New Phantom Won't Start. Flashing yellow only!!

xstatic · Jul 18, 2013

I was helping my friend set up his brand new phantom. Balanced blades, set up the software, and before we could do anything the software said we had to update to the latest naza which was just released. We did a lever calibration as well as the advanced IMU, which the software said wasn't needed but we did it. On the new software it took all of about 30 seconds.

We then went to try to see if it would fly and the motor would not start. I have a phantom so I am pretty sure we did nothing wrong. Is the unit doa? We get flashing yellow that just won't do anything else.

Is it bad to start up your unit for the first time after do a software calibration and imu calibration.

Any suggestions. My buddy is dying to get the DJI up and running. By the way, the new unit comes with the throttle lever with a spring so it stays centered. We tried starting with both levers centered and both levers pulled down to the left.

So what is going on?

Any help would be great.

SimonB · Jul 18, 2013

Did you try the left lever at 5 o'clock and the right at 7 o'clock positions?

xstatic · Jul 18, 2013

I did left a 7 oclock, and right at 7 oclock

I will try that combo. Mine. I use at 7 and 7' but i will try that, but the problem is the yellow flashing won't disappear!

jumanoc · Jul 18, 2013

xstatic said:
I did left a 7 oclock, and right at 7 oclock

I will try that combo. Mine. I use at 7 and 7' but i will try that, but the problem is the yellow flashing won't disappear!

How is the LED sequence? 4 yellows, 2 yellows pause 2 yellows ..... ?

xstatic · Jul 18, 2013

It started of with a 3 color sequence, I will have to recheck, as it is my friends copter. I think it was green, yellow, red, then i Think 2 green , then constant yellow flashes. The store did take it back and replace it for him. But i think it was a receiver problem as I heard of people getting it DOA.

GoodnNuff · Jul 18, 2013

When you started getting the solid yellow flashes, how long did you wait before attempting to start the motors?

My Phantom will take over 2 minutes to warm up for the first flight, and the flashing yellow seems to last forever (but it's only about 2 minutes). The new Phantoms will NOT start until the warm up is finished (yellow lights stop flashing).

Perhaps you didn't wait long enough?

xstatic · Jul 18, 2013

We waited 5 minutes.

Same thing with the newly returned and replaced one. It started out of the box but it would flip over, so we calibrated the imu but it won't start.

I think there may be a software bug they are not aware of.

xstatic · Jul 18, 2013

Ok, boot sequence.

R G Y R G Y G G G G (YYYY) (YYYY) (YYYY)

Then it repeats the yellow, about 4 per second. Very fast

martcerv · Jul 18, 2013

xstatic said:
We waited 5 minutes.

Same thing with the newly returned and replaced one. It started out of the box but it would flip over, so we calibrated the imu but it won't start.

I think there may be a software bug they are not aware of.

if it flips over that is either props on the wrong way around or the quad is configured as "quadrotor" x in naza. The onky other possibility is a motor spinning the wrong way but I think that would be unlikely. To check motor rotation take off props and idle the phantom then make sure they are spinning the same way as the top shell arrows, you also need to check that the shelk is on the correct way. The 2 I dents in the plastic for the red tape strips should be the front 2 legs. If you put this on 90 degrees off either way it will flip over as setting prop rotation to these arrow will mean they are all reversed.

if you arent getting any response from the radio then try to rebind it to the tx I think there is info in the manual on how to do this.

xstatic · Jul 19, 2013

i meant that it flips over on its side, not completely upside down, that is why we wanted to calibrate the replacement unit. We calibrated successfully, but once again we can't get it to turn on. Second machine to fdo this. I am sure we will be reading of a flaw in the software.

CameraGuy · Jul 19, 2013

Have you bound the receiver to the transmitter?

I had this problem when I got a new Phantom, and tried to use my existing radio. You bind it by taking the top off the body, and pressing the small button on the receiver. The instructions are in the manual online.

Hope this helps

DecMul · Jul 20, 2013

is there a list of what the flashing sequences are, aside from the DJI website? my phantom has stopped responding and flashes yellow quickly with a short pause and repeats this indefinitely. Is this a common problem? It was working fine, firmware is up to date etc, I changed out a battery and it never returned to life. Any ideas?

Alex · Jul 20, 2013

DecMul said:
is there a list of what the flashing sequences are, aside from the DJI website? my phantom has stopped responding and flashes yellow quickly with a short pause and repeats this indefinitely. Is this a common problem? It was working fine, firmware is up to date etc, I changed out a battery and it never returned to life. Any ideas?

All the info is on the DJI website...

http://www.dji-innovations.com/download/phantom-downloads/

Specifically... Here... PHANTOM Flying Flowchart
http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/phantom/en/PHANTOM_Flying_Flowchart_v1.0_en.pdf

And Here.... Naza-M (V2). Specifically, Page 23
http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/nazam-v2/en/NAZA_Quick_Start_v1.12_en.pdf

No offense, but how exactly is it that you haven't reviewed any of this material prior to takeoff of a $700 quadcopter?

ALEX_S · Jul 21, 2013

I do have exactly the same problem. had a perfectly flying Phantom. Then bought the ZenMuse plus PMU. Upgraded to 3.14.
After that the Phantom is totally unusable. Its in a warm up loop ( 4 fast yellow flashes) which will last until the battery is empty.
While it is flashing 4 yellow you can not start the engines and yes I know how to start engines.
This is no normal warm up, it is stuck in that mode. It is mentioned in the manual that if the warm up lasts longer than 2 minutes to connect the Phantom to the PC for advanced calibration. Have done that and it makes no difference. I downgraded to V3.0 which will not allow the use of the ZenMuse , but it can then fly. It does not get the signal from the GPS as the V2 PMU obviously needs a higher version firmware than 3.00 to process GPS data.
So this is all very confusing and frustrating, looks like a software bug and I guess many more users will encounter this problem.
Would like to hear from other Phantom users with Naza-M V1 who have upgraded to the ZenMuse with V2 PMU , firmware version 3.14 plus DJI Naza-M Assistant 2.14 and got the Phantom flying without a problem.
As an additional information the ZenMuse works perfectly when tilting / moving the Phantom by hand.
Any good idea how to solve this problem would be much appreciated and is there a way to downgrade not to firmware 3.0 but 3.1 or 3.12?

xstatic · Jul 23, 2013

That is exacly the problem. It won't start once the upgrade is made. You have to revert to the old software to fly. They really screwed up big time.

Archangel70 · Jul 23, 2013

Same thing happened to me is it easy to revert back to the older version?

xstatic · Jul 24, 2013

Just get the old software and lad the oder version, the lat est sofware only accepts the latest revision. If you need the old version let me know and I will post it

Archangel70 · Jul 24, 2013

Yes I need the old version please

xstatic · Jul 28, 2013

http://www.4shared.com/rar/qUPsfPvz/Nazam.html
The above link also has the dji driver for windows if anyone needs it.

The above link is for the 2.12 and the 2.14 software. I think If you load the 2.12 it will downgrade the software and solve the problem.

Archangel70 · Jul 29, 2013

That worked thanks!! I'm going to skip the 3.14 upgrade until they fix it...To everyone who has the 4 yellow flashes of death t...take it back a version it's the software not the hardware