A2 FC Firmware 2.3 - Here We ALL go Again


Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
That's an easy one- WKM. I presume that the main purpose of your Skyjib is to take photos/video and with that being the case, it is the ability to take this imagery that matters. With that regard, I dont see the A2 offering much at all over the WKM- I can get the same quality imagery using both with pretty much the same effort. Yes the A2 has a couple of 'nice to haves' as opposed to 'must haves'. I like the intelligent landing gear option, I like the ability to choose if the aircraft faces backwards or forwards on return to home on the A2 but none of these enhance my ability to take photos/video. Both can be made to fly as smoothly as each other and yes, whilst on paper the A2 has a more accurate GPS, I just dont see this translated onto the imagery especially if a brushless gimbal is being used. Reliability on the other hand is critical both for safety and the longevity of your business. Given the failures we have seen in the UK (and this might be a batch thing, it might be something else), I would say that the A2 is not yet mature enough for SAFE commercial work.
 
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MadMonkey

Bane of G10
That's an easy one- WKM. I presume that the main purpose of your Skyjib is to take photos/video and with that being the case, it is the ability to take this imagery that matters. With that regard, I dont see the A2 offering much at all over the WKM- I can get the same quality imagery using both with pretty much the same effort. Yes the A2 has a couple of 'nice to haves' as opposed to 'must haves'. I like the intelligent landing gear option, I like the ability to choose if the aircraft faces backwards or forwards on return to home on the A2 but none of these enhance my ability to take photos/video. Both can be made to fly as smoothly as each other and yes, whilst on paper the A2 has a more accurate GPS, I just dont see this translated onto the imagery especially if a brushless gimbal is being used. Reliability on the other hand is critical both for safety and the longevity of your business. Given the failures we have seen in the UK (and this might be a batch thing, it might be something else), I would say that the A2 is not yet mature enough for SAFE commercial work.

Thanks a lot. I'll likely stick with the WKM for now and see if the A2 issues are resolved later :)
 

gtranquilla

RadioActive
Very sorry to hear the bad news Rory.... hope the situation improves going forward.


Just had my A2 SkyJib crash on me. No apparent reason what so ever. Was hovering and it went randomly out of control to the left and right then drove itself into the ground.

DJI suck. Period.

I've downgraded to version 2.1 and flown the A2 on my little Hexi F550 and it seems to fly as expected now.
DJI please sort out version 2.3 and stop making these issues.

Will report back with more findings on 2.1
 

Mojave

Member
A2 is not responding correctly during compass calibration

I am all dressed up with my new build and my A2 is not responding correctly during compass calibration. I have a NAZA v2 on my 550 and am familiar with the compass dance. I have followed the suggestions here: Manual->Attitude-> GPS and back again six times and I get the continuous blue LED. I do the horizontal dance and the light changes from blue to no light at all! I have repeated this several times.

For background my build is a hexacrafter 1100L with six U7 490s, T80A ESCs and 2 S6 10Ah batteries and an unflown A2 system. I upgraded all the upgradable firmware than downgraded it all and still get the same result as stated above. I checked connections. I do get responses to the radio i.e. the LED does show that I am changing from GPS to Attitude to Manual mode via the light color. The three position switch adjustment is lining up in the middle of the respective boxes as does failsafe. I do not have IOC setup at this time but I am assuming that it is unrelated as it was on my 550.
 

kloner

Aerial DP
do you have v 2.1 software? i'd try that. and make sure all the parts are updated/downdated.... look at that last window and it'll show each piece.
 

Mojave

Member
do you have v 2.1 software? i'd try that. and make sure all the parts are updated/downdated.... look at that last window and it'll show each piece.

Thanks Steve. It is all back to the old firmware related to the using the DJI A2 Assistant_1.2. Which includes v 2.1 firmware. I have looked at a lot of posts and have not seen any with my particular symptoms that stop the compass calibration at the vertical calibration.
 


Mojave

Member
is it showing all the individual components being the same version under "tools"?

Stepping backward a bit: I ordered the A2 + iOSD II + Datalink 2.4G BT Combo Deal from AerialMediaPros in February 25, 2014. I copied the programming in the radio i used to fly my NAZA v2 and found that this feature set worked on the A2. I actually have not floan the A2 yet but have used the A2 with the assistant software on my windows netbook in motor test mode to confirm motor spin. Then later with my Futaba T14SG radio sending to the A2 receiver in manual mode to test the U7 490 with the T-motor T80A ESC combination to test for full throttle for 'hick ups'.

Last week I initially tried to get the Compass calibrated with the firmware that was in the A2 unit purchased in February and found that it did not work. I upgraded to the latest firmware and found the same results described above (#86). I down graded the unit using DJI A2 Assistant_1.2 to the following list of firmware versions:

A2 Component - Firmware version
GPS Pro - 2.1
GPS Module - 20.1
IMU- 2.1
Main Controller - 2.1
Receiver2.4G - 1.1
LED - 2.0
 


Quinton

Active Member
Stepping backward a bit: I ordered the A2 + iOSD II + Datalink 2.4G BT Combo Deal from AerialMediaPros in February 25, 2014. I copied the programming in the radio i used to fly my NAZA v2 and found that this feature set worked on the A2. I actually have not floan the A2 yet but have used the A2 with the assistant software on my windows netbook in motor test mode to confirm motor spin. Then later with my Futaba T14SG radio sending to the A2 receiver in manual mode to test the U7 490 with the T-motor T80A ESC combination to test for full throttle for 'hick ups'.

