P34k No-signal error (tried everything with your help, looking for new ideas)

[Lukas Bergliden]

Good day,
My name is Lukas Bergliden and I read a lot of your threads the last couple of days trying to sort my problem out. Really appreciate all help your giving here as well as on youtube.
Anyway I purchased a Phantom 3 4k a couple of weeks ago and I've been flying about 10-15 hours with it without experiencing any problem. It's running 1.5.40 https://www.dropbox.com/s/yttlgc9qew2aazb/Screenshot_20160829-082615.png?dl=0

I crashed it once which bent the yaw arm and damaged one of the propellers. The phantom did survive though and I manage to get the yawn arm straighten. I flown and captured several hours of footage since the crash. So the crash is not the reason to my problems I'm experiencing now.

Two days ago I suddenly got the dreaded "No signal"-error in the red banner on the app. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9dxiqwo4jaksak8/Screenshot_20160829-082620.png?dl=0

When booting the phantom - see this video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5n89c7ihldgwwpz/MOV_0393.mp4?dl=0
* The gimbal boots up and does its calibration thing.
* The camera centers
* I can now control the camera (tilting it or slightly turning it with left stick)
* The gimbal led flashes rapidly green.
* After about 30s the gimbal goes limp.
* In aircraft status the SD-card is reported as 0MB free (no button for formatting) https://www.dropbox.com/s/9l12fv98af48aq8/Screenshot_20160829-082625.png?dl=0
* The phantoms enters firmware install mode (green and red led flashing slowly) (not visible in video)
* After about 1-2min the green light starts flashing again rapidly when the card disconnects/reconnects.
* The firmware install mode and rapid green flashes then cycles until I turn the unit of.

I tried three different sdcards (8GB, 16GB (included with unit), 32GB) all of which I've been using to record files on the phantom before.
I've also tried to reformat them.

The card is connected and the phantom creates the MISC and DCIM folder before it disconnects.
if I connect the phantom with an usb cable to my laptop the sdcard is mounted, unmounted and remounted once every 20s. If I connect the card directly to the computer it works as it should.

In the MISC folder I found a logfile in which I could reed: "firmware upgrade finished failed (step = 3, err = 0xffffffff)."

I've tried_
* relinking the unit and the controller.
* resetting the controller (C1, C2, jog-wheel)
* resetting the phantom (holding link-button while rebooting the unit)

The units flies without problem but I don't get any video feed and I cant control the camera.
Anyone got any pointers to what I should do next?
Thanks Lukas

 

[RodPad]

Welcome to the Forum!
Wow you have tried a lot of stuff!
Um, I only have a Standard, but if the USB connection keeps going in and out (remounting). I think it is a hardware problem, maybe related to the crash, just now showing up. I have not seen this problem on here myself.

Is it exactly 20 seconds, meaning the time lapse stays the same like forever?

Rod

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

thank you
I tried it some more and noticed the following.

If I connect the bird to USB it will not go into firware update mote. Just keeps mounts/remounts. If I disconnect the the bird tries to install the firmware.

My idea of timing was quite a bit of. I timed it now.
* boot green light flashing
* upgrade (red-gred, red-gren) 1m25s
* green light flashing 52s
* upgrade (red-gred, red-gren) 1m24s
* green light flashing 55s
and then the cycle repeats. All times seems to be +-3-5s

sent an email to dji german support yesterday but still no answer. Are they usually slow to answer?

 

[RodPad]

thank you
I tried it some more and noticed the following.

If I connect the bird to USB it will not go into firware update mote. Just keeps mounts/remounts. If I disconnect the the bird tries to install the firmware.

My idea of timing was quite a bit of. I timed it now.
* boot green light flashing
* upgrade (red-gred, red-gren) 1m25s
* green light flashing 52s
* upgrade (red-gred, red-gren) 1m24s
* green light flashing 55s
and then the cycle repeats. All times seems to be +-3-5s

sent an email to dji german support yesterday but still no answer. Are they usually slow to answer?

Where are you hooking the USB cable to, there is two locations on the Phantom.

Rod

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

Where are you hooking the USB cable to, there is two locations on the Phantom.
Rod

I plugged it into the port on the gimbal. Nothing happens when I plug in to the one on the birds body. What is that one for?
Got a response from dji, they asked for proof of purchase so I sent that to them.

 

[RodPad]

I plugged it into the port on the gimbal. Nothing happens when I plug in to the one on the birds body. What is that one for?
Got a response from dji, they asked for proof of purchase so I sent that to them.

