First Flight Impressions of the Plus
- Thread starter Ty Pilot
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I just made a test with a power bank of 20000 mah plugged into its output 2A.
I voluntarily started at 87% and plugged the power bank (we often branch after starting to fly, not at the beginning)
1 hour later, we are at 68%
2 hours later we are at 44%
3 hours later we are at 7% and the powerbank is empty.
I am waiting for 50000 Mah powerbank
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looks like the powerbank is only slowing the battery discharge by about 10% per hour (from 30% to 20% ) . Hardly worth the effort. I'll run a similar test when my 30AHr powerbank arrives on Tuesday...exactly
I would also try my 50000 mah when it is delivered.
But 20 or 30% can already save a shoot
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Flights Five & Six
Actually it's more like sessions 5 & 6 as I did several sorties per battery; more like flights seven through eleven. Okay so a couple things I can confirm:
Also while I was just cruising along in a straight line I pulled the stick back to stop the aircraft and it did its normal braking but it had two quick side movements almost as if it needed to counter some high wind from the side. Today there was wind and mild gusts but nothing alarming, so I chalked both of these incidents up to wind. The rest of the approximately 33 minutes of flight time went without any further glitches.
Today I had good weather and with my confidence building in the aircraft reliability I decided to go a little higher and a little farther, my maximum altitude was 300 feet and maximum distance was maybe 500 feet. Nothing too extreme, all of my flying today was in Angle Mode varying from low to high rates with the slider. I also started spending a little more time as a camera operator and exploring how the Plus's milder flying manners translate to what the camera sees and am very encouraged.
I found that when doing close in work such as under trees or times when I am near light poles or between houses, the 480 is very limited in movement through these areas. If I need to get a picture for instance from between two houses that are close, with the 480 I will fly above and drop down into position because the 480 just wanders around too much to fly directly in. The Plus on the other hand is showing gobs of directional stability in comparison - you point it and it goes.
One thing I will comment on in regards to the way it makes folder for each boot up - I at first was in the same camp as most of the others but to tell the truth, if I had to choose between this way and the way the 480 does it - I prefer this was (and I realize this will depend on how one works) but in the case of today I had four folders; it was easy for me to remember which session I did a certain thing so if I did 25 separate clips its a little easier for me to pin down the one where I did a certain thing because I know which time it was. Either way, I'm good because the aircraft flies so much better AND has a camera that is delivers a pretty good image considering the price. Now if it can just prove to be reliable of a long period of time, we shall see. More to come.
This image was a grab from 4K video - Setting were all auto, color profile "Gorgeous"
Actually it's more like sessions 5 & 6 as I did several sorties per battery; more like flights seven through eleven. Okay so a couple things I can confirm:
- There is a quirk in the camera connection to the controller, again today on the first sortie, the camera disconnected before lift off - a reboot was required and it was solid for the rest of the day
- I can also confirm that; the aircraft does indeed go to idle and then turn motors off with only "Down" Throttle
- I wrote this somewhere else already but I can confirm that you can unlock a the maximum height restriction of 400 feet (US) up to 1640 feet AGL from the controller - no I did not test it.
Also while I was just cruising along in a straight line I pulled the stick back to stop the aircraft and it did its normal braking but it had two quick side movements almost as if it needed to counter some high wind from the side. Today there was wind and mild gusts but nothing alarming, so I chalked both of these incidents up to wind. The rest of the approximately 33 minutes of flight time went without any further glitches.
Today I had good weather and with my confidence building in the aircraft reliability I decided to go a little higher and a little farther, my maximum altitude was 300 feet and maximum distance was maybe 500 feet. Nothing too extreme, all of my flying today was in Angle Mode varying from low to high rates with the slider. I also started spending a little more time as a camera operator and exploring how the Plus's milder flying manners translate to what the camera sees and am very encouraged.
I found that when doing close in work such as under trees or times when I am near light poles or between houses, the 480 is very limited in movement through these areas. If I need to get a picture for instance from between two houses that are close, with the 480 I will fly above and drop down into position because the 480 just wanders around too much to fly directly in. The Plus on the other hand is showing gobs of directional stability in comparison - you point it and it goes.
One thing I will comment on in regards to the way it makes folder for each boot up - I at first was in the same camp as most of the others but to tell the truth, if I had to choose between this way and the way the 480 does it - I prefer this was (and I realize this will depend on how one works) but in the case of today I had four folders; it was easy for me to remember which session I did a certain thing so if I did 25 separate clips its a little easier for me to pin down the one where I did a certain thing because I know which time it was. Either way, I'm good because the aircraft flies so much better AND has a camera that is delivers a pretty good image considering the price. Now if it can just prove to be reliable of a long period of time, we shall see. More to come.
