Lost Video

[rbhamilton]

Today I was out buzzing around and half way through the flight at 300M in the air and 1.7km away from my launch point, my video froze on the phone. Well that's a long way so perhaps I lost the wifi connection. I brought it back, shut everything down, rebooted the phone, powered up again - still no video. I could control the elevation of the camera and could turn it on and off. It will record video to the memory card. But no video transmission to the phone.

I'm thinking perhaps the WiFi transmitter on the drone has died?

One other detail... I never use the booster app but I did buy it. It's never done anything so far for me. Neither boosted nor interfered with the video. Mostly I don't use it. Today I thought I'd try it. Any chance this is related?

Anyway just curious where a guy would start trouble shooting things?

 

[Fplvert]

So your screen is black but everything else works?
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=20006

 

[rbhamilton]

Yep. That's my problem to a T. Thanks for the link. Time to head over to my buddy MultiRotorHeli. He just lives down the street. But ****... those WiFi modules aren't cheap. $189 sound fair? Ouch.

 

[4wd]

First try un-installing the app completely and re-install.
This has been known to fix it it.
Ideally try a different device even if you just borrow it.
You do need a certain amount of free space on it too as it's quite a tough application to run.

 

[vortigern]

This is no help to solving the problem but I am resolved to it, I fireup the Phantom and fly it until the battery runs out everything works as it should. I then take out the battery change it for a new one fire it up and everything works EXCEPT the video to the phone. I then reload the app and still nothing. I then leave the Phantom until the next day exactly as it was. I then fire it up and everything works INCLUDING the video to the phone. Should I then swap over to another battery the same thing happens again. I have consulted my local place RC Geeks in Crawley and despite the attraction to them of selling another wi fi module they say they do not see how it would make any difference as it would be a similar module. In desperation I might try it however one day. It seems a quite common problem to a lot of Phantome owners.

 

[rbhamilton]

I fireup the Phantom and fly it until the battery runs out everything works as it should. I then take out the battery change it for a new one fire it up and everything works EXCEPT the video to the phone.

Ya that sounds like the same issue as mine. Probably nothing to do with the battery change. More likely the WiFi module in your drone is failing. It overheats on a long flight and cuts out. You let it cool down for a couple of hours and it fires back up. I've discovered this is a well known issue experienced by many owners. DJI should do a recall and replace the faulty WiFi units but good luck with that. If you can live with things they way they are then don't do anything until it totally fails.

Since yours is still working a bit you might be able to open up the drone and install a heat sync on that silver WiFi unit but no guarantee it will make any difference.

If you want it fixed for sure you buy a new WiFi unit.

 

[vortigern]

I fireup the Phantom and fly it until the battery runs out everything works as it should. I then take out the battery change it for a new one fire it up and everything works EXCEPT the video to the phone.

Ya that sounds like the same issue as mine. Probably nothing to do with the battery change. More likely the WiFi module in your drone is failing. It overheats on a long flight and cuts out. You let it cool down for a couple of hours and it fires back up. I've discovered this is a well known issue experienced by many owners. DJI should do a recall and replace the faulty WiFi units but good luck with that. If you can live with things they way they are then don't do anything until it totally fails.

Since yours is still working a bit you might be able to open up the drone and install a heat sync on that silver WiFi unit but no guarantee it will make any difference.

If you want it fixed for sure you buy a new WiFi unit.

On the basis of what you say I think I should replace the wifi module otherwise there is no point having spare batteries. My only small worry is that my local suppliers says the replacement wifi modules are exactly the same. It is a real mystery.

 

[rbhamilton]

Ok... replaced my WiFi module and the problem went away instantly. So yep. It was the WiFi module.

I'm a bit lucky because I just live a few blocks away from http://www.multirotorheli.ca. Nabil is the guy who runs it out of his nice upscale house. But wow you should see his kitchen! More dead drones than you would ever believe. My wife would kill me. Talk about a hobby that got out of control.

Anyway he was busy on the phone but loaned me a couple of screw drivers (awesome screwdrivers I must say!) and let me do it myself. He looked over my work now and again but it wasn't hard at all. Even gave me a bit of a discount.

I swapped it out in about 10 min. It's super easy and as I said, totally fixed me up.

 

[vortigern]

Replacing the wifi module on initial testing anyway has solved the problem of the video connection. Althought I did notice one of the wires in to the wi fi module connections was very loose. It might be worth checking first jsut in case. I would add that the people at R C Geeks at Crawley thought it was unlikely to be a loose cable connection.

 

[plasmo]

Hey guys, my PV2+ video also stopped working today. At first I thought it was because I just switched over to an iPhone 6+ but also tried my sons iPhone 4 installing the Vision App, and just get a spinning "thinking" wheel when trying to view video.
The difference with my problem is that this happens from cold start. I have another battery so I will try swapping, but not sure why this would change anything.

To those who have this problem, is this what you saw on your screen (with a spinning wheel) on iPhone ?

 

[dmesen]

that is happening to me, tried it on an Iphone 5, Iphone 4s and a tablet, I can not see video

 

[illiceman11]

I have same problem except picture might come up for split second and then go away.I also click onto cameras and it says I need a sd card.It has been working great.