I have just bought a Phantom 4 Pro as my first drone but I live in a no fly zone . All I get is the message"Cannot take Off" when all I want to do is to do the basic set up rules and then to go out of the no fly zone to fly. How can I over-ride this annoying setting?
UK No Fly Zone lock up
- Thread starter Chris Abram
- Start date
Do you actually need to T/O Chris? If so, don't cover the the GPS receiver and then T/O as you'll be in ATTI mode and could crash it or worse, lose it which, given you're in a NFZ could be pretty dangerous.... IMO.
Thanks for the reply.
I don't want to fly in the NFZ. I only want to set up the Phantom.Perhaps at the most a lift off in my garden. At the moment I cannot even get the machine to turn on the motors, although I can move the camera. Most frustrating.
Kind regards
Chris
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If you just want to set up all the parameters in the App why do you need to turn the motors on?? you just need to aircraft on to set up
richardhurst said exactly what I was going to say. You don't need to power-up the motors to undertake any calibrations, such as the gimbal, RC, compass and IMU and adjustments to say the camera settings, such as white balance, shutter speeds and resolution etc. I understand that it must be annoying that you can't start the motors at your home address, but I drive > 25 miles round trip to practice fly safely.
Good morning Richard,
Being new to this experience I thought that it was a way of checking that everything would be ready for flight prior to moving to somewhere where I could take off. I have now been told that I can go to the Dji app and arrange to fly in a no fly zone for a limited time.(Authorised) I will try that later in the week.
Thanks for your reply.
Kind regards
Unfortunately Chris, by being new to this experience, means you do not have any, especially on the control and orientation of your AC. I strongly suggest you do not T/O in your garden later this week, as your first flight will probably finish very abruptly and expensively. Please dont be fooled by those who say "they fly themselves" - honestly, they do not when they're piloted by someone who can't fathom which way to push the controls - that first time when you push it to go away from you and it comes at you at 25mph makes you draw breath....
RTM, and if you haven't already done so, watch the DJI tutorial videos (they're really good) and then RTM again then practice with the simulator. Then practice with the simulator more, watch the DJI tutorial videos and then RTM again. I didn't even take my P3 out of its box for three weeks as I RTM, watched the DJI tutorial videos, and then RTM again... When I finally did get it out and set-up, I practiced with the simulator - a lot - and read lots of threads on here too. I also bought books and downloaded a couple of more "in depth" ops manuals written by experienced pilots. In this case, preparation really is everything.
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Thanks for the reply and I have practiced quite a lot already. My friend suggested that I buy a Hubsan as a first machine. This I did and on my first flight outdoors in the garden, promptly flew over the fence to next door and was never seen again! I then bought another one, which I still have, but then decided to graduate to a "proper" machine.
I appreciate the advice and will test my dementia abilities over the weekend. There is nothing wrong with my machine as a friend has flown it successfully. The problem is my senility.
Kind regards
Thats all good, but a Hubsan doesn't cost nigh-on £2k and doesn't fly the same as a DJI. Whatever you do, Chris (apologies, but I've got it right this time!) please do not take your first flight in your garden. Get out of the NFZ to a much larger area and fly there. We have a large wide garden but believe me, even with a slight wind moving the AC around, it still feels very small when you're coming into land. When you've got more experience and confidence, then try it at home - by then you'll have the bug im sure! Oh, and I know exactly what you mean re. the "dementia" reference too! LOL!
Good luck!
Good morning Numone,
I took to heart your advice and went flying at my local beach, well away from people.
Flew and emptied battery No1 and then put in No2. I got a message saying that I needed to update my firmware... so I did. Flew up to about twenty feet and then the P4P just became totally uncontrollable despite trying to control it it just piled into the beach at high speed! Result being two pieces of landing gear broken.
I cannot see on other sites anything about bad firmware updates but perhaps you might have seen something?
As I live near Blackpool can you suggest anywhere that I can go to have the skids replaced?
Kind regards
Chris Abram
Oh dear, not good, Chris.
1/. In future, if you ever get a warning when you're out flying that you need to update FW or app or anything else - DON'T DO IT - you can safely ignore those messages 'til you're home.
2/. You don't need to be connected to the internet to fly, so don't; put the phone / device in airplane mode.
3/. There are no bad FW updates; if that was the case, everyone's AC / RC would be affected.
