People that want to downgrade their FW on their phantom 3's

[mandalay]

I've read about this and wondered...I looked at my new P3P and most people say you can see where the SD card is from inside the battery compartment. Mine doesn't look like the photos I've seen online. I also looked at some photos of newer main circuit boards and I don't see the SD card on the top of those birds. Is this something they did away with in newer versions? I haven't taken the top shell off of mine but I've only had it about a week and it's too new to void the warranty (if taking it apart would void the warranty but I don't know if there is a seal that you have to break to get in).

It's the P3 Standard that you can see the microSD from inside the battery compartment. The P3A/P's microSD card is underneath the main board, which you can't see unless you take it out completely.

Video on how to open the shell

 

[alirz]

I've read about this and wondered...I looked at my new P3P and most people say you can see where the SD card is from inside the battery compartment. Mine doesn't look like the photos I've seen online. I also looked at some photos of newer main circuit boards and I don't see the SD card on the top of those birds. Is this something they did away with in newer versions? I haven't taken the top shell off of mine but I've only had it about a week and it's too new to void the warranty (if taking it apart would void the warranty but I don't know if there is a seal that you have to break to get in).

If i recall correctly, I believe that SD card is on the underside of the main board... I dont know if you see the underside of the main board through the battery compartment?
Yes while there is NO seal on the shell, there is no way you'll be able to open it without some minor dinks in the plastic shell. It'll be very obvious afterwards that the shell was opened up.. That baby is closed pretty tight!

 

[dobmatt]

If i recall correctly, I believe that SD card is on the underside of the main board... I dont know if you see the underside of the main board through the battery compartment?
Yes while there is NO seal on the shell, there is no way you'll be able to open it without some minor dinks in the plastic shell. It'll be very obvious afterwards that the shell was opened up.. That baby is closed pretty tight!

Yes, disassembly of Phantom shell is tricky and difficult without detailed instructions and solid skills. It's very easy to scratch/deform/crack the shell, damage the snap-on locks, cut the ribbon wires behind, over/under-torque bolts and screws etc...

 

[Apilot101]

I reached out to a talented person who was a lot of help in the Firmware thread I discussed earlier. He said hes away right now but when he gets back next week he would look into the scripts.

 

[Bearhawk]

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=73936&pid=584931&fromuid=168838
This guy apparently does just that with no hesitation, but I need to research it better...

I saw this in the original thread. Can anyone confirm it works by just formatting that card and putting on whatever firmware you want? He also mentioned you had to have "unmolested" by DJI firmware making it sound like DJI went backwards and added in stuff then it upgrades to a +.

 

[Apilot101]

I saw this in the original thread. Can anyone confirm it works by just formatting that card and putting on whatever firmware you want? He also mentioned you had to have "unmolested" by DJI firmware making it sound like DJI went backwards and added in stuff then it upgrades to a +.

If I remember correctly, that was an old post and was never confirmed to work. Many have tried to get a hold of him with no luck. I would not trust it yet.

 

[dobmatt]

If I remember correctly, that was an old post and was never confirmed to work. Many have tried to get a hold of him with no luck. I would not trust it yet.

It's an enigma for now. I suspect the method of wiping the internal memory and installing "hacked" firmware was/is effective in case of less sophisticated/older versions of Phantom aircraft. Phantom 3 Adv/Pro is a totally different beast, perhaps not that easy to mess with. The issue remains a mystery until somebody with a credible knowledge confirm the validity of this approach.

 

[Apilot101]

It's an enigma for now. I suspect the method of wiping the internal memory and installing "hacked" firmware was/is effective in case of less sophisticated/older versions of Phantom aircraft. Phantom 3 Adv/Pro is a totally different beast, perhaps not that easy to mess with. The issue remains a mystery until somebody with a credible knowledge confirm the validity of this approach.

See post #64.

