P3P onwers - think twice before upgrading firmware

[UpLift Aerial]

Should I try flying with this FW?

 

[AlexVM]

Today my first drone arrived a brand spanking new p3 advanced. After charging and reading all the bumf it came withi opened the dji go app. RC firmware upgrade required so as a well behaved novice I did as I was told, complete. Reboot your RC now....and it's never powered up again. DJI chat were less than helpful so back it goes tomorrow hopefully I might even get the next aircraft off the ground

 

[Roamer105]

Should I try flying with this FW?

Try it out. Make sure to go through a full check of all settings and calibrate the compass. Then take it up a bit and let it hover. Make sure it is stable. Then take it out to some distance. Look for video downlink issues (choppy video breaking up etc) while the signal strength is still good. If it passes all that, you are fine.

I downgraded but experienced the same problem. Now I am suspecting my iPhone 7 is having issues. I now removed ALL DJI drone related software and reinstalled it from scratch. I'll do another test tomorrow. If the problem is fixed I will slowly upgrade again.

 

[UpLift Aerial]

Try it out. Make sure to go through a full check of all settings and calibrate the compass. Then take it up a bit and let it hover. Make sure it is stable. Then take it out to some distance. Look for video downlink issues (choppy video breaking up etc) while the signal strength is still good. If it passes all that, you are fine.

I downgraded but experienced the same problem. Now I am suspecting my iPhone 7 is having issues. I now removed ALL DJI drone related software and reinstalled it from scratch. I'll do another test tomorrow. If the problem is fixed I will slowly upgrade again.

I took it for a flight this morning and the range sucks now!

 

[Roamer105]

After cleaning up my iPhone and re-installing the apps from scratch, it seems to work a lot better. I had downgraded both the AC back to the 1.10 firmware (November 2016) and the RC back to 1.6. But before cleaning up the iPhone, the video problems were the same as with the latest firmware. So, now, I am slowly upgrading again: Starting with the RC to the latest version, but leaving the AC alone for now. Of course I had to re-link after upgrading the RC - no problem.

 

[Neon Euc]

That's why I fly litchi. Thankfully the DJI go app hardly affects it. It has done once or twice in the past but litchi always gets it fixed in a day or two. Not sure why people still use DJI go. I only use it for calibrating but litchi has that now I think

 

[Roamer105]

That's why I fly litchi. Thankfully the DJI go app hardly affects it. It has done once or twice in the past but litchi always gets it fixed in a day or two. Not sure why people still use DJI go. I only use it for calibrating but litchi has that now I think

Unfortunately the problem actually manifested itself mainly with Litchi (FPV). I removed all of these apps and started over re-installing them. Now things look better (not yet sure if the problem is really fixed).

 

[LMM]

Until DJI comes out with a fix to this totally screwed up update - stay away from it. I took the plunge and after a few flights and all kinds of attempts to fix the problems, I am putting my dear P3P on the shelf.

It is incredibly frustrating to find out that after the firmware upgrade I can no longer fly out without loosing connection and/or breaking up video feed. it is almost like the RF power has been reduced on both, the bird and the RC. I have NEVER seen RC up signal (control) go weak at less than one mile distance in a wide open and far away from RF noise area (desert). Meanwhile the video feed breaks up intermittently even at 20 feet distance.

Only a few days ago with the older firmware on both the RC and the AC, I few a 15 minute mission with over two miles in RF distance over mountains and through canyons sometimes not within clear line of sight and NEVER saw either signals drop below 100% and not a single glitch on the video down feed. With the current firmware I could not possibly repeat this mission.

Of course, there is no way to downgrade the firmware. I tried - It will not let me do it. It simply reports this in the firmware text file:

========== 2014.01.01 00:00:12 remo-con disconnect======
Packet: P3X_FW_V01.10.0090.bin
Result: Abort.
The current firmware does not support downgrade. Use a different version of firmware to downgrade the target version.

Same, same problam...

 

[Jamie1131]

After I upgraded the firmware I thought I was having similar issues, signal dropping out at 3000ft when previously I have flown 8000ft with no problems.
Yesterday I tried another flight in near perfect conditions and I managed 9800ft without any problems at all, the video stream continued to function perfectly the whole time and I would have felt comfortable going further.

 

[MTChristy]

Personally, I have seen absolutely no plausible reason to update firmware at all. I am still flying with 1.8.8 and no issues at all. Nothing can convince me that the updates do anything positive for the operation of the aircraft, or at least I should say that DJI will inform you of. If it flies to your satisfaction, don't mess with it.

A few days ago I tried to fly my P3, and until I updated the firmware it would not let me run the go app. In other words, it forced me to do the update so I could fly. Haven't seen any he'll fax, but I thought that was rude!

 

[jklar]

Until DJI comes out with a fix to this totally screwed up update - stay away from it. I took the plunge and after a few flights and all kinds of attempts to fix the problems, I am putting my dear P3P on the shelf.

