DJI Refurbished Store, Worth Buying?

[Mark The Droner]

Independent of the motors, the original "old motor" P3P has a model number of W323A, and the RC is model number GL300A. That's the one with the best range, and best video power output from the aircraft. The later motor birds (W323B and W323C and RC versions GL300B and GL300C) had a reduced range and video power output, but have a 10% increased flight time.

Are you sure this is right? You seem to be skipping one model number. The post linked below states the W323 (no trailing letter) has the most power in terms of watts...

Question P3pro w323 and remote 300a

...not trying to start a ruckus but I have the W323 which is why I'm asking...

...

Oh - I see the post is credited to you - haha

 

[Oso]

Are you sure this is right? You seem to be skipping one model number. The post linked below states the W323 (no trailing letter) has the most power in terms of watts...

Question P3pro w323 and remote 300a

...not trying to start a ruckus but I have the W323 which is why I'm asking...

...

Oh - I see the post is credited to you - haha

I was going to chime in with the same question Mark. Great minds...
The W323/300A combo is what I have always understood to be the best combo for folks who craved very long distance flight.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Because I already have a perfectly good, two-year old P3P and don't need another UAS, although I admit I might be tempted by a P5, and I envy those who fly the Mavic Pro with its collision avoidance capabilities. The day I think it is necessary for me to fly beyond the GL300C's 1.6 mile limit, I'll take your suggestion and buy a used GL300A. I do appreciate that suggestion and thanks for revealing the shortcomings of the GL300C vs the GL300A.

Enjoy!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Are you sure this is right? You seem to be skipping one model number. The post linked below states the W323 (no trailing letter) has the most power in terms of watts...

Question P3pro w323 and remote 300a

...not trying to start a ruckus but I have the W323 which is why I'm asking...

...

Oh - I see the post is credited to you - haha

Thanks for the correction, Mark! It's been a while (over two years) since I have dealt with any of my P3P's. The best P3P for range is indeed the W323 with the GL300A remote. GL300B RC is almost identical to the GL300A. It's the GL300C that was the worst, and also used with the P4.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I was going to chime in with the same question Mark. Great minds...
The W323/300A combo is what I have always understood to be the best combo for folks who craved very long distance flight.

Correct! Also the best RC to mod for even longer range! No effective way to mod the video downlink output power from the aircraft, so the model of aircraft with the highest power output from the aircraft is always best!

 

[Bad Andy]

Yes, it works just fine, as long as you stay within 1.6 miles. Beyond that, it is pretty much unusable. Certainly not useable to the rated control distance of over 3 miles.

No RF devices in creation can ever attain their advertised functional distances unless you can find someplace with line of sight and almost no radio interference. Nowadays between broadcast TV and radio, cell towers, emergency radio, data transmission systems, mesh networks, etc. that's almost impossible.

I always laughed about the little 100mw walkie-talkies at Radio Shack advertising one-mile range, while they couldn't even make it the length of a NYC outer borough block clearly. But the truth is that if you had a pair on remote mountain-tops a mile from each other (or even more!) they would in fact work just fine.

 

[GadgetGuy]

No RF devices in creation can ever attain their advertised functional distances unless you can find someplace with line of sight and almost no radio interference. Nowadays between broadcast TV and radio, cell towers, emergency radio, data transmission systems, mesh networks, etc. that's almost impossible.

I always laughed about the little 100mw walkie-talkies at Radio Shack advertising one-mile range, while they couldn't even make it the length of a NYC outer borough block clearly. But the truth is that if you had a pair on remote mountain-tops a mile from each other (or even more!) they would in fact work just fine.

The P4P in Auto 5.8Ghz actually delivers the advertised 4.3 miles with LOS over highly urban areas at 150 feet AGL.

 

[John Locke]

I was going to chime in with the same question Mark. Great minds...
The W323/300A combo is what I have always understood to be the best combo for folks who craved very long distance flight.

This is correct, and I have this combination for sale, perfect shape, with 4 excellent health batteries. It has the good firmware too, 1.6 package.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Can you tell me why 1.6 is the good package? Thanks...

 

[Ridgetop]

Hey guys, long time P2V flyer and looking to upgrade to a P3A or P3P. I just saw that DJI now has a REFURBISHED STORE is it worth buying a refurb or should I just go new?