Weve been playing with this idea for a while here in a private thread due to DJI not allowing rollbacks. We have had someone remove their glued in card, wipe it and try to roll back. We even were gonna donate money to buy a P3 just to do testing on it. Personally, I have rolled back my RC multiple times but ran into the no more than 1 rollback on the quad. Ive played with a bunch of the dev files. Personally, I think we are very close based on the fact that he got it to actually roll back. Now its a matter of figuring out how to dot the I.

 

[Bearhawk]

That would be very cool if you do find how to do it. It would be nice to have custom firmware, like the DD-WRT guys and other folks did with the Linksys routers in years past.

 

[dobmatt]

See post #64.

Weve been playing with this idea for a while here in a private thread due to DJI not allowing rollbacks. We have had someone remove their glued in card, wipe it and try to roll back. We even were gonna donate money to buy a P3 just to do testing on it. Personally, I have rolled back my RC multiple times but ran into the no more than 1 rollback on the quad. Ive played with a bunch of the dev files. Personally, I think we are very close based on the fact that he got it to actually roll back. Now its a matter of figuring out how to dot the I.

All right, that's good news! Keep up good work, guys. In my case it's not really about tweaking or altering the original firmware. All I'm looking for is the way to restore my bird to a previous fw version and get rid of damage caused by installation of latest (1.10.90) version, which officially is not reversible.

 

[Felix A Garcia]

it has come to my attention that it may be possible to do that downgrade you couldnt do before. have a look at this thread at the bottom of the page where they person is talking about the DEBUG file added to the sdcard. please let me know if it works out for you thanks

repacking · Issue #3 · mefistotelis/phantom-firmware-tools · GitHub

I fixed my Phantom 3 Professional problem not Downgrading the Drone, but Downgrading the RC unit. After many hours of trying, and no help from DJI, I found the way to do it. Downgrading the RC is very easy, and my problem went away. This is a temporary solution until DJI comes with a fixing for the Firmware 1.10.90.
Per DJI there is no way to Downgrade the Drone Firmware.

 

[JB63]

Guys,
I'm not saying we should pursue legal action but all of this forms a serious basis for a class action suit. We've all invested heavily in this product and now are having issues with this new firmware. Personally I'm afraid of running my bird and have it crash or fly-away. It came very close to crashing few days ago, and this happened right after I upgraded the firmware. Now, is DJI going to do something about it or be dumb, ignore our concerns, and go downhill? What's the point in spending 100s of dollars/euros and having the bird sit and collect dust?

So, class action suit anyone?

PS. You can tell I'm really upset/frustrated with this.

 

[flyNfrank]

Post #61 contains bad info.

The P3 Advance & Professional does have the 2nd microSD card mounted under the main board as seen in post #61. However, You CAN see part of the 2nd microSD card by looking through the battery bay air vent on the side of the AirCaft.

The 2nd microSD card is impossible to remove without taking the main board out of the AirCraft.

 

[Digdat0]

Guys,
I'm not saying we should pursue legal action but all of this forms a serious basis for a class action suit. We've all invested heavily in this product and now are having issues with this new firmware. Personally I'm afraid of running my bird and have it crash or fly-away. It came very close to crashing few days ago, and this happened right after I upgraded the firmware. Now, is DJI going to do something about it or be dumb, ignore our concerns, and go downhill? What's the point in spending 100s of dollars/euros and having the bird sit and collect dust?

So, class action suit anyone?

PS. You can tell I'm really upset/frustrated with this.

What did DJI support tell you? Before suing you would need to try and resovle with them first.

 

[flyNfrank]

Guys,
I'm not saying we should pursue legal action but all of this forms a serious basis for a class action suit. We've all invested heavily in this product and now are having issues with this new firmware. Personally I'm afraid of running my bird and have it crash or fly-away. It came very close to crashing few days ago, and this happened right after I upgraded the firmware. Now, is DJI going to do something about it or be dumb, ignore our concerns, and go downhill? What's the point in spending 100s of dollars/euros and having the bird sit and collect dust?

