Lessons Learned troubleshooting with the PV

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So i just got my PV a couple days ago and have only begun to start messing around with it... but have already discovered that while the user guide/release notes seem very detailed, they are missing some important stuff that someone should capture.

In my line of work (nuclear engineering), we dispassionately debrief EVERYTHING we do and find ways to make it work better, whether major procedural stuff or little refinements. SO... how bout we capture all the little lessons learned to save some other poor guy some time? See below...

I just spent several hours troubleshooting a "Cannot connect to Phantom 2 Vision" message. After resetting and rebinding, I couldn't connect to the range extender at all on the "Phantom_XXXXXX" network. It worked fine last night out of the box for a flight... so I updated all the firmware and came back to it today. When I updated the firmware last night, I just put the firmware.bin file on the camera's microSD card. After reading iDrone post that he had just dumped the whole zip file on there I tried that... and success!

So... I can only surmise that it is important for the update that the card have BOTH the firmware.bin and the version.txt file, contrary to what it says in the release notes.

Also, It took me a while to figure out that despite having the Assistant software on teh PC and the PV plugged in, they won't talk to each other unless you first install the DJI Driver that is NEVER MENTIONED ANYWHERE, IT JUST HANGS OUT ON THEIR WEBSITE ALL NONCHALANT AND STUFF.

Does anyone else have little things like that that we should watch out for?
 
quatoria23 said:
So... I can only surmise that it is important for the update that the card have BOTH the firmware.bin and the version.txt file, contrary to what it says in the release notes.

I've made a point to just drop firmware.bin on mine without the version.txt file, because I hate file clutters (which *I* usually forget to remove in the end hehe).

So I can confirm 100% that it does not need version.txt for the firmware upgrade to work.

Also, It took me a while to figure out that despite having the Assistant software on teh PC and the PV plugged in, they won't talk to each other unless you first install the DJI Driver that is NEVER MENTIONED ANYWHERE, IT JUST HANGS OUT ON THEIR WEBSITE ALL NONCHALANT AND STUFF.

Good point.

I'd add that to do the camera firmware update, you should only turn on the PV without turning on the repeater and smartphone\tablet to keep things simple. Just watch the flashing orange LED and wait 20 seconds or so.
 
quatoria23 said:
So i just got my PV a couple days ago and have only begun to start messing around with it... but have already discovered that while the user guide/release notes seem very detailed, they are missing some important stuff that someone should capture.

In my line of work (nuclear engineering), we dispassionately debrief EVERYTHING we do and find ways to make it work better, whether major procedural stuff or little refinements. SO... how bout we capture all the little lessons learned to save some other poor guy some time? See below...

I just spent several hours troubleshooting a "Cannot connect to Phantom 2 Vision" message. After resetting and rebinding, I couldn't connect to the range extender at all on the "Phantom_XXXXXX" network. It worked fine last night out of the box for a flight... so I updated all the firmware and came back to it today. When I updated the firmware last night, I just put the firmware.bin file on the camera's microSD card. After reading iDrone post that he had just dumped the whole zip file on there I tried that... and success!

So... I can only surmise that it is important for the update that the card have BOTH the firmware.bin and the version.txt file, contrary to what it says in the release notes.

Also, It took me a while to figure out that despite having the Assistant software on teh PC and the PV plugged in, they won't talk to each other unless you first install the DJI Driver that is NEVER MENTIONED ANYWHERE, IT JUST HANGS OUT ON THEIR WEBSITE ALL NONCHALANT AND STUFF.

Does anyone else have little things like that that we should watch out for?

Sorry, but the manual DOES state that you must install drivers first - see page 49.
 
Pull_Up said:
quatoria23 said:
So i just got my PV a couple days ago and have only begun to start messing around with it... but have already discovered that while the user guide/release notes seem very detailed, they are missing some important stuff that someone should capture.

In my line of work (nuclear engineering), we dispassionately debrief EVERYTHING we do and find ways to make it work better, whether major procedural stuff or little refinements. SO... how bout we capture all the little lessons learned to save some other poor guy some time? See below...

I just spent several hours troubleshooting a "Cannot connect to Phantom 2 Vision" message. After resetting and rebinding, I couldn't connect to the range extender at all on the "Phantom_XXXXXX" network. It worked fine last night out of the box for a flight... so I updated all the firmware and came back to it today. When I updated the firmware last night, I just put the firmware.bin file on the camera's microSD card. After reading iDrone post that he had just dumped the whole zip file on there I tried that... and success!

So... I can only surmise that it is important for the update that the card have BOTH the firmware.bin and the version.txt file, contrary to what it says in the release notes.

Also, It took me a while to figure out that despite having the Assistant software on teh PC and the PV plugged in, they won't talk to each other unless you first install the DJI Driver that is NEVER MENTIONED ANYWHERE, IT JUST HANGS OUT ON THEIR WEBSITE ALL NONCHALANT AND STUFF.

Does anyone else have little things like that that we should watch out for?

Sorry, but the manual DOES state that you must install drivers first - see page 49.

It alludes to the fact that you need to install the driver, but it's not clear on the website (IMHO) which bit of software you need to download IS the driver. Leaving the word "installer" out of the description would actually make things a bit more clear. Also having that little flow chart as the only place in the manual that even mentions the driver isn't all that helpful. It's a small point, but it really should be a bit more clear.

I'm an IT manager and am, unfortunately, bedeviled by inept attempts at software documentation on a daily basis. :shock: :cry: :evil: :twisted:
 
LeoS said:
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I'd add that to do the camera firmware update, you should only turn on the PV without turning on the repeater and smartphone\tablet to keep things simple. Just watch the flashing orange LED and wait 20 seconds or so.

The upgrade instructions do not make it clear to watch the camera led, I was watching the yellow flashing leds on the Phantom frame thinking the upgrade didn't take because they don't stop flashing.
 

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