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Hi thread! This thread was recommended to me since I am a new quadcopter owner and just getting into the hobby. I have had a little RC experience over the years and just picked up a DJI Phantom Vision 2+ the other day. I've had my eye on a Phantom for some time now and with a recent price drop I took the plunge. Only had a chance to take it out once so far due to 30 MPH gusts yesterday, but I can see this is a rabbit hole that could go really, really deep... especially the appeal of building your own. It was kind of funny because the DJI ground station software requires android 4+ and my ancient Galaxy phone is only 2.3 or something. So I made the inaugural flight a family affair and roped Mrs. Slidebite into helping. She watched the ground station telemetry and controlled the camera with my comically massive GalaxyTab Pro 12.2" while I flew. Worked out pretty well. I still have to play more of the settings to see what they do and try out the GPS navigation features, buy the Mrs was content snapping photos and taking video and reading off telemetry. Surprisingly, no crashes or anything (not even any close calls really) and the Phantom flight software seems to work really well. I watched some youtube videos of these before but I was still pretty surprised at the stability. Had a chance to try the autonomous return to home feature. Turning off the remote was a bit of a leap of faith for me but it worked marvelously save some very slight drifting as it was an inch or so from touchdown. Anyhow, have a photo she took from the longer second flight 
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Sep 27, 2014 16:56
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Elendil004 posted:edit2: If you want to test the come home, don't kill the remote (because you'll never get it back), just flip the upper right S switch all the way down. Then you can flip back up to regain control. That didn't seem to work, just hovered. Gave it about 20 sec before I just put it back up. I was able to regain control again though last time by just turning the controller back on and flipping S1 down and up. Is that bad? Mister Sinewave posted:Cool! Did you get it from somewhere in Canada? I'm interested in expanding my online retailer-ness beyond HobbyKing. Nothing bad to say about these guys. Got it 24 hours after I ordered, no extra freight charges. http://www.multirotorheli.ca/
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Sep 28, 2014 07:52
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A case for a Vision 2 should also fit a Vision 2+ fine, shouldn't it?
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Sep 28, 2014 17:32
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To be clear, I didn't flip it back up until after it landed and powered down. No matter how I moved the sticks it didn't power up again, but as soon as I flipped S1 down/up I had full control so it might not be what you were thinking 
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Sep 28, 2014 22:51
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I was pleasantly surprised how well the Phantom handles the wind, mostly scary on the low level stuff like coming in for a landing though. My last flight of the day yesterday did NOT end up well. Planned a really nice aerial tour via groundstation of the small lake in our neighborhood. Programmed all the waypoints, made my first waypoint really close with 150' so it would climb and clear everything in the area and wasn't flying for 3 seconds and smacked hard into a lightpost in my front yard. I thought I gave it a wide enough berth but guess I didn't. Still works, but the worst is it bent the gimbal a bit. I'll have to see the best way on how to straighten it out. My poor little phantom 
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Sep 29, 2014 17:37
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For the Phantom 2 people here, is there anyway to have the camera to include flight info in the recording? The same stuff on the bottom of the DJI app screen would be perfect. e: I think the answer is "no" but thought I'd ask just in case there is something hidden in the pc app. slidebite fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 18:20
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That's what I thought, thanks. Anyone have any experience with the small little flyzone flyers? Something like this: http://www.greathobbies.com/productinfo/?prod_id=FLZA2042 Looks like a fun little airplane.
