No signal

I can add to this. I bought a P3s last week. Did the upgrades and would get red loss of signal at about 30 m and RTH would kick in. Different locations, and not in beginner mode. Took it back got another one. New one flies perfectly, plenty of range. Everything is the same (locations, tablet, etc) except I did not update the FW. I agree It could be a lot of things, but I think I will wait on the FW upgrade until there is more info. Hope this gets solved
Exactly my point. If you upgrade to the new firmware with the new bird, there's a chance you may end up with "no signal" again.
 
You obviously didn't read my post. It doesn't affect everybody because of the different chipsets in the remote controls. That's why it doesn't affect "everyone". It is a DJI problem, they have stated this many times. And you are correct that there are only two controller versions, an A and a B, but technically there are different chipset versions on the boards inside the remote, and that is all of the difference in the world. The firmware works with some chipsets and fails on others, regardless of whether the remote is an A or B.
This is EXACTLY the problem. DJI needs to work on their regression testing a bit more, but that is very time consuming and costly to do. I am praying that they release a new firmware update to the RC controller soon. This is clearly a LightBridge chipset problem - not a camera problem. I display the histogram and can see it change on my iPad when I move the UAV around, so it's definitely receiving information from the camera. Yup, it's a LB/chipset problem for sure.
I am waiting to update the firmware on my other machine as I have a big demo coming up on the 2nd and need a machine to fly.
 
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This is EXACTLY the problem. DJI needs to work on their regression testing a bit more, but that is very time consuming and costly to do. I am praying that they release a new firmware update to the RC controller soon. This is clearly a LightBridge chipset problem - not a camera problem. I display the histogram and can see it change on my iPad when I move the UAV around, so it's definitely receiving information from the camera. Yup, it's a LB/chipset problem for sure.
I am waiting to update the firmware on my other machine as I have a big demo coming up on the 2nd and need a machine to fly.
That has been mentioned before several times-- if that is the case- send it in and let them fix it -- that also has been mentioned several times
 
Send it in
I'm at the point where I may have to send it in. I was hoping DJI would get off their butts and release a fix so I wouldn't have to send it in. I've read stories of people sending their birds in and receiving refurbished ones back, which I'm not ok with. I didn't pay $1,500 for a new drone that is flawless besides the firmware so I could swap it out with a refurbished one. A firmware update to fix the remote would be the logical solution here. If one isn't released, DJI will be dealing with repairing the "no signal" issue for a long long time, because many users have phantom 3's and have never updated the firmware, and when the do they may be hit with the "no signal" problem. Other users may not fly as much as most of us here on the forum, and may have theirs sitting for a few months before they get it out, get the message to update, then are greeted with the "no signal" issue after they update. DJI needs to pull their head out of their a$$ and release a fix. Regardless of what one thinks, the majority of phantom 3 owners are not on this forum, and are not out flying their phantom 3's every week, and they certainly are not updating their firmware every month, and that is why this issue will continue to drag out until an update is released. I'd be willing to bet that half of the phantom 3's sold, haven't even been updated from their original firmware version that the customers bought it with,
 
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I'm at the point where I may have to send it in. I was hoping DJI would get off their butts and release a fix so I wouldn't have to send it in. I've read stories of people sending their birds in and receiving refurbished ones back, which I'm not ok with. I didn't pay $1,500 for a new drone that is flawless besides the firmware so I could swap it out with a refurbished one. A firmware update to fix the remote would be the logical solution here. If one isn't released, DJI will be dealing with repairing the "no signal" issue for a long long time, because many users have phantom 3's and have never updated the firmware, and when the do they may be hit with the "no signal" problem. Other users may not fly as much as most of us here on the forum, and may have theirs sitting for a few months before they get it out, get the message to update, then are greeted with the "no signal" issue after they update. DJI needs to pull their head out of their a$$ and release a fix. Regardless of what one thinks, the majority of phantom 3 owners are not on this forum, and are not out flying their phantom 3's every week, and they certainly are not updating their firmware every month, and that is why this issue will continue to drag out until an update is released. I'd be willing to bet that half of the phantom 3's sold, haven't even been updated from their original firmware version that the customers bought it with,
Send it in and let them fix it-- obviously the answer is not in the forum-- since you have tried everything and "it is DJI's fault" this is probably your only option.
 
