I'm grounded.....

[rubyfocus]

I can't fly my P3P anymore, and here's why: I went to fly it the other day, and upon turning everything on the DJI Go app tells me that an update was needed. So I did it. Followed the DJI tutorials and everything went smoothly and without a hitch. And I thought "Great!", because so far my experience with this drone has been spectacular. It's worked like a charm right out of the box. Until now. I think I've got a total of an hour or so of airtime on it. Now, I can go through the regular first steps and it connects just fine, video and everything. Then about 10 to 20 seconds later, the aircraft simply disconnects and the gimbal gives a twitch every few seconds. Every time. And it won't connect again no matter what I do. I have to shut it all down and wait an hour or so and then I can repeat the sequence. All day long. There's no way I can fly it when it's doing this. What's up? After a so-called update, my $700 drone is basically a brick with fancy blinking LEDs. And it used to work so bitchen. What do I do now?
Here are the particulars:
App is at 3.1.18
Aircraft is at 1.11.20
Remote is at 1.9.3
Using an iPad mini 2
Thanks.

 

[rubyfocus]

No. I really didn't think to look. I just assumed erroneously that DJI had their [Language Removed] together and that they knew a little about the products that they produce.

 

[Alan Russel]

Did you calibrate the imu and gimbal after update?

 

[JoBe]

I can't fly my P3P anymore, and here's why: I went to fly it the other day, and upon turning everything on the DJI Go app tells me that an update was needed. So I did it. Followed the DJI tutorials and everything went smoothly and without a hitch. And I thought "Great!", because so far my experience with this drone has been spectacular. It's worked like a charm right out of the box. Until now. I think I've got a total of an hour or so of airtime on it. Now, I can go through the regular first steps and it connects just fine, video and everything. Then about 10 to 20 seconds later, the aircraft simply disconnects and the gimbal gives a twitch every few seconds. Every time. And it won't connect again no matter what I do. I have to shut it all down and wait an hour or so and then I can repeat the sequence. All day long. There's no way I can fly it when it's doing this. What's up? After a so-called update, my $700 drone is basically a brick with fancy blinking LEDs. And it used to work so bitchen. What do I do now?
Here are the particulars:
App is at 3.1.18
Aircraft is at 1.11.20
Remote is at 1.9.3
Using an iPad mini 2
Thanks.

Did you complete the rebind needed for 1.11 to work properly? Search here for a helpful post from oso or msinger with all the 411.

 

[rubyfocus]

OK. Here's an update. After trying various suggestions and watching countless videos- I've gotten nowhere. My attempts at re-binding the RC to the AC failed. When I press the three required buttons nothing happens. I tried reflashing the firmware, that fails. The Phantom, although it does power up and the gimbal sort of works, is otherwise unresponsive. Either I'm doing something totally wrong, or this drone is a worthless basket case. I really can't tell which at this point.

 

[TroyIrl]

I can't fly my P3P anymore, and here's why: I went to fly it the other day, and upon turning everything on the DJI Go app tells me that an update was needed. So I did it. Followed the DJI tutorials and everything went smoothly and without a hitch. And I thought "Great!", because so far my experience with this drone has been spectacular. It's worked like a charm right out of the box. Until now. I think I've got a total of an hour or so of airtime on it. Now, I can go through the regular first steps and it connects just fine, video and everything. Then about 10 to 20 seconds later, the aircraft simply disconnects and the gimbal gives a twitch every few seconds. Every time. And it won't connect again no matter what I do. I have to shut it all down and wait an hour or so and then I can repeat the sequence. All day long. There's no way I can fly it when it's doing this. What's up? After a so-called update, my $700 drone is basically a brick with fancy blinking LEDs. And it used to work so bitchen. What do I do now?
Here are the particulars:
App is at 3.1.18
Aircraft is at 1.11.20
Remote is at 1.9.3
Using an iPad mini 2
Thanks.

These are the settings on my P3P that are working fine at the moment. If you could update the app to 3.1.23( I’m using a iPad mini 2 as well) and roll back the controller to 1.9.2 maybe it would fix your problems

 

[grandpaw]

I am having the same problem. After upgrading the controller, my Phantom Pro will not connect anymore.

 

[Dronut2]

I stopped doing firmware updates and use Litchi. $22.00 got rid of my headaches.

 

[Eyenthesky2017]

How did u try to reconnect the controller to the bird?

 

[Oso]

How did u try to reconnect the controller to the bird?

Click here for some background and other very important information about the flight distance restrictions with 1.11.20. It includes a video on how to relink.

Also, if you are interested click here for some tips that I often share with new P3A/P3P owners.

Good luck and happy new year!

 

[rubyfocus]

Here's what went down: the problem ultimately progressed to the point that the system was completely bricked. Packed it up after getting a fixit number from DJI, and sent it to the local service center. Received a new bird only 4 days later. Excellent service, I must say! It also goes to show that there was truly something wrong with that firmware update.

 

[PeterDJI]

Quote "I went to fly it the other day, and upon turning everything on the DJI Go app tells me that an update was needed"

I had this issue several times. After driving hours to remote areas only to find out I can't fly because an update was necessary. Ruined my day on several occasions. Finally tried to install "No Root Firewall" on my Asus tablet. I set up the fire wall to block DJI GO app from calling home. I a lot of fiddling with Android setting, turning off updates etc. I finally got my phantom flying again. Now here is the mysterious part. I turned off my WIFI and never turned it back on. I had several successful flights, everything seemed locked down and working. After my last flight I shut everything off, I didn't turn the setup on until a couple months later when I went out to a remote spot. Low and behold, DJI GO app says: Downloading update....unpacking zip file......

