New guy, old problem (probably)

[GARG]

Hi,
My name is Greg, I recently purchased (based on my instinct and reviews) a New Phantom Vision. Really nice. Very impressed. Super easy IMO, and had a great time. Everything worked as I could imagine, Until....... I took a fairly hard crash. Now I wouldn't normally throw my son under the bus, and at the end of the day it was my fault, as I did not instruct him how to land, but it crashed, broke two props, and sent the camera flying a few feet, by the time we got it stopped

So there we are, looking at all this carnage, and I thought, well, I am sure this has happened before, I couldn't be the only one, and low and behold, I am not. I have read many posts here stating almost the exact same incident.

Now, while I thought I was being careful, and diligent, I must have missed something, because no matter what I have tried, I cannot get the vision app to talk to the camera any more. Did I break it???

Any ideas on what I should do to get it working again?
I have tried almost all of the suggestions that I could find so far.
Hooked up to PC assistant, talks to the unit just fine. 3.08 version installed, the assistant thinks everything is okay.
Tried a rebind with my Iphone, but it would not allow me to use the camera, so I used my sons tablet, and it found the camera and rebound (I thought) the camera to the extender deal.

What am I missing???

Thanks in advance, and your patience on dealing with the Nooby of the day

Greg a.k.a. Garg

 

[msinger]

What exactly broke camera-wise? When it went flying, did it detach from the gimbal?

 

[Jason in TN]

You have broke so thing on the camera likely one the ribbon cable maybe more.

 

[Meta4]

Is the camera/gimbal intact (including) the black ribbon cable) and are all 3 of the cables from the Phantom to the gimbal connected?
When you power up, does the tiny LED on the gimbal light up? What colour?
Does the camera move or stay dangling?

 

[cahutch]

Your post said phantom vision, not vision+. Can you verify which version you have?

In any case, if the camera went flying, it obviously broke off and it's broken. I would not expect it to work again after a crash like that.
How did you re-attach it? Did you re-attach any broken cables?

 

[PhantomFanatic]

It isn't exactly the best time, but: Welcome to the Forum! I'm sorry for your Son's crash and I hope you can get everything working again. I suspect the camera, too, but once you answer the questions, we can help you better.

 

[GARG]

Hi yeah sorry for the incomplete info.
Yes the camera was thrown from the shock mount, and consequently, unplugged both cables. The ribbon (three pin) and the other one, (3.5mm) plug. As far as I could see, that cable connections look okay, but I really don't have any idea since, I was very reluctant to completely disassemble the thing, and honestly I have no idea how any way. Probably a good thing LOL. But like I said, as far as I could see into the battery compartment, they looked like it was okay. Nothing obviously disconnected inside that I could see. I looked pretty close.

The gimble and camera were separated from the shock mount as a unit. Also, after powered up, the gimble IS moving...

It lights up correctly, (green light) when the unit is powered up. I have also pressed the capture button, and it IS storing an image. So my guess is the camera works. At least the part that takes still pictures. I just back in from a test and it successfully took 7 jpg still pics. I re-installed the ribbon (I have a lot of experience doing that, so I am pretty sure I was careful, and took it apart again, just to make sure.)

I believe what I have is just the vision, not the plus unit, as that one has go pro right?

 

[GARG]

The major problem that I am having (sorry to not include before) is that the vision app on the iphone, and an android unit says connection to phantom failed, with the really annoying little yellow triangle. Worked like a charm up until the crash, but it's not like we ran it into the ground at high speed, it was more like a skipping motion LOL>

 

[GARG]

One more update, just tried and successfully captured video, using the onboard button. Camera (by itself) is fully functional.

 

[cahutch]

The problem is no doubt with the data connection between the camera and the wifi unit.
Based on your description of the yellow triangle, the camera is not connecting to the wifi.
Are you getting the other telemetry data? Altitude, Satellites, etc...?

 

[GARG]

No, I am getting nothing. I get the little green icons for the wifi, and the extender. Nothing else.

So what connector came loose inside. The 3.5mm plug, or the three pin ribbon??? I thought the ribbon was only power, (or I am guessing).

 

[dirkclod]

Have knocked mine off 3 times and the only issues I ever had was not having the rear plug in where you hear it snap [ and don't fool around that unless the battery is out] and one time for some reason I had to delete my app and reinstall it then it was fine . Really don't know what messing with the app was all about but it did make mine fine !

 

[Meta4]

I believe what I have is just the vision, not the plus unit, as that one has go pro right?

Sounds like you have a P2V+
It looks like this with a small silver camera:

The Vision has a big white camera like this:

The Gopro equipped model is the plain old P2

 

[GARG]

Yeah, it is just the vision. With the big white camera.

 

[GARG]

Alright, well, at long last I figured it out. Somehow the camera had become un-bound to the extender. Since the app, (on an IPhone) will not allow you to take a picture of the QCR code, you have to manually type in the mac address, which in my case was located on the underside of the quad copter.

Any who, I got it taken care of.

Thank you all for your help.

Just an FYI, it was info on this forum which led me (a round about way) to the fix. Thank you!!!

Greg

 

[dirkclod]

Glad ta hear ya got it worked out !! There's not much you can't fix in these wall's

 

[GARG]

Well, later on, I flew this one into the creek. It wasn't fully submerged, but it definitely got wet.
My son (who is much faster on his feet) retrieved it, and we shut it down as fast as we could.

I disassembled it and followed all the advice I could find on similar experiences.
Two things. First, the battery is dead. Nothing I have done has helped it. Wont charge, light up, etc..
Lucky I had a back up.
Second, I totally bricked the camera. Found one on ebay, to replace it.
Changing cameras is not as easy as I had hoped. The camera mac address was a bugger to find. None of my computers would allow me to look at the mac address of the now hidden_network. I had to buy a program, called inSSIDer to get the mac address. I guess it was a cheap fix in the end.
Now I have the mac address, the one on the case is gone forever it bound right up, sending data and video like new. Any idea on how to resurrect the battery?

 

[J.James]

The battey very well may not even be to be resurrect. if any of the main power tabs shorted out at all. Being there is a LOT of freaking juice in one of them. Tho it also could still have some water in it and if it detects any short at all it will shut its self off or not let you turn in on.

Being the top of them is pretty tight its going to have a hard time even drying out. To even see if you can get it to dry out some the only way I can think of is you would have to pry the top face off off it. or very!! carfuly drill a few tiny holes in the face just above were the LEDS are while being careful not to go much deeper then the thickness of the plastic so you dont hit the circuit board or any wireing thats about a tiny bit less then an 1/8 inch below it. the face.

BUT I would not really recommend that at all esp if you never have been inside one before to even know whats under it and knowing were the hollow voids are that you could even try seeing if you can get some air holes drilled in it to let it dry out then try it again in a few days.

So your best bet if you want to even try to see if its driable is to pry the top off. Tho still its a lot shot if you can get it working again and will only be able to if nothing is fried and even then if you do happen to get it to turn on again no guarantee it will be all ok and would be very very careful with testing it out and plunging it in to the naza to make sure it took the right amount of charge after a full charge and then fly it very careful and very low and close to make sure its not going to run out of juice in just a few minutes and try to autoland or auto crash on you. and I would keep a sharp eye on it for at least a few cycles before even trusting that its good considering its hard to even trust that any good dji smart battery is not just one flight away from failing as it is. and also you might want to charge it out side the house if you are even able to get it working again just in case any thing is wrong and it wants to explode or catch fire.