The last time I sent in my Phantom for repair, it took me 02:20 holding on the phone for a tech. Then I had to send it in to CA which took a week. Then another month for them to acknowledge it in their system and queued for repair. Then another month and half for it come back to me as a refurbished unit. And I swear that the replacement unit does not fly as well as the brand new one that bought to get me through the project I had to complete. Very disappointing to say the least.
 
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You obviously didn't read my post. It doesn't affect everybody because of the different chipsets in the remote controls. That's why it doesn't affect "everyone". It is a DJI problem, they have stated this many times. And you are correct that there are only two controller versions, an A and a B, but technically there are different chipset versions on the boards inside the remote, and that is all of the difference in the world. The firmware works with some chipsets and fails on others, regardless of whether the remote is an A or B.
So what you are getting at is that there are several different version A controllers, and several different version B controllers. I can see that happening. But cant particularly see this as a bug that could have made it past beta testing. The only way it could is if none of the testers have that right combination. Which would lead one to believe that its a very rare issue. That seems not to be the case here on PP.
 
The last time I sent in my Phantom for repair, it took me 02:20 holding on the phone for a tech. Then I had to send it in to CA which took a week. Then another month for them to acknowledge it in their system and queued for repair. Then another month and half for it come back to me as a refurbished unit. And I swear that the replacement unit does not fly as well as the brand new one that bought to get me through the project I had to complete. Very disappointing to say the least.
PilotHal, I couldn't agree with you more, DJI's lack of customer service is very disappointing to say the least. Your experience is that same as myself and others have experienced, and the exact reason I'm hoping for a fix so I don't have to send my unit in. My unit is flawless aside from the "no signal" issue that immediately started after the update. I'd be livid if I sent it in and received a refurbished unit. So many customers have been affected by this, I'm wondering if lemon law comes into effect or class action action suit would get their attention. I'd be ok with a new unit sealed in the box, but it would make so much more sense just to release an update to fix the controller firmware.
 
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So what you are getting at is that there are several different version A controllers, and several different version B controllers. I can see that happening. But cant particularly see this as a bug that could have made it past beta testing. The only way it could is if none of the testers have that right combination. Which would lead one to believe that its a very rare issue. That seems not to be the case here on PP.
You nailed it! At first, but your statement about this being "rare" and not the case here is incorrect. As a professional that's re-engineered software applications for a living, as well as having built hundreds of computers and tested numerous software applications against different motherboard chipsets, it's very easy for something like this to make it past beta testing. I'm speaking from experience, more than 20 years of it. Even companies as big as Microsoft and Dell suffer these same issues. A perfect example, is several years ago I was building a network for around 200 clients and I ordered 50 of the same model Dell pc's, installed my base loads and everything ran fine on each computer on the network. A few weeks later when I started the second phase of my roll out, I ordered another 50 of the exact same Dell pc's and installed the exact same base loads on them. Can you guess what happened? A feature inside one of my accounting programs was broken. This was due to a slight change (I believe it was one chip) in the Chipsets used on the boards for the exact same model computer, just a few weeks later. Eventually a patch was released that included the files that were needed to allow the feature to function again. So do you see now, how this isn't exactly rare and these sort of things make it let beta testers all of the time. That being said, DJI only deals with one application, DJI GO, and a handful of tablets (hardware platforms), so they failed miserably at what should have been a relatively easy task for any engineer with 3% of a brain. And don't forget.....we are their beta testers, and that's why this they keep having issues with their firmware. Being an 8 billion dollar company, you would think they would reinvest some money into a real team of beta testers, not the general public.
 
I briefly got it to work!
I had Verizon FiOS app running in the background. This is a very resource intensive video app. So I killed it off and got my video back!
Exited the app and then went back in and no image. I tried to narrow it down to a specific app that might be hogging the video resources; also rebooted my iPad several times. No joy.
There is definitely a firmware/software issue going on here. No doubt. There is nothing wrong with my camera or gimbal. I bet they are working on a software fix.
 
