Craziness with Air 2S and Smart Controller running Fly 1.4.2

[melmartin]

I also posted this on the DJI Forum.

Here's an odd one. Loaded 1.4.2 on the Smart controller, and as is usual with new software I gave it a try at low altitude and close to home. Software came up fine, could see video with no lag.

Switched to photo mode and camera was frozen on last video frame. I was blind to whatever the camera and drone were doing. Switched back to video and all was fine.

Landed and tried my iPhone in the standard controller and it was fine running 1.4.2 on iOS.

Decided to re-download the Android APK directly on to the Smart Controller and tried again with the same result. Video was fine, but just a freeze frame when switching to photo mode. Reset camera parameters, that did nothing. Switched to 16x9 and that brought the live feed back!! Odd. When I switched back to the default aspect ratio camera froze again. 16X9 mode made it live again.

It's got to be the software, but not sure what to try next. Could reset the whole smart controller, but it's a bit of a pain. anyone else seeing this, or have any good ideas? Thanks. Was anxious to get the new features in 1.4.2. 1.4.0 ran fine on the SC.

 

[Repaid1]

I also posted this on the DJI Forum.

Here's an odd one. Loaded 1.4.2 on the Smart controller, and as is usual with new software I gave it a try at low altitude and close to home. Software came up fine, could see video with no lag.

Switched to photo mode and camera was frozen on last video frame. I was blind to whatever the camera and drone were doing. Switched back to video and all was fine.

Landed and tried my iPhone in the standard controller and it was fine running 1.4.2 on iOS.

Decided to re-download the Android APK directly on to the Smart Controller and tried again with the same result. Video was fine, but just a freeze frame when switching to photo mode. Reset camera parameters, that did nothing. Switched to 16x9 and that brought the live feed back!! Odd. When I switched back to the default aspect ratio camera froze again. 16X9 mode made it live again.

It's got to be the software, but not sure what to try next. Could reset the whole smart controller, but it's a bit of a pain. anyone else seeing this, or have any good ideas? Thanks. Was anxious to get the new features in 1.4.2. 1.4.0 ran fine on the SC.

The basics are you are putting non authorized software on the SC. It runs a proprietary old version of Android. Side loading of any App including DJI's apps on the SC produce all manner of issues and always have. It's hit or miss, but it is known you do so at your own risk. The only DJI Apps that should be on the SC are ones that the SC firmware puts on there. They are updated by the next firmware as they are tested and and adjusted to work on the SC only, not the other way around with other Android devices. So do as you want as it's your SC, but I don't want to risk my aircraft or SC modding the system as it was designed...best of luck figuring it out though, I know your not the only one who sideloads apps on the darn thing.

 

[melmartin]

You are right. some people on the forum said it's fine to put the 1.4.2 APK version on the SC, and I did. Stupid move. I did get back to 1.4.0 which is working fine. Strangely, this morning a message came up from the SC saying there was an update to the Fly app. I figured it must have been ready, and official.I installed it and had the same exact issues. so I went back to 1.4.0.. tested it, and it works fine. So hopefully, the SC will see 1.4.3, but who knows. It keeps telling me to update, and never gives the version #. I'm ignoring the update requests for now. DJI has my logs of the problems with 1.4.2, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[lsarribanca]

You are right. some people on the forum said it's fine to put the 1.4.2 APK version on the SC, and I did. Stupid move. I did get back to 1.4.0 which is working fine. Strangely, this morning a message came up from the SC saying there was an update to the Fly app. I figured it must have been ready, and official.I installed it and had the same exact issues. so I went back to 1.4.0.. tested it, and it works fine. So hopefully, the SC will see 1.4.3, but who knows. It keeps telling me to update, and never gives the version #. I'm ignoring the update requests for now. DJI has my logs of the problems with 1.4.2, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for your comments.

Try to reinstall the SC Firmware from de DJI Assistant 2 on the PC. Just keep SC internal memory more than 3G free and use the SC USB power cable to connect to the PC.

 

[melmartin]

Not sure what that would accomplish. I did re-install firmware with Assistant 2... but after that got a message to install 1.4.2 which isn't work without major bugs.

 

[allcaps]

You are right. some people on the forum said it's fine to put the 1.4.2 APK version on the SC, and I did. Stupid move. I did get back to 1.4.0 which is working fine. Strangely, this morning a message came up from the SC saying there was an update to the Fly app. I figured it must have been ready, and official.I installed it and had the same exact issues. so I went back to 1.4.0.. tested it, and it works fine. So hopefully, the SC will see 1.4.3, but who knows. It keeps telling me to update, and never gives the version #. I'm ignoring the update requests for now. DJI has my logs of the problems with 1.4.2, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for your comments.

I also posted this on the DJI Forum.

Here's an odd one. Loaded 1.4.2 on the Smart controller, and as is usual with new software I gave it a try at low altitude and close to home. Software came up fine, could see video with no lag.

Switched to photo mode and camera was frozen on last video frame. I was blind to whatever the camera and drone were doing. Switched back to video and all was fine.

Landed and tried my iPhone in the standard controller and it was fine running 1.4.2 on iOS.

Decided to re-download the Android APK directly on to the Smart Controller and tried again with the same result. Video was fine, but just a freeze frame when switching to photo mode. Reset camera parameters, that did nothing. Switched to 16x9 and that brought the live feed back!! Odd. When I switched back to the default aspect ratio camera froze again. 16X9 mode made it live again.

It's got to be the software, but not sure what to try next. Could reset the whole smart controller, but it's a bit of a pain. anyone else seeing this, or have any good ideas? Thanks. Was anxious to get the new features in 1.4.2. 1.4.0 ran fine on the SC.

