New Firmware 1.2.503 for Phantom 4

[Alien Warrior]

So they mitigated HW issue/behaviors thru firmware. Not sure what was the timing in your case but pitty they didn't communicate to you work in progress on firmware and beta testing going on to address this. Information was certainly available at some point and certain level.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Communications aren't DJI's strong point....
God knows how long my P4 will be gone for or even if i get back my original quad.
I am not hopeful of a good outcome with this whole FW / HW fiasco!
There is no doubt DJI have the best quads but their service lets down the entire company and leaves a bad taste in too many people's mouths!

 

[Croatian drone]

Communications aren't DJI's strong point....
God knows how long my P4 will be gone for or even if i get back my original quad.
I am not hopeful of a good outcome with this whole FW / HW fiasco!
There is no doubt DJI have the best quads but their service lets down the entire company and leaves a bad taste in too many people's mouths!

Better to lose hope but drone

 

[sar104]

Patience and moderation are the mother of knowledge...
I doubt that dji would put on sale technically unfinished product!

Pretty much all products are technically unfinished. It's just a question of how to balance the desire to get a product to market (both for profit and the enjoyment of consumers) with the desire to make it as good as possible.

 

[Croatian drone]

Wright...
But, what is the price of Apache helicopter???

 

[Stealthmatt]

Communications aren't DJI's strong point....
God knows how long my P4 will be gone for or even if i get back my original quad.
I am not hopeful of a good outcome with this whole FW / HW fiasco!
There is no doubt DJI have the best quads but their service lets down the entire company and leaves a bad taste in too many people's mouths!

I have heard that they simply send you a replacement drone as its easier than have you wait for your original one.

People have reported light scratches and finger print smudges, so fingers crossed you don't get one that has been refurbished from being dropped in a muddy river or used as a frisbee to test collision avoidance, or dropped into a pool of coke.

I'm sure you will get a Phantom 4 back... of some sort....

 

[John Locke]

I doubt that dji would put on sale technically unfinished product!

I think we all realize DJI would never sell a TECHNICALLY FINISHED PRODUCT. Otherwise they would never sell anything

We are their test lab, get use to it. And have fun flying! It's so awesome.

 

[Alien Warrior]

It is fun flying! It's so awesome - agreed
Wish I had a P4 to throw around in the sky.....

Oh well, I will do a maiden flight with the new Inspire1Pro tomorrow and hopefully that won't be yoyo'ing around.
3 times more expensive than the P4 with crappy customer service means that I am hoping/praying nothing goes wrong!
My fingers are tightly crossed!

 

[Sky King]

Didn't do a thing for my altitude drop. I still get about a 40' drop in an aggressive ascent after it finally stops ascending. Then after it drops, it starts ascending again. The only things that stops it is if I manually ascend slightly again.

 

[AsiaFlyer]

Didn't do a thing for my altitude drop. I still get about a 40' drop in an aggressive ascent after it finally stops ascending. Then after it drops, it starts ascending again. The only things that stops it is if I manually ascend slightly again.

Sorry to here that, my altitude drops were really severe and now it's perfect. did you do an IMU calibration after the firmware update? Did you update via the app or DJI assistant? (assistant is recommended)

 

[AsiaFlyer]

Didn't do a thing for my altitude drop. I still get about a 40' drop in an aggressive ascent after it finally stops ascending. Then after it drops, it starts ascending again. The only things that stops it is if I manually ascend slightly again.

Also check the .txt file on your sd card to check the update was successful

 

[Alien Warrior]

Didn't do a thing for my altitude drop. I still get about a 40' drop in an aggressive ascent after it finally stops ascending. Then after it drops, it starts ascending again. The only things that stops it is if I manually ascend slightly again.

Mine yoyo'ed through 30 to 40 feet as well. Nearly lost it once when it decided to descend very quickly without any warning while filming some surfers. Came very close to losing it that time and it was that event that I decided I can't continue flying it in the current state for fear of complete loss.

Should have kept the P3 as it was perfectly stable and I am kicking myself for selling it to buy the P4!
Live and learn.

 

[dronejunkyev]

Mine yoyo'ed through 30 to 40 feet as well. Nearly lost it once when it decided to descend very quickly without any warning while filming some surfers. Came very close to losing it that time and it was that event that I decided I can't continue flying it in the current state for fear of complete loss.

Should have kept the P3 as it was perfectly stable and I am kicking myself for selling it to buy the P4!
Live and learn.

I'm sure the p3 wasn't perfect out the box.. Those Have had updates too.. Again if it was perfect out the box there would be no room for improvment. Look at our phones Android and iOS., yearly/monthly updates, why? To make the experience better and improve and fix bugs.



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[John Locke]

Didn't do a thing for my altitude drop. I still get about a 40' drop in an aggressive ascent after it finally stops ascending. Then after it drops, it starts ascending again. The only things that stops it is if I manually ascend slightly again.

Make you're not using a gimbal guard. Those well make it yoyo.

 

[Alien Warrior]

I'm sure the p3 wasn't perfect out the box.. Those Have had updates too.. Again if it was perfect out the box there would be no room for improvment. Look at our phones Android and iOS., yearly/monthly updates, why? To make the experience better and improve and fix bugs.

