Cold temporarily fixes no image transmission, 8/15 module problem?

[Atmsfer]

My Phantom 3 Professional will not provide a video feed to my mobile device at room temperature. I tried all the typical diagnostics and see the common [08 00] and [15 00] "device not detected" message in the log file. However, I can fix the problem if I put the aircraft in the freezer for five minutes! Everything works as expected and I see the video feed on the mobile device. I suspect that there is a bad connection on the gimbal top board and that warming it up loosens one of the solder connections.

Is this a reasonable conclusion? If so, where is the bad connection? Either way, how do I fix it?

 

[Capt KO]

Try a cheap can of nitrogen spray to try various areas. It might help to pinpoint exactly where the problem is. You are correct about the expansion and contraction closing, or opening, a connection. Guessing a ribbon cable.

Note: I have not tried this ?

 

[Waylander]

Hi Atmsfer

Capt Ko is right, we use a freeze spray all the time on older circuit boards to trace the problem where the signal comes and goes, however whilst it can be circuit board tracks or solder joints that cause the problem it is often an old IC semi conductor loosing conductivity when it heats up, freeze spray is used to cool the device to see if it starts to work effectively.

The reverse can also work, i.e. we might heat an IC we suspect to be intermittently faulty, to see if a loss of signal occurs. ( we term this reduction in conductivity in a semi-conductor as Going Soft ).

Here is an example spray available from ebay.com " Max Professional Blow Off Freeze Spray Electronic Component Cooler (10 oz)"

First I would power up the bird and then when the video fades, mask off the gimble with tissue or cloth, then carefully spray ( not too close ) only the camera to see if video comes back, if not unmask the gimbal and give that a good cooling.

Don't worry if an area of frost appears on any surface, the spray is not conductive, and wont harm plastic.

Good luck
Waylander

 

[Chas Har]

I can see the first nitrous powered drone being developed on this thread. Hope you find the cure. Please update any findings as well, as it's great to hear success stories and real solutions. A lot of threads come to an abrupt halt with no conclusions made, leaving any followers wondering if problem was fixed or drone was binned.

 

[quaddamage]

I tried all the typical diagnostics and see the common [08 00] and [15 00] "device not detected" message in the log file. However, I can fix the problem if I put the aircraft in the freezer for five minutes!

Definitely cold solder joint; though I'm afraid it's probably not in a cable - it is more likely that one of the chips has a faulty connection under it.

If you have the freezer spray, using it will allow to identify area on the board; though I would just cover each chip with flux and heat it up with hot air station, starting with the NAND chip.

 

[Atmsfer]

I finally got around to trying the freeze spray, but I couldn't isolate the problem. Instead, I gave up and sent it to DJI for repair. They replaced the Phantom 3 Professional Gimbal Yaw-axis Video Downlink Main Board for $144, plus $130 for the service fee. I cringe a little at the service fee because it's a pretty simple do-it-yourself job to replace the board, but for $274 I have a like-new quadcopter and the knowledge about how to fix the problem if it happens again.