take a chance. As for the other old problems ... they are really not a problem anymore.

I just took it for a auto pilot flight to test it. Works great. Set the waypoint, altitude, speed and let it take-off by it's self and fly the route before returning to land. I also tested taking control and worked perfectly. Yes Jason The original Phantoms didn't have gps stabilization or return home, nor a smart phone gps come find me system. The battery life was absolutely poor. The next version Vision 2 had a real bad camera, very short range (I was good to get it to 800 feet), camera stabilization was totally unacceptable. Even the GoPro gimbles had a lot of problems maintaining a steady platform. The Vision 2 stabilization is very very good. They still need to perfect a better camera to keep up with GoPro. (Oh by the way GoPro IPO priced at $24 today).

Sorry Don but I'm not using the Vision 2 + as I have the Phantom 2 with a Go Pro 3+ silver and using a AVL58 video transmitter. Reason for the AVL58 is that I do not trust the smart phones battery life plus the small screen size. What I am using is a 7" video monitor a bit heavier then a smart phone but much more viewing area with all the data. I also modified transmitter (radio controller) with the sixth channel now mounted on the front with more control over how smooth it rotates. Also filming at 720 narrow at a 120fps which works greats.

By the way I never suggested that Vision 2 + needed an extra transmitter don't have idea where you came up with that. I did mention that the Phantom 2 with everything I have mounted on it plus the weight 961.6158 grams (2.12 pounds) has cut air time in half to around 14 minutes but still enough time to get a lot of video. Just takes more planning on what to shoot. For those of you interested in why the reduction in fight time you lose approximately 1.2 seconds per gram of weight added plus what ever power consumption to run camera, gimbal and video transmitter on board.

I used the Vision 2 for a couple months. Like you said the battery life was not good at all and the range sucked. If you use the GoPro wifi then you also get a few seconds delay whereas the Vision 2 and 2 plus is real time with no delay. To get real time using the GoPro it takes an additional transmitter I believe.The GoPro 3+ is not as bad.

The operation of the Vision was a big improvement over the Phantom and the Vision 2 + was a huge additional improvement. I'm sure they are working on a Vision 3 that will be even better. The 2+ was a significant improvement they could have called it 3. Just like cameras and computers .... wait until tomorrow and it'll be better.

For anyone looking at getting the Phantom I would strongly suggest the Vision 2 Plus over the Phantom or Vision. The stability of the quad is much improved and with the gimbal shooting 1080 HD is flawless as far as stability. With the Vision 2 I had to do a lot of stabilization or chose carefully a short part of the clip that was kinda stable. Now the entire clip is stable even in 20 mph winds.

Even without the autopilot that was just released, with the Vision 2 and 2+ you can put it in a spot in the air and it will stay there until you move it. If you lose sight of it flip a switch and it'll fly home where it will land automatically or flip the switch again and take over control. Pretty fool proof compared to their early versions. Before the gps a lot of them were lost.

I wonder about launching a Gopro gimbal-equipped drone from a boat. I took my pole with powered gimbal on the end on the Canoe voyage, and I apparently had forgotten to program the gimbal NOT to do a calibration at power up, which requires a rock solid few second. Boats ain't rock solid ever. SO that was a bummer.

There are always tattletales here and there, especially litigious types who might get their dander up when they decide I'm flying too close to eagles. Which is tempting, but yeah, I know not to, by the way.

Flying over water will, at some point, be necessary. I wonder if maybe I shouldn't start with a very cheaper kit, or would I go for the fancy-schmancy DSLRPros Sundance kit plus Antigravity motors, which, with the carbon blades are supposed to give more lift and better stability...and a little longer flight. Figure I should go for something soon, maybe the better kit, and then later as it proves profitable figure out what fanciness I could live without for a "risky flying" kit.

Gotta have the Hero3+ though. I was so impressed by the difference between that and the Hero3, it's almost like I have a truly disposable Hero3. Shoulda given THAT one to the kid.....hindsight, ya know?

If I was going to do it again, I think I would wait until the GoPro 4 is announced and shipping. There may be size differences that will make it incompatible with the GP 3 gimble.

I thought about that, and asked DSLRPros whether they had any "intel" that would indicate I should wait. They denied any such info, but said "In regards to the GoPro 4K, we have not been given any details regarding dimensions or performance. I do believe it will be relatively similar as their compactness and easy transportability is one of their highest selling points."

So being that gimbals can be modified and retuned, and even repowered, I'm probably going for it. Besides, the rumored Hero4K wont be shipping until fall, unless they change their schedule...and as I have almost all the funds now, I had better spend it, otherwise something comes up and I lose it (this has happened before)