Keep in mind I had WIFI off and there was no WIFI or SIM card and it hadn't been turned on in the presence of WIFI since my last flight in a remote area!

Update Required....Phantom won't fly, camera works for a few minutes then everything freezes up. No live video, won't start up. After several restarts of the controller, the phantom and the tablet I was able to get it flying but then it panicked and said critical battery warning. Still no live video. DJI GO app said 50% battery left on the phantom, critical setting was 30% so very weird. It did record video to the SDcard but I just didn't have live video. Also after several restarts of all devices, the Firmware Update Needed changed to Latest!

I will not buy DJI products anymore. Total PITA. I am now downgrading the firmware.

 

[solentlife]

Sorry to say this Peter .... but updates are not delivered by the Stork.

You say turned of WiFi ... many tablets / phones if you only turn it off in services - will restart the service when you turn on tablet / phone later. But if you apply AIRPLANE mode - then it should stay off ...

Nothing to do with DJI at all .... your phone / tablet use was to blame for your getting an update.

Nigel

 

[Aussie markD1969]

Iam sorry to hear you guys are having so many issues , lam running the latest updates on my p3a and touch wood it’s going great , l use a iPad mini4 , sick of Samsung crap always giving problems , hope l don’t need to eat my words but for now all going well ..

 

[PeterDJI]

Sorry to say this Peter .... but updates are not delivered by the Stork.

You say turned of WiFi ... many tablets / phones if you only turn it off in services - will restart the service when you turn on tablet / phone later. But if you apply AIRPLANE mode - then it should stay off ...

Nothing to do with DJI at all .... your phone / tablet use was to blame for your getting an update.

Nigel

Hahaaha....by stork....almost appears so. However DJI is to blame for pushing an update I didn't consent to. Especially for grounding me on several occasions where no wifi was available. I count on showing up for a client only to be embarrassed when it won't fly, rubbish. The tablet was in airplane mode. The last flight was also in a remote area with no wifi available and it was in airplane mode when shut off. I'm sure there is a logical answer to this that has escaped my observations but the point is DJI forces updates which cripple my setup at the most inopportune moments. Loosing job opportunities and creating a bad impression with clients. It's no wonder the US military did away with their DJI drones.....

 

[Aussie markD1969]

How about using litchi ? .. a lot of people think it’s great and have a lot less trouble .

 

[PeterDJI]

How about using litchi ? .. a lot of people think it’s great and have a lot less trouble .

Thanks, will look into it. I'm trying all sorts of things out. First I must identify the most stable version of the:
1) Go app, the one that still uses Google maps
2) Firmware version for both P3 Pro and Controller
3) Root my Asus Tablet and remove bloatware.
4) When everything is working I may even pull out the tablets WIFI chip, or find a way to hardwire an on/off switch.

May seem extreme but I had many great flights with the P3 pro until updating. I want a stable setup that will work every time without issues. I've had too many expensive failures after updating several times, never got back those stable flights. All kinds of issues now from no video stream to poor signal quality to rotors not powering up, crazy warning messages etc.

I've been a computer technician for many years, and one golden rule is Ïf everything is working, DO NOT UPDATE"
Kept my systems running smoothly for years while my collegues got into deep **** updating at every opportunity.
Do not fix what isn't broken.

 

[quaddamage]

I've been a computer technician for many years, and one golden rule is Ïf everything is working, DO NOT UPDATE"

For computers, there are security considerations to take into account. Updating is always a risk, but not updating either a computer firmware (aka BIOS), or OS, or drivers - will likely lead to your machine being taken over by someone, either for theft, crypto currecny mining or ddos botnet. Plus outdated video drivers means reduced performance.

The DJI drones are a completely different story:
- The updates occasionally provide security improvement, but chances of your drone being hacked while you're flying are extremely low, and such updates often affect radio link quality
- After about 18 months of a product launch, DJI stops providing updates which are good for you, and throws updates which are good for them - blocking 3rd party batteries, reducing RF power, protecting against you tinkering with the drone, etc.
- While you PC has one BIOS (well, not exactly true.. but this is what you usually update), DJI drones have 17 components - there are 17 firmwares which are being updated each time. If any of these fail, the drone stops working. Which means chances of an update fail are 17x higher than on PC.

 

[Aussie markD1969]

So that being said which firmware in peoples opinion for the p3A is the best 1 to have ?... l would gladly down grade if especially my range could be improved ..

 

[quaddamage]

So that being said which firmware in peoples opinion for the p3A is the best 1 to have ?... l would gladly down grade if especially my range could be improved ..

I'm using V01.07.0060, but this version has some bad changes already. There were many topics about FW selection in the past, and most experienced flyers suggest V01.05.0030 or V01.06.0040.
Since there were no hard arguments between these versions, it's hard to pick which is "better". Even from measuring RF power, there are mixed opinions - probably because there are two versions of the OFDM board, and each of them reacts differently on the new firmware. Not to mention measuring RF power isn't as easy as some people think, so every number should be taken with a grain of salt. For the old OFDM board (with Analog Devices transciever), I'd speculate the V1.05 might be better. Again, it's just a speculation.

It's definitely safer not to upgrade nor downgrade and just fly at what you've got.