Can´t start the engines

Rufus · Feb 24, 2014

Hello.
I´m new on this board and also a new Phantom 2 owner. I´m from Sweden and I hope my english is good enough so You can understand my problem. I have had my Phantom for almost one week and haven´t take it out for a testflight yet. When I got it, everything worked well and I downloaded both the Phantom 2 assistant and the RC system assistant from DJI:s download site. Then I upgraded all firmware that needed to be upgraded. I have done all the nessecary calibration and now, the engines refuses to start. I have searched in every forum for some tip on how to solve this but cannot find any solution. The leds on the Phantom are blinking as they should, one green and 3 red, because I have it indoors and therefore it cannot find any satellites.
When I said that everything worked well at the beginning, I ment that the engines started and I could get the aircraft up in the air, not more than I could controle it since I was in my livingroom.
Is there something I can do to put everything back to factorysettings. I´m sure nothing has happened with the maschine because I haven´t crashed it against anything. Just a few smooth landings on my livingroomfloor, up for about one meter and gentlly back on the floor. I have the zenmuse-version and the gimbal works perfect.

RogerClark · Feb 24, 2014

Did you update the RC Transmitter to the new software version (0.19) if so, you need to re-calibrate the joysticks in the Phantom "Assistant software"

1. Connect the RC Transmitter to the PC. Run the RC Assistant. Make sure the joysticks move correctly, and calibrate the joysticks
2. Now connect the Phantom to the PC and run the Phantom "Assistant" software.
Goto the page which shows the joystick movement.
Re-calibrate the joysticks.

In my case the Throttle was not being received correctly

If this all looks OK. The motors should start.

If there is no communications between the RC Transmitter and the Phantom, look under the Phantom, and on the Phantom 2 there is a small LED, near the middle (not on the outer arms). If this LED is red, there is no contact between the RC transmitter and the Phantom.
Get a small screwdriver etc, and press the LED, it is also a button.

This will re-connect the Phantom to your RC transmitter, the LED should turn green.
(You may need to recalibrate again if you do this)

Other things that may be causing the problem

1. Did you fit prop guards (if so, the screws can damage the motors - I had this problem)
2. Are you near a wireless phone or lots of Wifi ? I noticed that my cordless home phone was interfering with the RC transmitter

Also. There is another calibration you can do on the RC Transmitter, without using the RC Software. I can't remember the exact procedure, but it may be in the manual, it involves pushing both joysticks up and turning the power on (but you need to read the manual or see a YouTube video as this is a bit complicated)

Anyway, I hope this helps

Rufus · Feb 24, 2014

Thank you for taking time and give such a detailed answer. I´ll test your suggestions tomorrow. It´s a quarter past twelve here in Sweden and it´s time to go to sleep.
I´ll be back and report tomorrow afternoon how it worked out.
Thanks again

Rufus · Feb 25, 2014

Good morning over there. I´m not sure if you have woken up yet, here it´s half past 10 in the morning and the sun is shining and it´s +7 Celsius. We have around 30 cm of snow here, up in the northern part of Sweden.
I´m shining too because when I did exactly as Roger told me to do, it all started to function again.
Thank You for your pedagogic description on how I would do to fix it. Even I understood how to fix the calibration so now I think I´m going to try the Quadcopter out in the nice weather for the first time.
Once again, THANK YOU ROGER.