Taking an Ultra Bright Crystalsky for a Test Drive!

SanCap · Oct 7, 2017

I am fortunate to have an accomplished DJI dealer here in South West Florida. Michael @Florida Drone Supply informed me he had no client demos planned for the 7.85" Crystalsky Ultra-Bright monitor that he just received and asked me if I had a use for it. Reluctantly I said OK

I usually get to demo a lot of gear when it becomes available, but this demo is really exciting!

Like most of us, I have been using a 5.5" High Bright monitor for quite a while and have been loving it for my I2 and Mavic/Spark. It has been attached to my Seacraft Tray and has seen more pre/post hurricane Irma roof videos, miles of beaches, electrical insulators and broken roof tiles than anyone should be allowed to see. I have had the same results with the 7.85" High Bright demo monitor, although I had to give it back way to soon.

I will have it mounted on my Seacraft Tray and might also try it it on the DJI CS mount. If any one wants me to do a specific test or show anything about the Ultra Bright Crystalsky monitor please let me know while I am out in the field. I will try to post images while on location.

Scoobywrx05 · Oct 7, 2017

I’d be interested to see it in comparison to like a mini 4. Basic stuff like in full sun, how well screen view is off center. How much the screen surface reflects if at all are other things I’d be curious to see.

boefinator · Oct 7, 2017

Thanks for testing this out, we have 4 on order to use with P4P and M210, We are very interested in the standard mount on the I2 controller which is what we use with our P4P's .

SRJ_Inspire _2_ES_MD · Oct 7, 2017

Looking forward to seeing a demo video!

cvanhoose · Oct 7, 2017

Are they shipping?

SRJ_Inspire _2_ES_MD · Oct 7, 2017

cvanhoose said:
Are they shipping?

Are they shipping?? That's just plain funny!!!

Retired2Fly · Oct 7, 2017

cvanhoose said:
Are they shipping?

yes, preorders. I got preorder yesterday from Ralph at FlyHighUSA

SanCap · Oct 7, 2017

I did get the Ultra Brite Crystalsky today but had some time constraints and did not get to do the tests I wanted to. I will update this thread when my tests are complete.

SKY pics WA · Oct 8, 2017

You can take some screen captures of the clarity if possible please

SanCap · Oct 10, 2017

OK, here is a short update. I have been swamped with work and have been using the Ultra Bright Crystalsky for a few days and have had to concentrate on the my clients work. I did not get a lot of footage of me using it. Here are my experiences. I have tried taking iPhone images of a comparison between monitors and they have not turned out well, my apologies.

The view is amazingly bright with no issues seeing the screen in full sunlight wearing non polarized sunglasses. I did not try viewing with polarized glasses as I need reader cheaters and mine are not polarized. This is a huge improvement over any other screens I have seen. No issues seeing the screen in any light conditions!

It goes thru batteries quickly, for a full day of shooting I would suggest at least 2-3 maybe 4 batteries if you can put the spent batteries on charge, if not you will need more.

I had the app close twice where I had a black screen (app was totally shut down) but I had full control of the Inspire 2 with the warning screen saying " Unfortunately DJI Go 4 has stopped", that was very kind of them to let me know I had no telemetry info

I had one experience and only one when the screen freaked out and went thru every menu on the app flashing all the screens within seconds. That was very weird, fortunately that one happened on the ground and has not happened again.

As of now my thoughts are that this monitor is a keeper, hoping the bugs will be removed asap.

I will get all the images that have been requested asap.

tibook · Oct 10, 2017

Would you be able to say the additional brightness comes at a cost of battery life, by xx%

SanCap · Oct 10, 2017

tibook said:
Would you be able to say the additional brightness comes at a cost of battery life, by xx%

I would say it does come at the cost of battery life, I would add unscientifacally 20-40%, some people leave the monitor on all the time. I try to remember to turn it off in between shots. Waiting for clouds to pass, waiting for traffic to pass to get a clean shot, while the monitor is on is always a consideration, should I land and wait it out or stay airborne and wait it out. It is hard to figure exact battery consumption.

tibook · Oct 10, 2017

I would like to know what the official specs are for the hi and ultra battery life. Is 2-3 hours unrealistic?

