Hi there,

Since the Jello effect has been semi sorted out http://forum.dji.com/thread-78779-1-1.html, I'm now shifting my focus to why the X5 camera keeps disconnecting on any kind of autopilot controlled mission (Map Pilot, Pix4DCapture, InFlight, Dronedeploy, Altizure, Autopilot). The camera also disconnects with the M600 stationary at various intervals ranging from 40 seconds to 15 minutes (from powering up). It also happens sometimes in the Go App but much less frequently. I've combed over hours of logfiles with no correlation to any data metric and the disconnect.

Typical symptoms are the following:
1. All the camera settings in the Go app change to N/A (I have tried other idevices and different cables to connect the R/C, I have also checked all the cables running from the camera to the A3 & Lightbridge 2 - no errors. I've also checked for damage to the flat cables running within the X5 gimbal arms - no visible damage)
2. If I exit the Go App when the settings show N/A and re-enter the app, the whole camera panel is missing. Only way to rectify this is by means of cycling the M600 power.
3. It seems that at lower temperatures, the disconnects happen less frequently.
4. Whenever this happens, I do have a video feed in the Go app and can control the gimbal from the R/C.
5. When mapping, I also get blank photos 50kb in size with only metadata and no image at random intervals. (I did swop out between various SD cards of the same make and type that was supplied with the camera)

During a demonstration today for a prospective customer trying to map a single stockpile (7500 square meters) with Map Pilot, I've had 8 disconnects in total leaving me quite egg-faced in front of the prospective customer. What was supposed to be an 11 minute session turned into 45 minutes flight time using 2 full sets of batteries.

Upon returning from the demonstration, I turned my focus onto getting some sort of an indication of the temperatures of the modules (A3 & LB2) measuring them with an infrared thermometer. The A3 was running at temperatures of around 40˚C and the LB2 unit was sitting at anything from 50 - 58˚C.

I am really lost for words. I've been struggeling with this problem since the getting the equipment (15 December 2016) and it has now grown to the point where I am completely out of options to try and figure out what the cause of these disconnects might be. Initially I thought that it might be vibration transmitted through the gimbal connector, but this does not seem to be the problem. Having spent in excess of around 250 hours with no source of income from the M600 for 2 months due to non-working equipment, I'm really hoping DJI can step up with good suggestions of what I might try and assist me with getting the package working like it should be. For now I am not prepared to risk having the same experience I've had today in front of any other customers.

I have been referred to a local distributor here in SA to assist me but they informed me that they do not carry stock of either X5, X3, Z3 or the brackets.

Please advise!

Regards
LT

Here are some photo's and screen shots of the symptom:

lt Posted at 2017-2-14 10:19
Here are some photo's and screen shots of the symptom:

LT,
new LB2 f/w today, maybe it could help and also the controller too..

ricci

I had an interesting thing happen today when testing. I did a full hight altitude test to the max and ran through the waypoint, follow me and poi. I reduced the battery RTH to 10%. when I reached the 10% the craft did a RTH as it should but when I looked at the footage it stopped when I had the 12% warning......will the thing go into preservation mode and power down non needed systems.
If its clever enough to do that then a thermal shut-down is very high on the cards. Lt you measured 50+c on the outside so the inner is even hotter.

Ricci

LT, found this: maybe you can have a look to see what colour the indicator is when you have an issueLB2 visable with top removed.


ricci

Updated firmware, moved LB2 as per Hawk62_Engineer to the outside to possibly aid cooling.

Feedback from a trial this morning in 19˚C temperatures.
1. Set up equipment,
2. Programmed area of interest (7-8m/s @ 120m, 80/85% overlap).
3. Uploaded to M600,
4. Upon pressing start, I got "camera not connected" error on screen before takeoff,
5. Cycled power,
6. Uploaded again, start mission
7. 6 minutes into flight (83 photo's) "camera not connected" shows in the app,
8. Abandon mission, cycled power, uploaded again, start mission
9. 12 minutes into flight (278 photo's later) "camera not connected" shows in the app,
10. Abandon mission, cycled power,
11. Uploaded again, took off, mission completed.

After checking the contents of the photo's captured, I discovered that each disconnect coincided with a photo taken with no image and a file size of 50 kb. This is really frustrating and I am out of options and things to try!

