P4 'Poor signal'

So I pulled the gimbal off and had look at all the connections for the ribbon cable. They all look to be properly seated. There is no sign of damage to the ribbon, gimbal or anything else. I also pulled the RC apart and inspected. All looks to be in good order.

Rebuilt it all and powered up. Still same issue. Pixelated lagging image until the left antenna is directly on top of the camera.

Will do some more tests to try and prove mechanical defect. Still not sure it's not software/firmware.

Q1. Why do I not get the option to choose custom channel on any of my Android devices (Hauwei P9 plus, Xperia 10.1 tablet, Xperia zx2)
Q2. Why does the Dji go app on my iPhone 7 give me the custom option but not let me chose it?
Q3. Do the antenna on the RC do different things? Does one handle light ridge and the other one Aircraft control.
 
Update: it would appear that if I put the Phantom in the living room and I sit at the dining table through the house, and grab both antenna on the RC I get almost perfect reception. So.... I am thinking replace the antenna on the RC and see if that fixes it. I have also ordered a new ribbon cable just in case. Then if none of those work I will replace the landing gear antenna as well.

I also noticed that when I got full reception the RC now knows the firmware version of the drone. So I am no longer chasing software gremlins.
 
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Im posting a link you may want to look at:
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also you can do the firmware refresh through DJI assistant on your PC... This may or may not help just wondering what device you have the Go 4 app running on, as Ive had similar problems on Ipad mini 4 with lag and pixilating untill i recently upgraded to the latest Ipad mini 5. Now my video link is perfect.
 
Im posting a link you may want to look at:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
also you can do the firmware refresh through DJI assistant on your PC... This may or may not help just wondering what device you have the Go 4 app running on, as Ive had similar problems on Ipad mini 4 with lag and pixilating untill i recently upgraded to the latest Ipad mini 5. Now my video link is perfect.
Handy post that,but turns out to be antenna issues by the look of things
 
Im posting a link you may want to look at:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
also you can do the firmware refresh through DJI assistant on your PC... This may or may not help just wondering what device you have the Go 4 app running on, as Ive had similar problems on Ipad mini 4 with lag and pixilating untill i recently upgraded to the latest Ipad mini 5. Now my video link is perfect.
HI,

I have also seen that video. I have tried that a few times and no luck. I am suspecting a hard wear issue with the RC. However I did see another post from that guy about a bad USB connector on the HDMI board. While I don't the HDMI output, I did notice that all the USB cables I use are very loose in the socket, so I will have a look into that as well.

These are the devices I have tried so far.
Sony Xperia XZ2
Sony Xperia Z2 10.1 (2011)
Hauwei P9 Plus
Apple iPhone 7

As mentioned before, if I have the drone in the other room and grab hold of both Antenna on the RC I appear to get signal back again. Who knows....


Thanks
 
Yep I'd seen the same vid about the usb connections ...well I hope you can get it sorted coz it dont make it much fun when you're having problems like this...I see you're a kiwi too so good luck too ya.
I'm down south in Waimate...did you manage to do the firmware refresh using DJI assistant?
 
Yeah I refreshed the firmware on the drone with assistant 2. Hope to get it sorted soon, thankfully its lashing rain here so can't fly anyway!!
I am not from NZ I am Scottish, but I have family that emigrated to NZ many years ago.
 
Quick update on this.

I had a look at the solder connections of the USB port on the COM board, and they looked pretty crappy, and I poked the little grippy bits in a bit so that they hold on the cable better. No improvement.

I managed to get the controller into some mode where is forced a firmware upgrade. I have tried the whol C1+C2+REC+Scroll wheel many times and it does nothing with my controller. However I stumbled across THIS article on GItHub and tried out the other button combos. For me the one C1+C2+Shutter Button put the RC into some forced update mode, Even though it was already on 1.9.3 it seems to make it think it was on 1.8 and force an update. Anyway after doing this I did slightly better signal from the camera, but that appears to have been a fluke as its still rubbish. The Drone still needs to be basically sitting on top of the RC, in a very specific position to get a clean signal. This makes me think that means there is a signal in there somewhere, it is just not being pushed out properly, or received properly. Bad antenna? I messaged the guy I got it from and he confirmed that the drone has always done this since he got it, the only way he got a clear signal was to stream to Facebook live. That makes no sense to me, but I don't know how the live stream feature works. Also not using FB myself makes it difficult to test.

I have a new gimbal ribbon the way and new antenna for the RC. after that I will replace the antenna on the drone. I am really hoping its not the control board for the video transmitting?!
 
Hey check here
Screenshot_20190529-195130.jpg
Screenshot_20190529-195143.jpg
 
No I never use fb either so unsure how it works but click on and it must have some settings there mayby ???
 
It seems to just want me to log into FB through the DJI app. I will maybe set up a dummy account for testing. Still seems odd that streaming to social media provides a clear stream but direct to the app its not working. I have tried with Litchi as well and get the same results.
 
It sounds like a bad antenna to me. I've had one of my P4P RC antennas get a broken solder joint inside the antenna. It's a very tiny solder joint, and once I re-soldered it, voilla, it all worked great. BTW, with some careful prodding, you CAN remove the outer shell from the antennas to check. If you already have a new antenna on order, nothing lost in trying it. If that's what it is, that's a win since you don't have to open up the RC to replace it! Good luck!
 
