My first two days with the Typhoon H+

toddinroch · Aug 9, 2018

Guys, I recently solve my inspire 1 VS 2.0 for the H+. Reason being mostly, I could not afford the X5 camera, I wanted a Hex for redundancy and personally, I love the S16. I have had mostly DJI products over the years as the camera on the Phantom 4 simply looked better than the H PRO that I also owned for a stint before returning to the DJI family. I also currently have a Parrot Disco (they finally fixed the glitches and it also has waypoints) and a few model airplanes that I have yet to fly. Here are my thoughts.

Good: The controller is truly a nice thing to have. I love the S16 and I loved it on my H PRO. The screen seems brighter but not up to par with DJI's crystal screens. But I can deal with it.
The stability of this bird in the winds is amazing. The inspire always handled like a sports car to me. The H+ is not as much fun to fly but I can beat on my phantom 4 if I need to fly like an idiot for a little while. I bought this for aerial photography and it is about as stable as I have seen one in a drone.
The camera. I am little sad at the notion of not having AEB, I really only used 5 shot AEB on my dji products. It just provides an awesome picture. But I can contrast up and down if I want that again. Overall I have taken some pretty breathtaking pictures with this camera and I am not disappointed in it. I would like to see ADOBE have a lens correction for this camera and not only offer it on a CG03.
It is quiet. Very quiet. I feel it is quieter than the phantom 4 I have. On the pre-flight start its virtually silent. Love that.

Cons: RTL kicks in way to early. At 27% I am getting low battery warnings when it is 10 feet in front of me and maybe a 100 feet in the air. Thats just too early.
Range: The range is horrible on this, for some reason I remember my H PRO getting better distance (I have not upgraded the firmware as I have been following this forum for a bit, not sure if that gets resolved). I have the SR raptor on its way and that should arrive tomorrow. I am hoping that helps.
Battery life is not as good as I expected. I love that you get two batteries with it but I wonder if that is just to pacify people on the life of the battery.

Overall I am very impressed with the drone. I was on the fence about getting the 520 and when I saw the price for this with the camera and I had to scratch my head. So I waited. For me having a hex makes me have less anxiety. I just wish the range out of the box was decent. Seems to really be shoddy. I am still glad I purchased it, I had not been this excited for a new drone to come out since the parrot disco and that one really let me down when I first got it. Plan on getting out today and taking some good shots.

Ty Pilot · Aug 9, 2018

Thats a fair assessment and having come from DJI myself it took a while to get acquainted with the different platform and that was with the standard H. I think where the Plus will really show its strengths (If they get all the bugs out) is as a video platform due to the retractable gear and 360 gimbal, and in that realm at this price it will be tough to match

thoneter · Aug 9, 2018

For the range issue I pretty confident I have a cheap solution. I have 2 920's and 4 st24's. The video range on the st24's make the st16's look like TV tower transmitters.
I put this on Video Aerial Systems VAS 5.8Ghz Crosshair Antenna (LHCP) [VASCH-5800-L] | FPV Racing with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07844ZD5G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and went from 600 feet to 9800 feet with my 920.

Another user bought the same setup and was going to let me know how it went but I removed myself from Facebook so I have no clue how it turned out. For me it's $30 bucks instead of $100 for something like the 4hawks and easier to move to another controller or for repackaging.

I've never had issues with telemetry or flight control so this seemed like the only thing that needs updating on the Yuneec transmitters.

Ty Pilot · Aug 9, 2018

Yeah, and for my use out beyond 1200 feet or so is not likely to ever be needed but it's good to know that if I do, there are solutions like this.

thoneter · Aug 10, 2018

Ty Pilot said:
Yeah, and for my use out beyond 1200 feet or so is not likely to ever be needed but it's good to know that if I do, there are solutions like this.

For me it's not about going past LOS but having video signals if I'm shooting through or near trees or there's wifi with a booster etcetera.

I've lost signal while the H is within 500 feet because of hotels having boosters. I've lost signal while shooting in a state park with trees underneath the H.

Windluv · Aug 10, 2018

thoneter said:
For the range issue I pretty confident I have a cheap solution. I have 2 920's and 4 st24's. The video range on the st24's make the st16's look like TV tower transmitters.
I put this on Video Aerial Systems VAS 5.8Ghz Crosshair Antenna (LHCP) [VASCH-5800-L] | FPV Racing with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07844ZD5G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and went from 600 feet to 9800 feet with my 920.

Another user bought the same setup and was going to let me know how it went but I removed myself from Facebook so I have no clue how it turned out. For me it's $30 bucks instead of $100 for something like the 4hawks and easier to move to another controller or for repackaging.

I've never had issues with telemetry or flight control so this seemed like the only thing that needs updating on the Yuneec transmitters.

Ordered. Thanks.

I have the Itelite DBS Extender on the Plus; should get the above cross hair next week. Will update.

thoneter · Aug 10, 2018

Windluv said:
Ordered. Thanks.

I have the Itelite DBS Extender on the Plus; should get the above cross hair next week. Will update.

A heads up. I had to grind off the nut on the 45 degree adapter to get the antenna to fit snugly. You Will need the adapter that I have a link to.

Windluv · Aug 10, 2018

thoneter said:
A heads up. I had to grind off the nut on the 45 degree adapter to get the antenna to fit snugly. You Will need the adapter that I have a link to.

