Downgrade firmware or not?

[sandman259]

I'm debating on downgrading my firmware. A little back history first. I had 1.8.8 and update to 1.9.6 and it bricked my bird. Sent it in to Dji and the replaced the main board under warranty. Got it back with 1.9.6 installed and while it flys Fine and everything seems normal I swear it doesn't have the range it used to, especially in my neighborhood. I'm thinking about downgrading back to 1.8.8 but a little gun-shy after the problems of updating to 1.9.6 I had. Granted it was probably a fluke and Dji said I had a bad imu board, and all other updates always went well, but still everything is working good now so not sure if I want to mess with it again but I do miss the range I had. Thoughts[emoji848]


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[DroneTone]

I had installed 1.9.6 (updated the batteries too), but didn't like the reduced range and stability I felt I was noticing. I downgraded to 1.8.8, found I had no more stability issues and good range as before. This was with two P3 Pros, a W323 and W323B (both were downgraded to 1.8.8) and while using RC controller 1.6 with GO app 2.8.1. But I've also noticed some flyers post saying they have no issues with 1.9.6. I recently had one P3 repaired after a minor crash at a DJI authorized dealer. I mentioned my opinions about the firmware versions and they agreed, saying skip version 1.9.6. To each his own...

 

[sandman259]

From what I remember on downgrading firmware, you should reformat the ad card on your computer first clearing it of the newest firmware first then download 1.8.8 and force install the older firmware by holding in the rc link button while you power up the bird? Correct?


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[Oso]

From what I remember on downgrading firmware, you should reformat the ad card on your computer first clearing it of the newest firmware first then download 1.8.8 and force install the older firmware by holding in the rc link button while you power up the bird? Correct?


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Do it the same way you always do FW updates, just this time with the older FW on the card. No special forced install steps.

One note - You said yours came from DJI with a new main board and 1.9 already installed. I have seen people in the past comment that they were not able to downgrade from FW that was on their P3 when they got it from DJI since it hadnt been "updated" to anything yet. I dont know how true that is, but keep it in mind if you run into trouble downgrading. Also please loop back with us here so we have more data either way. Thanks sir.

 

[sandman259]

Hmm never thought about that. It would make sense though since this new board only had 1.9.6 on it[emoji848] i guess I might have to stay with this firmware after all...ill do some more research on if this is the case but what you said makes sense so I might be screwed trying to downgrade[emoji31]


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[Oso]

Hmm never thought about that. It would make sense though since this new board only had 1.9.6 on it[emoji848] i guess I might have to stay with this firmware after all...ill do some more research on if this is the case but what you said makes sense so I might be screwed trying to downgrade[emoji31]


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Please of course do only what makes you comfortable, but my expectation would be if it's true the only thing that would happen is that it would not downgrade and you'd get some sort of message in the SD card txt file. I wouldn't expect any issues to arise from the attempt.

 

[sandman259]

Hopefully someone will chime in that had attempted this and tell us the result..


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[DroneTone]

In the course of repairing my P3 Pro, the DJI authorized dealer/repair shop installed a new main board with 1.9.6 on it. However I was able to downgrade to 1.8.8 using the same procedure as if it were a normal upgrade.

 

[sandman259]

Ok cool, I'll give it a shot, thanks[emoji106]


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[flyNfrank]

Based on all the recent crash data I have viewed in flights from those that upgraded to 1.9.6 I don't have much good to say about it. Personally I feel like most of the issue is coming from the battery firmware. I say that due to a couple of guys that had the exact same failure take place after upgrading the the battery. They installed the firmware but didn't know they had to leave the file on the microSD card for each battery afterwards. They been flying without the firmware installed on what they called the spare batteries. Apparently they upgraded the next battery and that flight they suffered a loss.

There has been other type of failures also. It seems one type is related to the 2.8.4 android App firmware.

I started buying dji phantom 2 & up in Jan.2014 and I have experienced this same type of events to the point I'm on my 5th aircraft. One of the 5 was my fault due to letting the a/c get too far out of range and not able to get a signal before the battery expired. The other 3 were due to upgrading.

In this case I think Oso is dead on with his suggestion. I can't stand losing performance! Not as fast, or not as far, is really hard to except when it comes to changes. Especially if you have no option to go back and have what you had. We use to get tricked all the time and it was very frustrating. They would make a upgrade sound like they were either Must Do, or that we were getting some real cool feature. We would install and end up with regret in several cases....

 

[Oso]

In the course of repairing my P3 Pro, the DJI authorized dealer/repair shop installed a new main board with 1.9.6 on it. However I was able to downgrade to 1.8.8 using the same procedure as if it were a normal upgrade.

Excellent. Thanks for confirming that a downgrade in those circumstances (new main board / DJI installed 1.9) could be done just as a normal downgrade. Cheers!

 

[sandman259]

In the course of repairing my P3 Pro, the DJI authorized dealer/repair shop installed a new main board with 1.9.6 on it. However I was able to downgrade to 1.8.8 using the same procedure as if it were a normal upgrade.

So you didn't have to force the firmware install? I was under the impression if your downgrading firmware that you had to force it by holding in the rc link button while powering it up or it wouldn't override newer firmware with older firmware. But you were able to install it just like a regular firmware?


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[flyNfrank]

So you didn't have to force the firmware install? I was under the impression if your downgrading firmware that you had to force it by holding in the rc link button while powering it up or it wouldn't override newer firmware with older firmware. But you were able to install it just like a regular firmware?


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I do remember something like that...but it pertained to the R/C only.

 

[sandman259]

Did something change on the firmware download page? I downloaded 1.8.8 again and it is a bin file right off start on my download page. Not a zip file that I have to unzip. I remember the last time I downloaded the firmware it came as a zip file, then I unzipped it and there were two files there, a bin and a pdf file. Now it shows up as just one bin file.


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[Silverwingflinx]

1.3.20+ this is what's on my new main board after I had to replace it.not sure what firm ware to up grade to.any good ideas??

 

[sandman259]

Down grading firmware last night to 1.8.8 even though my came back from Dji with a new board and 1.9.6 was installed[emoji106]. Everything went well, haven't flown it it to see if my range is back to normal yet[emoji120]


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[WetDog]

1.3.20+ this is what's on my new main board after I had to replace it.not sure what firm ware to up grade to.any good ideas??

That's the aircraft firmware version? That's pretty old. It might not link to newer RC firmware. Obviously you can try it.

 

[ElGuapo]

1.3.20+ this is what's on my new main board after I had to replace it.not sure what firm ware to up grade to.any good ideas??

I think it is safe to assume that you upgrade your firmware to 1.8.8 without suffering side effects, I would for now stay away from 1.9.6

I am sure other in this forum are going to disagree and tell you to upgrade to 1.9.6

 

[ElGuapo]

Down grading firmware last night to 1.8.8 even though my came back from Dji with a new board and 1.9.6 was installed[emoji106]. Everything went well, haven't flown it it to see if my range is back to normal yet[emoji120]


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Let us know..

 

[vincey2kr1]

How frustrating , this is exactly why I stopped flying. Feared crashing because of not having the proper downloaded app after hearing horror stories and range issues. Seems like there is till no consensus of what firmware and app I should be using..


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