Hello, forum. I posted a thread a week ago asking for help on my friend's Phantom 4 - the link to that thread can be found here.
I was told to recalibrate the gimbal and remote, which I was able to succcessfully complete. Also, the firmware is updated to the lastest version.
Here is the problem:
I power on the aircraft, power on the remote, and connect the iPhone X to the remote through an Apple lightning cable. When I press "Go Fly," I am not able to move the gimbal up and down via the scroll wheel. So, I go into the gimbal settings and recalibrate it. The first few times I try to calibrate it, nothing happens. It only works after a few times attempting to calibrate it.
After successfully recalibrating the gimbal, I am able to move it up and down with the scroll wheel. BUT now I am not able to receive live feedback on the screen.
Is anybody able to help with this problem? I would appreciate any feedback you might have.
Thanks!
Drew Hoover

Has he had any crashes , or hard landings?

Get him to check the ribbon cable for even the smallest dent, and make sure all the cable connections are solid.

ALABAMA Posted at 2018-9-20 17:25
Get him to check the ribbon cable for even the smallest dent, and make sure all the cable connections are solid.

There have been no hard crashes or landings, and the ribbon cables are all secure and undamaged.

Aloha Drew,

     OK, now that you have successfully calibrated the IMU and Remote Controller, the "Live View" does not work.  Have you tried to pull out the USB cable, wait for a few seconds, and then plug the Lightning cable back in.  This is done with everything booted and initialized.  Does the Live View come on?

     There are two ways, possibly three ways, to tilt the camera.  One is the wheel that is giving you grief and the other is the on-screen vertical slider to the left of the camera panel.  Are you able to tilt the camera using the slider?  Of course this has to be tested after you get the "Live View" back.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-21 02:25
Aloha Drew,

     OK, now that you have successfully calibrated the IMU and Remote Controller, the "Live View" does not work.  Have you tried to pull out the USB cable, wait for a few seconds, and then plug the Lightning cable back in.  This is done with everything booted and initialized.  Does the Live View come on?

Overall, the answer is no. The live view IS available once I am fully booted up, but I am not able to use the scroll wheel or the vertical slider to move the gimbal.
But once I recalibrate the gimbal, live view is gone and I am able to use the scroll wheel on the remote to move the gimbal.

drewhoover Posted at 2018-9-21 05:13
Overall, the answer is no. The live view IS available once I am fully booted up, but I am not able to use the scroll wheel or the vertical slider to move the gimbal.
But once I recalibrate the gimbal, live view is gone and I am able to use the scroll wheel on the remote to move the gimbal.

Aloha Drew,

     OK, now after you have recalibrated the gimbal and the "Live View" is gone but tilt works, unplug the USB Lightning cable and plug it in again and see if the Live View comes back on and if the tilt works.  The unplug and plug-in of the cable is one way to bring back the Live View.  It also tells us a little more about the problem.  Sometimes it actually solves the problem. but now we are in the region of wishful thinking!

     The remote controller and the aircraft are (read "can be") linked independently of the device and the DJI GO 4 app.  When the Live View is lost, it indicates that the DJI GO app is not functioning properly but the tilt working indicates that the link between the remote controller and the aircraft is functioning properly.

     I just looked back at both threads and I see no indication that you have completely uninstalled the DJI GO 4 app and made a fresh installation.  The complete old DJI GO 4 app has to be uninstalled or problems may come back to haunt you.  You may try a reinstallation and see if that works, but if it does not, you have to do the complete uninstall and a fresh reinstallation.

     Hopefully the unplug re-plug works, but if not, you have a plan "B".

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-21 12:27
Aloha Drew,

     OK, now after you have recalibrated the gimbal and the "Live View" is gone but tilt works, unplug the USB Lightning cable and plug it in again and see if the Live View comes back on and if the tilt works.  The unplug and plug-in of the cable is one way to bring back the Live View.  It also tells us a little more about the problem.  Sometimes it actually solves the problem. but now we are in the region of wishful thinking!

Thank you so much! I'll be sure to give that a try.

Hi, sorry for the inconvenience caused. Can you please try to re-link your remote controller to your Aircraft? After that please kindly connect the iPhone X. Let see if this will work. Thank you.

drewhoover Posted at 2018-9-21 13:22
Thank you so much! I'll be sure to give that a try.

Aloha Drew,

     If the suggestions made do not work, please try Natalia's suggestion of re-linking the remote controller to the aircraft.  There may be a problem with the previous link between the aircraft and the remote controller.  You have to keep trying to solve all possible problems.  BTW, there is a way to re-link the remote controller to the aircraft independent of the DJI GO 4 app but first try it with the app.

     After the re-linking effort, test the tilt.  If the tilt still does not work correctly, do a complete shut down and re-start.  Test it again.

Aloha and Drone On!

