WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FLIGHT

[RCRookie]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

The reason I added this to the post was to point out to those with the older data pins...its a known condition and firmware may appear to be the culprit when it may not be.

 

[MStacey]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

How about they make the new style connectors available as a spare part

 

[gunslinger]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

How about they make the new style connectors available as a spare part

It is... Some soldering is needed...

-slinger

 

[benski]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Thanks for the sharing of information. It people don't follow these posts the first they will know about it is when their P2V falls out of the sky onto some unsuspecting passerby.

I work in a high risk industry and typically what happens when a product has an issue like this is a product bulletin is issued by the manufacturer and a spare or fix is released. I have looked on the DJI site under news, support and accessories and can't find the replacement part for the contact points..

The P2V is a great product but it would be much better if known issues were made known to owners through the DJI site and not through owners having to experience the issue first hand and then come looking to forums for a fix.

Having said that though I guess it is no different to companies like DELL or HP or Toyota or VW who typically keep quite on known issues until you really complain loud (or someone dies because the gearbox malfunctions - VW) and then they will fix for you...

 

[gunslinger]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

The reason I added this to the post was to point out to those with the older data pins...its a known condition and firmware may appear to be the culprit when it may not be.

Exactly... I was hovering at about ten feet just after takeoff (as I always do, to make sure all is well) when the lights started flashing red and it self-landed. This was not an RTH, as it didn't fly up to 60 feet before coming down. It also made no move towards the actual home point, which was around fifteen feet away. It just came straight down. After much searching I found that this had to be the dreaded battery data pin problem. This is the very first time I've experienced it. And yeah... I'd recently done a firmware update and initially blamed it.

When inspecting the pins, and the pads on the battery that they connect with, I noticed they looked a little grimy. I cleaned both pins and pads and haven't seen the problem since. I've added this to my pre-flight checklist...

Good call, Rook...

-slinger

 

[JimDE]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

That's guys ... I guess I will add a stop today at a hardware for some contact cleaner.....

As others said it be nice if DJI would share this kind of information so its customers could be pro active at avoiding major issues. The longer I own a DJI product the less likely I would ever buy another. Poor solder connections, known engineering issues that are not transparent, poor parts quality ( motor/ecu and camera focus issues for me so far) , probably the worse firmware/software releases I have ever seen, etc..... Anyone of these alone would cause one concern but all of these together in a month time frame well that is a definite red flag to recommending their products or ever rebuying any if their products again. You know the old burn me once attage..... For me their won't be a burn me twice.

This kind of corporate mentality and quality control might be acceptable in $300 kids toys but definitely not in $1200 photographic tools!

 

[Geoelectro]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

As an electronics technician I would suggest being very careful using contact cleaner. All cleaners are not the same. I use DeOxit D-5 exclusively. However, I use it very minimally as any cleaner can attract dirt etc.

I have found a dry but clean surface works better. I use a typewriter eraser to polish the surfaces. That would be both the battery and the pins. Then, take a cotton swab and apply the cleaner to that. Then rub the surfaces so a very light coating it left.

Geo

 

[JimDE]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Thanks Geoelectro, I will stop by granger electri and see if they have that and staples for the typewriter eraser ... I don't know much at all about electronics. Would not of minded a bit not to know much either but buying a DJI product looks like is changing that. :evil:

 

[JimDE]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Could not locate DeOxit D5 locally so I web ordered it.... they had DeOxit D5-6 but figured that was different

 

[twodips]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

As a retired network engineer and computer tech we always used a simple pencil eraser and either denatured or isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab to clean contacts on boards/memory chips etc. Just rubbed the eraser on some paper to be sure it's clean and off you go.

 

[JimDE]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Good to know... I have that stuff right now.

I am a old retired manufacturing management employee. If we had electronic's that failed we just would R&R the part and sent it back to the vendor as salvage. We did very little electronics repair in our facilities. Thus I never had to get involved with much of this even though our products had 18-22 separate computer type components within it. We just would identify the faulty component and R&R it to get our products out the door and in our customers hands.The only contact cleaner we had in the plant was CRC for the assembly/repair people. We had others in our tool stores for maintenance employee's. Honestly I had far more on my plate that I should of as all assembly managers do today and I am glad I did not have to add electronic knowledge to my list. I have been retired going on 7 years and not once have I missed not being at work. But, seeing manufacturing and firmware issues like DJI has shown the past 4 weeks it does tend to make me want to fire some people...........

