david.p.mann
 Second Officer
Flight distance : 18835673 ft
United States
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YES!!! I finally got my new Inspire 1 Remote Controller working and set up as a Slave to my original Master Remote Controller. I was nearly convinced that the new RC had a bad USB port and I would have to return it. But now it’s working perfectly. I wonder how many RCs have been returned because folks were having the same problems I was experiencing. Wow – these state of the art electronics certainly present some challenges to the hobbyists and professionals that just want them to work hassle-free out of the box.
I didn’t write down what I did as I was doing it, so I will try to remember as many details as I can. Some (many?) of the steps I took below may be unimportant/non-essential, but I don’t know.
First, here’s the situation I was faced with immediately after unboxing a brand new Inspire 1 Remote Controller (still wrapped in plastic and taped) from an eBay reseller:
1. RC would turn ON, status light was RED, third white charge indicator LED was blinking
2. I was able to fully charge RC – took about 3.5 hours
3. Using two different USB-to-Lightning cables (both proven to work on original RC) I was unable to connect the RC to either my iPad Air 2 or my iPad Mini 3. Here were the symptoms:
a. The “Trust this Device?” message never appeared on either device’s display.
b. In the “RC Settings”, “RC Control Settings”, “RC Calibration,” when I clicked on “Calibrate” then “Start” and then “OK” in response to the warning message about resetting sticks to their midpoints, moving the sticks and gimbal wheel produced no response. Since these same messages (Calibrate, Start and Warning message) will appear even if the iPad is not connected to the RC, I took this as another indication that the USB port on the RC was not working.
c. In “General Settings,” “About,” there was no indication of the current firmware version of the new RC, only the current iOS app version. Again, it appeared there was no working connection to the RC, and it appeared the RC USB port was bad.
d. I was unable to install the latest Inspire 1 firmware (WM610_FW_V01.02.01.06.bin) on the RC by formatting the original 633X 16gb micro SD card and placing only the .bin file in the root directory, then placing the SD card in one of two different USB 3.0 stick card readers that I have used to successfully update my original RC several times, placing the USB stick in the USB port and powering on the RC. The access light on the USB stick would never illuminate (waited 15 minutes), there were no beeps from the RC, the status light remained a constant RED. I tried this repeatedly – well past the “definition of insanity” number of times. (NOTE: When I would insert the same USB stick card reader in my original RC, the USB stick status light would illuminate within 10-15 seconds.) So, again, it appeared the USB port on my new RC was dead.
e. I was also unable to update the RC firmware by inserting the SD card with the .bin file in the camera, turning on the Inspire 1, connecting a USB to micro-USB cable to the camera, then powering on the RC. The Inspire 1 camera/gimbal would slowly beep, but the RC was silent (no beeping) and the status light on the RC remained a constant RED for 15 minutes.
Here are the steps I took that allowed me to update the new RC with the latest firmware AND set it up as a fully-functional Slave RC to my original Master RC:
1. Connected the RC to my iPad Air 2 using proven USB to lightning cable and turned on both devices. No “Trust this Device” message appeared. Not a good sign.
2. Got into RC Settings and tried to calibrate the RC sticks (FAIL – no connection to RC, so display graphic of sticks showed no movement as I moved actual RC sticks). Not a good sign.
3. In RC Settings I noted that Set RC Status (OFF, Master, Slave) was set to OFF. No surprise as this is what is displayed when the iPad is not connected to a RC. But I tried changing to “Slave” and the message “Change RC Status” appeared. Again, no surprise as this will also happen if the iPad is not connected to a RC. I clicked OK and RC Name appeared with blank entry. I entered a name and hit Return and name remained on screen. Exited menu. Turned off RC and iPad.
4. Formatted three USB 2.0 (not USB 3.0) memory sticks between 1 GB and 8 GB capacity in FAT32 format using my laptop, and copied latest firmware .bin file to root directory of each memory stick. My thinking was that MAYBE the firmware in the new RC was so old that it could not reliably connect with USB 3.0 card reader sticks or to the Inspire 1 camera which already has the latest firmware installed. The failure to link with the camera port may have been a firmware mismatch issue.
