Good morning,

i have installed a DJI A3 Pro on a Gryphon Dynamics X8 for a customer, and made custom center plates for this installation.

We are encountering the following issue, could DJI help on that matter ?

- The A3 MCU does NOT have a 5V output on the ESC's : this can lead to some problems when using Optocoupled ESC that NEED a 5V input in order to power the optocoupler circuit.. I had to pick a 5V from the Sbus port to feed the Flame 80 esc's...
Suggestion : DJI could have installed in the worst case a simple jumper to plug / u plug in order to replicate the 5V from Sbus or F ports to the ESc port..

- The DJI assistant 2 does not allow to change the P mode. This is a bit embarrassing as we are supposed to have Manual, Atti and GPS modes in France to comply with regulations on one hand ( but they accept to keep ATTI instead), but for additional safety i always let a ful manual mode just in case. The P mode is ot relevant when not using guidance system so..
Suggestion : let the user select wether he wants P mode, or not...

- Several issues during configuration : GPS connection error. Seems the connectors are very sensible,i had to trim down one of them (plastic plug) to get a better contact and secure it ???
Suggestion : check pins lenght on can replicator plugs...

- Impossible to get the machine in flight : motor test is runing perfectly, but here is the problem :
Led is blinking PURPLE ( twice), indicating from user manual that the flight mode is Manual. Using IOSD Mark II, i can see on OSD that mode is manual. But i can't start the motors.
If i flip the Flight mode switch ( futaba 14 SG, perfectly configured in the Assistant 2), the flight mode changes in the Assistant 2 but not on the flight controler nor on the OSD.
BUT if i use the Urgency switch ( ca you give more details about that function DJI please ?) , then flight mode changes to : ATT on OSD and on LED ( Yellow).
Suggestion : please document a bit better and if you have any idea...thanks
I don't want to ask my customer to buy a LB2 just to see if it gives additional informations.

- Compass and IMU calibration : well, with a 10 kg frame, 1200 mm, performing each compass calibration + IMU calibration is pretty.. sport when you have to ask someone to keep the laptop around because you are plugged in USB. And i could not succeed to launch a compass calibration with the standard switch flipping on the flight mode as on A2 and Wookong .
Suggestion : enable compass calibration by flipping 5 or 7 times the flight mode switch, and then select the compass to calibrate by toggling the switch to move from compass 1 up to compass 3.. Then send a multicolor blink sequence once the 3 compass have been calibrated correctly. A simple Bluetooth interface to access the DJI GO basic features ( setup and eventual error messages)) would be very helpful there..

last of all, there is a lack of technical informations about various values and functions in the user manual.

Beside this the IMU temperatures are very high but well i can live with that..

But i can't let my customer fly this frame as long as everything is not al clear and even then, i will perform 20 /25 full flight before declaring the frame is OK for work, my customer puts Alexa Mini, red and FS700 or Miro 320 cameras and i won't take a chance to let him go without beeing sure of the flight controler. In the worse case scenario, i will fit back the DI A2 that performed flawlessly bu using vertical tubes for the barometer to avoic the venturi effect barometer bias.

Thank you DJI for any relevant informations,
Best regards,
Fabien ( E-copter)

Exactly the same issues and notes from me. I'm on the latest 1.5 firmware.

* What does "Urgency" means under Remote Controller settings?

* What are these "mode" abbreviations? S - G - P - A (there is no info about that on DJI manuals or web site).  I need Attitude mode and GPS mode seperately

* I couldn't put the copter to compass calibration mode with GPS stick moves. Even the manual says "switch the U position from P to A three times", it doesn't work. We had to do it via computer USB cable.

* How do we understand which IOC mode(HL or CL) we are in? We can only adjust the IOC channel under Remote Controller tab, but we don't have any page about IOC where we can activate or see which IOC mode we are in. That's very limiting. As far as I understand, DJI badly wants us to use Lightbridge 2 with A3.

* With the latest firmware, the calibration of the RX and channel mapping was lost a few times by the app. So I had to do everything from the beginning. Very weird bug.

erden.ozkan.gma Posted at 2016-11-7 20:37
Exactly the same issues and notes from me. I'm on the latest 1.5 firmware.

* What does "Urgency" me ...

Generalt think it is a very poor manual
it costs a lot of money and with a lot of errors
would be good and get some more information about all the errors and no one should ask for why this, why that
it should just work
as it is being advertised

ckk.post Posted at 2016-11-7 22:40
Generalt think it is a very poor manual
it costs a lot of money and with a lot of errors
would be ...

