Drone will not respond

[Jwander]

Phantom 3 pro

To start we'll state the issue, the drone will not take an update or respond to controller via app or SD card.

I have tried 3 different cards at that. I have video signal while the app is open on tablet but the camera can not be controlled. Video seems to be the only signal I have. The drone has never crashed. This began after the original SD card failed and had to be replaced. From that moment on the drone has been totally grounded.

I began by swapping sd cards, first card and drone would not fly. I spent a few hours with DJI on phone and chat and they blamed the card .. so I dug out the SD card sent with a Mavick and no luck either. DJI support had me wipe firmware on the RC and reinstall, Re link the remote and drone and try again with no avail. A few hours of calling back got me told to send the unit in for repair.

I did no such thing, I have since tried SD cards, the drone will not factory reset itself ( holding rc link button on boot) it repeats DD..DD..DD infinitely. I have placed the newest firmware on the drone on each of these cards and the unit will not initiate the update. It produces no log files when removing card. Each card tells me SD card formatting failed when using the app to format.

When controller, drone, and tablet are all on I have a red Signal Lost banner across the top, firmware tap says "Latest Firmware!" listing App at 3.1.11 , Version at 1.1.5, Remote Controller at 1.9.2 and Flight Controller SN is blank. The only other bit of info i have to work with is "Strong interference. Fly with Caution" and radio channel quality is "Poor", and yes I get this message everywhere I go and had never had it before the issue began.

If anyone has any advice I would be indebted; I use these for work and sending them off for DJI to charge and hold indefinitely seems to be a horrendous choice.

Thank you in advance for anyone's patience to read and aid me in this!

 

[Alan Russel]

The latest firmware for the P3P is 1.11.20 this is on my P3P and works good. Can you format the sd card on a pc and download latest firmware (bin file) onto the card. I would update the app as well and leave RC on 1.9.2 . You probably will have to relink controller with the aircraft after upgrade. Try that

 

[quaddamage]

the drone will not take an update

I have placed the newest firmware on each of these cards and the unit will not initiate the update. It produces no log files when removing card. Each card tells me SD card formatting failed when using the app to format.

That would mean there is something wrong with the Ambarella chip, or the SD card slot. There may also be issues with voltage regulators which provide power to these. Either way, these symptoms suggest Gimbal Top Board is fried. But it is curious - usually DaVinci fails on these boards, not Ambarella. In your case DaVinci works, because you stated video feed works.
I once had an sd card which got damaged, and upon that it shorted its power input lines. If this happened to your board, it likely has damaged sd card voltage regulator.

the drone will not [...] respond to controller via app

That sounds like a different problem, separate to the one in gimbal. But to make sure, try disconnecting the gimbal completely - if the drone is in working order, it will fly normally without gimbal.

 

[Jwander]

Okay, sorry on delayed response. I have done the formatting on the card via PC and then dumping the firmware and I still get no response.

I have tried leaving the SD card in gimble and connecting the drone to PC via USB cable connected at the micro USB slot on the bird itself and my computer can find the data I have stored, although I have not tried to transfer files while this setup is active to see if reader was damaged.

I will try removing gimble thank you for suggestion; I will run through these suggestions and post results asap.

Again, much appreciation for your time and responses as troubleshooting has been a headache.

 

[Alan Russel]

Jwander try a hard boot...insert sd card in with latest firmware push and hold the button that binds the bird with the rc then start up your phantom (holding that button in for a good 10 secs) or until lights start flashing