The end of my rope.

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Hello, fello DJI friends.
I am finally appealing for help and advice on the next step to take with solving my problem. I am including a link to my video example of the problem.
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I have been reading every word I can read about everything relating to my problem for about 3 months. I am an old man and after 57 years of wedded bliss, I can take instructions VERY well. So whenever someone who has had a similar problem, has been given suggestions from you all, I have tried them myself. Always with optimism, and always with the same results. If any of you share my new proclivity of clicking on the PhantomPilots app on my phone every few hours, you know how it goes.
So here's my story as briefly as I can make it. Got the Phantom 4. read the book (of course I downloaded the manual months earlier, but now I had the machine and pieces in my hands) then connected things according to instructions. When I fired things up, I got the update message and followed the procedure and it failed to update the AC. I went to the forums before doing anything else. Try again, it worked. Hooray. I was in the air. Being a multi-rotor builder and flyer, I was not accustomed to looking at anything but what I was flying. So looking down at the screen (which was my Iphone at the time) just wasn't working. It was too small to read and it took forever to try to understand what I was seeing, or why I wasn't seeing anything, the glare was awful, and it was doing what I am showing in my attachment, so I didn't do more than glance at the screen on my first few flights, and since the video from the sd card was great, I didn't even know I had a problem for the first couple or three flights.
After getting over the thrill of having such great videos, I went to the task of digging in and going through all the settings and trying this and that. That's when I found that my "problem" was serious. And my visits to the forums were constant whenever I had time, and I was finding that LOTS of guys were having this problem, and lots of them were blaming it on upgrades. Too many of them were right after upgrading to be a coincidence if you ask me. It was like, the common thread. So like I say, I have been trying every suggestion that came along. I won't cover them here. Just read back through the threads. You will know that every thing has been tried. Please don't ask me if I have done this or that. I believe I have done everything except one perhaps, and that's where I come to ask you. Can I just wipe the slate clean and start somewhere that might result in success.
(this is where I start getting asked things like is there any magnetic material nearby? Have you calibrated this, or that? are you in a no-fly zone? etc. etc.) (this condition exist in all locations. I live in the Mohave desert and can get to places where there are no interfering radio signals. yes I know about magnetic infulences of rocks. It does it on my ipad AND my iphone) It is the same if I use the Letchi app. on either device.
I'm thinking much like the DJI guys. I didn't set it up properly. That appears to me, the reason that DJI isn't addressing the problem directly. There must be hundreds of thousands of phantoms flying around doing exactly what they are meant to do. MOST people don't have our problems. DJI has no place to look for a common cause. They do what they can, looking at flight records and analyzing logs and suggesting things. It is hard, however, to understand the consistent link with the upgrades. It isn't hard to find out where the problem happened, but not so easy to know why. Without you guys, well, I hate to think of where we would be without these forums.
I'm inclined to think that maybe it was that first upload failure,-- I don't know. I have installed and uninstalled DJI GO, But I haven't gone for taking the upgrades beyond my device. My upgrades have come from re-installing the app. I have fear of upgrades. I'm afraid I'll end up being one of those guys who write in because their Phantom won't work at all. And I have changed so many settings in so many ways, I no longer think I can menu my way out of the problem at all.
If you know the name David Windestal , you'll know where and when I got involved in multirotors, and in those days just the ability to put a camera in the air was the goal, never dreaming that in just 4 years, things would have evolved to the present state . So I am happy to have such a steady flying machine with such a great camera even without the FPV. The Phantom is a far better platform than I ever built and it answers just what I was trying to do. So I can fly it like it is and get a whole lot of enjoyment out of it, and some great photos. The last thing I want is to do something that would cause me to lose that. It almost seems greedy to ask for more, but the Phantom promised more and suddenly that's what I want.

