Confused about battery firmware upgrade

[Pointyhead]

I just finished all my tasks for the evening, so I thought I'd turn on the bird, and check the settings in the app that I haven't seen before. I bring everything up in sequence, and I get a firmware requires upgrade. I click on it and it says battery firmware upgrade. I click on it and it goes back to the main menu and the firmware warning is gone and everything appears normal. I don't get it, since I upgraded the firmware (1.6xx) last weekend and have already flown twice with no issues.

So what is this battery upgrade and how does one accomplish it?

I'm beginning to think this drone business is buggier than Windows ME.

 

[John Locke]

Each battery needs to be upgraded to 1.6. It's a shorter effort, about a minute. Use the same flash device and bin file as you did with the drone for the 1.6 update, but insert each of your other batteries and start it up and let it go through the battery upgrade process. The first battery you did your firmware upgrade to the bird is already programmed. Just do the same with all the other batteries you have. The bird won't be updated again, it will recognize that is already done and it just upgrades the battery in about a minute.

With the update to the battery you may notice slower horizontal acceleration and slower vertical ascent speed after your battery voltage reaches 3.6V (weakest cell of the 4). This is a governor to minimize high current draw, preventing the feared battery protection power shut down "feature" that DJI has built into the motherboard firmware.

 

[Pointyhead]

Ok, that got updated, although I had to do it twice since I got the same error when I powered it up again after the first time.

Now, should I leave the bin file on the SD card, or remove it? It appears that there are two schools of thought on the matter.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[John Locke]

There's no need to have the bin file anymore. Only use it if you buy another battery.

 

[Pointyhead]

OK, this is getting to the point of ridiculousness. I went out to fly yesterday and when I powered up, I got the battery firmware requires updating message again. Luckily, I can exit out and still fly, but why does it keep coming back? It's an OEM battery, it's gone away when I tested it twice in the house. The only thing I can think of that's different is that I took the bin file off the SD card and reinstalled it.

Any ideas on why I keep getting this error?

To recap: When I put the SD card in with the upgrade bin file, and turn it on, the red light blinks for 10 seconds while it beeps and the gimbal moves about, and then the light blinks green with no more sounds. I turn it off and power up the controller, then start the GO app. No error message.

 

[tcope]

Did you check the results file when you upgraded the battery? Of it stated the battery was upgraded then don't worry, the error will go away after a few uses.

 

[Pointyhead]

It never wrote a results file. When I did the initial upgrade to 1.6 right out of the box, with the boxed battery, I got the results file, as well as when I upgraded the controller. Then later I switched to use the second battery I bought and that's when I got the battery upgrade error. Then it went away. Now it's back. Are you saying I should just ignore it?

 

[John Locke]

You didn't say you updated the firmware in the second battery. Did you do that?

 

[Pointyhead]

You didn't say you updated the firmware in the second battery. Did you do that?

John, that's the problem. I am trying to update the second battery. When I got the P3A, I upgraded the firmware and the 1st battery. All was well. Then when I went to use the second battery, I got the "battery needs firmware update". I did, and it seemed to have worked as I cycled the copter and the remote several times in the house. When I took it outside a few days later to fly, I was greeted with "battery needs firmware update" again. I tried it again, even downloading the latest file from DJI again. Still get it on the second battery.

 

[Pointyhead]

Tonight, I went for a flight and when I used the #2 battery, I couldn't get the Battery Firmware Requires Update error to go away and the P3 would not engine start. Swapped in the #1 battery and got an IMU failure (no altitude information). I was starting to pack up, when I thought I'd restart and/or reboot the phone (iphone 6S+). I closed the DJI GO app and opened it and got a green safe to fly indication. Did a bit of really low level flying over grass till I got comfortable that all was well, and went up from there.

Getting back home, I have calibrated the IMU and gimbal, and tried the battery upgrade. It seems to have worked (of course, I have said that before!) as I'm not getting the error again. I have restarted it 3 times, taken the sd card out, removed the bin file, and reinstalled it in the bird, restarting it each time. Still no upgrade error. Lets hope it holds this time!

PH

 

[Pointyhead]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After doing everything (again) (see above post), I took the bird out Sunday afternoon. Put the #2 battery in. GOT THE BATTERY FIRMWARE UPDATE REQUIRED error message right off the bat. I closed the message and got a safe to fly message. Flew it down to 10% and then put in the #1 battery. It was fine.

I don't know why I can do the update, cycle through the power up and down in the house and it's fine, but take it out to the field to fly and I get the error!

Anybody else have this problem?

PH

 

[Pointyhead]

I think I have succeeded in getting the #2 battery's firmware updated. I was searching in the DJI Forums and I ran across one little sentence in one answer to a similar problem. As it turns out, you must have the RC Controller TURNED OFF while doing the upgrade using the SD card in the Phantom. Otherwise, it will not read the bin file. I tried it and I got a flashing red led while it was reading the card, a steady green when it finished and the proper beeps. It also wrote the text file that showed success. I haven't flown it yet, but it is further than I've gotten before.