I bought a refurb directly from DJI. Flew it a couple of times successfully. When I tried to update the firmware it puked and kept telling me the IMU was screwed up. So I called support and went through some tests and the rep told me I could return it since I had owned it for a short time and they would send me a new unit. I still had the original box so packed it up and returned it. Got a new one in about 2 weeks. The new one is great and I have had about 10 flights with it and successfully did a firmware upgrade. I believe I have the same warranty as a new unit. I almost always buy refurb from apple for ipads etc and have had great success.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

How can you tell if you have an "old motor" P3P?

 

[John Locke]

Can you tell me why 1.6 is the good package? Thanks...

This version doesn't have all the NFZ garbage, and it's has the battery fix to prevent the problems they had in cold climates. This version isn't locked either, parameters can be hacked to unlock the height restriction.

Most DJI owners always upgrade firmware because they think they are getting something for nothing, or there some kind of hidden bug that's fixed now, but that's a red herring. Generally speaking what you get is more oversight by DJI, more limitations & restrictions, and a warm feeling you have "the latest".

 

[Mark The Droner]

Thank you John. So if you had a P3, you'd go with 1.6? Right now I'm on 1.5.30+, but my GL300A is on 1.9.2

 

[John Locke]

Well, I'm not sure how you can get to 1.6 unless you go outside of the DJI upgrade path. If you upgrade via DJI they will take you all the way to today's version, which I think is 1.11. Maybe Github.com is a solution to acquire 1.6.

So 1.5 dates back to Nov 2015. Flying with that could be a problem if you live in cold climates. 1.6 has the auto throttle limitation when you reach 3.6V on any cell, and that's generally around 40%, if I remember correctly. At that voltage with 1.6 the craft will limit performance slightly to prevent you from pulling the battery down to 3.0V in cold climates. Your full throttle is basically governed to have about 75% I think. Generally 1.5 isn't a problem in mild climates, but if the battery is cold and you give it full up and full forward throttle for instance, there have been cases where the battery drops to 3.0V, and in that case the craft shuts down and falls from the sky. If any cell reaches 3.0V, the battery shuts down by design! That's why 1.5 was only out a couple weeks. I believe 1.4 had the same issue, but this issue isn't a problem in warmer climates when flying above 60F temps, generally speaking. When flying 1.5 you definitely need to display your cell voltage on the Go screen, and watch it like a hawk.

If I was you, if you live in warmer climates, I'd stay with 1.5. If it's working for you, fly it, but beware of your battery voltage toward the end of your flights. Go easy on the throttle after 40%.

 

[Mark The Droner]

I live in the mid Atlantic...

I know about the 3 v thing.

My understanding IIRC is 1.5.30 was a problem but 1.5.30+ solved the problem(s). I believe i read that in Oso's P3P post. I always pre-warm my battery in the kitchen oven so I don't think it will ever be below 25C.

No worries - I got a system

Thanks for your detailed answer!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Most of the crashes as a result of the 3.0V battery cell issue were while flying full throttle immediately on batteries that had not been topped off on the day of flight, and were already in a partial discharge state, where the cell voltages are not balanced during the discharge process, unlike the charge process. Ask me how I know!

 

[Oso]

Thank you John. So if you had a P3, you'd go with 1.6? Right now I'm on 1.5.30+, but my GL300A is on 1.9.2

My understanding IIRC is 1.5.30 was a problem but 1.5.30+ solved the problem(s). I believe i read that in Oso's P3P post.

As we know, 1.5 had known bad power related issues and was quickly replaced with 1.6 to fix the issues. gadgetguy and john locke noted this as well earlier. That's when a message was added "propulsion output is limited..." It is of course still a good practice to pre-warm batteries in cold weather, though using an oven sounds a little bit scary.

Also, since you have a "+" in your reported FW and since you have a FW higher than 1.6 on your RC (you said 1.9 on your 300A), it is almost certain that you are actually using a FW higher than 1.7 on your AC. You may recall that AC FW 1.8 and RC FW 1.6 were released together with an encryption change. If you have one (or later), you should have the other (or later) or you will have issues. DJI also noted this in the release notes.

 

[Mark The Droner]

My first setup as it came in the box was W323 and GL300C.

