DJI Phantom 3 & 4 sensitivity – smooth video…

Here are the settings for smooth video movement with  panning/yaw/rudder of the Phantom 3 & Phantom 4 and most controllable tilting of the camera, making steady cinematic shots much more attainable:

On the Remote Control:

• Lengthen the sticks. This allows finer resolution of physical stick input.

In the DJI GO app:

MC Tab (in “Advanced”):

• EXP: Normal: Throttle .4, Rudder .25, F/R .4 (this rudder EXP setting REALLY chills out the pans near center stick)
• EXP: Sport: Throttle .4, Rudder .35, F/R .4 (do whatever you want with Sport settings, personally I don’t use this mode for “smooth” shots, more for fast high-energy shots)
• Sensitivity: Yaw Endpoint – 110 (this is a big one nobody talks about.  It limits the “throw” of your pan/yaw/rudder moves, decreasing overall pan speed and essentially increasing the resolution of your pan movements.  I have found that no matter how low I go on the rudder EXP setting, the Yaw Endpoint setting is the real key to chilling out the panning on the P3)

RC Tab:

• Gimbal Speed – 60 (personal taste, but I’ve found this setting to work well with the rest of the gimbal settings below)

Gimbal Tab:

•  Gimbal Tilt EXP – 20 (allows finer resolution around the center detent of the gimbal wheel)
• Gimbal Tilt SmoothTrack – 22 (this is MAGIC and nobody talks about it, kinda like the Yaw Endpoint. SmoothTrack automatically smooths out the start and end of your gimbal wheel input.  It can seem really spongy at first, but once you start getting used to it, doing nice long sweeping tracking shots or horizon reveals, you’ll never turn it off)
• Enable Synchronized Gimbal Pan Follow – OFF (this keeps the gimbal centered and lets the P3 aircraft do all the smooth panning work, that way you don’t get the sudden camera jerk to the side when trying to do a smooth pan)

Just keep flying and keep testing and you’ll get buttery smooth video results…and don’t forget that you can test a lot of these settings (especially the yaw settings) in the flight simulator.  The Yaw Endpoint is especially obvious in the simulator…just bring the simulated P3 close to you, hover, and try timing a 360º rotation with various Yaw Endpoint settings.

DJI Phantom 3 shell arm cracks

The DJI Phantom 3 drones are prone to stress cracks under the motors, much like this one over time. Its a faulty design however DJI will repair it if your drone is under warranty. If you start to see these stress cracks on your drone arms contact DJI for repair immediately. If you don’t have stress cracks on a Phantom 3, make sure its part of your regular flight inspection before flying.

 

The cause, and the solution

I believe DJI over tightens these screws, and the viberations from the motors and thin plastic weakens. All DJI Phantom 3 owners (even those without problems) should take a 2mm hex driver and back them off 30* and do the same for the two rear torx screws (T8 torx driver needed) as that area has been known to cracks as well.

Arm Mounts

Many people bought these arm mounts (including myself). I put them on to prevent any cracking, however I started to notice small hair line fractures under my mounts, so they do not preventing the cracks from forming, save your money and back off the screws off. After I backed them off I noticed the cracks stopped spreading. But once drone season ends I will be sending my drone back to DJI, they have about a month turn around time.

I don’t believe the Phantom 4 and above are affected.