P3 was a LOT more perfect out of the box than the P4!
I never had any issues with the P3, good old reliable P3.
The P4 had the yoyo's from day one.

This is roughly equivalent to purchasing a car that is missing a gear in the differential case. There is no problem as it is still driveable but you will encounter a slight loss of power being transmitted to the driving wheel every time you go into a left hand bend and the danger of running into the path of a big truck and being killed has been increased slightly. But hey, the car is the only one of its kind on the road and where else will you buy something similar.

Ok, I can accept some flaws but I spent a LOT of money on my new toy and expect it to not self destruct in the first few weeks of operation.

 

[sar104]

P3 was a LOT more perfect out of the box than the P4!
I never had any issues with the P3, good old reliable P3.
The P4 had the yoyo's from day one.

This is roughly equivalent to purchasing a car that is missing a gear in the differential case. There is no problem as it is still driveable but you will encounter a slight loss of power being transmitted to the driving wheel every time you go into a left hand bend and the danger of running into the path of a big truck and being killed has been increased slightly. But hey, the car is the only one of its kind on the road and where else will you buy something similar.

Ok, I can accept some flaws but I spent a LOT of money on my new toy and expect it to not self destruct in the first few weeks of operation.

So you are equating the lack of altitude stability of the P4, prior to this update, with a vehicle flaw that increases the probability of a fatal accident? Are you quite sure you want to try to make that argument?

 

[Stealthmatt]

P3 was a LOT more perfect out of the box than the P4!
I never had any issues with the P3, good old reliable P3.
The P4 had the yoyo's from day one.

This is roughly equivalent to purchasing a car that is missing a gear in the differential case. There is no problem as it is still driveable but you will encounter a slight loss of power being transmitted to the driving wheel every time you go into a left hand bend and the danger of running into the path of a big truck and being killed has been increased slightly. But hey, the car is the only one of its kind on the road and where else will you buy something similar.

Ok, I can accept some flaws but I spent a LOT of money on my new toy and expect it to not self destruct in the first few weeks of operation.

Well it technically didn't self destruct - it was a firmware issue. I don't know why you didn't just downgrade the firmware because it didn't occur on the previous firmware - which to me would have indicated software over hardware. But you would expect to take the word of a DJI rep.... unfortunately they don't know what there left hand is doing from their right....

If you wanted to you could contact the DJI reps on RCgroup Blade Strike or Tahoe Ed (Blade Strike is better)

Blade Strike: blade strike's blog - RC Groups

Tahoe Ed: Tahoe Ed's blog - RC Groups

They will look up your support case and can see where it is at for you.

 

[ftttu]

I flew a distance run yesterday with the new update, and I went the exact same distance of 3.04 miles in P mode, limited only by the low battery warning. I wasn't really expecting anything different, but one thing was weird. When I got the low battery warning, I allowed RTH to bring it back home. As it got closer, it finally went to critical low battery as it was approaching my house at 400' up. When I have done this before so many times, it is in just low battery mode and not critical low battery mode. This time, it appeared to take longer to land.

When I reviewed the video, it showed it descending but it then began ascending. It did this twice on the way down. Not ever seeing this happening before, it seems like when it went to critical low battery where it says "landing" but then went back into a RTH mode where it went back to my 400' RTH setting.

I only did that one flight but will try to do another one to see if it repeats in in just regular low battery mode during RTH.

I flew another distance run tonight, and let it return to home at low battery alert. It came back at 400' and landed normally this time instead of ascending a couple of times. One difference this time was that it wasn't in critical low battery mode as the last run, and the other difference was that this run was in darkness.

 

[Alien Warrior]

Downgraded all the way, pressed the reset button, upgraded 1 FW release at a time and tested each upgrade.
Re-Calibrated VPS and pretty much dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's.

I contacted DJI via their forum and was advised quite firmly "HW issue, return it for repair".
Then a couple of weeks later with this FW upgrade forum members are reporting the issue as being rectified.
I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment:
"unfortunately they don't know what there left hand is doing from their right...."

BTW, before it raises its ugly head again, no, I didn't have a gimbal guard installed.

Appreciate the contacts advice

Well it technically didn't self destruct - it was a firmware issue. I don't know why you didn't just downgrade the firmware because it didn't occur on the previous firmware - which to me would have indicated software over hardware. But you would expect to take the word of a DJI rep.... unfortunately they don't know what there left hand is doing from their right....

If you wanted to you could contact the DJI reps on RCgroup Blade Strike or Tahoe Ed (Blade Strike is better)

Blade Strike: blade strike's blog - RC Groups

Tahoe Ed: Tahoe Ed's blog - RC Groups

They will look up your support case and can see where it is at for you.

 

[Alien Warrior]

Feel free to change "car" to "very expensive remote controlled toy car" running smack into a brick wall and being smashed to pieces because of a defect regardless of whether it is a SW or HW issue!
Sheesh!

So you are equating the lack of altitude stability of the P4, prior to this update, with a vehicle flaw that increases the probability of a fatal accident? Are you quite sure you want to try to make that argument?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Make you're not using a gimbal guard. Those will make it yoyo.

Indeed! Gimbal Guards on a P4 will void your warranty for that very reason!