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Oct 2, 2014 17:04
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A Yolo Wizard posted:http://www.flytrex.com/support/flytrex-core-2/manual/ Thanks man! I'll check into it
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Oct 3, 2014 01:16
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^^ Cool. Thanks for the pics Your photo skills are really good. A buddy of mine is a pilot and he asked if I could take some action shots with the Phantom of him in his airplane which he built. I was more than a little leery of this since flying anywhere remotely near full size airplanes = really, really bad, but since his small airstrip is completely 100% private with 0 air traffic, I did it with him today. Think of a farmers field with a grass strip and you're thinking close to what we had. It was actually quite straight forward and amounted to me keeping the Phantom in a hover at about 50' and just rotated to keep him in frame. Most turned out quite well but the biggest challenge was keeping him in frame because of my 4.5" phone screen. If I ever try this again I am bringing the big Galaxy 12.2 to help with that. I let him fly the phantom, figured it was the least I could do since he did let me fly his plane before. Since it was an airstrip there was no power poles or building really to even hit, acres and acres of wide open field with 0 wind so it was really the absolutely ideal place to fly. He was pretty good and asked to try landing which I let him since he seemed pretty comfortable. Lets say he wasn't as good landing it as flying since it ended upside down  No damage though so it's all good. Here is just a still I took from in between taking vids slidebite fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 00:08
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It's $55 and the reviews seem pretty positive, I say go for it. e: You might want to watch this guys vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxRjUH-9pU8 slidebite fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 01:03
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^ That DOES look like fun. Whats a good quadcopter, or more specifically, DJI forum to get into some technical questions? I picked up a Vision 2+ locally for a good deal because a guy crashed it into a light pole and bent the camera after it fell 20' to the sidewalk below. He figured it wasn't worth repairing so I picked it up. Spare props, charger, battery, controller, if nothing else. Problem is I tried flying it and it flies pretty well, but it wanders.. keeps a slight bit of lateral movement and won't hover still like mine will which is what I sort of expect a magnetic issue to be. I've recalibrated the magnetometer but doesn't seem to help.. although it does give recalibrate messages more than I would think it should. I'm looking for ideas on what to do to make it flyable and would probably need more specific advice than this forum can get into. Not to fussy about the camera aspect at this point. Thanks
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Oct 7, 2014 18:41
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Great little action gifs. How did you make them? I had went to a small town today and took some back roads which took my past a small community center in the literally in the middle of nowhere. Only a couple of small farmhouses near the intersection of the roads but nobody to really bother. Made a great flying park and went through 2 batteries on the Phantom today. Used the GPS auto nav again for the 2nd time ever and it's cool as hell, but on the second time I tried it I lost the signal so I took over control and flew it back manually.
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Oct 10, 2014 21:35
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Golluk posted:It does seem odd to me that Canada is more "free" than the US when it comes to FPV/Drones. It falls under Transport Canada's jurisdiction, and so long as the model aircraft is under 77 pounds, and not being used for commercial purposes, they aren't going to get involved. Nothing happens fast though, for better or worse. Something else to keep in mind is that many municipalities have bylaws regarding use of RC craft, be it ground, water or air, so it's worthwhile checking into it. A colleague of mine who lives in Calgary (or Airdrie?) was minding his own business, flying his nitro RC helicopter in some city field when some generic city official came up to him told him to land immediately. Long story short, my colleague asked if he was law enforcement of some sort and when the guy said no he told him to pound sand. Minutes later, he returned with LEO and told him very firmly to pack up and leave or he'll be fined. New question: Anyone with a DJI use a little sunshade like this? How are they? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DJI-Phantom-...=item41845689b0 I made something with cardboard, but it's pretty ghetto. I'm not against spending $10-$13 for something if it works. slidebite fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Oct 16, 2014 |
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Oct 16, 2014 18:07
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So there is a little community center that I drive by almost every day, so I've now stopped here a couple times to fly. It's a really nice place with zero people on weekdays. It's not HUGE so fixed wing might be tight but it's great for the Phantom. Nothing too exiting to look at but nice place since I'm left alone. Here is a short vid I took this AM. I didn't even try to land on the pad since the wind was starting to pick up a bit right at the end (Southern Alberta), and actually tipped the Phantom over as it shut down. Vid taken on bone stock Phantom 2 Vision+ 1080i@60fps http://youtu.be/G7OLOwu1ZwY slidebite fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 17, 2014 21:52
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Mister Sinewave posted:Cool! Quads look like more and more fun every time I see a video like that. I also really really want to do a pod-racing style race sometime like in the French video. I think I know just the place, too. Elendil004 posted:This happened a while ago, but glad to see that charges were dropped against the pilots in this NYC "near miss" case. You know, the one where the NYPD helicopter chased the drone and created a dangerous situation because cowboys? There was another vid I saw on youtube of some chucklefuck police helicopter pilot trying to knock a phantom out of the sky with his wash. The Drone pilot was an idiot because he was flying in a park (not allowed in the US I guess) but he wasn't the one actively trying to make it go into an uncontrolled crash. Those helicopter pilots need to be raked over the coals by the FAA, more so than the drone pilots even since they should know better.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:22
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Just picked up a Hubsan X4 H107L. What a fun and good flying little quad, puts my little Estes Proto X nano to shame.
