P3P Factory Reset.

[BocaDad]

Hi all,

I am the once proud owner of a P3P. I purchased it when it first came out so it’s an original version. In general I have been a happy user and have been satisfied with the product. I was really happy when DJI updated the FW and app with a follow me feature. I dont’t remember when that was or what version (I think 1.4), but in my excitement I managed to brick the unit and had to send it back for DJI to fix. When I got it back it was as good as new and I was a happy camper. Used it couple of times and then kept it stored for over a year.

Fast forward to last week when I had to use the unit to video roof damage on my house. The app has been updated several times over the year and when I went to fly the P3P, I had warnings to update the firmware. As I am not a sophisticated person, I pressed the update FW button and the RC was updated to 1.9.2. Then it told me to update the AC manually, like the old days, something I was not expecting. I looked for the latest update file, copied the .bin file to the SD card and went about updating the AC. After 15-20 minutes, it stops updating and all I hear is the dreaded brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound with a steady red light on the gimbal. Well, that was last week and I am still trying to undo what I did. After the updates the app showed the correct FW versions on the AC and th RC (1.11.20 and 1.9.2 respectively), and everything was in working order other than the video transmission. The P3P was able to fly, record to SD, and land, all without video transmission.

I’ve reached out to DJI on their forums and through email and they know nothing. This is the only place that seems to have competent people so I’ve been trying to find a solution here. DJI basically told me to rollback by FW to what I had prior the most recent one, which is AC FW v1.4 and RC FW v1.6. I found a post regarding rolling back FW on the P3P but every one I install ends up going brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr at the end with a steady red gimbal light. However, the app shows the correct FW on both the AC and the RC. The log shows a successful update to 1.4.1 back in 2014, and all the attempts there after show either as failed or as still in the process of updating.

I am at my wits end. I am thinking that the most current update was for more recent P3P’s that had a different board installed with a different video transmission standard, so I am screwed. I have rolled back my AC to 1.7 and the RC to 1.6, but they dont link so the RC doesn’t connect anymore to the AC. Also, the FW files prior to 1.7 that I can find on the internet begin with P3S not P3X, so I am afraid they are not the correct ones for me to continue to roll my unit back.

I am trying to get DJI to take the unit back to fix this problem but I figure that in the meantime I will post my situation on this site and see if there is anyone who had a similar problem with a similar unit which they were able to solve themselves. At minimum, maybe there is a factory reset feature that I am not aware of which will revert everything back to a old functional state.

Thank you in advance for any assistance, even if its useless.

 

[Oso]

Used it couple of times and then kept it stored for over a year......After the updates the app showed the correct FW versions on the AC and th RC (1.11.20 and 1.9.2 respectively), and everything was in working order other than the video transmission. The P3P was able to fly, record to SD, and land, all without video transmission.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry you are having issues however.

Your symptoms sound very much like others who noted "No Image Transmission".

Do you know how to access your LOG_AB file? If so, what do you see for modules 8 and 15? Does it show "device not detected?" It is most often caused by overheating the gimbal main (top) board and the Davinci DSP going bad, corrupted FW, or by bad blocks in the NAND memory after periods of inactivity.

We have a currently active member, @quaddamage , who is a resident expert on the topic.

I have rolled back my AC to 1.7 and the RC to 1.6, but they dont link so the RC doesn’t connect anymore to the AC. Also, the FW files prior to 1.7 that I can find on the internet begin with P3S not P3X, so I am afraid they are not the correct ones for me to continue to roll my unit back.

You can find links to old FW versions and release notes in this post.
As you'll see in that link, the encryption changed with AC FW 1.8 / RC FW 1.6. That means with the versions you said you have now (AC1.7 / RC1.6) you do currently have a mismatch.
You can see the 1.8 release notes for more info.

Rolling back from 1.11 has been hit or miss from what people have noted here. We have seen success, but also several failures with the attempt. Which method did you use to downgrade?

You know this, but for the benefit of others the firmware bin file for a P3P begins with P3X. The firmware bin file for a P3A begins with P3S. Using a "P3S" file name for the P3A firmware started before the Phantom Standard was released. (Side note - P3C is for the P3S)

At minimum, maybe there is a factory reset feature that I am not aware of which will revert everything back to a old functional state.

This has been the dream of many posters here, but sadly such a useful feature does not exist at the moment.

Fast forward to last week when I had to use the unit to video roof damage on my house.

I take it from your username and the damage you mentioned that you were impacted by Hurricane Irma. If so, I hope that you were not impacted too badly.

 

[BocaDad]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry you are having issues however.

Your symptoms sound very much like others who noted "No Image Transmission".

Do you know how to access your LOG_AB file? If so, what do you see for modules 8 and 15? Does it show "device not detected?" It is most often caused by overheating the gimbal main (top) board and the Davinci DSP going bad, or by bad blocks in the NAND memory after periods of inactivity.

