I am so frustrated and have stopped myself a couple of times from throwing this machine against the wall. When I tried to fly the P3P over the last month or so and it said I needed a new "firmware upgrade" and I also needed a "camera upgrade". But to try and find the right file applicable to the update requests is not intuitive at all. In fact it is an ardous task to say the least. There are so many versions of how to properly install a firmware that it's impossible and extremely confusing to know what to do. I've tried every one of them a still cannot solve the issue.

The problem is the camera just sits there limp and there is no camera view on  my cell phone when running the app. I have tried countless times to  solve the problem by installing the lastest firmware with no success.  There is a message somewhere that I read that says you can't go back to a  previous version of firmware if you installed "xxxoxx". It won't  install the lastest upgrade but it won't go back to the previous upgrade  because it needs to update. That's crazy!


My details are:
App 3.1.1
Ver 1.9.60
Remote 1.8.0

Another thing I noticed is the "upgrage" option not available in the app. under Overall Status. It just tells me to go to the Academy. Is there something I can do to make that upgrade work. This may be the essence of my problems.

By the way I have now added a user name "GuyS" to my forum log in credentials. The post above and this post are from the same person.

GuyS Posted at 2017-1-3 11:11
Another thing I noticed is the "upgrage" option not available in the app. under Overall Status. It just tells me to go to the Academy. Is there something I can do to make that upgrade work. This may be the essence of my problems.

By the way I have now added a user name "GuyS" to my forum log in credentials. The post above and this post are from the same person.

Here is an update on my situation that hopefully may help others. I took my Phantom 3 to a local company that has repaired my aircraft. Remember the symptoms were that I could not upgrade to the newest firmware and I had no live feed from the camera to the device (phone). I still could control the bird and it would fly but of course the camera is what makes these drones have any value.

Here is what the technician noticed immediately. There was no light on the tiny gimbal LED light that is located on the camera lens side (and just in the middle of the bottom plate holding the camera and gimbal). That meant there was a power issue with the gimbal which also was a reason the upgrade wouldn't work (the power to the mini SD card was also unavailable). The technician replaced the gimbal board. That solved the problem.

I have no idea why the gimbal board failed. I should also mention that I have had the drone for 13 months. It has flown only 10-15 times. I have never had a hard landing. Although it did have a flip over on it side twice. I managed to stop the infamous motor squeal within a few seconds and went on to fly it many times after those two incidences. The technician commented the bird looks "like new condition".

GuyS Posted at 2017-1-6 15:36
I have no idea why the gimbal board failed. I should also mention that I have had the drone for 13 months. It has flown only 10-15 times. I have never had a hard landing. Although it did have a flip over on it side twice. I managed to stop the infamous motor squeal within a few seconds and went on to fly it many times after those two incidences. The technician commented the bird looks "like new condition".

You've either just been unlucky that the board failed, or that there was a bad connection from main board to gimbal.

Good to hear that all is sorted now.

Yup. I am chocking it up to being "unlucky" for the board to fail so soon. One month after warranty is a little suspicious but then again it is a manufactured product that hopefully has gone through the testing that would make such early failures of a critical component "rare". Hopefully I will have many more hours of successful flights

GuyS Posted at 2017-1-6 17:00
Yup. I am chocking it up to being "unlucky" for the board to fail so soon. One month after warranty is a little suspicious but then again it is a manufactured product that hopefully has gone through the testing that would make such early failures of a critical component "rare". Hopefully I will have many more hours of successful flights

2 things that stick out to me here: 1) You say it did flip on takeoff, twice. and 2) You've had some local technician repair or mess your drone. Both of those are huge red flags to me, personally. Especially if the technician repairing your drone is not a DJI employee. If you've flipped it on takeoff a couple times then it's hard for me to place the blame on the product (IMO) - You never really know how much damage that can do to it - No matter how much you've inspected it. A small crash like that can do damage to the internal components. Sometimes a call to DJI can solve the problem. I had an issue with my P3P not being able to see anything on the camera on my screen and it turned out I just had to reset everything and reconnect the AC to RC. I had a crash once, sent it in to DJI for repair and it came back great... Haven't had an issue since. Also, if you're having a hard time with updating your firmware check out YouTube. Sometimes it makes things easier when you can walk thru it on video with someone else. Hope everything works out for you.

Well, it certainly is a quagmire..... not easily resolved. It's hard attribute a causal effect to be sure, but given the drone worked well many times after the flip overs, to blame the flip overs... is logically less suspect. The technician I assure you is not a "back yard mechanic". Actually a dealer for DJI. Also, I have gone through a number firmware updates and didn't have any problems until November and December of 2016. So I'm not really a "total beginner" per se.

  HEY GUYS IM HAVING A PROBLEM WITH MY 4K FOOTAGE ON MY PHANTOM 3 PRO. LOOK AT THE VIDEO CLOSELY AND YOU CAN SEE BLACK HORIZONTAL LINES COME ACROSS MY FOOTAGE AND SOME PIXEL PROBLEMS AT THE TOP OF THE VIDEO. I CANNOT SEEM TO GET CLEAR 4K  FROM THIS CAMERA AS I HAVE SEEN OTHERS WITH TOP QUALITY FOOTAGE. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME? ALSO WHEN I JUST IMPORT FOOTAGE TO PRIMERE PRO THE VIDEO SIZE WAS 640X320 NOT THE 4K 4080X2???. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?DO YOU THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY CAMERA? PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP  WATCH IN HD.  

fansc40342af Posted at 2017-1-6 18:37
https://youtu.be/CiFxAIsbOh0  HEY GUYS IM HAVING A PROBLEM WITH MY 4K FOOTAGE ON MY PHANTOM 3 PRO. LOOK AT THE VIDEO CLOSELY AND YOU CAN SEE BLACK HORIZONTAL LINES COME ACROSS MY FOOTAGE AND SOME PIXEL PROBLEMS AT THE TOP OF THE VIDEO. I CANNOT SEEM TO GET CLEAR 4K  FROM THIS CAMERA AS I HAVE SEEN OTHERS WITH TOP QUALITY FOOTAGE. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME? ALSO WHEN I JUST IMPORT FOOTAGE TO PRIMERE PRO THE VIDEO SIZE WAS 640X320 NOT THE 4K 4080X2???. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?DO YOU THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY CAMERA? PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP  WATCH IN HD.

Hum. I not really seeing what you are talking about. I see a fuzzy black line about a 1/3 of the way through, but I really have to look for it. Are you seeing the problems when you run your Premiere edited video file? Do the issues show up in the raw footage? When you uploaded to YouTube what file format did you use? I only upload MOV files because they seem to work better.

GuyS Posted at 2017-1-7 07:25
Hum. I not really seeing what you are talking about. I see a fuzzy black line about a 1/3 of the way through, but I really have to look for it. Are you seeing the problems when you run your Premiere edited video file? Do the issues show up in the raw footage? When you uploaded to YouTube what file format did you use? I only upload MOV files because they seem to work better.

i used the mov format. yes it shows up in primere . at the begining of video you can also see jitter at the top of screen. do you have any suggestions

I have the same problem. After an afternoon spent researching, I have come to the conclusion that the P3 Standard is not compatible with my iPhone 8+.  Anyone have any other ideas?