DJI Phantom 2
The EPSCoR Modern Blanket Toss crew allowed me to borrow one of their DJI Phantom 2 systems to learn how to fly. During processes of learning how to launch the device I found myself in my classic “I just want to do it” vs “I should probably read the manual”. Turns out DJI has a collection of very nice videos, instructions, wiki’s, and community information flying around the internet but none of it consisted of what I would call a quick start. The following is my version of a quick start.
Quick Start for DJI Phantom 2
Learn how to fly first
Before I did anything with this very expensive tool I learned how to fly a quad copter using a much less expensive quad copter platform. I highly recommend investing in a HubSan X4 107C which you can pick up at Amazon for $60.
Not only did that give me the ability to learn by crashing something that both didn’t hurt myself or others but only cost a few dollars to replace the props while figuring out the controls.
Unboxing and preparing
- Charge the batteries - this will take 40 minutes per battery
- Insert batteries in Remote Controller (4 AAs)
- Install Ground Control on iPad
- Batteries still charging - go check out DJI documentation:
Batteries
There is a bit of a trick to ‘turning on’ and ‘turning off’ the batteries. I received batteries that didn’t have their brand new ‘how to use them’ stickers but a bit of digging turned up the answer:
Turn On - press button once - then press and hold for 2 seconds
Turn Off - Same deal - press button once - then press and hold for 2 seconds
Launch
- Prepare Remote Controller
- S1 and S2 to top most positions
- Turn Remote Controller ON before starting up Phantom
- Insert battery
- Press button once - then press and hold for 2 seconds
- Wait for the following states in the blinking lights:
- Blinking or Solid green
- Turn on camera (not to WiFi mode)
- Pre