Help with text input on controller display

[Just Drifting]

My P4v2 and DJI controller with the DJI display arrived today. When I powered up the controller for the first time, it needed some setup information, and I'm unable to enter it, hence unable to progress to connecting to the drone. Note, this is a DJI "high brightness" screen with embedded software, not my cell phone running an app.

The issue is entering my email address. DJI wants me to sign in/register and the first step is entering my email address. My email is the letter w, then an underscore, followed by my last name and of course the ampersand and email provider.

I enter the w, switch to the ?123 pad, get the underscore, then trouble starts. Switching back to the alphabet, I try the first letter of my last name and I get it, but it's underlined. I find a way to eliminate the underscore from that letter, move to the next one, and it is not only underlined, but also has a blank space between it and the earlier steps. I can eliminate the underline but not the blank space. So I get w_x x x etc. I've tried a lot of things and am stumped. I'm comfortable with things programmable, so must have missed something obvious in my haste to get airborne. Can someone with the DJI display on their controller take pity and tell me how to enter w_xxx successfully, and I'll take it from there.

You can have a good laugh too. I am laughing myself that I have to write this.

 

[Ansia]

Try writing your email without the underscore and adding it at the end.

 

[Just Drifting]

Update, and the long version. Read if you have the time to spare. Or skip to the last paragraph.

I feel like I'm back in the days of Windows 3.1 or and IBM PC AT. You can't make this stuff up. I'd neglected to tell the whole story, as the other details did not aid in solving the OP problem. But the process before I got to the underlining/spacing problem of the email address was a warning....

First, it wanted to know my language choice. There were 4: English, and 3 different calligraphy options. Good thing I didn't want German or French, each of which I could fake but are not my native language. I picked English.

Next: country location. Choices were (in order of occurrence) South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Algeria at the top of a very long scrolling list. From Algeria down it appeared to be alphabetical until around 18 I found Yemen, but no US. They stuck India in next, the back to the top of the alphabet. Down around number 30 I found the United States, tucked between Uganda and the Czech Republic. I'm certain every country in the world was there, and in English, but certainly not alphabetized to the English alphabet or even organized by any method I could grasp. Keep pulling marbles out of the jar until I found one that matched the flag.

Onward. It asked for time zone, and again, a scrambled list of non alphabetized cities and countries. While looking for New York as a proxy for the eastern time zone, I found "Eastern Time Zone". Oops....not everything was a city name. I selected it and got, correctly, GMT-5.

Next was the date. Last night's date was Jan 31, 2019, but my date menu line listed February 1. Tapping the line brought up the calendar, which correctly indicated Jan 31. I selected that, but the date would not change on the menu. No matter what I tried to set the date to I could not get it set on the menu line. Okay, it was 10 pm EST, so it would be Feb 1 in a couple of hours so I pressed on. The time of day had been factory preset, and was now correct for my time zone.

2 hours later, when the date rolled over in my time zone, DJI moved it to Feb 2. It simply propagated the date error +1.

It asked for my local wifi, found it and got I connected successfully.

When I came to the email address problem mentioned in my OP, I had feeling it would be a long night. I tried googling "entering text on DJI controller", and variations. No joy. When I forget some quirk on the iphone or kindle or dive computer, googling usually provides umpteen websites with quick help. No joy with DJI controllers. Next I tried forums, starting with DJI. I registered, returned the email, and got logged in. No joy. I did not have permission to post. I kept getting referred to the rule pages, could not find anywhere to check the box that I had read them or any other method to get permission to post. I came here next, registered, posted my OP (taking perhaps 10 minutes) and went back to work on learning the controller text editor.

I succeeded in getting the underlined version, removing the underlining, and closing up the spaces, an onerous task of using the editor bar, then tapping the screen to get the cursor relocated and backspacing. Viola! A correct looking email address. No joy, however. DJI rejected it, underlining both my name and email provider names in bold red. Both were spelled correctly, and the address tightly spaced, but no joy. I guessed there were some invisible control characters in it somewhere, but I can't remove what I cannot see. I had powered off/on 5 or 6 times in the process of getting rid of failed edits, and being unwilling to do it again, I quit for the night.

What a difference a day makes.

I checked this website, found the excellent idea of not putting in the underline until last, and powered up the controller.

It came up on the login screen, with the email address correct except for a space before the ampersand. It was the login screen too, not the registration screen. I fixed the space, and I got logged in! I needed and got a controller software update. I turned on the drone, established connectivity. I needed and got a drone software update. I'm now ready to take it outside and see which of the dozens of problems happens next, having read the forums I could not post into.

