Anybody who knows me knows that I do not update firmware or software unless absolutely necessary. My mantra; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But I concede that sometimes firmware updates DO fix hardware problems. The following is an email I sent to support personnel who sold my business partner an M300/LiDAR combo package that was giving us problems.
------------------------------------------ email is below this line ---------------------------------------------
Good morning, Gentlemen.
In a time of turmoil a long time ago in a land far, far away, a famous Prussion soldier penned, "Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus."
Translated: "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force." ~ Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800–1891).
Lesson 1; The illusion of update button...
"Hit the update button," they said. "It will be simple, easy and fun," they said. Oh, from the mouths of babes...
The evening started like any other. I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready to tackle M300 firmware updates. I was full of hope.
I powered up the M300 and the RC, connected the RC to a reliable, business-class broadband network, opened the Pilot software, accessed the HMS menu and with all the child-like wonder of a little boy's first visit to Disney World, I hit the "Update all" button. As I had predicted, this netted a generic error message "Update failed." Time for Plan B.
I then Googled "M300 firmware," which landed me on the "DJI Matrice 300 RTK Download Center," which featured a few flavors of firmware ranging from v10 to v6. Great. Reading each one of the file's syntax carefully, I selected what I thought was the correct firmwares for the bird and controller. "Matrice 300 RTK UAV DJI Pilot Offline Firmware Update v10.01.08.05" made sense to me, so I downloaded the .zip file and put it in the root directory of a MicroSD card. For the controller I downloaded "Matrice 300 RTK RC DJI Pilot Offline Firmware Update v10.01.08.01"
Once again I hit "Update all." Once again I was met with a generic failure error message. So I thought to myself, "Self, instead of 'updating all,' just update one device at a time." It made sense to update the bird first, so I selected the appropriate .zip file and let 'er rip. I found it disturbing that the controller seemed to be "Downloading" the firmware. Downloading?? Hmmmm... Why is it "Downloading" when I specifically pointed to a .zip file on the MicroSD card installed on the controller? I wasn't worried, as, according to the "download center," v10 was the latest/greatest. What do I care if DJI utilizes my latest .zip file or downloads the latest firmware off the Internet? I wasn't concerned.
As predicted, this dissolved the connection between the M300 and the RC. No worries, as I knew that this would happen. Fortunately I was prepared with the RC .zip file loaded in the chamber. I hit the "update" button and went about my business. A few minutes later the update was done. As I had predicted, but thought I could negate, the link was still broken between the M300 and RC. I hit the "Link" button and followed directions to no avail.
Lesson 2; M300 controllers...
As it turns out, the M300 can be flown via two different controllers; A "Smart Controller" and an "RC Plus" (exact syntax). NOT "RC" and "RC Plus." NOT "Smart Controller" and "Smart Controller Plus." As it turns out, this is a big deal. DJI doesn't mention this. Grok does. It took a minute for me to figure out that we have the "Smart Controller." It would take a few minutes to discover that this is a big deal.
Lesson 3; The many flavors of Assistant 2 software...
As you can imagine, I dove down the rabbit hole of research to figure out how to fix this. Per Austin's suggestion, I steered my efforts toward the Assistant 2 software. I already have a modded version of Assistant 2 on my laptop, so I thought I would start there. I connected the M300 to my laptop. I heard the telltale Windows beep and confirmed the connection in the Device Manager. I then opened Assistant 2 to no avail. I wasn't worried, as I'm sure my modded version of Assistant 2 was probably too old to see the M300. So I downloaded the latest/greatest version, fired it up and....same thing. No connection. Hmmmm...
After doing more Grok research, it turns out that there are TWO flavors of Assistant 2. There is the "Assistant 2" that we have all come to know and love over the years. And there is "Assistant 2 ENTERPRISE." AHA!!! This would have been good information to have from the get-go, but no worries, we endeavor to persevere. I downloaded and installed Assistant 2 ENTERPRISE and et voila! We have bush! (Old "Revenge of the Nerds" reference). The M300 was now successfully connected to my laptop and the Assistant 2 software.
Lesson 4; DJI does what it wants, not what it's told...
