Hi SteveVaus,
Using an iMac, here are the steps to access the .DAT files stored on the hidden SD card permanently mounted inside the Phantom 3.
Also see the attached photos for a clearer viewpoint.
These first four steps below are from the "Drones Made Easy" website… support.dronesmadeeasy.com/hc/en-us/articles/206171443
1. Power up everything with the Phantom 3 as if you were going to fly (except the props), and launch the DJI GO App.
Enter the camera view.
2. In the
MC Settings menu, choose
Advanced Settings. You can find the
MC Settings on the top leftcorner of the screen,
directly to the right of the
Home icon.
3. Scroll down, and select
Enter flight data mode.
4. The DJI GO app will prompt you to connect the drone to a PC or Mac via the USB to mini-USB cable included with your drone package.
The mini-USB port on the Phantom 3 is located on the front or nose of the drone, (and not the camera gimbal frame).
Plug the regular USB plug directly into your Mac (not a USB extension port box).
Note: This was done using a 2013 iMac running OSX 10.8.5, there may be some differences with different models and OSX versions.
5. Once you connect the drone to your computer wait to see if by chance it does mount to your desktop.
When it doesn't, open the application Disk Utility.
6. Select the disk
DJI DATA LOG. It will show listed in the left column of disks in Disk Utility.
You can select it even though it is not mounted to the desktop.
(Be sure to choose the root disk
DJI DATA LOG file and not the DJI FLY LOG file).
7. When the disk
DJI DATA LOG is highlighted, select the New Image icon in the top row.
This will present the dialog box shown, asking what to name it, where to save it and what format.
(I've chosen compressed with no encryption).
8. Be prepared to wait along time… The amount of time depends on how many .DAT files there are.
The entire SD card could be full. The Phantom records a .DAT file every time it is powered on,
regardless of flight or not. It only erases them when space is needed for newer files.
(I wouldn't start with the Phantom battery less than 50% charged).
9. Once the Disk Image is created on your Mac, double-click it, it will uncompress to a new window
(in temporary RAM memory only). Drag the files you want from there to a newly created folder on your computer.
That's it!
10. The FLYxx.DAT files will have considerably more recorded flight information than the
DJIFlightRecord text files that are copied from the DJI GO app.
The FLYxx.DAT files can now be analyzed for content, but how to do that is a whole different topic…
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