Phantom 4 advanced battery problems or something else?

[vgo195]

Hi,
I am having some problems lately with my P4A. The problem occurs while in flight it looses the gps signals and switches to ATTI mode.
DJI Go reports "GPS disconnected" and other GPS related warnings.
I did some tests and noticed that the problem does not occur with the original high capacity battery P4A came with and occurs only on 2 other original batteries I have from my first P4 standard.
The other 2 batteries are a standard capacity and a high capacity. The standard capacity produces the GPS problem but not so intense as the high capacity. With the high capacity battery the GPS disconnects immediately and switches on and off several times during flight.
All batteries have 20-30 charges each.
I thought that there was a hardware problem but why it does not occur with the original battery?
I did contact dji support and they told me to refresh the firmware and calibrate compass and imu. I did not refresh but did compass calibration without any difference.
Is it possible the battery to produce such a problem?

 

[goinup]

Suggest you do as DJI advised, refresh the firmware and calibrate IMU. If the problem persists, purchase new battery.

 

[Capt KO]

To reset the batteries, you need to have the ‘bad’ ones installed during a firmware update. Sadly, you have to do it over for each battery. Do it in a cool place and watch tv or something. The battery will blink or somewhat during the update showing it’s updating. A pain but it works. Good luck.

Imu and compass calibration are completely different.

 

[vgo195]

Thanks guys,
I will try to refresh the firmware with one of the bad batteries and check the results.

 

[Meta4]

I thought that there was a hardware problem but why it does not occur with the original battery?

I would suspect that what you've noticed regarding batteries is purely a coincidence.
There is no way that a battery (much less two batteries) would be affecting GPS reception.

I did contact dji support and they told me to refresh the firmware and calibrate compass and imu.

Some DJI help people are completely useless.
That advice is like suggesting you change your engine oil to fix a break fault in your car.
They commonly suggest refreshing firmware when they have no idea about the issue.
It seems like whoever you spoke too added recalibrating other completely unrelated systems for good measure.

You would know if there were any IMU or compass problems, and neither has any connection to GPS.

The most likely cause is a faulty GPS receiver or connection.
Some more testing would be needed to identify.

 

[vgo195]

Of course the batteries should not affect the GPS reception but maybe something has to do with the power board?
It seems that the GPS is disconnected internally. I will do some more tests and see.
So you suggest not to refresh the firmware? Do I have something to loose by doing it?

 

[Meta4]

Of course the batteries should not affect the GPS reception but maybe something has to do with the power board?
It seems that the GPS is disconnected internally. I will do some more tests and see.
So you suggest not to refresh the firmware? Do I have something to loose by doing it?

Sure ... go ahead and update firmware ... if you think it's a good idea to follow the ramblings of someone who has no idea at all about your problem.
DJI "help" people don't fly drones and just follow scripts.
If you stump them with something they don't have a script for, they suggest updating firmware, but it never solves anything (except getting you off the line).

 

[vgo195]

I guess Meta4 was right. I did some tests and the "GPS disconnected" error happened also on the original battery the drone came with. However on one of the 3 batteries the issue is more frequent. Anyway I must send the drone for repair.
I contacted some repair shop and they told me that the GPS module rarely has problem and they have to replace the central unit.
I don't trust them so I must ask some other repair shops in my area.

 

[vgo195]

Hi,
I ended up repairing the drone. The problem was not the gps module but the flight controller. They replaced it and it seems ok for now. I hope the drone to work for some time because it was not a cheap repair, it costed about 300$ !

 

[Mattb3]

I had a somewhat traumatizing emergency landing today with my P4A. Photographing at 380 ft. and approx 1000 ft distance, with laanc authorization, over a huge recreation lake near a highway and hydroelectric property. Was at 60% with fully charged high capacity genuine dji battery, about 50 cycles, and suddenly dropped to "2%" and drone executed emergency in-place landing. Immediately pointed camera straight down and was quickly able to move over the lake, a busy highway and open grassy field while the ground was quickly coming closer! Lost camera feed and couldn't see drone, but had occasional view of grass in front of the camera with highway ledge and tower in background, so I had some idea of where it might be. Drone appeared to shut off with no connection.

My heart sank thinking I wouldn't be able to find or retrieve it, or it was crashed, or possibly worse. The area where it went down was mountainous and perilous with barbed wire fences, locked gates and electric danger signs everywhere. I drove back and forth over a dam, with heavy traffic, looking to see if I could spot it somewhere. Saw a little white spot on a hillside, and as I drove by, the controller, which was still on, emitted a loud repeating beep. Was this a locator? The drone apparently still had power.

I pulled over in front of a locked gate at the top of a long hill adjacent to the spot, and proceeded to take my chances in retrieving my precious personal property, which had many hard-earned images on it from my previous assignments. I was able to get through the fencing and walk down to the suspected location, prepared to tell the authorities my unintended dilemma, however nobody showed during the incident. I still had my safety vest on so maybe nobody thought anything of it

The drone suddenly appeared in a different spot, right in the middle of a field behind another fence. After much walking around and figuring out how to gain access and get out, I retrieved the drone, which had landed perfectly upright with absolutely no damage. I think it may have had one line blinking on the battery, but I can't remember now. I still can't believe any of this.

Clearly, there's some impressive engineering built into this machine, but what the heck happened with this battery? I never experienced this kind of sudden emergency. I guess I'll throw that $200 battery away (proper disposal, of course)? This is too risky and potentially dangerous a thing to be involved with, and makes a person double-think the whole thing. As much as I love it.