And no response as expected

Bump - DJI please respond

ckk.post Posted at 2016-11-9 19:16
And no response as expected

And thank you for the wonderful response
never should have bought a a3 pro
but they are probably too busy and publish new things

With our custom quad on latest firmware we have

1) GPS signal loss miltiple times in flight
2) constant compass errors that request calibration
3) the calibration button not working for the compass. You press it and nothing happens

On one release down we have

1 ) IMU button does not work to calibrate in the app

BUMP - DJI please respond!

RVRD Posted at 2016-11-26 18:52
BUMP - DJI please respond!

We were test flying our A3 yesterday and had it switch out of GPS and into Attitude mode several times even though the switch was set to P (GPS) position.  I'm pretty certain our iOSD telemetry was telling us we had 20 satellites.  Is this the same thing you experienced with the "sudden loss of GPS Signal"  

I'm using the Pro version with 3 GPS Pucks, are you using the same?  I wonder if the redundancy thing is just not working.  Perhaps the system sees a better signal from another puck and just looses them all in the switch???

Share your thoughts.

Andy Post Posted at 2016-12-3 00:34
We were test flying our A3 yesterday and had it switch out of GPS and into Attitude mode several t ...

downgrade to one firmware back and all that will go away.

The latest firmware is no good.

daily bump

RVRD Posted at 2016-12-7 08:55
daily bump

Well get in line for the support, if you look around in this forum, you will find that not many products are supported, the most expensive platform from DJI the M600, has 0 support, and this is even said by DJI them self.

I Would look for something else, the A3 flightcontroller is far from done.

We seeing the same issue.
Had many "support"  emails with DJI which were useless. They dont read what you actually tell them they reply off a pre-made reply chart.

We run all calibrations compass and IMU all good (although the DJI Go ap seems to ahve bugs, dont follow the picture follow the change on the page bots below as they update before images for imu)
we have done this now 2x
all is good until MC throws and execption triggering backup IMU
on the change over aircraft starts to jitter in air and yaws 10 to 20 degrees.
If i go to GO Ap and redundancy and force it back to MC then the aircraft yaws back and then hovers stabally.

This seemed to point to a compass issue. we calibrated another 2 times and same results.

My guess DJI firmware @#$%^& up again, which they never admit to and waste the clients time blaming them and their hardware.
either their software of their hardware failing as well.

Aircraft is now safer to fly without the redundant system which makes me wonder why i wasted my money (DJI also said the Guidance would be compatible with A3 so we bought and then they changed their minds)

Am thinking more and more Pixhawk here we come and dump the DJI sad to say. if DJI cant support their stuff and be honest when they screwed the pooch with bugs it makes it hard for us to trust them with our business.

This is the email back from DJI Support. Apparently no other users have this issue according to them. So lies is how DJI support operates wasing our time sending in the unit to be check to buy them time to try find a fix.

"Sorry, but we don't receive relevant feedback from other customers about the issue. And we don't have a new firmware for A3 now, the latest firmware is V1.7.0. If you don't want to send it in, please wait with patience for the next firmware, checking whether it can solve your problem.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Thanks for choosing DJI. Have a nice day!
Best Regards,
Amos
DJI Technical Support"

I have the same problem with a custom-built X8. A3 / LB2 FW 1.7.0. After a few seconds in stable hover, the warning "IMU heading exception" appears and the X8 tries to fly away (counter-steer possible). In the DJI GO App is no compass interference visible, the bar is green. Some people believe my GPS puck would be too close to the battery, so the battery has been covered with a magnetic field shield made of an amorphous cobalt alloy. without success, and the customer is waiting for his X8 :-(

Hi
I tested my drone 8x with u11 tmotors, 80A esc and A3 controller
after drone tack off the flight mode change from P-gps to manual mode

Andy Post Posted at 2016-12-2 08:34
We were test flying our A3 yesterday and had it switch out of GPS and into Attitude mode several times even though the switch was set to P (GPS) position.  I'm pretty certain our iOSD telemetry was telling us we had 20 satellites.  Is this the same thing you experienced with the "sudden loss of GPS Signal"  

I'm using the Pro version with 3 GPS Pucks, are you using the same?  I wonder if the redundancy thing is just not working.  Perhaps the system sees a better signal from another puck and just looses them all in the switch???

I had the same problem in my octacopter but when I put the GPS higher (about 39 cm) it's work and now I'm trying to make auto missin on GS pro

Hi
when i try to install the GPS above the main frame by 40cm, the drone it working will and the compass now is stable

[b]I have a custom large drone with the A3 pro fc and when I try to hover in the M mode or any other, it starts to take off ok,
but becomes very unstable & then it starts pitching forward and backward and I have to land it quickly. I have calibrated it and
everything seems fine in the A2 assistant except I can never get all 3 GPS,s to turn green and the same with the IMU,s.
I,m not sure if the 40" x 13.1 pitch props need to be tilted to 3 degrees to help or not.