What is the general consensus on A2 firmware v2.7?

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
I have not upgraded A2 firmware from v2.4 because there has been no weird behaviour. The DJI Assistant iPhone app has also been a great tool in the field, eliminating the need to lug around a laptop.

Everything has been wonderful.

Until now.

Thanks to bloody Apple and their obsessive preening to the unquenchable thirst of mindless consumers who have to be the first to have the new 'thing' every six months, there is now a confusing incompatibility between different iPhones/iPads, different iOS versions and the various versions of the DJI Assistant app and different firmware releases.

The easiest solution to re-establish comms between my 5S and the A2 will be to upgrade the A2 firmware to the latest (v 2.7). But folks have been bitten so many times by shoddy DJI firmware releases that I need reassurance.

So .... what is the verdict on A2 firmware 2.7? Can we trust it, or have there been any unexplained weird happenings with it?
 

Fat Corgi

Member
I too would also like to know peoples verdict on the best A2 firmware at present. I'm running 2.5. Worth updating?
 

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
I am going to consolidate my four posts concerning A2 firmware updates here and ask the Administrators to remove the other three.

Post 2:
Does anyone have, or know where to download, the DJI Assistant 1.6 software? I have had no complaints with firmware 2.4/assistant 1.4 and I have developed a serious distaste for DJI firmware updates. But bloody Apple keeps updating their iOS and now the DJI app that is compatible with iOS 9 is incompatible with fw 2.4 !!

Grrr.

But I don't want to advance all the way to the latest fw 2.7/ass 1.9 because it is bound to be full of all sorts of new unnecessary crap and new zone restrictions - which fw 2.4 has but at least it can be turned off - and potential corruption of basic features. As DJI has proved so good at doing in the past
 

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
Post 3:
Now this is weird.

I spent three or four hours at the field yesterday flight testing the A2 FW v2.7 update. There were 'issues'.

The retracts display in the DJI Assistant appeared to be reversed, i.e. when they were DOWN the Assistant displayed them as UP. This meant that the Gear would not initialize at power up because it thought that the legs were up!

So I just reversed the Tx servo and, even though the Assistant display was still not representing the true state of the retracts, I was able to continue.

Then the second thing was an apparent issue with the way battery voltage is calculated. Whereas with FW v2.4 I was getting nine minute flights before the LiPo audible alarms sounded - and way before the 2nd low voltage warning that flashes red and initiates a descent - yesterday, I was getting the flashing red LED at six minutes ... and the audible alarms set at 3.6v had not even sounded.

So, I reduced the low voltage alarm settings in the Assistant to ridiculous, dangerous and battery killing, and followed the audible alarms instead.

The THIRD thing was that the IOC (Carefree) is suddenly lumpy when changing direction. It never was before. Now though, with v2.7, it was necessary to come to a standstill in the air before changing direction - if I wanted to avoid a ringpiece-tightening mid- air lurch.

BUT ... today I fire everything up to log the changes and suddenly the retracts are being displayed correctly in the Assistant. Huh ?

Of course NOW I have to go out with fresh batteries to verify the other two v2.7 anomalies as well.
 

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
Post 4:
So the third day.

Having sorted it all out - or so I thought - it was time to do some quick verification flights before all the gear is packed up ready for an international assignment and ... guess what ... the retracts were all screwed up again!

The first clue is that they would not initialize and the little LED was blinking red - or maybe it was orange. Get out Assistant on the iPhone and yep, the retracts are indicated as being UP when in fact they are DOWN. Not only that, the unchecked Airport restrictions box is now checked. Why have they changed again?

Is this an iOS issue? Let's hook up to the Macbook and see ... no, the retracts indication is still all wrong.

So how the hell is it all different from yesterday? And why did it change yesterday from the day before that?

The airport restriction option resetting to 'selected' appears to be an iOS app bug. The computer Assistant keeps the un-selected option. The trouble is, which of the two does one trust? The only way to find out is to try and fly at a major airport !

This all Apple's fault for changing stuff in iOS 9 so that the DJI app for A2 FW 2.4 didn't work anymore.
 

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
Post 5:
This is my conclusion after three or four days testing with A2 FW 2.7

I was satisfied enough with FW 2.4 and because there have been no issues have not connected the iPhone 5S for some time. I decided to do a system check and discovered that the DJI App no longer opened on my iPhone 5S. Evidently the change to iOS 9 meant that the DJI has to be updated to remain compatible.

However, the updated DJI App is not compatible with FW 2.4.