Ordered both, thank you. The cross hairs were just coming out when I stopped building my own fpv drones. I forgot about them; should be fun!

thoneter · Aug 20, 2018

Windluv said:
Ordered both, thank you. The cross hairs were just coming out when I stopped building my own fpv drones. I forgot about them; should be fun!

Did you get the crosshair antenna going? I'm interested in seeing what others are getting for results..

Windluv · Aug 20, 2018

thoneter said:
Did you get the crosshair antenna going? I'm interested in seeing what others are getting for results..

the rp sma male to sma female adapters should be here tomorrow. Thanks!

Windluv · Aug 23, 2018

@thoneter My first test yesterday was not flying but my 'range' test doing a walk-about down my street and a cross street. I have been doing these for several years so have a pretty good idea of the range to expect. The negative issue in my street is the housing structures get more in the way as the distance increases and the wifi interference from the houses as well; this comes into play as the best antenna in this test is a compromise focus and processing reflections. It is not a good test for a very directional antenna like the cross hair.

Regarding the 5.8 spectrum, in this test the basic mushroom delivered with the H plus was about 1/2 the distance of the optional patch that comes with the H plus. The crosshair was just a bit short of the optional patch. The Intelite DBS was another 25% past the optional patch. From my reference point of many other antennas, the crosshair performed in the top percent. I was very surprised with the optional patch antenna as it outperformed the Fatshark patch I had been using on the 480 H prior to getting the Intelite DBS. The Intelite DBS has performed the best in this test since I received it.

Regarding the 2.4 spectrum, the Intelite DBS smoked the rubber duckies delivered with the H.

I think the 'best' solution in open areas could be the crosshair with different 2.4 antennas. However, until I can replace the 2.4 rubber duckies, the Intelite DBS is a winner.

I will be performing real testing with flights in my testing ground this weekend and will update.

In the meantime, any recommendations for a 2.4 patch? Or I suppose we could even go with a mushroom / patch for diversity.

thoneter · Aug 23, 2018

Windluv said:
@thoneter My first test yesterday was not flying but my 'range' test doing a walk-about down my street and a cross street. I have been doing these for several years so have a pretty good idea of the range to expect. The negative issue in my street is the housing structures get more in the way as the distance increases and the wifi interference from the houses as well; this comes into play as the best antenna in this test is a compromise focus and processing reflections. It is not a good test for a very directional antenna like the cross hair.

Regarding the 5.8 spectrum, in this test the basic mushroom delivered with the H plus was about 1/2 the distance of the optional patch that comes with the H plus. The crosshair was just a bit short of the optional patch. The Intelite DBS was another 25% past the optional patch. From my reference point of many other antennas, the crosshair performed in the top percent. I was very surprised with the optional patch antenna as it outperformed the Fatshark patch I had been using on the 480 H prior to getting the Intelite DBS. The Intelite DBS has performed the best in this test since I received it.

Regarding the 2.4 spectrum, the Intelite DBS smoked the rubber duckies delivered with the H.

I think the 'best' solution in open areas could be the crosshair with different 2.4 antennas. However, until I can replace the 2.4 rubber duckies, the Intelite DBS is a winner.

I will be performing real testing with flights in my testing ground this weekend and will update.

In the meantime, any recommendations for a 2.4 patch? Or I suppose we could even go with a mushroom / patch for diversity.

So to make sure I understand your post; the square directional antenna by Yuneec was the best for video signal/distance over the crosshair/mushroom/Itelite and fatshark? I also have the Yuneec directional and I get considerably more video distance out of the crosshair while flying over trees and open fields.

It's good to see what other real world results others are getting. The only other area that I've had issues was in Duluth MN flying over a canal but that was because the numerous hotels had wifi boosters running. I checked with my cell phone with a wifi app and the hotel signals were strong a 1/2 mile away.

Did you end up having to grind the adapter nuts to get them to be tight?

Windluv · Aug 24, 2018

thoneter said:
So to make sure I understand your post; the square directional antenna by Yuneec was the best for video signal/distance over the crosshair/mushroom/Itelite and fatshark? I also have the Yuneec directional and I get considerably more video distance out of the crosshair while flying over trees and open fields.

It's good to see what other real world results others are getting. The only other area that I've had issues was in Duluth MN flying over a canal but that was because the numerous hotels had wifi boosters running. I checked with my cell phone with a wifi app and the hotel signals were strong a 1/2 mile away.

Did you end up having to grind the adapter nuts to get them to be tight?

Environment is very wifi noisy, reflections, blockage and very low elevation.
1) DBS best by 20% over any other.
2) Yuneec square directional antenna second.
3) VAS Crosshair close to the Yuneec square directional antenna.
4) Rubber ducky 2.4 antenna suck compared to the DBS 2.4

Regarding the grinding, the adapters from your link had bad threads and I could not use. I picked up this set https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074T8CLDX/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and they worked perfect.
On the week end I think I will try hooking the DBS 2.4 connections, and then the Crosshair to the 5.8; see if this is the best in my normal open flight areas. I do have a 3 inch adapter of the correct fittings (found in the 480H spares of mine) and will use this to extend the Crosshair to get it in front of the DBS for this test.

Other then this being a time-sync, it is rather fun!