Phantom 3 4k weird behavior...stumped

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Update - problem solved on 1/12 post

I hate to be posting in this for my first post, but I have been looking through this site on a daily basis and love all the information, but I was having trouble finding any info on this.

I purchased this 4k about 3 weeks ago (second hand from buddy who always babied it and hasn't flown it much). I've flown it about 10 times (no bad weather, always clear and not windy) and never even remotely came close to crashing or having hard landings ( I got all of that out of the way with my cheaper ones :))

2 flights ago when I was flying in Litchi, the aircraft kept wanting to land but I would cancel it and continue to fly, all seemed to be going fine other than that hump and I kept it close and I flew a few different batteries like that. Jump ahead to yesterday. I went outside, beautiful day but just a little cold (35 F), and decided to fly in DJI Go. I flew about 5 minutes and all of the sudden the camera streaming froze up and I didn't have any battery info. I flew it back and landed to try and figure it out. This is where it gets confusing.

It shows no SD card. I've tried 2 SD cards, reformatted and have had no luck
It continually says I need to update although the version it wants me to update to is already installed, 1.5.4 and I can't update due to the lack of an SD card
I can't adjust aircraft settings such as max altitude or change battery drain times (for intelligent storage)
Gimbal won't scroll up and down but it fully functions when turned on and goes through all the warmup
I can't see battery voltage and only occasionally does it show battery percentage
When I go to shut it down, it delays about 5 seconds and the battery flashes red, I've tried 2 different batteries with the same operation
Camera on phone is black, no streaming
Aircraft flies just as it did before but no camera and limited battery info.
Light on front of gimbal sometimes flashes red/green and other times flashes green really quickly
I uninstalled and reinstalled DJI Go with no luck and aircraft acts this way in Litchi as well

I've tried to ensure all cables on gimbal are plugged in and ribbon looks fine and all wires coming down the legs look good as well. It worries me though that the battery info is lacking and I can't edit aircraft settings, makes me think its more than just the gimbal.

The only issue I see is I updated it when I first picked it up and looking back at the files on the sd card (that no longer works) I see a file that ends with "damaged.bin." I'm not sure if it got messed up when I updated but it's been flying normal for the few weeks after the update.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to get out as much info as possible. Any information or help would be GREATLY appreciated, this is driving me crazy, I just want to fly!!! THANK YOU in advance!!
 
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A little more information, the gimbal starts up and goes through all the motions and holds steady for about 15 seconds and then goes limp. I attempted multiple IMU calibrations, gimbal calibrations and compass calibrations with no luck. I pulled the gimbal off and checked all connections on the ribbon in the gimbal and inspected the ribbon and could visually see no damage. Both gray wire connections look good going into the gimbal and into the aircraft with no pins or wires sticking out from the connection.

I emailed DJI support and am hoping to hear back in the next few days. If anyone has any ideas I'm still open to try them!

Thanks!
 
Hum, Welcome to the forum!
How did you format the cards, Computer or Dji-app,
Computer, try ex-fat, its all I got for now.

Rod
 
Thanks for the reply! I cannot format in the app due to the fact it says I do not have a memory card in the slot. I've done both on the computer, fat32, both at 32 kb and default. I will give the exfat a shot!

Update - Gave the exfat a shot, no luck with it, still in the same boat. I did hear back from DJI and they needed a few more things from me so hopefully they'll get back in a timely manner, but after browsing through this forum I haven't heard a ton of good things about their customer service...
 
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@RodPad thanks for that read, good info to know! No live feed, with or without card. A few minutes into my last flight is when the video froze and disappeared and hasn't been back since. I didn't realize there was so many settings for the sd card with phantom use so I'll play around with it..thanks again!
 
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I know the camera will still give you a picture even if you don't have an sd card in the gimbol as I keep mine out when I am at home and just tinkering with settings as well as keeping the props off.
 
Agreed, I've done the same thing with mine. Camera has always worked while tinkering. I'm wondering if the ribbon cable went out due to the cold, maybe got brittle and broke (even though it wasn't that cold, I've read of other people flying much colder). I'll wait to hear back from DJI and if I don't hear back or they don't provide a solution I will start with the ribbon.
 
Yeah, I was thinking your problem wasn't going away, and yes, go towards the ribbon cable, don't know if I can find that thread, but that is what I remember.

Rod
 
Thanks @RodPad. DJI support isn't being too helpful, they can't seem to understand I can't do any updates or much of anything due to the fact it says there is no SD card in the aircraft, tough concept to grasp I suppose. I'll give them until the end of the week and if nothing works, new ribbon cable will be on order, I need to start someplace! I've already done research and watched videos on the cable, won't be too difficult to take care of ;)
 
Thanks @RodPad. DJI support isn't being too helpful, they can't seem to understand I can't do any updates or much of anything due to the fact it says there is no SD card in the aircraft, tough concept to grasp I suppose. I'll give them until the end of the week and if nothing works, new ribbon cable will be on order, I need to start someplace! I've already done research and watched videos on the cable, won't be too difficult to take care of ;)

"they can't seem to understand I can't do any updates or much of anything due to the fact it says there is no SD card in the aircraft" :rolleyes:

"tough concept to grasp I suppose" :eek: :D

Rod
 
Just wanted to update in case anyone has this issue in the future...sent into DJI and it was repaired. They had to replace the mainboard on the gimbal as well as the electric motor.

Thanks for the replies and help!
 
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Just wanted to update in case anyone has this issue in the future...sent into DJI and it was repaired. They had to replace the mainboard on the gimbal as well as the electric motor.

Thanks for the replies and help!
Yes, thanks for the update, we need more of this info, of what they did to fix it.

Rod
 

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