PSA - Phantom 3 Service Announcement

[AdamasPilot]

To all my fellow drone pilots, especially NEW pilots. I have just learned an important lesson that many of you may already know but I am not sure the newer pilots are aware of since it is NOT mentioned in ANY of the DJI manuals.
What I am referring to is gimbal overheating during a FW upgrade. Due to the poor design of the cooling system of the DJI AC, in this case, the P3Pro, (although I understand it is with ALL of the AC) the gimbal overheats and damages/destroys the light-bridge/live-view circuit board. I, unfortunately, learned this the hard way and after several months of research, support tickets and trying every suggestion DJI provided, finally sent it in for repair. All of the log files clearly showed the error along with my documentation and statements concerning the issue being a DJI manufacturing/instruction manual issue. Unfortunately, they did not see it that way and would not adjust the charges to cover it under a manufacturing defect warranty even after several long and frustrating phone calls.
Although I look forward to the return of the AC from repair and flying WITH the ability to actually SEE where I am, I WILL NOT be purchasing ANY more DJI products until I see clear evidence they have addressed this issue that I know many of us have been the victim of.
Bottom line; COOL THE AC DURING A FW UPGRADE WITH AN EXTERNAL FAN.
And DJI, AT THE VERY LEAST, UPDATE THE MANUAL TO REFLECT THE NEED TO COOL THE AC DURING FW UPGRADES!

 

[Oso]

To all my fellow drone pilots, especially NEW pilots. I have just learned an important lesson that many of you may already know but I am not sure the newer pilots are aware of since it is NOT mentioned in ANY of the DJI manuals.
What I am referring to is gimbal overheating during a FW upgrade. Due to the poor design of the cooling system of the DJI AC, in this case, the P3Pro, (although I understand it is with ALL of the AC) the gimbal overheats and damages/destroys the light-bridge/live-view circuit board. I, unfortunately, learned this the hard way and after several months of research, support tickets and trying every suggestion DJI provided, finally sent it in for repair. All of the log files clearly showed the error along with my documentation and statements concerning the issue being a DJI manufacturing/instruction manual issue. Unfortunately, they did not see it that way and would not adjust the charges to cover it under a manufacturing defect warranty even after several long and frustrating phone calls.
Although I look forward to the return of the AC from repair and flying WITH the ability to actually SEE where I am, I WILL NOT be purchasing ANY more DJI products until I see clear evidence they have addressed this issue that I know many of us have been the victim of.
Bottom line; COOL THE AC DURING A FW UPGRADE WITH AN EXTERNAL FAN.
And DJI, AT THE VERY LEAST, UPDATE THE MANUAL TO REFLECT THE NEED TO COOL THE AC DURING FW UPGRADES!

I'm sorry to hear that you are included in the list of folks who have been impacted by the gimbal main board overheating issue. You are correct in that many of us are aware and we have been frequently urging people to use a fan for quite a long time. At least more than 18 months already. Its noted in the most often referenced FW update instructions, and I include it in the list of tips I often share with new owners. Even so, its outstanding of you to help spread the word so that as many people as possible will be aware.

FYI to other readers: A common way for a gimbal main board issue to present is no image transmission to your mobile device even though everything else works normally, and the LOG_AB file shows device not detected for modules 8 and 15.

 

[Numone]

Yep, it's a known problem and, like Oso, I'd like I to add my thanks for the reminder. Since I first read about this problem last year, I use a fairly large USB fan, which kicks out a decent airflow, directed at the top of the gimbal During FW updates.
EDIT - and I should add, I've not experienced any overheating issues; the gimbal board seems to remain pretty cool.

 

[Jesse_M]

Can you update it with it in the freezer?

Serious ? btw. lol

 

[AdamasPilot]

Not sure about the freezer but I have definitely considered the refrigerator. I am sure the freezer would be colder than the operating perimeters allowed. I just wish I had read the forums BEFORE I borrowed my friends and experienced this frustrating issue. Good luck pilots.

 

[Papa Tom]

I don't know if this will help but I ran across this the other day. It involves putting thermal pads on the 3 main chips on the gimbal board

Phantom 3 Advanced Video Lag FIXED! – UAVDoc

 

[AdamasPilot]

Thanks for the article. I am hopeful that when I get the drone back it works flawlessly. But if it begins to lag I will have the solution. Because of not having live view I don't know if I had video lag or not. Hopefully they added the extra thermal pads when they repaired the gimbal.

 

[quaddamage]

I agree this is a big issue. I'm keeping my Ph3 Pro outside house during FW update, and usually doing it after dusk.

On Ph3 Adv it rarely causes any issue stronger than a lag, but on Ph3 Pro the chip responsible of live video feed (Davinci DSP) stopps working. This causes the issue that @Oso described:

A common way for a gimbal main board issue to present is no image transmission to your mobile device even though everything else works normally, and the LOG_AB file shows device not detected for modules 8 and 15.

I have one such gimbal, haven't checked yet if the DSP itself died or its firmware.

 

[AdamasPilot]

All of this feedback confirms what I told DJI, this is not an isolated issue. They need to do a better job of resolving the issue in a positive manner. Obviously a design flaw.

 

[AdamasPilot]

Final update. I received the repaired drone back yesterday and quickly realized they did not repair the old one but replaced it with a refurbished model. Which is fine since the fine print on the repair estimate states, they will either repair or replace. I have tested it and everything works, although I will not be purchasing the Mavic I had intended to since this took place. I will continue to monitor the forum and hopefully, I will see DJI improve their products and possibly even update the manual to reflect the need for additional cooling during a FW upgrade. On that note, I did notice the gimbal cooling fan is larger on the replacement than it was on the original, so perhaps they are moving in the right direction.
In addition, to my surprise, I did get the FW update notice yesterday for the July update (which I would have thought they did before sending out the refurb AC, but obviously not. The new fan, along with my procedure of putting it over a floor vent with the AC running and a fan blowing on it went off without a hitch and for the first time EVER I received success results in the log. What a relief.

 

[Oso]

Final update. I received the repaired drone back yesterday and quickly realized they did not repair the old one but replaced it with a refurbished model. Which is fine since the fine print on the repair estimate states, they will either repair or replace. I have tested it and everything works, although I will not be purchasing the Mavic I had intended to since this took place. I will continue to monitor the forum and hopefully, I will see DJI improve their products and possibly even update the manual to reflect the need for additional cooling during a FW upgrade. On that note, I did notice the gimbal cooling fan is larger on the replacement than it was on the original, so perhaps they are moving in the right direction.
In addition, to my surprise, I did get the FW update notice yesterday for the July update (which I would have thought they did before sending out the refurb AC, but obviously not. The new fan, along with my procedure of putting it over a floor vent with the AC running and a fan blowing on it went off without a hitch and for the first time EVER I received success results in the log. What a relief.

Sounds like good news.

Since you made the choice to update to the latest FW, hopefully you have been monitoring the forum and understand the significant restrictions included and how to deal with them.
If not, here are a few threads to browse through:

Background of the restrictions, release notes, how to videos:
RC issue after firmware update??

How to log out:
Cannot fly further than 50 m although limit is set to 250m

Thread discussing the returning of restrictions:
After being cleared, flight restrictions return with power up (battery change)