I guess I'm asking if there is a safe way to go back to go and start over with a clean slate. Can I remove all of my apps, then re-install the DJI GO app and overwrite what is in the controller and push that to the Phantom? Having trouble upgrading really puts me in fear of DOWN grading. Grading may be my problem. I am hoping that there is a simple way to reset everything. Simple to understand. Back in the Atlas Missile Days in Wyoming, I did some tech writing and I know there must be someone out there (meaning maybe you) who can write an easy to follow prescription for all of us guys who are unable to use our Phantoms to their fullest potential because of a common problem, especially if the problem is an incorrect setup procedure. We can't all be a dumb as me.

Thanks for reading all this. MikeyP
 
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I read it all. I have no idea if it was the update but odds are you are right. If you had crashed I would say it's the camera. I won't tell you to try the update again but that is what I would do. Then I would contact DJI and have the fix it. By the way, I am from the days of U control and 049's. Flying in the 50's was dizzying.

Sent from my SM-G935V using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Hi Mikey, All I can tell you is what I did in my situation when I first started with a P4 in April. I have a Samsung tab4, my screen looked something like yours. At this time I decided to use my tab only for flying so I did a factory reset of the tablet. Once done I did a firmware update to the tablet, then I deleted every app(bloatware) that I could. I disabled every app that I could not uninstall and made sure that ALL notifications for ALL apps are off. Installed GO then turned off auto update for GO. Cleaned up as much memory as possible. When I fly I turn off wifi, just make sure you cashed the maps before you fly, to do this just open go with wifi on and pan the map in GO where you want to fly and they should be there when you do. Now for me my video is good, some latency (stepping) with the latest GO 4.0 but no video break up. Is the video from the card in the craft good?
 
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Mikey,

I was getting a lot of video "green" stuff awhile back and it was determined that I was running out of space on my limited iPad. Once I turned off the "Video Cache" and deleted what was on the iPad, the video glitches were history, at least for me.

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Mikey,

I was getting a lot of video "green" stuff awhile back and it was determined that I was running out of space on my limited iPad. Once I turned off the "Video Cache" and deleted what was on the iPad, the video glitches were history, at least for me.

AD
AWD, Is the video cache you are turning off the one in GO? this may be a solution for my stepping video on my tablet that does't happen in my headplay goggles.
 
Erised,

Yes, it's on the DJI Go program/app.

Under General Settings down near the bottom of the page.

"Cache during video shooting" is the title on the slider button.

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I had a similar-looking screen trying to fly the Phantom 4 with my good old iPad Mini (original version). Upgraded to an iPad Mini 4 and it works perfectly. Also works well with my iPhone 6s. Bottom line...some mobile devices don't have the processor power to handle the video feed.

What model iPhone were you trying? What model iPad? What kind of cable are you using to connect the iPhone/iPad to the transmitter? There are a LOT of substandard cables you can buy and that would definitely crimp your video display.

I'm just old enough to have flown the very first digital-proportional radios back when they were on 27mhz. All it took was one trucker on the nearest interstate highway with a linear amplifier on his CB and your plane was toast.
 
I had a lot of program lockups with the Android version of DJI GO in the beginning. I bought the iPad Mini4 and have not had a problem since. I was reluctant to spend the money, but I can now say that it was worth it.
 
I disabled the video cash and that helped about 50% (Yea), still had some stepping so next I tried a manual channel rather than auto and reduced the bitrate to minimum 4mbps and that cleared my stepping and pixilation (in the house cuz it's dark out). My little tab4 manages the image a whole lot better. I can see a better tablet in the near future or maybe that crystal 8 inch screen on my next craft. I won't be able to fly for the next couple of days and I can't wait to try this out in the field. Make that over a field!
 