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Oct 19, 2014 02:48
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I typically don't fly around the neighborhood, but it was such a beautiful dusk I took the Phantom up for a rip from the driveway. Just flying around with nothing in particular to do, but I could see some people noticed when reviewing the vid. I took this at 1080i instead of 1080p, but still looks pretty decent I think. You can see the silhouette of the Rockies in the west. http://youtu.be/llPzigZw3qA slidebite fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Oct 20, 2014 |
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Oct 20, 2014 04:01
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Mister Sinewave posted:That little island and gazebo your neighborhood has is pretty cute. On the wishlist for my plane is something capable of HD video. The gazebo is kind of nice, I never go there myself but some families have picnics and I've even seen some wedding photos taken there. It's also a favorite hangout for lovely privileged teenagers and young adults that like to drink and smash poo poo after midnight. The X4 is much more stable to fly. I don't know if my Proto is functioning right or not, but it's never flown as well as the hubsan does, right out of the box. Of course, none of these are as stable as a Phantom but for <$50 they are a ton of fun, especially inside.
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Oct 20, 2014 17:40
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Here is a quick flight I just made over the lunch hour. Wind is supposed to pick up this afternoon so thought I'd try to put a flight in today while I could. I did just a short little flight with the ground station for this one. 2 small hops then back to home. First hop to climb to approx 225' high around 350' or so away. I kept it pretty close since I wanted to see it climb fairly fast, handy to know if I ever use ground station near a building or home so I can clear it right away. I then kept altitude to about 1700' away, and then back to home. I regained control as it hovered over home at around 3:55. Ground station seems to work really well. I wish I could feel more comfortable with it around obstacles on take off. http://youtu.be/snws_c6vg7s For comparison, I took this at 1080p30
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Oct 20, 2014 20:42
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Mister Sinewave posted:
Regarding Hubsan/Proto chat, I genuinely don't think my proto flies properly. I constantly spins and can't hover in any real definition of the term even after calibrating and ensuring props are tight multiple times. Is there any adjustment a person can to do you? I've heard of shimming it during calibration, but I don't think that will help a spin. But I do agree with Cannon_Fodder, the X4 is a really nice little drone. Seems better built too and flies great.
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Oct 21, 2014 14:21
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There are no trims for rotation, only the right stick. No debris or anything on the rotors. If it's a bad motor I'll just cut my losses. I think it is just a bad unit, it seems to have gotten worse as time went on. Oh well, the little X4 kicks rear end.
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Oct 21, 2014 19:10
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EdEddnEddy posted:The X4 is a lot better for outside flying then the Nano/Proto. The arms are a bit larger, the motors a bit bigger, and it is much more easy to repair. I have had mine 1/8mile away and still maintained full control so it also has a pretty good signal with the remote it comes with. 1/8 of a mile? That's pretty good, but it's so tiny even with the LEDs I'd probably have a tough time seeing it! 
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Oct 21, 2014 20:27
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What is the consensus for storage of lipo batteries? Store them discharged fully charged somewhere in between or does it even matter? I'm thinking for storage measured in many weeks or even a few months.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:07
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Wojcigitty posted:The other important thing to remember is that there is no threshold over which it damages them to store them fully charged. So storing them fully charged for 1 day does 1% as much damage as storing them fully charged for 100 days. So the less time they spend charged, the better. Wow, I had no idea. EdEddnEddy posted:It is really this bad? Crap. I'll put them in my Phantom and just run it on low for a while to run them down. The stock DJI charger has no "storage" or discharge feature that I know of. e: Also had shockingly fast service on ordering a soft case from Amazon.ca shipping from China. I ordered it Weds night and it arrived here on my doorstep Tuesday!
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Oct 23, 2014 20:17
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Maybe I've been fortunate, but I have yet to be charged a dime in customs/GST fees on anything brought in from HK or China. Only time I ever seem to get hit is from the US, and that's about a 50/50 crapshoot.
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Oct 24, 2014 23:49
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Mister Sinewave posted:fuckfuckfuckfuckFUCKFUUUUUUUCCKKK I was hoping to take out the Phantom today, but the 90kph gusts this afternoon made me think twice!
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Oct 27, 2014 05:40
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Been out of town a few days and as soon as I got my cell close to my home wifi my DJI vision android app did a pretty big update. Doing some research, looks like a pretty big update all around on Phantoms went out early this week. Any Phantom fliers here have comments on any changes to the firmware & ground station? Looks like mobile home base has been added which is kind of neat.