5. Inserted the 1 GB USB 2.0 memory stick in the new RC’s USB port and turned on the new RC. After 15 seconds the access light on the USB stick started flashing!!! What? That’s new (and promising)! 20-30 seconds later the RC started a series of four beeps and the RC status light turned BLUE indicating a firmware update was in progress! YES!!! VERY PROMISING!
6. After 10-20 minutes (not sure how long – I left the room to watch TV with my spouse), the update had completed, RC stopped beeping and RC status light was GREEN indicating a successful firmware update. I confirmed this by checking the USB memory stick on my laptop, the txt file indicated “Result: SUCCESS”. That’s a very good sign, indeed!
7. I was curious what would happen if I now put one the USB 3.0 card reader sticks containing a micro-SD card with the .bin file in the root directory in the RC’s USB port and turned on the RC. Recall that this had failed - in over a half dozen previous attempts - to produce any response from the RC. However, this time, the access light on the USB stick came on 10 seconds after I powered on the RC, and it stayed on. When I checked the micro-SD card reader USB stick in my laptop, there was txt file indicating “Result: Abort. The firmware on the SD card is identical to or older than the current firmware on the remote controller.” So, after a successful firmware update using an older USB 2.0 memory stick, the new RC can now talk to USB 3.0 card reader sticks. VERY INTERESTING.
8. I powered on original RC, which was connected to my iPad Mini 3, then powered on the Inspire 1.
9. In RC Settings for the original Master RC, I changed RC Name and Password to something different from the factory defaults.
10. Connected new RC to iPad Air 2, powered on the RC and iPad Air 2 and the “Trust this Device” message appeared for the first time when connected to the New RC.
11. In “RC Settings”, “RC Control Settings”, “RC Calibration” when I clicked on “Calibrate” then “Start” and then “OK” in response to the Warning message about resetting sticks to their midpoints, I was now able to calibrate both Sticks and the Gimbal Wheel.
12. In RC Settings, I noted that the RC Status was set to Master, and the RC Name and Password were set to DJI Factory settings. So, Step 3, above, may have been unimportant/unnecessary because the changed RC name and password I set did not stick. On the other hand, maybe Step 3 somehow turned ON the USB port and allowed the RC to see the USB 2.0 memory stick. Question: What does setting the RC Status to OFF actually do? Does it possibly deactivate the RC’s USB port?
13. I changed Set the new RC Status to “Slave” and clicked on OK in response to “Change RC Status?” message.
14. I also changed new RC Name and Password to new values meaningful to me. (Note: Remember to hit Return after changing each entry.)
15. I clicked on “Search for Master Controller” and a small spinning wheel symbol appeared.
16. After a few seconds, the name of my Master RC appeared. I clicked on it and said OK to DJI Pilot app messages on both my new Slave RC and my original Master RC to authorize the linkage of the Slave to the Master RC.
17. I confirmed that I could now rotate the camera with left-right movements of the Left Stick on the Slave RC, and I could tilt the camera using up-down movements of the Right Stick on the Slave RC.
18. Turned everything off (Inspire 1 aircraft, both RCs, both iPad devices) and 30 minutes later I turned everything back on (Master RC and its connected iPad, Slave RC and its connected iPad, and the Inspire 1 aircraft. Live video image from the Inspire 1 camera appeared on both iPad devices and I was able to control camera rotation and tilt with the Slave RC sticks. I could still control camera tilt with Master RC gimbal wheel and could reset camera position with Camera control icons on both iPad devices.
19. Note: If everything is operating correctly, the Master RC status light color is GREEN and the Slave RC status light color is BLUE.
CONCLUSION: In the final analysis, I think the key step to getting the new RC functional was using an older USB 2.0 memory stick (freshly formatted and with nothing but the firmware .bin file in the root directory) to successfully update the new RC firmware. This then seemed to fully activate the USB port on the new RC so that it could now fully connect to my iPad devices and with USB 3.0 card reader sticks. This then allowed me to change the RC status to Slave and link to my Master RC. So, what first appeared to be a defective, non-working USB port on my new RC, was due to an RC in desperate need of a firmware upgrade. Once updated, the new RC and its USB port were fully functional.
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