It is incredibly frustrating to find out that after the firmware upgrade I can no longer fly out without loosing connection and/or breaking up video feed. it is almost like the RF power has been reduced on both, the bird and the RC. I have NEVER seen RC up signal (control) go weak at less than one mile distance in a wide open and far away from RF noise area (desert). Meanwhile the video feed breaks up intermittently even at 20 feet distance.

Only a few days ago with the older firmware on both the RC and the AC, I few a 15 minute mission with over two miles in RF distance over mountains and through canyons sometimes not within clear line of sight and NEVER saw either signals drop below 100% and not a single glitch on the video down feed. With the current firmware I could not possibly repeat this mission.

Of course, there is no way to downgrade the firmware. I tried - It will not let me do it. It simply reports this in the firmware text file:

========== 2014.01.01 00:00:12 remo-con disconnect======
Packet: P3X_FW_V01.10.0090.bin
Result: Abort.
The current firmware does not support downgrade. Use a different version of firmware to downgrade the target version.

I also noticed the drop in signal after having updated

 

[3putts]

My son gave me a P3P for Father's Day/birthday this year with the warning from him "Do not upgrade the firmware." He explained that he did with his and the drone died and was replaced either by DJI or the dealer. I will wait for the repaired update and will then consider upgrading after more positive feedback from folks that have done it successfully.

 

[Freebird32]

Nothing can convince me that the updates do anything positive for the operation of the aircraft,

I absolutely agree. I froze mine at 1.6 or 7, and since my tablet is dedicated I didn't update the app or the Android system either. Works just fine in its current state, and I'll leave it that way. DJI is in a hurry to try and make updates that have caused problems while they are in a panic to lock down the firmware and airspace so no-one can screw with it. So if current version works, no reason to upgrade.

 

[Molokai]

Really wish I read this sooner...I hadn't taken mines out in a while so I updated it to make sure I would be fine and now I have image transmission cutting in and out.

 

[Molokai]

Update: Got them paired (had to update Remote Firmware) but not I have very weak image transmission. This sucks.

 

[kooky]

I was ready to update the firmware (p3p) and did a little research before. I now have 1.10. From what I read I will not upgrade.
1. So, to fly without upgrading should I keep wifi, data closed and fly in airplane mode? Should I be able to fly with data enabled without having any problems?
2. I also purchased litchi and it says that the first time in order to connect with the aircraft it needs wifi enabled. If I open wifi with the drone running just to connect to litchi will this cause me problems and force me to upgrade?

Thanks for your help.

 

[joeruby]

I am running AC 1.9.60 and RC 1.6 It is a very stable combo. I have this combination on three P3P. All work perfectly. I am using a Samsung TAB S2 9.7 inch display with latest Android. Android updates have not caused any problem for me.

However, when AC 1.10.90 came out with RC 1.8 I could not even get good video sitting on the bench after running the AC for more than three minutes. I called DJI. Sent it back. Same problem when I got it back. Called DJI. They said I was not using an approved tablet. Yet I had been flying my first P3P for almost a year with no problems. A month later of grief, I finally was able to roll back to AC 1.9.60 and RC 1.6 All three birds have worked great all the time. My range with line of sight is well over two miles. I have gotten 2.68 miles with a few trees in the way when flying at 100 feet AGL I fly only Litchi and I upgrade Litchi. I do not upgrade DJI Go. Since I have found a stable combination, I will never upgrade DGI Go, AC or RC.. I just bought my third P3P (re-manufactured) and I downgraded the AC immediately. It works great.
Hope this helps.
Joe
KC7GHT

 

[TroyIrl]

I had my first flight yesterday with my P3P since I updated the RC and AC to the latest FW. Now I have just a grey box where my map info should be. No map and no aircraft icon. I ran the litchi app and everything works perfectly. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[Chuck1906]

Well since I am a commercial part 107 pilot, I have to have everything up to date with the latest FW. The other day I updated my P3P and flew through 3 batteries with No Image Transmission. I changed out the USB cable, Used a different MicroSD card; manually changed the channels in the settings and nothing seemed to work. I ended up contacting DJI via online support Live Chat and I told them everything I did to correct the problem but didn't work so they determined that I needed to send it in for repair. Hopefully by the end of the week they will contact me with their diagnosis of the problem.

 

[crash1sttime]

Well since I am a commercial part 107 pilot, I have to have everything up to date with the latest FW. The other day I updated my P3P and flew through 3 batteries with No Image Transmission. I changed out the USB cable, Used a different MicroSD card; manually changed the channels in the settings and nothing seemed to work. I ended up contacting DJI via online support Live Chat and I told them everything I did to correct the problem but didn't work so they determined that I needed to send it in for repair. Hopefully by the end of the week they will contact me with their diagnosis of the problem.

You may want to read this thread, sounds like the gimbal board failure
Another No Video Feed to Phone