This is why this whole process started. With an international assignment coming up that puts me in a remote location where I do not want to have to lug around the Macbook, I need to be able to use the iPhone to adjust parameters if that becomes necessary.

The issues I encountered with FW 2.7 are summarised below. Note that I also downgraded from 2.7 to 2.6 at one point, just to see if the iPhone App for that firmware version remembered the deselected Airport Restriction. It did not and so, as there did not appear to be any other potential benefits, I returned to 2.7.

1. Retracts confusion
There was a peculiar confusion regarding how the system read the retracts Up/Down position depending upon whether they are connected or not during the configuration process. I still do not fully understand what was going on but suffice to say, it does work eventually if you keep everything connected during configuration. Just remember to support the drone when verifying the retract operation so that it doesn't come crashing down on your gimbal.

2. Airport Restriction
The Airport Limit restriction can be deselected after agreeing to the safety statement that pops up. However, the iPhone App does not remember your selection and every time the App is started the Airport Restriction is back in place. The DJI Assistant on the computer, however, does remember your selection. The problem here is that I am not sure which of the two interfaces to believe. The Airport Restriction check box option did not appear at all on early Windows Assistants with a Macbook running Parallels and the restriction could only be lifted using the valid iPhone DJI App at the time.

So at that time the iPhone app was the one to trust. Now though, the computer Assistant appears to be more bug-free than the iPhone App. But still, which one to trust?

3. Low Voltage Warnings
FW 2.7 does not read battery voltages in the same way as before. Specifically it appears to be conservative in the extreme with its low voltage warnings. In order to end up with 10 - 12% LiPo power remaining, the second low voltage warning has to be set stupidly low at 20.0v. This equates to 3.33333...v per cell and would be considered as foolhardy. That is knocking on the door of LiPo destruction - with every flight!

Previously, my second low voltage warning used to be set at 3.4v or 3.45v per cell, with an audible alarm set at 3.6v per cell in order to give enough time to land without a panic before the second level warning kicked in and landed the MR automatically. End of flight LiPo cell voltage was typically 3.7v per cell.

So, with regard to the low voltage warning settings, take the time to do flight tests at various settings with known batteries and do use audible low voltage alarms to prevent accidental destruction of a LiPo pack.

In fact, always use an audible on each flight pack anyway.

4. IOC / Carefree
FW 2.7 gives 'lumpy' flight in CareFree mode - IOC in DJI speek. With 'Home Point' selected it all works as it should, i.e. select Home Point, yaw 90° left and push Elevator forward and the drone will move to its right, away from you as if travelling forwards under normal flight mode.

But, if you then want to move it to the right, for example, you must bring it to a stop first. Otherwise, the drone will do a heart-stopping lurch as it sorts itself out for the new direction. It did not behave like this with FW 2.4.

So, other than those four points, FW 2.7 appears to be solid enough in flight.
 
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AirShooter

FlyCam UAV
Post 3:
Now this is weird.

I spent three or four hours at the field yesterday flight testing the A2 FW v2.7 update. There were 'issues'.

The retracts display in the DJI Assistant appeared to be reversed, i.e. when they were DOWN the Assistant displayed them as UP. This meant that the Gear would not initialize at power up because it thought that the legs were up!

So I just reversed the Tx servo and, even though the Assistant display was still not representing the true state of the retracts, I was able to continue.

Then the second thing was an apparent issue with the way battery voltage is calculated. Whereas with FW v2.4 I was getting nine minute flights before the LiPo audible alarms sounded - and way before the 2nd low voltage warning that flashes red and initiates a descent - yesterday, I was getting the flashing red LED at six minutes ... and the audible alarms set at 3.6v had not even sounded.

So, I reduced the low voltage alarm settings in the Assistant to ridiculous, dangerous and battery killing, and followed the audible alarms instead.

The THIRD thing was that the IOC (Carefree) is suddenly lumpy when changing direction. It never was before. Now though, with v2.7, it was necessary to come to a standstill in the air before changing direction - if I wanted to avoid a ringpiece-tightening mid- air lurch.

BUT ... today I fire everything up to log the changes and suddenly the retracts are being displayed correctly in the Assistant. Huh ?

Of course NOW I have to go out with fresh batteries to verify the other two v2.7 anomalies as well.
I had the same issues with the retracts, mine work fine but the Iphone asst shows them up as well, however mine did not correct itself on screen like yours did. I also (for the fun of it) tested the "intelligent" landing gear mode but was holding the copter up thankfully as the second I selected it, the gear went up, I figured that would be the reaction and it's a feature I would never use. I did test IOC using the banked turn function and it worked really good. Overall it's been flying nice on 2.7
 

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