Retired2Fly · Oct 10, 2017

I also have one of the preorder CrystalSky 7.85" Ultras I am using on my I2. I have experienced similar issues that SanCap has posted so far. The screen went black during a flight which I later learned was because the default OOB setting is to turn the screen off automatically after 10 minutes of inactivity. I assumed the app running would keep it active? Guess not. Changing the preference fixed that. The other issue was that the screen freaked out a couple of times and started randomly cycling through the OSD menus. I finally tracked that issue down to the fact that I had left the protective plastic over the touchscreen on. I did this intentionally to protect the screen as I thought I would use it until I got a real screen protector. Apparently this protective production film is NOT a screen protector as it naturally accumulates capacitance as the CrystalSky is used and you repeatedly touch the touchscreen. The result is that it causes the OSD freakiness by activating the touchscreen randomly. Once I removed it everything has been fine. The internal fan is a bit loud for taste but as long as it keeps the CrystalSky cool I can live with it.
I am seeing a battery life between 45min-75min on each battery depending on the touchscreen activity and brightness setting. I also discovered the Go 4 app still runs when you turn off the CrystalSky and leave the battery installed so if not using it for 15 minutes or more I would recommend removing the battery. It only takes about a minute for the CrystalSky to cold boot after installing the battery.

SanCap · Oct 10, 2017

Retired2Fly said:
I also have one of the preorder CrystalSky 7.85" Ultras I am using on my I2. I have experienced similar issues that SanCap has posted so far. The screen went black during a flight which I later learned was because the default OOB setting is to turn the screen off automatically after 10 minutes of inactivity. I assumed the app running would keep it active? Guess not. Changing the preference fixed that. The other issue was that the screen freaked out a couple of times and started randomly cycling through the OSD menus. I finally tracked that issue down to the fact that I had left the protective plastic over the touchscreen on. I did this intentionally to protect the screen as I thought I would use it until I got a real screen protector. Apparently this protective production film is NOT a screen protector as it naturally accumulates capacitance as the CrystalSky is used and you repeatedly touch the touchscreen. The result is that it causes the OSD freakiness by activating the touchscreen randomly. Once I removed it everything has been fine. The internal fan is a bit loud for taste but as long as it keeps the CrystalSky cool I can live with it.
I am seeing a battery life between 45min-75min on each battery depending on the touchscreen activity and brightness setting. I also discovered the Go 4 app still runs when you turn off the CrystalSky and leave the battery installed so if not using it for 15 minutes or more I would recommend removing the battery. It only takes about a minute for the CrystalSky to cold boot after installing the battery.

Thanks for the comments. I had immediately removed the screen protector before turning on the CS UB monitor. I will look into the other settings you mentioned.

Vanguard Aerial · Oct 10, 2017

Have any of you CS 7.85 ultra users been able to compare it to the high brightness? I'd love to see a side by side of both actual brightness and battery life.

cvanhoose · Oct 11, 2017

Thanks sancap. I have also experienced the freak out of the screen on both a 7.85 and the 5.5. Can’t track down the issue. Maybe heat related.

SanCap · Oct 14, 2017

I want to give Michael @Florida Drone Supply a big Thanks for letting me use his Dealer Demo Ultra Brightness CrystalSky monitor. I have been using it on and off since 10-6. Here is a video I created today comparing it to the CrystaSky High Brightness 5.5" and my iPad mini 4. There is nothing very scientific here, I have it set up as I use it in the field. I did position it so the sun was directly on it. I tried to minimize the reflections on all the monitors without very good success. The difference between the CS and iPad is huge! I am going to borrow a large High Brightness CrystalSky and compare it with the Ultra Brightness side by side next.

2nd2non · Oct 15, 2017

I think the high brightness will be just fine for me in Southern California. Thanks for sharing!

Mad_angler1 · Oct 15, 2017

SanCap said:
OK, here is a short update. I have been swamped with work and have been using the Ultra Bright Crystalsky for a few days and have had to concentrate on the my clients work. I did not get a lot of footage of me using it. Here are my experiences. I have tried taking iPhone images of a comparison between monitors and they have not turned out well, my apologies.

The view is amazingly bright with no issues seeing the screen in full sunlight wearing non polarized sunglasses. I did not try viewing with polarized glasses as I need reader cheaters and mine are not polarized. This is a huge improvement over any other screens I have seen. No issues seeing the screen in any light conditions!

It goes thru batteries quickly, for a full day of shooting I would suggest at least 2-3 maybe 4 batteries if you can put the spent batteries on charge, if not you will need more.

I had the app close twice where I had a black screen (app was totally shut down) but I had full control of the Inspire 2 with the warning screen saying " Unfortunately DJI Go 4 has stopped", that was very kind of them to let me know I had no telemetry info

I had one experience and only one when the screen freaked out and went thru every menu on the app flashing all the screens within seconds. That was very weird, fortunately that one happened on the ground and has not happened again.

As of now my thoughts are that this monitor is a keeper, hoping the bugs will be removed asap.

I will get all the images that have been requested asap.

Nice work San looks great, I have an ultra on order but not sure I’ll ever see it lol.

Battery is where I would expect to see downsides as that screen is just pumping it out [emoji3]