I am sort of laughing still, from last night. As I posted my OP, I could imaging voices in the background; "this guy is so dumb he can't even type his email address in". I have to chortle when I figured out my reply: "at least we're not arguing about the problem definition".

 

[Ansia]

Update, and the long version. Read if you have the time to spare. Or skip to the last paragraph.

I feel like I'm back in the days of Windows 3.1 or and IBM PC AT. You can't make this stuff up. I'd neglected to tell the whole story, as the other details did not aid in solving the OP problem. But the process before I got to the underlining/spacing problem of the email address was a warning....

First, it wanted to know my language choice. There were 4: English, and 3 different calligraphy options. Good thing I didn't want German or French, each of which I could fake but are not my native language. I picked English.

Next: country location. Choices were (in order of occurrence) South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Algeria at the top of a very long scrolling list. From Algeria down it appeared to be alphabetical until around 18 I found Yemen, but no US. They stuck India in next, the back to the top of the alphabet. Down around number 30 I found the United States, tucked between Uganda and the Czech Republic. I'm certain every country in the world was there, and in English, but certainly not alphabetized to the English alphabet or even organized by any method I could grasp. Keep pulling marbles out of the jar until I found one that matched the flag.

Onward. It asked for time zone, and again, a scrambled list of non alphabetized cities and countries. While looking for New York as a proxy for the eastern time zone, I found "Eastern Time Zone". Oops....not everything was a city name. I selected it and got, correctly, GMT-5.

Next was the date. Last night's date was Jan 31, 2019, but my date menu line listed February 1. Tapping the line brought up the calendar, which correctly indicated Jan 31. I selected that, but the date would not change on the menu. No matter what I tried to set the date to I could not get it set on the menu line. Okay, it was 10 pm EST, so it would be Feb 1 in a couple of hours so I pressed on. The time of day had been factory preset, and was now correct for my time zone.

2 hours later, when the date rolled over in my time zone, DJI moved it to Feb 2. It simply propagated the date error +1.

It asked for my local wifi, found it and got I connected successfully.

When I came to the email address problem mentioned in my OP, I had feeling it would be a long night. I tried googling "entering text on DJI controller", and variations. No joy. When I forget some quirk on the iphone or kindle or dive computer, googling usually provides umpteen websites with quick help. No joy with DJI controllers. Next I tried forums, starting with DJI. I registered, returned the email, and got logged in. No joy. I did not have permission to post. I kept getting referred to the rule pages, could not find anywhere to check the box that I had read them or any other method to get permission to post. I came here next, registered, posted my OP (taking perhaps 10 minutes) and went back to work on learning the controller text editor.

I succeeded in getting the underlined version, removing the underlining, and closing up the spaces, an onerous task of using the editor bar, then tapping the screen to get the cursor relocated and backspacing. Viola! A correct looking email address. No joy, however. DJI rejected it, underlining both my name and email provider names in bold red. Both were spelled correctly, and the address tightly spaced, but no joy. I guessed there were some invisible control characters in it somewhere, but I can't remove what I cannot see. I had powered off/on 5 or 6 times in the process of getting rid of failed edits, and being unwilling to do it again, I quit for the night.

What a difference a day makes.

I checked this website, found the excellent idea of not putting in the underline until last, and powered up the controller.

It came up on the login screen, with the email address correct except for a space before the ampersand. It was the login screen too, not the registration screen. I fixed the space, and I got logged in! I needed and got a controller software update. I turned on the drone, established connectivity. I needed and got a drone software update. I'm now ready to take it outside and see which of the dozens of problems happens next, having read the forums I could not post into.

I am sort of laughing still, from last night. As I posted my OP, I could imaging voices in the background; "this guy is so dumb he can't even type his email address in". I have to chortle when I figured out my reply: "at least we're not arguing about the problem definition".

Relax. I've read A LOT of dumber things. You are fine.

 

[Just Drifting]

Yes, I know. Just having a little fun.

If I'd been all that worried, I'd never have written the OP. I'm not the first one to turn on a controller and look at that mess of a registration system. I was hoping for the express solution from someone ahead of me, rather than having to slog through it myself.

Thanks for the idea by the way. I intended to use it, but overnight, with the power off, if healed the date and the email address input, so no need.

 

[JeffreyS]

I too, noticed how wacky the text 'keyboard' acts. I was unable to name any map areas because when I typed it entered a few letters at a time, and the backspace did not work. After numerous attempts I was only to name anything with one or two letter names.

 

[oconnb]

Instead of underscore just use space