After this mission, I did a smaller survey mission (2m/s @ 35m, 80/85% overlap) with one "camera disconnect" where I was able to continue the mission and 2 minutes later another "camera disconnect" after which I gave up the mission, RTH'ed, cycled power and then flew the remainder of the battery set in the Go App with no disconnect whatsoever.

Ricci, I did check the led's on LB2 and it shows connected even after the error occurs. Lower temperatures does seem to reduce the occurrence but not significantly to warrant thermal evaluation.

Poo! Poo,Poo!!!!!!

LT,
Do you think the dealer has a LB2 unit to swap.
Another question; if you were to video the zone will that also interrupt?

Chin Up Buddy!!

Ricci

ricci2 Posted at 2017-2-15 02:36
LT,
Do you think the dealer has a LB2 unit to swap.
Another question; if you were to video the zone will that also interrupt?

Hi Ricci

The disconnects only happen with the M600 stationary or when I do any kind of autopilot controlled missions. I can record video from the Go App as well as in Autoflight's Autopilot. The problem with video is that you lose all geo-tagging when extracting frames and most apps are not written for video recording a survey area.

What worries me is the fact that I get these blank photo's (50Kb in size) when it happens. Trying to figure out wether they are cause or effect of the disconnect but definitely a clue. I'm busy arranging with somebody to lend me another camera (x5) to see if camera is the problem but it requires me doing a round trip of around 1,200 km (A worthwhile trip if I can lay a finger on the problem).

Onwards and forwards, somewhere in the front lies no problems.

Thanks for your inputs! Much appreciated!

Regards
LT

lt Posted at 2017-2-15 04:02
Hi Ricci

The disconnects only happen with the M600 stationary or when I do any kind of autopilot controlled missions. I can record video from the Go App as well as in Autoflight's Autopilot. The problem with video is that you lose all geo-tagging when extracting frames and most apps are not written for video recording a survey area.

LT,
are you a X5r or normal.

ricci

ricci2 Posted at 2017-2-15 10:57
LT,
are you a X5r or normal.

Ricci, Its the normal X5
Regards
LT

lt Posted at 2017-2-15 11:12
Ricci, Its the normal X5
Regards
LT

Hi
When I record video the camera software only records 4.2gb then starts a new file and I always lose some footage for some reason. I am going to run a test now and see if I can repeat the results without flying?
I will let you know because I have an idea but need some info first that might be relevant.
ricci

Hi,
Finished video recording test, and each recording group is 4.2gb and that is constant, however what is odd is I sometimes get a large file I can't open in the Gb size, I also lose some footage too, normal the end of the run. I assumed the large file was a data file on the sd card but I now know its a media file that has a glitch. I had one of these files and could not read it despite having much software to decode but I put another recording on the sd card via the X5 and I find I have that Un-readable file back as the missing footage. This brings me to the conclusion that the software on the X5 has a bug because it's not finishing the Read write process which might be down to switching off before its written to SD.
I think LT, when you have a replacement test camera there could be a change in the disconnects, just a hunch.

ricci

Just a quick update - our problem seems to occur less frequent when temperatures are below 20˚C. Suspect it might be an overheating lightbridge unit.

The Matrice models can randomly and repeatedly disconnect between the RC and mobile device (not the drone in the following example) after an iOS upgrade, an example below-

iPad Air 2 with iOS 11.4 (End May 2018)
DJI RC controller with DJI Go firmware ver. 01.01.0010 (June 2018)
This DJI Go 4 App version used is the latest upgrade available on the Apple store as ver  4.2.22 (June 2018)

The DJI M200 controller with firmware v. 01.01.0010 using an iPad Air 2 with iOS 11.4 and DJI Go 4 ver 4.2.22 randomly and repeatedly disconnects before and during flying.

The RC still communicates with the drone, and the drone can be flown manually back to home point with camera info and battery info lost. The disconnect is between the RC and the Ipad, not the RC and drone.

This appears to be an incompatibility between the DJI Go 4 App and/or RC firmware, and the latest Apple iOS release. Apple advises DJI be contacted to fix the incompatibility with a new App/firmware release.

Hello,

I had a similar problem with the Inspire 2 w/ X5S yesterday. Three flights in a row that the video FROZE and all camera settings went to N/A. Drone still flew fine. After landing, shutting down aircraft, reseating batteries and rebooting for another flight. Video feed lasted for 4 minutes and 1 clip recorded before failing again.

This is almost like a camera disconnect inflight and it never recovers. ANY HELP!?