4/. Given your description, I suspect that you had a compass or IMU error which caused the irratic behaviour.
I've no idea where in your area you can get it repaired, but I suspect it could be a DIY repair, but as the P4P has the avoidance sensors in the landing legs, it maybe more complex. Can I also suggest, Chris, that you spend some more time learning how these AC fly and, what you do and do not need to do in terms of updates and, especially given what's happened today, how to fly and control them in ATTI mode, so you learn what to do when things go wrong.
The DJI Forum shows quite a few complaints about the last firmware update for P4P. Drones showing erratic behaviour, being uncontollable etc.
Some people are trying desperately to downgrade. There seems to be a pattern and what Chris describes falls into this.
Maybe there is something like a bad FW update? I have done it but didn't have a chance to fly yet...
Some people are trying desperately to downgrade. There seems to be a pattern and what Chris describes falls into this.
Maybe there is something like a bad FW update? I have done it but didn't have a chance to fly yet...
No BAD firmware updates????? Congrats...you win for most ridiculous statement of the year my friend...lol
Hmmmmm.. interesting. How do you explain the 100,000's of Phantom owners globally that have undertaken the updates without a single issue? FW is software; if it's broken, then it's broken for everyone. If there is a bug in the FW, then it effects everyone. What it does not do, is become sentient and decide to screw with your RC or AC and leave others alone.
You are talking NONSENSE. How do YOU explain the THOUSANDS of people who are having trouble with the firmware updates? You calling them all too stupid to do a firmware update correctly like the rest of the DJI lapdogs are? Your assumption that if a firmware update runs on thousands means it should run well on ALL is just straight up ridiculous. Many firmware and software updates in the computer industry can run fine on one machine and not another. That's just common sense. Also, a lot of people who are NOT having problems yet are due to the fact that they have not flown yet or flown in different areas of the country where they live. Therefore they haven't been affected YET by the dreaded NFZ issue.
Yes, you're quite correct and thanks for pointing that out - you simply cannot compare computer software updates and patches, which are produced by 1000's companies, downloaded and then run on 100's of different computer manufacturers hardware, that have 100's of different 3rd party components, with FW updates, made by and for that manufacturer product line. And no, I'm not calling anyone stupid but you are being a little naive by disputing the technological facts. The fact is, there is a tiny proportion of DJI Phantom owners that have issues; the vast majority, do not. People naturally complain when something goes wrong - they need to vent and seek a solution to solve their issue. What people don't do, is shout about it when it goes right.
For what its worth I have personally had NO PROBLEMS with the firmware updates themselves. What I DO have problems with is the ridiculous NFZ maps DJI has implemented with no REAL way around them regardless of how inaccurate they are. This is what MOST people are complaining about. Many people DO NOT have this problem and congrats to them. They better just hope they don't travel out of their safe areas and get stuck looking like a shmuck in front of family and friends when your "ridiculously expensive" little toy doesn't work! The way things are going it looks like this is only going to get worse. To deny this is to deny reality.
The simple truth is that no one outside of DJI knows what the failure rate is for their aircraft and controllers and whether it is bad electronics or bad firmware or a combination of factors. The DJI Care program is a partial admission that they do sell faulty aircraft and distribute flawed firmware. It would be remarkable if something as complex as a Phantom drone could be provided with new firmware to add new functionality or to restrict existing functionality and have these changes not result in problems. It would take sophisticated test engineers with automated testing tools that are running testing scripts and few companies take the time or incur the expense to do this.
There have been bugs with automobile firmware and commercial passenger plane firmware that have resulted in fatalities, and these did not run Windows so it demonstrates that even in a controlled well designed operating system there can be bugs in routines that are first discovered by customers. There were very good reasons why professional IT managers would wait for Microsoft to release Service Pack 1 and then wait another 30 days to be sure it did not introduced new bugs before doing a rollout on thousands of users desktops - a potential career killer to be sure.
There have been bugs with automobile firmware and commercial passenger plane firmware that have resulted in fatalities, and these did not run Windows so it demonstrates that even in a controlled well designed operating system there can be bugs in routines that are first discovered by customers. There were very good reasons why professional IT managers would wait for Microsoft to release Service Pack 1 and then wait another 30 days to be sure it did not introduced new bugs before doing a rollout on thousands of users desktops - a potential career killer to be sure.
