HELP - Still cannot fly drone after update!

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I have a DJI Phantom 3 i received for Christmas and to this day I have still never been able to fly it! I live in Wisconsin so I wanted to wait until spring but consistently fired it up and did the firmware updated with no issues. About a month and a half or more ago I was planning on flying it on a nice day so the night before I fired it up to check for updates. There as an update for the aircraft and the controller I think so I did the update. Something went wrong, I think I lost internet or had the controller on during the aircraft update and since then I am having issues. I get the "RC Signal" lost message on the controller and the yellow lights on the aircraft flash yellow constantly. The controller said that I needed to update and it did that to V 1.6. so I deleted all the files on the SD card for my Drone and put on V 1.6 on there from my old downloads on my laptop and still no luck.
I tried the relinking and it said aircraft linked but I am still having issues.

I consider myself pretty techy but this is just confusing the hell out of me and I think I may have made matters worse by deleting the firmware form the SD card so I am looking for suggestions to fix this. I have had this drone for 6 months now and I still have not been able to fly it! Help!

Please direct me somewhere or give me instructions that are basic. To be honest i read some of the stuff out online and its just confusing me more!

Thank you in advance everyone!

John
 
If you have a P3P or P3A. The AC firmware should be 1.8 RC 1.6 You probably have a mismatch somewhere. 1.6 RC firmware will not work with 1.6 AC firmware, if I not mistaken.
 
To provide better security to users, DJI has messed up the upgrades for a common user. It becomes so difficult for a user to figure out what had gone wrong. Installers are not upto the mark in the sense they don't guide the users foe step by step installations. DJI doesn't understand that most of the users are not that computer savy and get into trouble for making a small mistake.

Sorry for ranting it out but I really feel the pain that so many of us are struggling. We keep telling do this, do that, watch videos, read documentation but all that has not helped as one who doesn't know how to do is unable to do even after reading the complex instructions.

Jrflat, please publish the versions you have for app, RC and AC. You may also copy last txt file generated by AC during FW installation.
 
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To provide better security to users, DJI has messed up the upgrades for a common user. It becomes so difficult for a user to figure out what had gone wrong. Installers are not upto the mark in the sense they don't guide the users foe step by step installations. DJI doesn't understand that most of the users are not that computer savy and get into trouble for making a small mistake.

Sorry for ranting it out but I really feel the pain that so many of us are struggling. We keep telling do this, do that, watch videos, read documentation but all that has not helped as one who doesn't know how to do is unable to do even after reading the complex instructions.

Jrflat, please publish the versions you have for app, RC and AC. You may also copy last txt file generated by AC during FW installation.
I agree sir. The encryption change was handled poorly, even by DJI's abysmal standards. When everyone is used to routinely mixing and matching AC/RC firmware versions, suddenly requiring a match (AC 1.8 with RC 1.6) really needed to be communicated much better.

Even though we tell people about this multiple times per day here on the forum, the casual user doesn't see that. The casual user sees the "update required" message in their app so they think they are actually required to update without fully understanding the details. Clearer messaging would have helped greatly.
 
It's a phantom 3 advanced
So your going to need to update the RC via the tablet.
The AC will need an update via a formatted SD card and the file loaded from a computer after being downloaded from DJI and unzipped.
Do a long format of the card to get it very clean and I found out via another member who got info from DJI that the format for this card is best if fat32. I used a cheap 2GB card from a old phone.
Good Luck
 
The controller said that I needed to update and it did that to V 1.6. so I deleted all the files on the SD card for my Drone and put on V 1.6 on there from my old downloads on my laptop and still no luck.
John, as has been noted a few times above, 1.6 on the RC requires 1.8 on the AC. If you leave 1.6 on your RC, you will need to download and install AC version 1.8 to have the match required this time due to the encryption change. Normally in the past an assortment of combinations has been fine, but this time the two (1.6 RC and 1.8 AC) need to go hand in hand.
 
I did try to put the 1.8 on the SD card and still no luck. I just do not
Think the firmware is actually updating because it does not go through the same process as before. I think at some point the last download was interrupted and that was the start of my problems. This may be a dumb question but can delete all of the files on the SD card and put 1.8 on it and insert it in the air craft and be fine? If their a hard drive in the air craft that actually needs to be updated in a specific order?
 
This may be a dumb question but can delete all of the files on the SD card and put 1.8 on it and insert it in the air craft and be fine?
That is how you should be doing firmware updates on the AC. A clean card with only the FW bin file on it. See post 7 above from @Prairie Pyro.

If you've tried several methods, perhaps try this. Still use a clean card with only the bin file:
Problem updating
 
That is how you should be doing firmware updates on the AC. A clean card with only the FW bin file on it. See post 7 above from @Prairie Pyro.

If you've tried several methods, perhaps try this. Still use a clean card with only the bin file:
Problem updating

So I tried this and now I just get a Beep Beep and nothing. The front lights are solid red and the rear lights are flashing green. I let it sit and it still does beep beep and nothing else. When I open up the DJI Go app it says aircraft disconnected and I get no camera pic.
 

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Holy crap I think it is fixed!!!!! I erased the card and reformatted it and downloaded the .bin file to root of the SC card. I followed the instructions to reboot by pressing the link button on the aircraft but I am not sure that helped because it just kept beeping.I turned it off and on again normally and it started the updating process. Right now I have "safe to fly" on my Ipad screen connected to the RC and solid red lights in the front and flashing green lights in the back on the aircraft so I think I am good to take my first flight today.

Thank you everyone for the help!!!! I was starting to think I spent $1,000 on a cool paperweight!!
 
Holy crap I think it is fixed!!!!! I erased the card and reformatted it and downloaded the .bin file to root of the SC card. I followed the instructions to reboot by pressing the link button on the aircraft but I am not sure that helped because it just kept beeping.I turned it off and on again normally and it started the updating process. Right now I have "safe to fly" on my Ipad screen connected to the RC and solid red lights in the front and flashing green lights in the back on the aircraft so I think I am good to take my first flight today.

Thank you everyone for the help!!!! I was starting to think I spent $1,000 on a cool paperweight!!
Excellent. I'm glad the video helped. Cheers!
 
The light on the front of the camera gimbal should have went to a steady green when successful. As others have stated the lights on the arms can do other strange things
Good luck. Having a good window to fly with storms coming tonight, calm before the storm.
 

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