You nailed it! At first, but your statement about this being "rare" and not the case here is incorrect. As a professional that's re-engineered software applications for a living, as well as having built hundreds of computers and tested numerous software applications against different motherboard chipsets, it's very easy for something like this to make it past beta testing. I'm speaking from experience, more than 20 years of it. Even companies as big as Microsoft and Dell suffer these same issues. A perfect example, is several years ago I was building a network for around 200 clients and I ordered 50 of the same model Dell pc's, installed my base loads and everything ran fine on each computer on the network. A few weeks later when I started the second phase of my roll out, I ordered another 50 of the exact same Dell pc's and installed the exact same base loads on them. Can you guess what happened? A feature inside one of my accounting programs was broken. This was due to a slight change (I believe it was one chip) in the Chipsets used on the boards for the exact same model computer, just a few weeks later. Eventually a patch was released that included the files that were needed to allow the feature to function again. So do you see now, how this isn't exactly rare and these sort of things make it let beta testers all of the time. That being said, DJI only deals with one application, DJI GO, and a handful of tablets (hardware platforms), so they failed miserably at what should have been a relatively easy task for any engineer with 3% of a brain. And don't forget.....we are their beta testers, and that's why this they keep having issues with their firmware. Being an 8 billion dollar company, you would think they would reinvest some money into a real team of beta testers, not the general public.
You are, unfortunately, wrong in MANY ways! True, software in a PC world can,and always does, easily make it through the BETA testing process still containing bugs because there are literally billions of combinations of hardware and potentially conflicting software problems that can exist on release. This is compounded by a PC market that changes DAILY! I have 4 Dell Optiplex 780s on my desk that all have different processors, different video cards, and different brand hard drives. Thats the way the computer world has ALWAYS been. The issue is, again, that there are BILLIONS of hardware combinations fort software developers to manage the testing and proper functionality with.

DJI doesnt have that problem. THEY created the controller. THEY created the P3 "motherboard". And THEY created the every other piece of hardware involved internally. Then the software devs AT DJI created the app. There is no outside mysterious manufacturer changing the chipset. The only changes are those DJI chose to make. So they obviously know about them. THEN comes the display device... tablets/phones. The iOS side of the world is a lot easier. There is only really one operating system (we will get to updates later). And there are REALLY only a few varying parts in the hardware realm. Apple doesn't have 50 processors, 1000 sound chips, 50 different video processors.... They have THREE processors, ONE sound processor, and I think its 2 video processors. The point is that in the apple realm, there are very few variables. And really only about 4 versions of the OS. Even a jailbroke iOS device is the same OS with a switch flipped. The Android world is almost as crazy as the PC world! 15 companies making phones each with 10+ phone models. And all of those with totally different hardware inside. Then add to that about 6 versions of Android OS that have now been bastardized to make some versions work in hardware that wasn't designed to work in due to Rooting. There are hundreds of thousands of variables.

The BETA testing process for DJI is very extensive! Pre-beta is done by a few hundred people for a short term. Usually about a week these days. Then they go to full beta with a few thousand people globally. All using different display devices, but still we all fly the same few KNOWN iterations of DJIs own hardware. They know what hardware their testers are using, and they know what display devices we have. Do some bugs make it through still... sure. But its NOTHING like the testing process in the PC world with tens of thousands of people testing on hundreds of thousands of hardware bases.

I manged a computer store for a huge chunk of my life. Im typing now on a machine that cost over $8000 to build. There are SEVEN computes on my desk. All specifically built for their own particular jobs. And they do them perfectly! $70,000 tied up in a rack of servers down stairs for web hosting and media streaming. I AM the computer world. I am a tester for about a dozen software companies. And I have been a beta tester for DJI for over a year. They all make mistakes. They all let problems through from time to time. But THIS problem making it past testers only means that it has to be a specific issue to display devices. There is no way that none of the beta testers have their hands one one of the few different combinations of DJI hardware. What customers are told, and what actually fits isnt always the same thing. What is real, and what customers believe is rarely the same thing!
 
What is real is that this problem is affecting many owners of both the phantom and the Inspire. I can only hope dji does not take the same line as you, chalking it up to our tablets and we're on our own forever more with that. I certainly hope they are working on a fix.
 
You are, unfortunately, wrong in MANY ways! True, software in a PC world can,and always does, easily make it through the BETA testing process still containing bugs because there are literally billions of combinations of hardware and potentially conflicting software problems that can exist on release. This is compounded by a PC market that changes DAILY! I have 4 Dell Optiplex 780s on my desk that all have different processors, different video cards, and different brand hard drives. Thats the way the computer world has ALWAYS been. The issue is, again, that there are BILLIONS of hardware combinations fort software developers to manage the testing and proper functionality with.

