No Video Feed and Non Responsive Gimbal - Fixed

[Pete Leare]

I thought I would post this in case someone else experiences the same issue as me with no video feed and an apparent 'non responsive' gimbal. A week ago my video feed stopped altogether from close range (100 feet) with nothing but the DJI logo on the screen (except the telemetry and menu buttons etc).
The video/camera buttons on the RHS of the app were grayed out and did nothing.
The P3 flew fine, but that's about it. When I started the P3 up, the gimbal did it's 'dance' and everything looked fine, but about 5 seconds later the camera would always 'flop' down at an approximate 45 deg. angle and was unresponsive to any rx input. It did this repeatedly. The gimbal was free to move by hand in all directions and seemed perfectly fine.
I also noticed that when I went to turn the P3 off, it didn't turn off straight away like normal, but stayed on (after the 2nd battery press) with all the lights flashing for about 5 seconds and then the P3 turned off...strange.
Of course, I tried different USB cables, different tablets (Ipad mini2 and Iphone 6+), deleted the entire Go app and re-installed, had the 32 channel hack in place etc, but nothing seemed to work - still no video feed and a camera pointing down at 45 degrees.
Then I seemed to remember someone (on this forum) mentioned that a corrupt SD card may affect video feed, so I thought what the heck and pulled it out to reformat on my PC. Even though the card was empty, this fixed the problem! I re-inserted the card and everything worked fine again (the card is a Sandisk Ultra 64mb XC-1). Took a 4000’ flight today with perfect video and no issues. I have the latest P3 FW, and IOS 9.02 on both Ipad mini2 and Iphone 6+
Hope this may help others...

 

[StratocasterDave]

Cool, good to know. Also, I think the card can be formatted right in the phantom via the Go app.

 

[Pete Leare]

Right, I have done that also.. The more I hear about issues like mine and bad FW uploads, the more I believe that formatting the card in the Phantom itself is the way to go..

 

[Javier Morales]

This has happened to me as well, at about 18% battery left. I thought it had to do with its power levels but after 4 or 5 restarts of the controller and phantom it booted up and I had a video feed again. I formatted the SD card in-app as it was nearly full, but I did this after it already was back to normal operation.

 

[GoofyBird]

Thanks Pete, thought it might be my cure but no such luck. I reformatted the SD and even tried another card and still exact same scenario. I guess it's off to DJI

 

[Pete Leare]

Crap, sorry to hear that GoofyBird. When it first resolved my issue I used the card that came with the P3 before I used the Sandisk.. Can you try that? I also formatted on the PC with usb 2.0 slots and kept the allocation size to what was displayed. (Didn't change it to default). Hope something works for you

 

[GoofyBird]

Crap, sorry to hear that GoofyBird. When it first resolved my issue I used the card that came with the P3 before I used the Sandisk.. Can you try that? I also formatted on the PC with usb 2.0 slots and kept the allocation size to what was displayed. (Didn't change it to default). Hope something works for you

Thanks Pete, I tried the card that came with it and the Sandisk, I formatted it on my pc but no change. Not real sure I understand how the card could be the issue? And surely not 2 of them?

 

[Pete Leare]

One last thing before you box it up, did you try formatting either card in the P3 itself?

 

[GoofyBird]

One last thing before you box it up, did you try formatting either card in the P3 itself?

Yeah both and it won't do it, keeps coming up "SD card formatting timed out"

 

[Pete Leare]

Hmmm somehow I am convinced the SD card is the problem though.. But 2 cards being bad is like winning the lottery.
Try blowing the SD card slot out with air (gently) then get an eraser and clean the card contacts.. May work..

 

[GoofyBird]

Hmmm somehow I am convinced the SD card is the problem though.. But 2 cards being bad is like winning the lottery.
Try blowing the SD card slot out with air (gently) then get an eraser and clean the card contacts.. May work..

Tried that and no change and I'm with you 2 cards?? I guess it's off to DJI. thanks for trying to help Pete I really appreciate it. Not to worry, I'll be back in the air b4 long. Oh and what about the FAA requiring we register our birds? Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[bbfpv]

What happens if you try w/o any card in the slot?

 

[GoofyBird]

What happens if you try w/o any card in the slot?

Same results.

 

[bbfpv]

Same results.

That sucks. If you're using an Android device, make sure USB debugging is enabled. Other than that, send her back.

 

[GoofyBird]

That sucks. If you're using an Android device, make sure USB debugging is enabled. Other than that, send her back.

iOS and she is on her way now, thanks for all the suggestions everyone

 

[Pete Leare]

Good luck mate, hopefully not to long to wait, just in time to get it fixed before the post xmas rush of rookies crashing their new P3's [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GoofyBird]

Good luck mate, hopefully not to long to wait, just in time to get it fixed before the post xmas rush of rookies crashing their new P3's [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly, they say 2-3 weeks, we'll see how they handle it and I will report.

 

[Poundofnuts]

I have the same problem, no video feed coming through. Changed as cards and reformatted as cards, both in and out of the bird, and still have the same problem. Switching the ad card doesn't appear to fix this issue for myself or Goofybird

 

[jasonq]

I have the same problem now. About the SD card, do you put a blank card in and then format it from the app or the card with the firmware on it?

 

[dmiles]

I have the same problem now. About the SD card, do you put a blank card in and then format it from the app or the card with the firmware on it?

You could certainly try formatting the card in the bird with the app. It won't matter what is on the card when you format it, because everything that is on will be erased with the formatting. You would then need to take the card out, put it in your PC, and copy the bin file to the root of the newly formatted card. Just that bin file, nothing else.

To my way of thinking, the best reason for formatting in the bird has to do with the different options you have when formatting with a PC. FAT32, exFAT, etc. At least if you format in the bird you don't have to be concerned with all the optional settings.

FYI, the only thing that fixed my issue was a replacement of the camera / gimbal. Best of luck to you.