 

[Migmon]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

I have a Phantom 2 Vision. I'm an experienced flyer and have been using it regularly since the Phantom 2 Vision came out, so many months ago. I have flown often and have good control and do not take many risks.

Today I updated to the latest 3.0 firmware. It's a normal weather day, clear with a slight wind. I went flying after doing the firmware update... flying well above open ground with no obstacles nearby. After about 5 minutes of flying, the motors simply stopped mid flight and the copter dropped to the ground, shattering the camera and blades. I could see this easily, because I was standing on my roof top deck and the copter was at eye level, but still about 100 feet above ground. It landed in a parking lot.

I was frankly shocked... since nothing like this has happened after months of use... but it happened just after doing a firmware update. I have regularly updated the firmware, so i was only upgrading from the previous version.

I'm trying to reach DJI, but they have a very long wait time on the phone. I need the machine for a trip i'm taking in just a few days.

Has anyone had anything happen like this before? Any thoughts on how to deal with this?

thanks.

had the same exact problem.. mine was my battery turned off midflight. call dji and get an RMA. unfortunately its only one guy that answers the phone and they are slammed. then wait 3 weeks to get your phantom back. search for my thread and you can see my story... Oh yeah B&h sold me the battery and told me i could go F myself, so they can suck a d

 

[JimDE]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

I am just curious how you root caused to the battery shutting off.......... just incase this issue ever happens to me. I figured after a crash it would be tough to root cause a loss of contact or a battery shut off.

 

[robschoemaker]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

My guess is that is has nothing to do with the firmware. Same happened to me also some time ago. See also:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8778
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11321&start=30#p107935

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a root cause yet ☹

regards Rob

 

[race3]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

i'm beyond astounded at how poor DJI customer service is. They have sent me a handful of nonsense emails and seem to care less about learning what went wrong on their copter that dropped from the sky!

 

[F6Rider]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

How about they make the new style connectors available as a spare part

It is available already.

http://www.helipal.com/djip2-06-dji-pha ... 3egmokgak0

I ordered a week ago or so.
I want to replace this powerblock because after every 10th flight I need to clean the battery contacts and the data pins.
If I don't do so then I will have problems reading the correct battery level during flights or a message that the battery is not original.
To replace this I need to take out the complete board and do some soldering too.

Geert.

Geert, I was going to order one of these to install (ounce of prevention and all) but from the order page it is not possible to tell if this is old stock, or the new (MWO) one, were you able to verify it is the new one?

 

[htownphantom]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Just wanted to follow this thread.Was going to try and sell my phantom 1 and upgrade but I think I will wait a while and see what happens

 

[Ozzyguy]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

Any complaints then vist and comment in this thread which will be Emailed to Dji once sufficient numbers are reached.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12392

 

[Skipholiday]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

If you purchased your Vision before March (not sure exactly when).. You can expect this exact scenario to possibly happen. Its already been shown the older style battery data pins (rounded point) is responsible for most loss of power incidents. The fix is replacing these data pins.... That might need to be done by yourself.. Or perhaps send your Vision in for this defect to be addressed. There may be software problems too. But there is nothing concrete on that, the data pins are the most likley culprits, clean them often with deoxit and/or an alcohol swab.

See more on this: http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3749&start=270

I'm not a Quadcopter expert... However, i did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

The Rookie

Is there a new battery design after March to fix this potential issue? If so, they should recall the old ones.

Follow this link to the story with the data pins...yes, newer models have 4 pronged data pins..the old ones were round and believed to be the cause of loss of power. I cannot say this current issue is not a product of bad revision software, but the symptoms are identical to the battery issues in the link here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=26583140&postcount=695

The fact DJI changed the contact points to a 4 pointed style indicates to me it is atleast the suspected source of the problem.
Those with the earlier models before the data pin change are atleast owed an opportunity to correct this defect.

Here is a pic of the changes made.

I bought my 1st vision 1-15-2014 the contacts look the same as the new ones.
Mine are on the right and the new ones are on the left, look exactly the same to me.

 

[MrC]

Re: WARNING REGARDS LATEST FIRMWARE! LOSS OF MOTOR PWR IN FL

My p2z that i bought in march has the old style. I'm looking for this new type too, to replace it. Not too happy about having to open her up and do surgery but seems there are definitely a few probs with battery/balance connector disconnection.