I'm in a similar situation with rhe SC and Air 2S. I let DJI Fly update to 1.4.2 and encountered the video freeze. How do I get back to DFI Fly 1.4.0?

 

[melmartin]

Go to settings on the SC, then apps... select the Fly app and you'll see an option to delete it. Your SC will give you 1.4.0 back, which works fine.

 

[allcaps]

Go to settings on the SC, then apps... select the Fly app and you'll see an option to delete it. Your SC will give you 1.4.0 back, which works fine.

Thanks for the info! I'm back to 1.4.0 and will do no more updates until there's a version that fixes the video freeze when switching from video to still.

 

[melmartin]

Great. Everything works fine with 1.4.0.

 

[DronePhotosNZ]

I also posted this on the DJI Forum.

Here's an odd one. Loaded 1.4.2 on the Smart controller, and as is usual with new software I gave it a try at low altitude and close to home. Software came up fine, could see video with no lag.

Switched to photo mode and camera was frozen on last video frame. I was blind to whatever the camera and drone were doing. Switched back to video and all was fine.

Landed and tried my iPhone in the standard controller and it was fine running 1.4.2 on iOS.

Decided to re-download the Android APK directly on to the Smart Controller and tried again with the same result. Video was fine, but just a freeze frame when switching to photo mode. Reset camera parameters, that did nothing. Switched to 16x9 and that brought the live feed back!! Odd. When I switched back to the default aspect ratio camera froze again. 16X9 mode made it live again.

It's got to be the software, but not sure what to try next. Could reset the whole smart controller, but it's a bit of a pain. anyone else seeing this, or have any good ideas? Thanks. Was anxious to get the new features in 1.4.2. 1.4.0 ran fine on the SC.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm..........

I just got in from having this very same thing happening !

I hadn't read of this issue until it happened to me but found your post and it's the same issue
Smart Controller and MA2S combination

I updated the firmware on the smart-controller 2 days ago and when I went to fly today, the following occurred

When I fired up the drone, it was in photo mode, and the screen showed black ( photographic equivalent of leaving the lens cap on )
I switched to video mode and a picture appeared ( hadn't taken off at this stage ), I proceeded to take off and fly away, with me looking at the drone, only to realise that the drone was about 20 metres away, at about 15metres altitude ( to me ) and the screen still showed the image attached ( my car roof )
I figured the screen had frozen, but clicked the capture still image button anyway and the attached photo is what was captured. It's a 20Mp file so this tells me the drone camera is freezing ( locking up, not cold ), not the smart controller screen.
I switched to video, problem solved.....
Back to stills and worked for a while before happening again !
I finished the shoot where I was and moved location which I did another 3 times that afternoon
EVERY time I turned the drone back on I was met with a black screen until I switched to video mode which seemed to temporarily solve the problem. DJI FLY would also crash every now and again for no apparent reason, once when I had a low battery and was over a flooded river, I really didn't want it to land there !
Now I've read the post by MelMartin but I don't see an option to go back one version in the firmware, just to reset to factory settings if I remove DJI FLY
Any other ideas ?
Thanks in advance, Stu

 

[melmartin]

Easily fixable until DJI has a fix for 1.4.2 which they still are updating the SC with. Go to settings on the SC. then apps. You'll see an option to delete the app. It will be replaced with 1.4.0 which will work fine. You'll see from comments above in this thread that deleting the 1.4.2 app replaces it with the working version of 1.4.0. Actually, altho I'm not happy about 1.4.2 and a sloppy release from DJI, they do give you an easy way to go back.

 

[DronePhotosNZ]

Easily fixable until DJI has a fix for 1.4.2 which they still are updating the SC with. Go to settings on the SC. then apps. You'll see an option to delete the app. It will be replaced with 1.4.0 which will work fine. You'll see from comments above in this thread that deleting the 1.4.2 app replaces it with the working version of 1.4.0. Actually, although I'm not happy about 1.4.2 and a sloppy release from DJI, they do give you an easy way to go back.

Thanks for the advice, I was a bit worried as the controller actually says it will revert to factory settings rather than 'the last firmware installed'
However, it did work, so thanks again for the advice, looking forward to flying again tomorrow and trying it out
I did try a few power-ups after the reset, and every time, I now had a picture on the screen as soon as connection was made between controller and drone WITHOUT having to switch to Movie mode
Thanks again, Stu

 

[melmartin]

My pleasure... I didn't know this procedure until recently when somebody pointed it out to me. Glad you are up and running again.

Mel

 

[jmbsmt63]

To everybody struggling with performance or ANY updates to the SC. Don't be afraid to do the "restore to default/factory reset" as well as clearing the cache and recent. That will ensure you are starting fresh. 1.4.2 might not be specifically for the SC but it works just fine for me

Here is a video that describes that "maintenance" in a bit more depth.

 

[melmartin]

Have tried all those things, still get video freeze on camera feed. This morning I tried to download the update again with the same result. I've written DJI with the details... will see if they respond...

 

[allcaps]

Thanks for the info! I'm back to 1.4.0 and will do no more updates until there's a version that fixes the video freeze when switching from video to still.

In the process of updating the SC and the Mini 2 to make the SC capable of controlling the Mini 2, DJI Fly was updated to 1.4.4. Now, the display on the SC no longer freezes when I switch from video to photo when flying the Air 2S.

Mini 2
A/C Firmware: 01.03.0000
SC Firmware: 01.01.0058
DJI Fly App: 1.4.4

Air 2S
A/C Firmware: 02.04.1690
SC Firmware: 01.01.0058
DJI Fly App: 1.4.4