No Image from only a few feet away

[blown240]

I have never had any issues with my P3A. The last time I really flew it, I went out 11,000 feet with no problems.

Saturday I was camping and had some issues....

First I had to recalibrate the compass 3 times because it kept failing. Then I had the drone hovering about 20 feet away and 10 feet in the air and it was loosing video feed. Then when I tried to pan the camera up and down there was a long delay, like 5 seconds before anything happened.

I ended up getting a short flight in, never really going to far or too high because I wasn't sure what it would do. Now I am trying to upload the video and I am getting a -36 error because some of the info in the vid can't be read. Also I notice the date shows 2013.

At first I thought that the drone didn't have time to finalize the video, so I put the card in and powered up on my desk with no props. I am getting the drop in video at only 2 feet away!

Whats going on here? I do see that there is a firmware update available. Should I start there?

I haven't crashed, and my P3A is always in its backpack when its not flying.

 

[Reed L]

I've had a problem like that happen once. Put in another fresh battery and try again. If it doesn't go away, I can't help but... I changed batteries and moved about 20 feet and haven't had it happen since. Mine wouldn't maintain elevation either, was going up and down 4 feet instead of hovering.

 

[blown240]

I went out this morning with a different battery. The problem is much better, but it is still there. I tried a Litchi flight, and that wasn't any better, so I think the issue is in the drone itself.

Also, for some reason, the litchi video file is corrupt, it won't even let me copy it off the SD card.

Is it time to update the firmware and calibrate everything?

 

[WetDog]

I went out this morning with a different battery. The problem is much better, but it is still there. I tried a Litchi flight, and that wasn't any better, so I think the issue is in the drone itself.

Also, for some reason, the litchi video file is corrupt, it won't even let me copy it off the SD card.

Is it time to update the firmware and calibrate everything?

I would look at the bird carefully - this happened after you packed it up, so it's possible that you bumped one of the exposed connectors on the gimbal. Check the battery connectors. Should only take a minute or two to check.

If that doesn't work, swap the SD card as card failures seem to do weird things and it's easy. If that doesn't help, you could always call DJI support to see if they had bright ideas.

I would not 'upgrade' the firmware. You can introduce new issues this way. If you want, you can re install the same firmware level, calibrate imu and compass and try again.

 

[blown240]

Great Advice! Thanks, Ill try that and see if it helps!