This image was a grab from 4K video - Setting were all auto, color profile "Gorgeous"
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Just for grins I turned on the ST16S (H+ turned OFF) with the 2A charger plugged into the 1A charging circuit of the ST16S. The charge results for the ST16S were:
- start up: 100%
- 1 hr: 96%
- 2 hr: 90%
- 3 hr: 84%
- 4 hr: 78%
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Okay, I almost forgot but it goes along with what you guys are discussing as far run time and battery percentages. Flew the two batteries this morning for a total flight time of about 34 minutes. I had just finished charging the ST16s completely and at the end of those flights with the two batteries the controller was at 78%
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I have not changed it since opening the box - it looked good to me I ran with it but it probably is. I can live with it I think.
Do me a favor when you get a chance, and check that... would be very interested in knowing if the new ST-16S are set to the brightest setting by default... since a brighter screen was one of the initial bullet points on introduction. And anyone using manual settings, knows that correct exposure on the original ST-16 in bright daylight conditions is pretty dark, perceptually.
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- Joined
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- Location
- Central Florida
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- copperdawg.com
Couple days? Shoot, this train is rolling
Brightness is at 100% from the factory.Some More Flights
So I had planned to go fly again at a scenic location but it was overcast so I just settled on flying two batteries here at home. Not much to report, however @Eagle's Eye Video - to answer a question about a hot swap you had earlier. I flew the first battery down to about 40 % = roughly 15 minutes; landed, left the controller on and turned off the Plus, pulled the battery, walked back to the porch, retrieved a new battery, returned and inserted then hit the power button. Next; I walked back over to where I had left the controller about fifteen feet away. As soon as I looked down the RC connected then the camera image went live and I looked and had ten sats and a few seconds later it hit 14! Put another way - I powered off the aircraft and within 25 seconds had a second battery in and turned on, then maybe 10 to 15 seconds later I was in business.
Now I don't know if the time between power off and on was the key but if I were planning a hot swap I bet I could have cut that by simply having the battery at hand - then the swap would have been even shorter. Bottom line - you can swap a battery pretty fast.
Couple days? Shoot, this train is rolling
Some More Flights
So I had planned to go fly again at a scenic location but it was overcast so I just settled on flying two batteries here at home. Not much to report, however @Eagle's Eye Video - to answer a question about a hot swap you had earlier. I flew the first battery down to about 40 % = roughly 15 minutes; landed, left the controller on and turned off the Plus, pulled the battery, walked back to the porch, retrieved a new battery, returned and inserted then hit the power button. Next; I walked back over to where I had left the controller about fifteen feet away. As soon as I looked down the RC connected then the camera image went live and I looked and had ten sats and a few seconds later it hit 14! Put another way - I powered off the aircraft and within 25 seconds had a second battery in and turned on, then maybe 10 to 15 seconds later I was in business.
Now I don't know if the time between power off and on was the key but if I were planning a hot swap I bet I could have cut that by simply having the battery at hand - then the swap would have been even shorter. Bottom line - you can swap a battery pretty fast.
PERFECTO!
So one point also already confirmed, is that when you swap out aircraft batteries, you do not lose preset settings (image settings, color balance, manual camera settings). Are there any settings that you still have to re-enter in... or no matter how many flight batteries, you are good to go as long as the ST-16 stays powered on...
Also, you can connect the C23 to your home WiFi, correct? What is the IP address that shows up?
I cannot figure out what's causing your battery drain on the controller...I flew 6 batteries and had 64% battery left on the controller I flew three more after a couple hours of not flying which left me with 47%. Perhaps the amount of flying time I've put in is making my battery on the controller more extensible. Regarding folders I had about 35 of them yesterday I wish you would come over and sort them out for me...they are a complete disaster when I'm backing up all the data to other drives or archiving them into a Lightroom library. But as you said this is contingent upon peoples workflow...I sometimes shoot 5 batteries on exact same subject when doing a video story...I almost never shoot one battery on anything since I want to cover all possibilities once I get to editing. For the way I'm used to dealing with large volumes of files this filing systems atrocious.
When I first got my controller I tried my power bank and it seemed to not draw any power from it....I did not explore this phenomenon since I had bigger more important fish to fry. I arrive home in a couple of days and then I will test that as well as produce a 4K from Iceland (hold your applause and pass the popcorn).
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