DJI Natalia Posted at 2018-9-21 16:19
Hi, sorry for the inconvenience caused. Can you please try to re-link your remote controller to your Aircraft? After that please kindly connect the iPhone X. Let see if this will work. Thank you.

Aloha Natalia,

     Mahalo for the input!  I can see where a bad link might need to be re-linked.  Good suggestion!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-22 01:06
Aloha Natalia,

     Mahalo for the input!  I can see where a bad link might need to be re-linked.  Good suggestion!

Thanks for the feedback, Cetacean.

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-22 01:05
Aloha Drew,

     If the suggestions made do not work, please try Natalia's suggestion of re-linking the remote controller to the aircraft.  There may be a problem with the previous link between the aircraft and the remote controller.  You have to keep trying to solve all possible problems.  BTW, there is a way to re-link the remote controller to the aircraft independent of the DJI GO 4 app but first try it with the app.

Well, last night the Phantom successfully took off with no problems! I just did a normal power on with all of the devices in the proper steps, and was able to fly normally.
I didn't do anything differently. Not sure what was wrong, but I guess the problem was solved!
I'll be sure to let the forum know if anything happens in the future.
Thank you all for your help!

DJI Natalia Posted at 2018-9-22 09:55
Thanks for the feedback, Cetacean.

Aloha Natalia,

     Well, I guess we fixed it!  He is up and flying.  Mahalo for the help!

Aloha and Drone On!

drewhoover Posted at 2018-9-22 13:24
Well, last night the Phantom successfully took off with no problems! I just did a normal power on with all of the devices in the proper steps, and was able to fly normally.
I didn't do anything differently. Not sure what was wrong, but I guess the problem was solved!
I'll be sure to let the forum know if anything happens in the future.

Aloha Drew,

     This is good news!  Great to see you are able to enjoy the amazing technology we get to use.  Keep us posted!

Aloha and Drone On!

And the band played on... hahaha

I love a Happy Ending... grin


RedHotPoker

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-22 15:16
Aloha Drew,

     This is good news!  Great to see you are able to enjoy the amazing technology we get to use.  Keep us posted!

Okay, we tried it again yesterday and everything went back to not working. I tried everything you said, such as remove the lightning cable for a few seconds and then put it back in, but it still did not work.
I deleted and re-downloaded the DJI Go 4 App, recalibrated a number of things, and still no response. In the app, under the aircraft status information, at the bottom, the gimbal status always says "Gimbal Disconnected." Could this be a possible lead to the solution?

drewhoover Posted at 2018-9-23 14:02
Okay, we tried it again yesterday and everything went back to not working. I tried everything you said, such as remove the lightning cable for a few seconds and then put it back in, but it still did not work.
I deleted and re-downloaded the DJI Go 4 App, recalibrated a number of things, and still no response. In the app, under the aircraft status information, at the bottom, the gimbal status always says "Gimbal Disconnected." Could this be a possible lead to the solution?

Aloha Drew,

     Which Phantom is this?  The link indicates the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0.  Have you tried Natalia's suggestion of relinking the remote controller to the aircraft?  Let us know if that works also.

Aloha and Drone On!

Looks like a hardware problem for sure now.  I would have thought ribbon cable for sure, but you said it looked good.  Possibly a board going bad also.

Cetacean Posted at 2018-9-23 14:13
Aloha Drew,

     Which Phantom is this?  The link indicates the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0.  Have you tried Natalia's suggestion of relinking the remote controller to the aircraft?  Let us know if that works also.

It is a Phantom 4 Advanced. I did relink the remote to the aircraft, and am still receiving the same unsuccessful results.

drewhoover Posted at 2018-9-23 19:00
It is a Phantom 4 Advanced. I did relink the remote to the aircraft, and am still receiving the same unsuccessful results.

Aloha Drew,

     Unfortunately, we may have to agree with ALABAMA here.  It is looking more and more like a hardware problem.  Even if a loose ribbon is the problem, DJI has to do the repair due to its location or you lose the warranty.  Maybe DJI Natalia can help you with submitting a repair request.  Give her a bit of time to get back to you.  You can PM her and I will also try to PM her.

     We have tried pretty much every "trick in the book" to resolve this issue.  Even software issues have a consistency to them, but the complete randomness seen in your issue leads me to believe that DJI may need to take a look at this.  Hardware fails in a random fashion.  Temperature, humidity and other factors can cause failures that appear random to us.  Software is usually more predictable.

Aloha and Drone On!

ALABAMA Posted at 2018-9-23 14:18
Looks like a hardware problem for sure now.  I would have thought ribbon cable for sure, but you said it looked good.  Possibly a board going bad also.

Aloha ALABAMA,

     Mahalo for the input!  It looks like DJI may have to look at this issue.

Aloha and Drone On!