My 5.5" CrystalSky appears to be a brick, suddenly, and I have no idea why.  Here's my recent timeline:

- Got it about a month ago, have flown dozens of flights over 9.5 hours of flight time, never had any problem with it.
- Yesterday, I turned it on, and it prompted me to update the device (I was at home with WiFi turned on).  So I did.  (No idea if this is relevant or not.)
- Today I flew the drone (Mavic Pro).  Just a few minutes, perfectly ordinary flight, nothing unusual about it, CrystalSky worked normally.
- After landing, I did my usual shutdown sequence:  1. Power down Mavic.  2. Power down remote control. 3. Push the power button on the CS.  4. When the CS then turned itself back on again a couple of seconds later (as it always does, I have no idea why), I pushed the power button a second time, and it turned off and stayed off.  All as usual.
- A few minutes later, I wanted to look at something on the CS, so I pushed the power button... and nothing happens.  It's totally dead.  The battery has a nearly full charge.

I tried disconnecting the CS from the battery for a few minutes, then re-connecting.  Still can't do anything.  A brief press of the power button (i.e. the way one does when the device is "sleeping" and not actually fully powered off) does nothing.  A long press of the power button (i.e. the way you do to turn it on when it's completely powered off) also does nothing.

As far as I can tell, the CrystalSky is now a brick.  It's completely unusable, I have no idea what to do.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?  Any idea at all what I can do?

This does not sound good. Any signs of life if you have it connected to the remote, and then powering up the remote so that the CS should normally power on.

StianGel Posted at 2017-8-21 11:08
This does not sound good. Any signs of life if you have it connected to the remote, and then powering up the remote so that the CS should normally power on.

Nope.  Same deal.

Not that I would have expected anything to happen.  It's pretty clear that the CrystalSky is completely dead, no power whatsoever.  So plugging anything into the USB port-- whether the remote, or anything else-- wouldn't have any effect, since the CS has no way of even knowing anything's plugged in, because it has to have power in order to be able to read the USB port.

[EDIT]  Okay, it's a few hours later-- back up and running.  I've noticed before that the CS has a "window" of a certain period of time that it maintains its state while the battery is disconnected.  That is, if I disconnect the battery for just a few minutes, the device doesn't "shut down" and need to do a cold boot, but if it's overnight, then it does.  Not sure exactly how long it is, but it's been 3 hours disconnected from the battery, which appears to be long enough.  Hooking up the battery just now and doing a long-press on the power button, the CrystalSky went through its usual cold-boot routine.

So, whatever happened, it was something that horked the CrystalSky to the point that it needed to do a cold boot, and apparently the only way I could get it to do that was to disconnect the battery for a few hours.  Good to know for future reference.  (I wish there were a physical button somewhere, perhaps recessed so you have to press it with a toothpick or something, that would force it to do a cold boot.  Would have saved me a few hours of fussing and worrying.)

I have, I had to hold the power button down for a good 60 seconds, and it came back to life.

rparge Posted at 2017-8-21 15:47
I have, I had to hold the power button down for a good 60 seconds, and it came back to life.

Oh, really?  I knew that "press the button" and "press the button for a few seconds" were things, but did not realize that "press the button for a full, solid minute" was a thing.  

Great to know, thanks for the tip!

Twirlip Posted at 2017-8-22 07:00
Oh, really?  I knew that "press the button" and "press the button for a few seconds" were things, but did not realize that "press the button for a full, solid minute" was a thing.  

Great to know, thanks for the tip!

Yeah, it's an old Android trick. Since CS is Android, I gave it a whirl, and what do you know! It came back to life!

Twirlip Posted at 2017-8-21 11:20
Nope.  Same deal.

Not that I would have expected anything to happen.  It's pretty clear that the CrystalSky is completely dead, no power whatsoever.  So plugging anything into the USB port-- whether the remote, or anything else-- wouldn't have any effect, since the CS has no way of even knowing anything's plugged in, because it has to have power in order to be able to read the USB port.

I have had similar wows. Screen kept going to sleep and won't wake up until cold next day.
I sent it back to DJI twice ( they couldn't replicate) and they advised me that if it happens again take a video.
Well it happened again. Took video and emailed it to support.
They are sending me a new one and it's on it way now.