Ok, just checking, if you wanted download flight logs that are stored in the Phantom. I can't think of any reason you need to do that. Just wanted to make sure you were connected to the correct USB.

I'm confused of this "* I can now control the camera (tilting it or slightly turning it with left stick)" Stick or wheel?
also, can you move the camera from the app?

Are you or can you format the SD with the app?

Rod

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

I'm confused of this "* I can now control the camera (tilting it or slightly turning it with left stick)" Stick or wheel?
also, can you move the camera from the app?

Are you or can you format the SD with the app?
Rod

1. for a short while after the gimbal has been initialized I have controll over the camera. Tilt and "left-right" works. But then the gimbal disengages (guessing when it loses sd-card first time) and the gimbal goes limp. I can't move the camera after that, hower the tiltmeter in the app updates if I move the camera by hand.

2. No, the app reports 0MB empty space on the card and no format button is visible.

 

[RodPad]

1. for a short while after the gimbal has been initialized I have controll over the camera. Tilt and "left-right" works. But then the gimbal disengages (guessing when it loses sd-card first time) and the gimbal goes limp. I can't move the camera after that, hower the tiltmeter in the app updates if I move the camera by hand.

2. No, the app reports 0MB empty space on the card and no format button is visible.

Moving it by hand?, well that changes the thought pattern.
Something is wrong with the gimbal / wiring.
The camera / gimbal is not seeing the SD card at all. I will test when I get home, but no SD card, is going to tell you no SD card.

On that thought what happens if you power up with no SD card?

Rod

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

Not sure if I follow you.
Why would the fact that sensors registers that I tilt the camera by hand change anything? They register when I move it with the motor as well (before the gimbal goes limp)

Look at the screenshots and videos in my first post. This is how the app displays the sdcard Dropbox - Screenshot_20160829-082625.png that never changes and there is no format button there. So I guess that the bird does'nt see the card at all.

The procedure is more or less identical when booting without sd-card.
It boots up, the gimbal calibrates and centers, the green led flashes rapidly, then after about 10-15s the gimbal disconnects and goes limp. The green led continues to flash but never goes into "update mode".

The Aircraft status view is the sam. "Remaining SD Card capacity 0MB" as with the sd-card loaded. The card is empty though

 

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Try formatting the card with this tool SD Card Formatter - SD Association
Alsol the phantom only supports FAT32/exFAT

 

[RodPad]

Not sure if I follow you.
Why would the fact that sensors registers that I tilt the camera by hand change anything? They register when I move it with the motor as well (before the gimbal goes limp)

Look at the screenshots and videos in my first post. This is how the app displays the sdcard Dropbox - Screenshot_20160829-082625.png that never changes and there is no format button there. So I guess that the bird does'nt see the card at all.

The procedure is more or less identical when booting without sd-card.
It boots up, the gimbal calibrates and centers, the green led flashes rapidly, then after about 10-15s the gimbal disconnects and goes limp. The green led continues to flash but never goes into "update mode".

The Aircraft status view is the sam. "Remaining SD Card capacity 0MB" as with the sd-card loaded. The card is empty though

Correct the bird doesn't know the card is there or not, it can't confirm if there is any thing in the slot. Its some kind of connection or hardware problem.

So yes you confirmed my questions!

Rod

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

Correct the bird doesn't know the card is there or not, it can't confirm if there is any thing in the slot. Its some kind of connection or hardware problem.

So yes you confirmed my questions!

Rod

Ok, so the firmware update sequence is just performed by the gimbal? The gimbal seems to notice that the card is there as it tries to do a firmware upgrade it it is.

I'll try reformatting one of the cards with the software you suggested.

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

Ok, tried with the SDformater.
The boot sequence is identical´as having a empty sdcard.
Boot, gimbal calibration, green lights, gimbal disconnects, more green light.

The folder DCIM and MISC and the different files that goes into then was created on the card.

Put the firmware 1.5.40 on the card
and then the update sequence starts as before.
Boot, gimbal calibration, green lights, gimbal disconnects, more green light, then red/green, green, red/green....

 

[Lukas Bergliden]

I think you are right though @RodPad. It is probably the board in the gimbal that is fried.
Dji Support (neaderland) have asked me to send the unit to them now. Do you know how long turnover they usually have?

 

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Sorry to hear it didn't work, I had a friend with a similar problem and he was formatting the card on windows as ntfs not fat32.
Please keep us informed on how long it takes for dji to fix and what was broken.