Its not bricked. if it was bricked nothing would work at all. there is a way to change the firmware versions off all those modules and repack them with his scripts. you should ask him how to do it. it might be worth a shot. and i hear theres more than one type of encryption algorithm.is there a way to downgrade the controller only?
People that want to downgrade their FW on their phantom 3's
- Thread starter notsolowki
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- fw downgrade
Its not bricked. if it was bricked nothing would work at all. there is a way to change the firmware versions off all those modules and repack them with his scripts. you should ask him how to do it. it might be worth a shot. and i hear theres more than one type of encryption algorithm.is there a way to downgrade the controller only?
my issue is that for both the aircraft and camera, the firmware install won't even start anymore. If i cant get past that step, nothing will work .. not trying to be pessimistic, but ive tried so many times/ways to get it to start and no go, not sure what else to do. I dont think its the firmware im trying to install, I think its the hardware i fubar'd :/
But you didn't try the "radical" method (internal memory card formatting) yet, correct? In my case the firmware update went badly because the compass module (replaced recently) was malfunctioning. Two of 4 wires were bridged by solder at the board terminals. After fixing that the update procedure finished with green solid LED at gimbal, compass calibration successful, propless motors starts and react as usual, but log file shows update failure for 1700 and 1701 modules as not recognized. There's absolutely nothing alarming within Go app displays on any humanly accessible page, yet I'm somehow hesitant to perform test hovering because this stubborn update failure. Anybody know what is it?
And, oh, Happy New Year everybody!
im gonna take it apart and try that, but ive not seen a confirmed person say it works with the DJI firmware. That guy's post (and i tried to contact him) said you need a modded firmware, which he had. At one point there was a dropbox link to it, but its dead now .. but thats the next step
There was a post somewhere here which gave names for those module numbers in FW update log file. Can't find it
OK, let's keep trying to get to the bottom of this ... I've PM-ed this guy Scott (?) who claims such procedure to be performed easily, but no response so far ...im gonna take it apart and try that, but ive not seen a confirmed person say it works with the DJI firmware. That guy's post (and i tried to contact him) said you need a modded firmware, which he had. At one point there was a dropbox link to it, but its dead now .. but thats the next step
There was a post somewhere here which gave names for those module numbers in FW update log file. Can't find it
[17 00]
[17 01]
These are both dedicated to the Gimbal.
The 17 01 will disappear completely once it has matching gimbal firmware. Basically, the gimbal firmware is not in sync with the other modules firmware.
i highly doubt formatting the sdcard is going to do a bit of good. your problem is you have a bunch of miss-matched firmware's. without disassembling the firmware its hard telling how everything communicates with each other. that being said you need to get everything back to a matching firmware. you shouldn't be taking and switching compasses its not going to do you any good if the software isnt proper. you need to make note of all of you firmware versions.if you attempt everything you can find on google your gona end up bricking it completely. im not sure if the aircraft will accept an update from the sdcard on the motherboard if you have it apart then make a copy of anything thats not a flight log and erase it.
you need to ask the guy that moade those scripts how you can make a update specifically for the camera adn update only the camera until you at the right firmware
from him :
It looks like the communication protocol between components is somehow being updated across firmwares. This may lead to camera module not being able to communicate with the rest of the drone - resulting in bad initialization, and inability to upgrade the firmware again.
It is very likely that this is what happened - the drone reacts to upgrades on the card, but is not able to send the upgrade to any component.
Looks like "long jumps" in firmware versions are dangerous. Also, there may be a version below which the changes in protocol are severe enough to no longer allow camera to communicate with main controller.
What to do now - it's a tricky situation. I'd check the component versions displayed on the tablet, and select firmware package just one step above that version. Then try to update to it, both by the tablet and by the camera, trying to force update both by the special file and by the button on VPS module.
If that won't work:
from him :
It looks like the communication protocol between components is somehow being updated across firmwares. This may lead to camera module not being able to communicate with the rest of the drone - resulting in bad initialization, and inability to upgrade the firmware again.
It is very likely that this is what happened - the drone reacts to upgrades on the card, but is not able to send the upgrade to any component.
Looks like "long jumps" in firmware versions are dangerous. Also, there may be a version below which the changes in protocol are severe enough to no longer allow camera to communicate with main controller.
What to do now - it's a tricky situation. I'd check the component versions displayed on the tablet, and select firmware package just one step above that version. Then try to update to it, both by the tablet and by the camera, trying to force update both by the special file and by the button on VPS module.
If that won't work:
- Maybe the older camera firmware has different update procedure? If we knew the camera firmware version, we could check if the updating code is somewhat similar.
- We could prepare a firmware package which updates only camera. If no other components are mentioned, maybe the camera will update by itself.
- The camera FW is based on Ambarella SDK, which has its own update mechanism. We could check if that code is not removed by DJI, and maybe use it. It probably involves putting only the extracted camera firmware on SD card under some specific name.
- Maybe when camera is disconnected, updating via tablet will work?
- We could connect the camera to another drone and do the update.