Thanks for all the input. I appreciate your suggestions and have gone back in and turned off a lot more stuff. I am using an ipad mini 2. I bought it because it is what my son is using on his phantom4 and he has no problems at all. I haven't even seen the picture flicker on his unit. He is in Wyoming and I'm in Arizona or I'd be getting us together and see if he can run my phantom with HIS mini2. That would be really telling. Or I, his. I find it unsettling when I read of someone having this problem and changing their devices fixes it. But having two devices that are on the "approved" list doing the same thing has kept me from pursuing that path. I had a hard time justifying buying a separate ipad. I'd really have a hard time convincing (someone) I needed to by another one.
I use an iphone 5c. my results are the same with both. That's why I think it isn't a hardware or even a software glitch. ( just as an aside
;, when I turned off nearly everything, my close proximity beeper started beeping when I would start the motors up. If I put my hand up close to the cameras it gave me a message that the sensor was blocked, and the beeper quit. Move my hand away and it goes into full alarm. So I turned things back on in the menu for visual navigation settings one at a time. It stopped beeping when I re-enabled the " Enable Horizontal Obstacle Avoidance". I don't know what that means, but I found it interesting. Why would the obstacle avoidance being disabled create a condition where the forward obstacle camera senses an obstacle always? Well, that's just a curiosity. I didn't try to fly it while the beeper was going, to see if it would fly at all. If I had nothing better to do, I'd investigate further, but for now, nothing I have done has made any difference in the weak signal issue.) When I emptied and turned off the cache and turned off the wifi and put it in airplane mode, I flew a short hop at each change and the glitching was still there. When there is no difference in the weak signal between 4 feet and 5000 feet I have to believe that it is not really a weak signal at all. If it was weak close up, it oughtn't work the same a mile away. there should be no signal at all.
I read of people finding a working link between their Phantom, on a device that isn't listed in the list of devices that "always" work. So I read a message from a guy who found that his Phantom worked on an ipad 3, which I had one of, so I tried that and it didn't recognize it, (that is where I suspect the problem lying. Trying to connect a non compatable ipad to the controller. The program was on my device, I plugged it into the controller and it took it a while to recognize that It wasn't going to work and flashed me a message saying so. Was THAT where I planted the seed of my weak image problem?) so I bought the mini 2 and dedicated it to the Phantom. The only other programs I added were Google maps and Letchi. It has a capacity of 27.3 gigs and 23.1 gigs available.
And then when I connected the controller directly to the aircraft to update it with what was updated on the device, could that have added water to the seed?. Once something is pushed into the controller, what happens? What is there when you plug it in with the next upgrade. When I deleted DJIGO and uploaded it the second time, and it had been upgraded to a newer version in between, and I connected it wirelessly to the aircraft, would that make a difference? I'm thinking that it could be problematic, but then, I wouldn't have deleted DJI GO in the first place if there hadn't been a problem before that. This is all occurring to me while I am writing this so I apologize for rambling. Whatever it took for the controller to realize that it wasn't recognizing my 3rd gen ipad, might have put a block on other installations. maybe. I wonder if there is a way to turn the controller back to an empty vessel waiting to be awakened by a properly executed command. I can remember that little glimmer of panic when my first operation failed. Was that the beginning?
Well, thanks again for your input. Maybe my musings will spark a thought in you that could help. We live a secluded life and have no friends (by choice) so I don't have anyone to talk to about this except you. I thank you for sharing your thoughts.
MikeyP
 
Keep at it Mikey and hopefully you will get results. For a time I though maybe you had a ribbon cable loose on the camera but on your picture you have the histogram working and getting light readings. Just out of curriosity reduce the light comming in to see if the histogram values change.
 