Twirlip, sorry for the unfortunate experience with our product, this issue has been reported to engineers for analysis, I will come back to you once I hear from them, we apologize for the trouble caused.

The same happened to me today after two succesful flights. The crystalsky simply didn't turn on anymore. It sucks when  you are at a great location when travelling in Bali. Then in the evening it simply switched on again like nothing happened. Did it overheat?

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-26 00:34
Twirlip, sorry for the unfortunate experience with our product, this issue has been reported to engineers for analysis, I will come back to you once I hear from them, we apologize for the trouble caused.

used my CS on a job yesterday and today it won’t turn on unless it on the RC. Tried to start like what was said above and didn’t work.  Any idea?

Forestjim Posted at 2017-8-23 18:09
I have had similar wows. Screen kept going to sleep and won't wake up until cold next day.
I sent it back to DJI twice ( they couldn't replicate) and they advised me that if it happens again take a video.
Well it happened again. Took video and emailed it to support.

When you say there sending you a new one, do you mean a refurbished or repaired unit?  Didnt think they made Crystalsky anymore.. They certainly don't support it …

Sky Donkey Posted at 1-12 14:45
When you say there sending you a new one, do you mean a refurbished or repaired unit?  Didnt think they made Crystalsky anymore.. They certainly don't support it …

The date of my post was back in 2017.
I have 2 Crystalskys. They have been rock solid for the past 2 - 3 years.
They are an excellent monitor but I very ordinary device. For the problems, you see in these forums.
I also have a Smart Controller..... Now that is a great piece of gear.

rparge Posted at 2017-8-21 15:47
I have, I had to hold the power button down for a good 60 seconds, and it came back to life.

Thanks, solved my issue

Guys unfortunately you updated the unit to the last DJI catastrophe they called an update. That was the 12/19 update. This is well documented to cause a bunch of problems and unfortunately you cant back out of the firmware and go back to a previous version like you used to with previous versions. Why would DJI do this??

The firmware is the following;

CrystalSky Firmware (5.5'') v03.00.02.00
2019-12-16

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-26 00:34
Twirlip, sorry for the unfortunate experience with our product, this issue has been reported to engineers for analysis, I will come back to you once I hear from them, we apologize for the trouble caused.

Mindy,

Why do you guys consistently tell us non-truths and say your engineers are working on it? You know that's not true. Just come out and tell us we are on our own when it comes to DJI devices.

I have been telling you issues with the Crystal Sky for over a year and yet you guys still come up with the "SPAM in a can" packaged lines.

Never does DJI ever come up with fixes unless the product is the latest and greatest and is the hot item being sold at that time.

Like I told you many times, you make great stuff but have the worst customer support I have ever experienced!

I'm extreemly disappointed with my CS ultra bright.  I will NOT use it as the pilot monitor on a job site.  Very unreliable with issues of both freezing up as a camera op monitor, jerky video feed, resolution is only average.  On the pilot side I keep testing only on personal flights and it's a crap shoot. Yesterday was terrible! had a successful flight using Cendence remote with CS.  Landed to swap batteries out on the I2, monitor crashed/sleep mode and would not restart.  Swapped out batteries still wouldn't start, Next morning went thru entire procedure of trying to get CS to start and will not start.  The thing is a brick!  Tried the 60 second hold on the power button etc.  

I don't know if I should dump it or send to DJI.  

fans82a02d84 Posted at 6-12 07:38
I'm extreemly disappointed with my CS ultra bright.  I will NOT use it as the pilot monitor on a job site.  Very unreliable with issues of both freezing up as a camera op monitor, jerky video feed, resolution is only average.  On the pilot side I keep testing only on personal flights and it's a crap shoot. Yesterday was terrible! had a successful flight using Cendence remote with CS.  Landed to swap batteries out on the I2, monitor crashed/sleep mode and would not restart.  Swapped out batteries still wouldn't start, Next morning went thru entire procedure of trying to get CS to start and will not start.  The thing is a brick!  Tried the 60 second hold on the power button etc.  

I don't know if I should dump it or send to DJI.

I offer you the only thing I can say and that is "good luck". From the rants here, you can see that DJI is only going to give you the same line they always give, "So sorry, engineers are working on it, we will get back to you". Its a real shame.