It showed

App 3.1.1

FW 1.5.30+

AC 1.9.2

Tested it, flew several times, everything seemed okay except my video camera would shut off intermittently.

But I had already bought a GL300A on eBay and so retired the C and linked the A. The A hadn't been used in a year.

When I went to link the A RC, the connection didn't work correctly, the lamp on the RC was flickering red/green and the FPV was horrible - a green color on the FPV screen for the most part. But what was odd was that my AC FW indicated I was on 1.11.20. How could that be, when I was on 1.5.30+ when I bought the system? I never upgraded the AC FW, so I don't know how it would magically change to 1.11.20.

Anyway, I figured I needed to upgrade the RC FW since it was a year old. So I did, and it upgraded successfully.

Then, I had to relink the RC and the AC. The solid green returned on the controller, and the FPV worked perfectly.

I tested and flew and it's like a dream come true. Even the camera problem resolved itself somehow.

But what is odd is it now shows this:

App 3.1.23

FW 1.5.30+

AC 1.9.2

So how did my AC fw go back down to 1.5.30+??? It must have falsely indicated 1.11.20 before... ?

I don't get it.

I know there was a serious bug in 1.5.30 but it's my understanding it was fixed in 1.5.30+.... ?

I suspect I might be wise to upgrade the AC FW to at least 1.8. OTOH, 1.5.30+ seems to be working perfectly .... so far.

Re the oven thing - no worries. I only put the oven on for 60 secs using the kitchen timer, then turn it off. The oven is still room temp when I turn it off! Then put battery and AC in and close the oven door for a few mins. The heat elements in the oven are still hot even with the oven off and so they warm the oven just a bit while the oven is turned off. Oven goes up to around 100F while turned off. So my battery starts out between 25-30C even when it's cold out. I had thoroughly tested this procedure several times before doing it and I've been doing it for.... well this is the third winter.

A penny for your thoughts...

 

[Oso]

1.5

My first setup as it came in the box was W323 and GL300C.

It showed

App 3.1.1

FW 1.5.30+

AC 1.9.2

Tested it, flew several times, everything seemed okay except my video camera would shut off intermittently.

But I had already bought a GL300A on eBay and so retired the C and linked the A. The A hadn't been used in a year.

When I went to link the A RC, the connection didn't work correctly, the lamp on the RC was flickering red/green and the FPV was horrible - a green color on the FPV screen for the most part. But what was odd was that my AC FW indicated I was on 1.11.20. How could that be, when I was on 1.5.30+ when I bought the system? I never upgraded the AC FW, so I don't know how it would magically change to 1.11.20.

Anyway, I figured I needed to upgrade the RC FW since it was a year old. So I did, and it upgraded successfully.

Then, I had to relink the RC and the AC. The solid green returned on the controller, and the FPV worked perfectly.

I tested and flew and it's like a dream come true. Even the camera problem resolved itself somehow.

But what is odd is it now shows this:

App 3.1.23

FW 1.5.30+

AC 1.9.2

So how did my AC fw go back down to 1.5.30+??? It must have falsely indicated 1.11.20 before... ?

I don't get it.

I know there was a serious bug in 1.5.30 but it's my understanding it was fixed in 1.5.30+.... ?

I suspect I might be wise to upgrade the AC FW to at least 1.8. OTOH, 1.5.30+ seems to be working perfectly .... so far.

Re the oven thing - no worries. I only put the oven on for 60 secs using the kitchen timer, then turn it off. The oven is still room temp when I turn it off! Then put battery and AC in and close the oven door for a few mins. The heat elements in the oven are still hot even with the oven off and so they warm the oven just a bit while the oven is turned off. Oven goes up to around 100F while turned off. So my battery starts out between 25-30C. I had thoroughly tested this procedure several times before doing it and I've been doing it for.... well this is the third winter.

A penny for your thoughts...

1.5.3+ is not a FW version. My guess is that you already have 1.8 or later on your AC since you have 1.9.2 on your RC. I would suspect that if you tried to install 1.6, you would get a message stating that, "The firmware on the SD card is identical to or older than the current firmware on the aircraft."

If you decide that you want to try, you can get all of the FW directly from DJI from this post.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Then why won't it tell me what FW I have?

I must have 1.11.20 since it indicated 1.11.20 before...