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Oct 31, 2014 14:21
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Elendil004 posted:Edit: my near miss story on Facebook has blown into a pretty solid debate...even got Brendan Schulman weighing in (he's the lawyer behind most of the big US suits, Pirker, the ones against the FAA interpretation, etc.)
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Oct 31, 2014 17:13
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Elendil004 posted:I was flying out over a beach to get a shot of a house that showed the beach as well when a small cessna came barreling down the beach at about 40 feet. Fast too, normally I can hear a plane or helicopter coming and will ground the drone until I can see whats up. All I had time to do here was come to a stable hover and pray. That is too bad. Did you get a reg# of the Cessna? I have a question regarding the new DJI updates. Supposedly the smart battery now has the ability to automatically discharge after 10 days of storage and load balance the cells. Question I have is this: How does an uninstalled battery speed up discharge?
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Oct 31, 2014 19:56
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Last night was our fiscal year end and we all stayed late at the office. It was unseasonably gorgeous outside, 20C and only the very slightest hint of a breeze so I brought the Phantom out for a bit of night flying in the industrial park where my office is located. Night video isn't as crisp as day (I am sure at least partially my fault for not tweaking the camera settings) but I took a still photo by fluke which turned out OK. You can just make out the gang from the shop in the darkness watching near the overhead door at center right near the sodium light. Got it up to about 400'+ and those nav/status lights are clear & bright as hell. I am sure I could have had it to its max ceiling of 500M (approx 1650') and been able to make it out just fine. 
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Nov 2, 2014 01:12
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T1g4h posted:This photo is seriously loving cool. If you get the chance to take more like them in the future, please do Won't be doing much flying at all now for a few months though since winter has pretty much arrived. If we have a really nice day of +10 I might break it out, but other than that I think the Phantom is probably going to be laid up until March or so at this point. 
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Nov 3, 2014 03:09
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You can buy them on amazon for a couple bucks so there is not much harm, but some people do report handling quirks when running the prop protectors. Personally I don't run any and I am still on the original props even though I have crashed it pretty good a few times 
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Nov 4, 2014 20:46
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T1g4h posted:Mom and I were actually looking at the Traxxas LaTrax Alias, since it's somewhat bigger and you can mount a camera to it. Are those worth it, or would an X4 just be better overall? I've heard something about the Aliases going through motors. I've never flown those but the youtube vids I've seen looks good. They make an X4 with a camera too if that interests you, but keep in mind cameras while cool will add weight and it is noticed. If you really want a camera the Helimax 1sq is an option too.
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Nov 5, 2014 15:20
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Inspire looks cool as hell, but at 2.5x the price of a Vision+ through my favorite local dealer, I'm going to have to pass for a while.
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Nov 15, 2014 07:02
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I don't have a blade nano, but does it have an expert or aerobatic mode you may have inadvertently engaged? I am not sure how they bind but I am pretty sure my X4 and proto binds each power up.
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Nov 17, 2014 06:55
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The Estes Proto and Hubsan X4 are like that to reset the gyros. Left stick held to bottom right, quickly shake right stick full left and right (center, not corners) until the LEDs flash. I do that periodically I fly the X4 but certainly not each time.
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Nov 17, 2014 19:44
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What a clusterfuck.
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Nov 19, 2014 04:01
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The more I look at it, the more I really like the design of the Inspire 1 platform. Still just too much of a jump over the Vision 2+ to justify for me though as a hobby/toy. Question: How cold have you guys flown your RC in? Preferably those of you with gimbals? Being that it's winter (for intents and purposes) if a nice day comes along, when do you draw the line at temp? Freezing?
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Nov 21, 2014 21:53
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Odette posted:Just bought a Hubsan X4 H107C from Banggood with a whole bunch of goodies (extra batteries, spare parts, etc) Nah, it's a great little quad and super stable out of the box. I've had my H107L now for a couple months and have yet to have a single bad incident with it, still on the original props. I kind of want prop guards just so I can start smoking into things 
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Nov 28, 2014 03:06
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Arcturas posted:I think the current thread favorites are the Blade Nano QX and Hubsan X4. The X4 has a camera but I have no idea how the quality is, the Nano's pretty excellent and a little more nimble than the X4. To be clear, while the X4 can be purchased with a camera, the standard one does not have a camera. The camera equipped model adds weight and impacts flying performance.
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Dec 6, 2014 19:02
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