Hello everyone,
I received my Phantom 3 Standard about 2 months ago, and out of the box I always experienced intermittent compass issues. Recently I have been completely unable to fly due to this errors, and upon further digging I saw that the compass sensor values were all zero. I read online that if they remain to be zeroes after doing an IMU and compass calibration, that the compass is either broken, or detached.
I called DJI, and they wanted me to send it in for service and expects it would take 15 business days (3 weeks). To me this was just unacceptable, with fall literally days around the corner (pretty tree colors), I didn't want to send off my drone for 3 weeks, I wanted to be able to capture my beautiful state changing colors. I wanted a refund, or at the least to be given an exchange. I even offered to purchase the upgraded Advanced model, and pay for the difference of the Standard model. After doing some more research, watching teardown videos, and looking for parts online, I found a place that sold the compass (part #11) for $15, and figured that I would just replace it myself, since it's a ribbon cable with a connector and no soldering involved.
I received the part, very carefully took apart my drone (**** those plastic clips!) and ran the cable to the proper connector on the circuit board, and closed her back up, and powered it on. It turned on fine, but I could tell right away from the lights on the back that the compass error was still present. I was running out of ideas, so I downgraded the firmware to 1.5.7 (I think that's the one), using the .bin file on the SD card, and it downgraded fine, but the error was still present. So I used the DJI app and tried to upgrade again, hoping this would "power on" or maybe detect a new hardware piece and install some "drivers" so to speak. After upgrading back to the most recent firmware, and doing an IMU calibration, still no success.
Is there some way to "hard reset" your drone so new hardware can be detected and activated successfully? There also is the chance that there is another underlying issue, like maybe the board is fried somehow/somewhere. I'm running out of ideas and am thoroughly pissed off. I have hardly gotten to use this thing and I bought all these accessories and equipment so I can stare at a God damned $500 paperweight.
TL;DR: Replaced what I thought to be a faulty compass (all sensor values displayed as zeroes). Downgraded the firmware, re-upgraded the firmware hoping to activate/enable the new hardware, and still compass values read all zeroes after IMU calibration. Is there any way to hard reset the drone in order to enable new hardware? Thoughts? Advice?
I received my Phantom 3 Standard about 2 months ago, and out of the box I always experienced intermittent compass issues. Recently I have been completely unable to fly due to this errors, and upon further digging I saw that the compass sensor values were all zero. I read online that if they remain to be zeroes after doing an IMU and compass calibration, that the compass is either broken, or detached.
I called DJI, and they wanted me to send it in for service and expects it would take 15 business days (3 weeks). To me this was just unacceptable, with fall literally days around the corner (pretty tree colors), I didn't want to send off my drone for 3 weeks, I wanted to be able to capture my beautiful state changing colors. I wanted a refund, or at the least to be given an exchange. I even offered to purchase the upgraded Advanced model, and pay for the difference of the Standard model. After doing some more research, watching teardown videos, and looking for parts online, I found a place that sold the compass (part #11) for $15, and figured that I would just replace it myself, since it's a ribbon cable with a connector and no soldering involved.
I received the part, very carefully took apart my drone (**** those plastic clips!) and ran the cable to the proper connector on the circuit board, and closed her back up, and powered it on. It turned on fine, but I could tell right away from the lights on the back that the compass error was still present. I was running out of ideas, so I downgraded the firmware to 1.5.7 (I think that's the one), using the .bin file on the SD card, and it downgraded fine, but the error was still present. So I used the DJI app and tried to upgrade again, hoping this would "power on" or maybe detect a new hardware piece and install some "drivers" so to speak. After upgrading back to the most recent firmware, and doing an IMU calibration, still no success.
Is there some way to "hard reset" your drone so new hardware can be detected and activated successfully? There also is the chance that there is another underlying issue, like maybe the board is fried somehow/somewhere. I'm running out of ideas and am thoroughly pissed off. I have hardly gotten to use this thing and I bought all these accessories and equipment so I can stare at a God damned $500 paperweight.
TL;DR: Replaced what I thought to be a faulty compass (all sensor values displayed as zeroes). Downgraded the firmware, re-upgraded the firmware hoping to activate/enable the new hardware, and still compass values read all zeroes after IMU calibration. Is there any way to hard reset the drone in order to enable new hardware? Thoughts? Advice?