Yes, the histogram changes with variable light. I watched a guys Utube video, who was a photographer and said that one should not rely on the automatic white balance. I'd never paid much attention to the histogram on my full sized cameras until I learned how to see one and now I use it all the time. So I tried using the other settings and changed the iso for what I thought would be best, but what I found to be best was using the auto features. I like to do a 360 shot with each flight and on a bright desert day the difference between looking towards the sun and away from the sun seemed to be too much for whatever setting I chose and resulted in less than good footage. I also cannot see how fast a pan is going through my bad signal receiving screen, so I watch the little arrow in the circle and so far I still haven't gotten it slow enough to be enjoyable to watch. I have to edit the pans out. Now, about the channel selection. I saw videos of a time when that screen showed a bar much easier idea of what the signal on the various channels was doing. This one with the little boppity colored lines makes it very hard to recognize a good signal. I have tried what I thought was a good channel if there was one that didn't ever pop up a bad color. usually channel 20 in my case but the reception is no different. It does vary however but not consistantly. Some days the glitching is worse than others but I can't identify what might be different. One time I had a steady picture while the controller and aircraft were sitting together on a table. It was the first time I had ever seen a completely steady picture on my outfit. It was like my son's Phantom. I got really excited thinking that I had inadvertently done something that worked. So I took it out to fly and the glitching began again. Some times it gives me a different percentage of a recognizable picture. Sometimes I can't see anything about 90% of the time. The best it has ever been has been about 75%. So when I need a view to see what I need to do to get the pictures I want, I just park it and watch the screen until I can recognize where I am. I tried to fly over to a small herd of wild burros once. I thought I was there, right over them, so I waited for enough glitchy images to see that they weren't in the camera view. So I went higher to try to pick them out but never got a good enough view. I was flying by eyesight, so I went where I thought I was behind them. And then started decending. It looked (by eye) that I was right over them and I was curious that when I decended that the burros took no notice of the Phantom. So I went to where I thought I was right in front of a lone burro, and he never reacted. Occasionally a picture would pop up on my screen, but no burro. I was running out of battery so brought it back and when I got home and looked at he sd card, I could see that I hadn't flown half the distance to where they were. The FAA isn't doing their cause any good by requiring that you be able to see your craft at all times. I have always found that just few hundred feet is too far to be able to judge distances between the aircraft and before I got the phantom, I never flew very far away to get the photos I wanted because they were seldom showing what I thought I would be capturing. Since I was building my own aircraft I just couldn't afford to add the cameras that broadcast back to your receiver and the reciever to see the images on. I already had go pro's and replay cameras and upgrading them when they came out with something I wanted, like a wifi connection, and goggles and such, I was out of my budget. Before I knew it I was a couple of years behind everyone else who were gobbling up all the new tech. Shortly before I got my Phantom, I was at a flying field and people came over to see my "primitive" ( that's the word one guy used) flying machines. So when I saw my son's Phantom4 I knew I had to have one, so I sold my airstream trailer to buy one. It was old, the trailer.
So now I have a quad that doesn't need me to keep my eyes glued to it to keep it in the air. And a camera that takes better pictures than any other cameras I have, except my sony slr that I can lift with my hexacopter. The christmas video has not been done because of me spending my time trying to get the video transmission signal to work so I can video the christmas video that I planned when I sent off for the Phantom. I am now planning on doing the video without being able to see what I'm doing, but confident that it will be better than it would have been if I was just using my own multirotors, and afraid to do anything that might make matters worse by taking more actions to fix the problem. My wife says I'm a world class complainer. I wouldn't want anyone thinking that I am an unhappy person. With all my complaining, you can't see the smiles that occasionally cross my face, but they do. I look forward to getting up in the mornings and tackling what the day presents me with. Maybe I'll just wait till after the Christmas Video is done to clear the slate and start drawing again. But I won't give up. And thanks to you Erised, (like the name) and the others who have offered their help. I wish you all a happy holiday season. Good health. And peace.
MikeyP-- over--
 
For my Phantom 3 - I used Note 2, 3 and 4 .
After upgrading to Phantom 4 - I see these same green glitches - but not as bad as the op.
It records perfectly - so I think(hope) its not a camera issue - more android app issue.
Galaxy Note 2 has just a black screen.
Galaxy Note 4 mostly works - but the phone Completely Reboots after a few minutes of use or says "Disconnected" requiring a remote restart to regain control.
(Using Go and Go 4 - Video caches Off)

It only works flawlessly using my IPhone 6s - But its a Tiny Screen - would like get the Notes working again.
 

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