We have a currently active member, @quaddamage , who is a resident expert on the topic.


You can find links to old FW versions and release notes in this post.
As you'll see in that link, the encryption changed with AC FW 1.8 / RC FW 1.6. That means with the versions you said you have now (AC1.7 / RC1.6) you do currently have a mismatch.
You can see the 1.8 release notes for more info.

Rolling back from 1.11 has been hit or miss from what people have noted here. We have seen success, but also several failures with the attempt. Which method did you use to downgrade?

You know this, but for the benefit of others the firmware bin file for a P3P begins with P3X. The firmware bin file for a P3A begins with P3S. Using a "P3S" file name for the P3A firmware started before the Phantom Standard was released. (Side note - P3C is for the P3S)


This has been the dream of many posters here, but sadly such a useful feature does not exist at the moment.


I take it from your username and the damage you mentioned that you were impacted by Hurricane Irma. If so, I hope that you were not impacted too badly.

Thank you for your quick and helpful response. I was impacted by the hurricane and it would have been helpful to have a working drone to record the damage, but it wasn’t so bad after all.

Anyway, that link is really helpful, however, how do I go about rolling the RC FW to 1.5? Does the AC FW 1.7 zip file contain an RC bin file as well? All those files appear to be just for the aircraft.

Also, it seems to me that the issue has to do with video incompatibilities from the different P3P hardware versions which the FW upgrades are not keeping up with. I would like to know which FW combinations for the AC and RC were the most stable for the original P3P, which has a different mother board than the more recent ones. I believe the last FW I had on the AC was 1.4, what RC version would I want to match with that?

Also, DJI has agreed to service my drone and sent me a UPS label to ship it to them. They didn’t discuss cost so I figure they are offering to fix this for free. So should I keep trying to troubleshoot myself or just let them take care of it? I’m afraid its going to be a situation where they say it will be a costly repair but would be more than happy to provide me a credit to upgrade to a new model.

 

[Oso]

Thank you for your quick and helpful response. I was impacted by the hurricane and it would have been helpful to have a working drone to record the damage, but it wasn’t so bad after all.

Great news. Glad to hear it.

how do I go about rolling the RC FW to 1.5? Does the AC FW 1.7 zip file contain an RC bin file as well? All those files appear to be just for the aircraft.

During the first 6 months or so after the P3 model was released, the AC and the RC were both updated via the same downloaded .bin file so they both always had the same version FW installed. That process was changed for only the RC around Sept / Oct of 2015. After that time, with FW 1.4 and later, the AC was still updated via a downloaded .bin file but the RC was updated only via the app. It wasn't long after that time that the FW version numbers on the AC and the RC began to diverge. The AC FW was updated more often so it has until even today had a higher FW version number than the RC. There are many old YT videos showing the old original way to update the RC which is why we get so many new owners posting here asking why their RC will not update with an SD card or asking if it's okay that the versions are not the same.

You can only roll back the RC to whichever versions show as available to you in the drop down menu when you do the roll back process in the app. I assume you used that process when you rolled back your RC from 1.9 to 1.6. Most of the time there are only 1-3 recent versions available. I don't know of any way to roll back to versions which do not already show as available to you during that process.

Also, it seems to me that the issue has to do with video incompatibilities from the different P3P hardware versions which the FW upgrades are not keeping up with.

I disagree and would still guess you originally had only the gimbal main (top) board issues I outlined when you first updated to AC 1.11 and RC 1.9 after the year in storage. That's why I asked you to check your LOG_AB file. Now that you've made assorted changes to the FWs on your AC and RC, there is no telling what else may be out of whack. I also asked you which process you used to downgrade from 1.11 to your current 1.7 because we have seen people try the relatively safe and easy "debug" process to roll back from 1.10 only to find it not so safe and easy when they tried to use that same process to roll back from 1.11. That is when different module revisions may have become an issue though I personally don't believe that to be true at all. There are some here (one in particular) who would certainly disagree.

[Note that with AC FW versions 1.6 through 1.9, we had the DJI sanctioned ability to easily roll back one version lower than the highest previously installed version. Beginning with 1.10, that ability was removed which left only unofficial ways to roll back such as the popular "debug" method.]

I would like to know which FW combinations for the AC and RC were the most stable for the original P3P, which has a different mother board than the more recent ones. I believe the last FW I had on the AC was 1.4, what RC version would I want to match with that?

Which FW versions are the best is asked here often, and everyone has a different answer as you can imagine. For me, 1.19 was my favorite when I only had a P3A, but 1.4 gave us many new features. I currently have 1.4 on my P3P and it's matched with 1.3.2 on my RC for that bird. Those were the installed versions out of the box and I will never update them.