Frank, let me know if you want to try these. I have a 1.04.0001 and 1.04.0005. both were supposed to be developer versions. I also have a 1.04.0010
I have made a collection of FWs over the last yr or 2 with the hope that 1 day we might be able to go back to 1.3. I also have made a collection of the GO app for Android the same way. I need to know which FWs he actually used (exact versions) and I might be able to fill in blanks.
Personally I dont know enough to open and repackage, or compare versions.
okay, tried different compass same error. I think its from software, not the compass itself. I have removed the internal SD card, formatted and trying to install 1.9. The firmware install process won't start, using debug, regular or forcing by the button.
I'm down with chasing modules and repacking, but if i cannot even get the firmware to start an install I think I'm SOL.
Any ideas?
I'm down with chasing modules and repacking, but if i cannot even get the firmware to start an install I think I'm SOL.
Any ideas?
Yep. it seems like you're hitting the brick wall, pun intended ... Mine P3P is still alive, but demands firmware upgrade (being on 1.10.90
...) ... I'm going to watch a movie now ...Unfortunately the fortunate thing I see coming out of this is that if you keep at it despite the road blocks, you guys may end up cracking the whole downgrade restrictions Dji has put in place. Best of luck to all who are tying to figure this out. I hope at the end you end up with the solution and a working phantom.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
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If I recall correctly, 1.8 introduced an encryption change for video streaming or radio communications, one of those. During your version jumps, could it be that this encryption change didn't revert all the way and that this is what's possibly causing the protocol mismatch between the gimbal and the air craft and not allowing the gimbal to get the firmware you are trying to install now? Just my thought.
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Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
I DON"T KNOW, pardon me for screaming ... This toy seems to be encrypted like Nazi's military communication code to be broken by an genius ... I'm tired and need some cold beer ... Oh, here it is one ...
What about taking an image from someone else's SD card (Internal), and copying on your card?
Also, what about uninstalling and using an older version of DJI GO.
What if the camera error is only the RC and AC not talking to each other correctly? You said the AC wont do anything, but have you tried to download the RC? Its been a while, I did downgrade my RC 3 FWs with no problem once, then brought them back up. If I remember, back then, DJI wanted same versions on AC and RC to communicate properly back then.
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we need to somehow as mefistolies says make a package only for the camera. i suspect it may stop at the gimbals update expecting only that binary if at all possible. you need to be asking this guy the questions hes knows more about these binaries.
he says :
I don't know of any firmware which would be released by DJI and only have 1-3 modules; this means I did not compared the way my tools are creating such firmware package with any reference - I'm not sure it it is done correctly.
The list of firmwares to "pack" is taken from "*_head.ini". To pack less of them, you have to edit this file and place "0" in place of module names which are supposed to be skipped.
The index of each module has to remain the same. For example, to up/down-grade only camera, we need camera firmware itself (target=m0100) and loader (target=m0101). The modules other than those two have to be changed from "mi??" to just "0". It is important to place the correct amount of "0"s, only replacing each existing "mi??" with one "0".
For example, "P3X_FW_V01.10.0090_head.ini":
modules=mi00 mi01 mi02 mi03 mi04 mi05 mi06 mi07 mi08 mi09 mi10 mi11 mi12 mi13 mi14 mi15 mi16
Ambarella firmware and loader are mi13 and mi14 (we know that by checking "target" inside "P3X_FW_V01.10.0090_mi??.ini"), so we should make:
modules=0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 mi13 mi14 0 0
:
mefistotelis commented 4 hours ago
Btw, the "mi??" index of the camera module was being changed over time. I wonder if this is the reason of "backward incompatibility". Here is the index in every firmware version:
P3X_FW_V01.01.0006.bin: Module index 18 P3X_FW_V01.01.0008.bin: Module index 18P3X_FW_V01.01.0009.bin: Module index 18 P3X_FW_V01.01.1003.bin: Module index 18P3X_FW_V01.01.1007.bin: Module index 20 P3X_FW_V01.02.0006.bin: Module index 20P3X_FW_V01.03.0020.bin: Module index 20 P3X_FW_V01.04.0005.bin: Module index 13P3X_FW_V01.04.0010.bin: Module index 13 P3X_FW_V01.05.0030.bin: Module index 12P3X_FW_V01.06.0040.bin: Module index 12 P3X_FW_V01.07.0043_beta.bin: Module index 12P3X_FW_V01.07.0060.bin: Module index 12 P3X_FW_V01.08.0080.bin: Module index 12P3X_FW_V01.09.0060.bin: Module index 13 P3X_FW_V01.10.0090.bin: Module index 13
talk to this guy he might just be able to help you with the knowledge he has
i assume theres no way of accessing Uboot on this thing? he also stated that the amberella camera has its own sdk. it may be able to be update with a specific package name created by the amberella sdk.
it could be possible that they didnt encrypt the video stream for the sake of performance and latency but instead encrypted the transmission of commands to the aircraft. i dont think the internal sdcard has much if anything at ll to do with the firmware. im thinking about tearing into my camera and looking for a debug console. maybe the firmware could be extracted and replaced from there but i doubt it