So, class action suit anyone?

PS. You can tell I'm really upset/frustrated with this.

This is why I stopped updating firmware over a year ago. My AirCraft is on FW version 1.4.0 and I fly with no concerns whatsoever.

 

[ferraript]

This is why I stopped updating firmware over a year ago. My AirCraft is on FW version 1.4.0 and I fly with no concerns whatsoever.

yeah, that's my target too
I'm on 1.6 and I plan to use information from this thread to downgrade it to 1.4
I just hope I won't end up with bricked Phantom just like Digdat0 did

 

[flyNfrank]

yeah, that's my target too
I'm on 1.6 and I plan to use information from this thread to downgrade it to 1.4
I just hope I won't end up with bricked Phantom just like Digdat0 did

Let me provide a 1.4.0 heads up. The android version has a drifting issue you may not be able to live with. I personally would not call it drifting. It's more like not flying straight, or the nose not returning to the "point of direction". The video I found below shows what I'm referring to. What it doesn't show is, the aircraft will return to normal if you let the sticks go to neutral, and then continue the flight. This issue 1st came about in fw 1.4.0. This just happens to be the same time I quit working for one of dji's firmware teams. There is a 1.4.1 version, and might be 1 more 1.4._ version before 1.5.0. One of those 2 versions may have the fix? I lived with the issue because what I have is the last known version before any changes to the smart battery firmware, and any reductions to the speed of the aircraft.

Btw, if I remember correctly, the ios version does not have this problem.

 

[ferraript]

Let me provide a 1.4.0 heads up. The android version has a drifting issue you may not be able to live with. I personally would not call it drifting. It's more like not flying straight, or the nose not returning to the "point of direction".

this is very strange issue, it looks like the aircraft or gimbal doesn't know where forward direction is

Btw, if I remember correctly, the ios version does not have this problem

I don't believe that DJI GO has anything to do with it
as you know, you can fly with RC only
it's got to be something in the AC

 

[Eddie258]

it has come to my attention that it may be possible to do that downgrade you couldnt do before. have a look at this thread at the bottom of the page where they person is talking about the DEBUG file added to the sdcard. please let me know if it works out for you thanks

repacking · Issue #3 · mefistotelis/phantom-firmware-tools · GitHub

I was just curious as to why everybody wants to revert the firmware upgrade. I have the newest firmware and have had no issues.

 

[Digdat0]

Few updates, still no progress.

When I removed the camera from the aircraft and connected, the firmware says 1.8.8+. If i put camera back on, it says 1.01.9. All the same issues persist.

I tried to use DJI Pilot v1.2 on ipad, it does not show the camera errors, but camera has same symptoms not being able to record or take pics or change settings. I can move gimbal and get video on screen. I cannot unlock motors, despite no error on compass. I think the compass module firmware is jacked. I put a different camera board in, I do not get the camera errors. So the issue with camera is just camera, not the phantom.

I cannot get the phantom to update even with the different camera. I've tried regular, new SD card, re-format, the force thing using the vps button, i've tried putting the debug file on, nothing. And still the compass error no matter what i do, i found a huge *** field to calibrate in where only Jesus himself could cause interference, no good still. I'm going to try taking it apart and replace compass with another, see if that works. If no go, gonna try the removal internal SD card thing and delete it. I dont think it will help, but why not at this point. I've a bricked camera and aircraft unfortunately. I had hopes that I could put different cam on, re-install aircraft firmware that atleast would be good. Not so .. :/ Anyone have a link to the BIN file that dude was talking about in the other thread to install from the internal SD card? I'll paypal ya $5 for it.

I'm above my head when it comes to packing/repacking modules .. and if the aircraft won't try to install the firmware, its really of no consequence anyways if i cannot even get that step to start. In technical terms, the camera and aircraft are FUBAR.