Last week I initially tried to get the Compass calibrated with the firmware that was in the A2 unit purchased in February and found that it did not work. I upgraded to the latest firmware and found the same results described above (#86). I down graded the unit using DJI A2 Assistant_1.2 to the following list of firmware versions:

A2 Component - Firmware version
GPS Pro - 2.1
GPS Module - 20.1
IMU- 2.1
Main Controller - 2.1
Receiver2.4G - 1.1
LED - 2.0

Have you tried starting from scratch with your transmitter setup?

I copied over the settings I had set up from my Wookong a few months back, and it looked OK in the software but gave me all sorts of problems with the motors suddenly shooting up every 10 seconds or so, nothing at all fixed it until I started completely from the start with setting up the transmitter.

You can see y motor problem I had here, now this completely fixed itself as soon as I set up the transmitter from new.

https://vimeo.com/88513428
 

Mojave

Member
did you try "restore default settings" after downgrading? i remember something about that
Steve I went through the procedures and reset and restored - I got two errors: 1. PMU Connection Error and 2. Abnormal Compass Data. The PMU is connected correctly and the compass error seems to have gone away after I went out in my miniature backyard and went through all of the compass calibration procedures and when the continuous green did not come on after the horizontal calibration was complete I did the vertical calibration anyway (I wonder if the green LED has gone awry) . When I was through I got flashing red LEDs like it was reading the GPS signals from good to worst (as expected for my high walled back yard). It was reading the mode LEDs and the lights changed as I moved the GPS->Attitude-> Manual mode switch and reacted to 'non-centered' sticks. The 'prop-less' motors would not start when I had a good satellite coverage (one red flash).

I will spend a bit more time on this later and get back here and report.

Thanks for the help here ... Dave I hope this is in the spirit of the thread you started - I did start by upgrading to 2.3 (then down graded) and I think that may go to 2.3 again.
 

kloner

Aerial DP
I haven't seen anything good from the 2.3..... i stuck with 2.1 and an 8fg and no problems whatsoever,,,, but i also don't use a whole lot other than gps and atti modes, no weird interfaces, no ground station, no external rx.... just what it was made around, 8fg. 14 came out after a2 and i'm guessing a lot of peoples trouble comes form that, for whatever reason
 

Mojave

Member
Have you tried starting from scratch with your transmitter setup?

I copied over the settings I had set up from my Wookong a few months back, and it looked OK in the software but gave me all sorts of problems with the motors suddenly shooting up every 10 seconds or so, nothing at all fixed it until I started completely from the start with setting up the transmitter.

You can see y motor problem I had here, now this completely fixed itself as soon as I set up the transmitter from new.

https://vimeo.com/88513428

@Quinton - thanks I was thinking that this may be required. I will reprogram my radio from scratch - I could use the practice anyway as it is time to work on the IOC switch.


I haven't seen anything good from the 2.3..... i stuck with 2.1 and an 8fg and no problems whatsoever,,,, but i also don't use a whole lot other than gps and atti modes, no weird interfaces, no ground station, no external rx.... just what it was made around, 8fg. 14 came out after a2 and i'm guessing a lot of peoples trouble comes form that, for whatever reason

@kloner I do have that option since I have an 8FG that I was going to use for the camera operator, I could switch it around and use the 14FG for the operator with a separate receiver on the gimbal. Sure would be nice to test out my rig this weekend.

Cheers!
 



MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
... You can see y motor problem I had here, ...

This clip has been posted before but it seems somehow relevant here. It is a brand new S800 EVO with an equally brand new A2. It must have been on the original 2.0 firmware at that time. It is entirely likely that the Tx (Futaba 12Z) model was a modified copy of the S800 but in this case the motor 'blipping' was cured by replacing just the A2 Main Controller.

 
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Droider

Drone Enthusiast
I just don't get it. WHY would anyone risk their machines with this FC. Scrap it OR stick it on a disposable frame until its safe. I have given up on it and tried all the firmware upgrades. Loads of flights great then totally unpredictable gps/control loss. Until I don't see this on a firmware release they are paper weights. I now await 2.4 before I will commit any more time to this totally unpredictable FC.

Grab a WKM while they are available if you want a reliable FC.

D
 

SleepyC

www.AirHeadMedia.com
Droider...

I have my Uber Quad (U7, 80amp ESC, A2, Zen Gh3) on A2 and it's been rock solid for 25 flights. Completely predictable.
Firmware 2.3. I am wondering if esc's matter to the A2.

I had issues with Maytech ESC's and the A2 , but the 80Amp T-motors have been rock solid.
 

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
Sleepy C- don't get too comfortable on the A2, my first failure on the A2 came on the 21st flight where the GPS completely failed. My next failure came on the 7th flight which I was able to recover by moving to manual and on landing the motors would not stop- this was no ESC issue. I was also asked to help someone who had done over 30 flights before their A2 decided to do its own thing finishing in a crash. The unpredictability of the A2's failures is possibly its scariest thing.
 

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