No Live Feed

[stryker1080]

Hello,

I am a fairly new Phantom 3 Standard user.
I originally bought it in April 2019, and have probably flown it a total of ~ 15 times. Have never had issues with it and have never crashed or had any hard landings.

I haven't used it for over a year... I did have the batteries set for a long storage and what not.

Today, i decided i want to fly it again. Charged it up and took it to field by my house... Everything works, except there is no LIVE feed.

I can tell the camera is working, i can see the white balance change as i move the drone around. If i take a video, it will record and is correct and no glitches.
Just no LIVE FEED. The version on my phone is the same, was not updated. I even installed the APP on a different device and still does not work.

I did find one odd glitch that seemed to make it work. It seems if i plug in the gimbal USB to the computer, power up the drone and connect with phone, the live feed will work. I have managed to make it work two times doing this, but not sure if it was a fluke.

I was able to find a post somewhere thats talks about firmware being corrupter if not flying long? I can't seem to find it anymore and instructions for fixing...

Any tips or suggestions?

Really bummed since this thing is basically a new drone and not sure how usefull it is without live feed....

 

[quaddamage]

I was able to find a post somewhere thats talks about firmware being corrupter if not flying long? I can't seem to find it anymore and instructions for fixing...

That's for Phantom 3 Pro. I don't think anyoune reflashed Ph3 Std firmware by hand.

Any tips or suggestions?

Ph3 Std video feed pipeline seem to be:

SENSOR -> AMBARELLA -> ATHEROS -> ANTENNA

Since SD-card works, you know that Ambarella works. So look for issues further - ie. whether Atheros is booting? Is connection between Atheros and Ambarella working? Are antennas connected?

Also, first thing I'd try is to relink the RC - remember it has two separate radio links. That could cause complete lack of connection though, if the drone deletes old link info when relink fails. But on the other side if it works, then I think you can assume Atheros works fine - I'd assume it needs communication from both FC and gimbal for the relink to succeed.

I wrote the above based on the info here - you may want to take a look at the boards to understand how things work:
O-Gs Wiki - Ph3 Std boards

 

[stryker1080]

Quaddamage,

Thanks so much for the information, really appreciate it. I will spend some time tonight reading more about how this works.

I was able to do more testing, and can find a specific sequence that will always make it work.

If I plug in the gimbal USB to my computer, or anything that will make it operate as an SD card, then the video signal will work. However, if I power down the DJI; it will not work next time it is powered on.

So the sequence that seems to work:
- Power on DJI
- Power on Remote Control
- Don't have my phone with DJI App connected
- Hook up USB to Gimbal, let it read it as storage device, and then disconnect
- Connect with phone to DJI wifi, open the APP >> Video works

It's almost like the action of going into USB mode somehow wakes up the "video" wifi module or something.

I'll do some more reading tonight and reply back if i have further questions. Worst case, i will see if i can get a mini usb-to-mini usb cable so that i can connect my phone and gimbal device in the field. I am assuming it would work (i hope?)?

Thanks

 

[quaddamage]

Make sure the issue really changes based on USB, and not for example with temperature - maybe it works at home, or even if dangling plug is connected - maybe it'sstress on the board and not the connection.

Also try how it behaves without SD-card.

The gimbal USB is a connection to Ambarella - so if it really changes based on USB connection, that would suggest some very weird issue with Ambarella - the chip boots, but does not enable the video preview channel used for FPV.

 

[stryker1080]

Hello,

I have done some more tests.

I can confirm the following:

• Not related to temperature
• Not related to physical connection at the USB, or change in stress on the board, orientation, etc
• Not related to micro SD card

I did the following:

1. Turn on Joystick - N/A
2. Turn on Drone - N/A
3. Connect Phone to Drone Wifi & Start up DJI APP >> No Video
4. Connect one end of USB cable into Gimbal, but leave other side not connected >> No Video
5. Remove SD Card >> No Video
6. Insert SD Card >> No Video
7. Restart APP >> No Video
8. With the USB Cable still connected in Gimbal, connect other end to PC (no change in position/stress) & unplug after 1-2 seconds. Restart App >> Video Works.

As weird as it sounds, it is definitely some weird thing that connecting gimbal to be a USB storage device gets the WIFI video to work... That is the only thing that consistently works. I have tried multiple variations and changes in order. Just needs to be turned on as USB storage device momentarily for it to work.

 

[PeterX]

P3S has no USB mode in case. You can use the WIFI on that system only and the RC is the router of that network.
The P3S has no lightbridge as the P3A/P

 

[Billie Nelson]

I have experienced this same issue of getting no live feed on several occasions with my Phantom 3S, and in each case, simply formatting the SD card restored the live feed. This might be all that needs doing. Not sure why it works, but it does.

 

[stryker1080]

I have experienced this same issue of getting no live feed on several occasions with my Phantom 3S, and in each case, simply formatting the SD card restored the live feed. This might be all that needs doing. Not sure why it works, but it does.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried formatting and unfortunately it did not work.

One other unfortunate thing is since i formatted, my little USB trick does not seem to work anymore. One thing i did notice, when i connect the Gimbal USB to the computer and look at the various files. There is a "wifi.conf" file, and when i open it it notepad, the SSID and various settings do not make sense. It does not match the WIFI name that my drone uses and that i am connecting to.

Couple of questions.

1) Are the WIFI settings SSID/Password/Name, etc supposed to be matching the drone WIFI settings?
2) Can anyone share the text within their files? There are some various settings like AP mode, etc; autoconnect and i want to see if mine are correct or not.

Thanks again!

 

[Billie Nelson]

On my iPad, I always have to go into the settings menu before each flight with my Phantom 3S, to re-assign the Wifi connection to the Phantom by de-selecting my home Wifi. Every once in a while I forget to do so and only get reminded when the drone's camera view fails to materialize on the iPad screen as I prepare for takeoff.

This is a very obvious step that you most likely take before every flight, yet is easy to overlook especially if you haven't flown the drone for a while. If your home Wifi signal happens to be on any time you prepare for a flight, your smart device will auto-tune to the home Wifi, and will thus need to be re-assigned to the Phantom's Wifi signal.

Finally, it is possible to fly the drone within visual range even if there is no camera view on the screen of your smart device. This way you can at least test the drone's video recording feature to ensure that it works. If the camera gimbal does respond by tilting up and down, you can position the camera to say minus 20 degrees downward tilt, which will give you a small sliver of the horizon at the top of the recorded video screen, with a nice panoramic view of the terrain below. Such a short flight within visual range will at least verify that the camera works, thereby narrowing down the anomaly to the Wifi signal reception.