DJI doesnt have that problem. THEY created the controller. THEY created the P3 "motherboard". And THEY created the every other piece of hardware involved internally. Then the software devs AT DJI created the app. There is no outside mysterious manufacturer changing the chipset. The only changes are those DJI chose to make. So they obviously know about them. THEN comes the display device... tablets/phones. The iOS side of the world is a lot easier. There is only really one operating system (we will get to updates later). And there are REALLY only a few varying parts in the hardware realm. Apple doesn't have 50 processors, 1000 sound chips, 50 different video processors.... They have THREE processors, ONE sound processor, and I think its 2 video processors. The point is that in the apple realm, there are very few variables. And really only about 4 versions of the OS. Even a jailbroke iOS device is the same OS with a switch flipped. The Android world is almost as crazy as the PC world! 15 companies making phones each with 10+ phone models. And all of those with totally different hardware inside. Then add to that about 6 versions of Android OS that have now been bastardized to make some versions work in hardware that wasn't designed to work in due to Rooting. There are hundreds of thousands of variables.

The BETA testing process for DJI is very extensive! Pre-beta is done by a few hundred people for a short term. Usually about a week these days. Then they go to full beta with a few thousand people globally. All using different display devices, but still we all fly the same few KNOWN iterations of DJIs own hardware. They know what hardware their testers are using, and they know what display devices we have. Do some bugs make it through still... sure. But its NOTHING like the testing process in the PC world with tens of thousands of people testing on hundreds of thousands of hardware bases.

I manged a computer store for a huge chunk of my life. Im typing now on a machine that cost over $8000 to build. There are SEVEN computes on my desk. All specifically built for their own particular jobs. And they do them perfectly! $70,000 tied up in a rack of servers down stairs for web hosting and media streaming. I AM the computer world. I am a tester for about a dozen software companies. And I have been a beta tester for DJI for over a year. They all make mistakes. They all let problems through from time to time. But THIS problem making it past testers only means that it has to be a specific issue to display devices. There is no way that none of the beta testers have their hands one one of the few different combinations of DJI hardware. What customers are told, and what actually fits isnt always the same thing. What is real, and what customers believe is rarely the same thing!
III%Steve....did you really just type "I am the computer world"? Lmao. Reading your last post sounds like a bunch of fluff from someone pretending to know a lot about computers, but I see right through it because I really do know hardware and software. I've been building computers, networks, and writing software for the past 20 years. Not to mention scripting applications, reengineering platforms and beta testing. I didn't just manage a computer store. Most people I know that manage computer stores do it because they didn't posses the knowledge or expertise to become a software engineer or hardware engineer. Most people on this board think that you work for DJI, because of they way you defend them and claim that there are no issues, but we all know better. If you worked for DJI, then you would admit to the issues, especially the "no signal" issue that three different DJI techs on separate occasions have admitted to as being a huge problem for them and that the number of calls regarding the "no signal" issue is increasing every week. Since you stated that it has to be a display device, and not the RC firmware, then please explain to us why it works fine on some iPads and not on others of the exact same model with the a clean load of the iOS? My iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 both display the "no signal", running virgin loads with either iOS 8 or iOS 9, DJI GO 2.3, and DJI GO 2.4. The variable is the DJI RC, NOT the tablet or iPhone that has always worked fine before the update. Not to mention others with the my same setup are actually working fine with the new version, and my guess along with some others that work for DJI believe it's the different chipsets inside the remotes.
 
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What is real is that this problem is affecting many owners of both the phantom and the Inspire
That only further proves its a tablet issue and not a DJI hardware issue. I never said they shouldnt address or fix it. But determining the cause is obviously the first step. It also keeps people from going off making ridiculous demands and misguidedly assigning blame.
 
So you haven't updated to the newest firmware yet? Be careful if you do, you may end up with "no signal" like a lot of us. I agree with you, DJI definitely has something whacked on their end.
I have the latest bird firmware, latest Go App, 9.1 ios, but I have not updated the rc to the latest stand alone firmware update. I'm one behind that. I have had this issue from the start, everything being the same except for running ios 8.1 on my air2. It seems to have calmed down but I did get a momentary red flicker of no signal on my last flight, without it actually affecting my live feed. So, I'm not confident I've eradicated completely, but I hope I've squashed the worst of it. Time will tell.
 
That only further proves its a tablet issue and not a DJI hardware issue. I never said they shouldnt address or fix it. But determining the cause is obviously the first step. It also keeps people from going off making ridiculous demands and misguidedly assigning blame.
If you think it's a tablet issue, then why does getting a new RC fix the issue? Please enlighten us!
 

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