Phantom 2 Vision Plus problem

William516 · Dec 12, 2016

I have looked through many forums and videos and I find it hard to believe that I drone could go bad while sitting for awhile in a climate controlled storage area. I have helicopters and RC cars and never have any problems so I'm hoping that I'm just missing something here and its not the dreaded WIFI card problem. Hopefully you can help.

I have full control of the camera and can pan and tilt through the vision app on my phone. I receive telemetry, battery, storage and all from the app with no problem at all.

I have checked the WIFI output using an app that I found online and can confirm that it is putting out a signal and that signal is very strong.

I have used a computer and tried to ping with the following results
192.168.1.2 sent out 4 packets and got 4 packets
192.168.1.1 sent out 4 packets and got 4 packets
now here is where it gets strange and I'm not a networking person so maybe I just don't understand how ping works
when pinging 192.168.1.10 I get a reply from 192.168.1.200 saying destination host unreachable however in ping statistics it shows sent = 4 recieved = 4 lost 0
I'm confused as to why it is getting an answer from a different address then I sent to.
Does this mean that somehow the board magically failed or could it be something else?

If it did magically fail I can not find a board online that doesn't total the cost of the drone and most of those are sold out.

If it is the board has anyone else managed to keep the drone as a flying platform and mount a go pro or another camera to this drone that can stream back wifi?

I'm at my wits end right now trying to figure out this problem and shelling out almost 400 dollars on a part to get fpv is not an option for this older model drone.
It has not been in a crash or even a rough landing, standard transporting and storage. Now all of a sudden it doesn't work?

Thanks for the help and maybe someone can explain this pining problem that I seem to have with the last address.

Have a good day.

Bill

Mark The Droner · Dec 12, 2016

Let's see what @J Dot has to say...

Limp Gimble · Dec 12, 2016

200 is probably the ip of the machine your using to ping from. Do an ipconfig and that should confirm if it's 200

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

J Dot · Dec 12, 2016

It can and does happen a LOT,
UNFORTUNATELY, I just got one in, same thing several months on shelf, fired it up no fpv, telemetry, and all other stuff works, but no live feed. Not sure the cause, I have 4 and have not had any issue, and they sit a lot.

Mike has the wifi unit, but I think he raised his price to $175, used to be $120, but I think he is running low on them.

Mike Holt
530-277-5366

I really wish these crafts ( video circuitry ) were more dependable, cause they are great crafts.

J Dot

Mako79 · Dec 12, 2016

192.168.1.10 = lower board.
You need to do the artic silver mod otherwise they fry. I think they have the same issue as the RROD on the Xbox 360s.
The chip heats up and warps and when it cools it ends up flexing on the board and as a result damages the connections. This why they lose FPV if you don't fly them regularly. I did the artic silver mod on my second wifi module (first gen, no perforation, used) and its still working.

William516 · Dec 13, 2016

Ok so it looks like I fell victim to the money making scam called DJI. Must be nice to make a product that will fail over time when used. What Mako was saying makes alot of sense as to what happens and why so many people want to blame it on updates. The problem is that when updating the phantom that requires the drone to be powered on and connected. Assuming that the video board WIFI board is on during this update and is not only turned on via the app. then the card would heat up as NO air is flowing by and DJI even says make sure the blades are removed. It really upsets me to know that a company like DJI can know about this problem and do nothing about it. All phantom owners should have been made aware of this problem as it IS a design flaw.

I have parrot drones and even the tiny BEBOP drone has a small fan somewhere that I hear before taking off. No problems with any of the AR drone even have the first version. All still fly and playback video even without being flown for almost a year.

So now comes the REAL question. I will contact the guy at that number and find out what his price is for the module. Also did DJI ever correct this problem on future drone the phantom 3 and phantom 4 or do they expect us to shell out more money to fix a design flaw?

If I get the replacement WIFI module will this module suffer the SAME failure or did they fix this issue? It is not a cheap part and actually totals the cost of the drone. Has anyone tried to put a tiny dc voltage fan on board that could cool the card all the time, thus keeping it cool even when sitting on the ground or updating.

If I were to take a GOPRO cam that I have with WIFI could I change out the gimbal and use the gopro for wireless FPV on the drone. I mean the only thing that seems to be effected is the FPV live feed back could the telemetry and all still be sent back and the FPV wifi sent back to the phone without using the wifi module.

If that is not the case then I may just use her for BLIND recording and photos as I wait for something else to come out and maybe switch out of the DJI world into something else. The lack of support and customer service is one of the main problems for me so far.

Thanks again for the time.

Bill

Mark The Droner · Dec 13, 2016

Yes, @J Dot put a little fan on his, as I remember. It's in a thread somewhere.

Edit: Here it is New wifi module on the way. Questions.

J Dot · Dec 13, 2016

Hello,
I got the parts from ( DIGIKEY.com )

If you have a p2v non plus, you'll need this plug
( plus model already has this plug we can use )
Part # 455-1593-Nd ( GH 3 pin connector )
View attachment 68843

Ok
Now the GH connector requires 2 ( but buy more as they are easily broken ) pins.

Part # 455-1607-1-Nd ( GH pins )
View attachment 68844

Ok,
Now there are 2 fans I chose ( ultimately picked the BLOWER fan ) as it seemed more focused on the board and components, where regular fan just blew into battery compartment. But here is both.

Blower fan
Part # 259-1444-Nd ( blower fan ) 5vdc
View attachment 68845

Regular fan
Part # 259-1557-Nd ( regular fan )
View attachment 68846

Ok
Now the funny part, it plugs into the FAN PORT ( lol )
View attachment 68847
You'll use the 2 outside pins ( as plus model already uses center pin ) looking at picture ( LEFT PIN ( Pos.5vdc ), RIGHT PIN ( Neg. )) center pin ( Neg as well ).
I hot glued my fan onto side of phantom bottom half, directly over a vent hole, and the blower blows straight up through a cutout on mainboard, and directly onto top board and components! Does not blow a LOT, but DEFINATELY makes a difference, especially on plus model, to keep wifi module cool!

You will need a crimper, I use Engineer pa-09 ( eBay ) around $15 us, you'll need them to crimp the pins to fan leads!

That is it,
Fans are quite expensive, that is why I quit making them! Wish they were cheaper!

Hope this helps!
J Dot

Here is a YouTube video

William516 · Dec 13, 2016

So the question is did they at least fix it with newer versions like the phantom 3 and phantom 4? Seems like an easy fix and a HUGE design flaw as in even the video shows a spot on the board that had a plug for a fan. Could have saved a lot of problems.

Anyway to mod her so I can use a go pro and keep it as a flying platform?

Thanks again and have a great day.

Bill