Well.... Would you bleedin' believe it!! I have only went a solved the problem!!

After reading post after post, after post about how the DJI Go 4 app is a power hungry resource muncher, I set about looking at alternatives. I tried Litchi, no good I tried Drone deploy, still haven't worked that out!! I tried 3x phone and a tablet. Then today I found an app called UGsc I loaded that up and guess what, yup same story rubbish signal. But then I started mucking about in the settings and I found Lightbridge settings!! most of which were not supported, like channel selection and frequency. But... 1 option was open, and that was the transfer speed, now I am not sure that this is the fix or not, but it seems to have solved it. it was sitting at 4mbps, I changed it to 10, carried on mucking about, played with a simulator function. Then swapped it back to 4, and low and behold perfect camera feed. So, conclusion, DJI Go and Litchi are just after too much juice and the phone can't handle it. WRONG, cuz now both those apps appear to work perfectly.!!!!!

I still have to actually fly the drone, its raining here, again, so next time its sunny I will test it again. but so far I am happy as the proverbial pig. (more importantly, Mrs Calcifur doesn't want to kill me for spending £200 on a busted drone!!)

??
 
Well.... Would you bleedin' believe it!! I have only went a solved the problem!!

After reading post after post, after post about how the DJI Go 4 app is a power hungry resource muncher, I set about looking at alternatives. I tried Litchi, no good I tried Drone deploy, still haven't worked that out!! I tried 3x phone and a tablet. Then today I found an app called UGsc I loaded that up and guess what, yup same story rubbish signal. But then I started mucking about in the settings and I found Lightbridge settings!! most of which were not supported, like channel selection and frequency. But... 1 option was open, and that was the transfer speed, now I am not sure that this is the fix or not, but it seems to have solved it. it was sitting at 4mbps, I changed it to 10, carried on mucking about, played with a simulator function. Then swapped it back to 4, and low and behold perfect camera feed. So, conclusion, DJI Go and Litchi are just after too much juice and the phone can't handle it. WRONG, cuz now both those apps appear to work perfectly.!!!!!

I still have to actually fly the drone, its raining here, again, so next time its sunny I will test it again. but so far I am happy as the proverbial pig. (more importantly, Mrs Calcifur doesn't want to kill me for spending £200 on a busted drone!!)

??
Awsome yes that's a strange one but as long as it goes,,you done well,,:):),,now can you fix mine lol,,10/10
 
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Yeah, I suspect that a previous owner has messed with the data stream and set it so high that the device couldn't handle it and glitched the drone/app. I never had the option to adjust data stream through DJI Go, despite everybody saying thats what I should try. But the UGSC app gave me that option and appears to have fixed it. the other thing I did, now I think about it, was to disable the live feed from the camer (through UGSC) and then re-enable it. that may have forces a reset in the system somewhere.

Either way its appears to be working now, looking forward to a dry day to have a test flight.

Whats up with your drone?
 
Turns out DJI Go is the problem! I managed to get a quick flight this evening after work and managed to re-create the streaming issues by simply going onto DJI Go 4 while the Drone was on and connected (perfect video feed) and as soon as I tapped on the HD menu, instant image disruption. So closed DJI Go 4, opened UGSC, into settings and looked at the lightbridge settings. Channel selection was back to Auto and data link was at 10mpbs. So I returned it to 4mbps. Back to perfect image. closed UGSC, back into DJI Go 4, still perfect image, tapped the HD setting option, instant image disruption.
Conlculsion: The DJI App wants to force the drone to Auto selection at 10mbps.

SO what I want to know is, why is it that I dont get to choose my downlink settings? other peoples versions of the app, both Android and IOS seem to have a slider. Yet mine, and I have it on both android and IOS, don't have that option.??? Given that this clearly makes a MASSIVE difference to how the system works its seems odd that it isn't a core aspect of the settings features.

I think I message to DJI with some video as evidence is required. Unless I have missed something, but I have installed, uninstalled and reinstalled DJI Go4 so many times now I can't believe its down to a bad install, not on 4 different devices across 2 OS.
 
Yeah, I suspect that a previous owner has messed with the data stream and set it so high that the device couldn't handle it and glitched the drone/app. I never had the option to adjust data stream through DJI Go, despite everybody saying thats what I should try. But the UGSC app gave me that option and appears to have fixed it. the other thing I did, now I think about it, was to disable the live feed from the camer (through UGSC) and then re-enable it. that may have forces a reset in the system somewhere.

Either way its appears to be working now, looking forward to a dry day to have a test flight.

Whats up with your drone?
Um mines all good apart from the rain,I got out bid in auction of a drowned p4,it was only for shell and legs etc to get my crashed p4 up and running again,but it was complete with rc and 2 battery's, props,,was leading bids till last 1 hour and it shot from $85 up to $450,,,dam those bidders,,I was even in contact with owner,,oh well can't win them all :)
 
last minute bidders are always a killer. I have been trying to snag an iPad mini 4 for a dedicated drone tablet, so been looking for spares or repairs units with mashed screens, but otherwise functional. Had one in my sites at £12 until last 5min then bang £50 and above. PITA!
 

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