Happy and excited, I clicked on the "M300" button and accessed the firmware page. For some unholy reason the M300 had updated itself to v64.xx.xx.xx. WHAT?!?!?! It had ignored my command to update from the .zip file and just arbitrarily crawled the Internet on its own and downloaded and installed a firmware version that, according to the M300 firmware download page, didn't even exist!!! The good news is that Assistant 2 gives the user the option to roll back ("downgrade") the firmware. The BAD news is that the 3 "older" options were all 64.xx.xx.xx versions. As it turns out, this is a big deal. I learned that v64 works with the "RC Plus" controller ONLY. In order to connect to the "Smart Controller," I had to roll the firmware back to v10.xx.xx.xx. I moved forward with research on how to roll back the M300 to a legacy firmware version.
According to Grok, there exists an "Update manually" function in the Assistant 2 software. It took me a minute as the "Update firmware MANUALLY" option is in a completely different location from the "Update firmware" location. More DJI developer Tom-Foolery. It took a minute or two, but I found it.
Exactly as before, I pointed to the .zip file and commanded the M300 to dine on it. The only difference being that this was Assistant 2 on a Windows machine vs. using the DJI controller. After a few minutes, success!
From here it was pretty easy to link the controller to the bird. YES!
Next item on the list; Fix the battery situation. Armed with the latest FW version, I connected the Smart Controller to the BS60. I proceeded to successfully update the firmware on the previously-unupdatable™ batteries. After roughly 30 minutes of updates I removed the batteries, plugged them into the M300 and fired it up. No more "Non DJI battery" error message. Success!
On the docket for today are actual test flights of these batteries and a hack for actively updating the Home Point in real time while driving in a truck (Yet, another thing that should be a user option, but alas, is not).
Once again, I am facing the day bright-eyed and bushy tailed and full of hope. The skies are calling. You guys have a great day.
D
------------------------------------------ email is below this line ---------------------------------------------
Good morning, Gentlemen.
In a time of turmoil a long time ago in a land far, far away, a famous Prussion soldier penned, "Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus."
Translated: "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force." ~ Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800–1891).
Lesson 1; The illusion of update button...
"Hit the update button," they said. "It will be simple, easy and fun," they said. Oh, from the mouths of babes...
The evening started like any other. I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready to tackle M300 firmware updates. I was full of hope.
I powered up the M300 and the RC, connected the RC to a reliable, business-class broadband network, opened the Pilot software, accessed the HMS menu and with all the child-like wonder of a little boy's first visit to Disney World, I hit the "Update all" button. As I had predicted, this netted a generic error message "Update failed." Time for Plan B.
I then Googled "M300 firmware," which landed me on the "DJI Matrice 300 RTK Download Center," which featured a few flavors of firmware ranging from v10 to v6. Great. Reading each one of the file's syntax carefully, I selected what I thought was the correct firmwares for the bird and controller. "Matrice 300 RTK UAV DJI Pilot Offline Firmware Update v10.01.08.05" made sense to me, so I downloaded the .zip file and put it in the root directory of a MicroSD card. For the controller I downloaded "Matrice 300 RTK RC DJI Pilot Offline Firmware Update v10.01.08.01"
Once again I hit "Update all." Once again I was met with a generic failure error message. So I thought to myself, "Self, instead of 'updating all,' just update one device at a time." It made sense to update the bird first, so I selected the appropriate .zip file and let 'er rip. I found it disturbing that the controller seemed to be "Downloading" the firmware. Downloading?? Hmmmm... Why is it "Downloading" when I specifically pointed to a .zip file on the MicroSD card installed on the controller? I wasn't worried, as, according to the "download center," v10 was the latest/greatest. What do I care if DJI utilizes my latest .zip file or downloads the latest firmware off the Internet? I wasn't concerned.
As predicted, this dissolved the connection between the M300 and the RC. No worries, as I knew that this would happen. Fortunately I was prepared with the RC .zip file loaded in the chamber. I hit the "update" button and went about my business. A few minutes later the update was done. As I had predicted, but thought I could negate, the link was still broken between the M300 and RC. I hit the "Link" button and followed directions to no avail.
Lesson 2; M300 controllers...
As it turns out, the M300 can be flown via two different controllers; A "Smart Controller" and an "RC Plus" (exact syntax). NOT "RC" and "RC Plus." NOT "Smart Controller" and "Smart Controller Plus." As it turns out, this is a big deal. DJI doesn't mention this. Grok does. It took a minute for me to figure out that we have the "Smart Controller." It would take a few minutes to discover that this is a big deal.
Lesson 3; The many flavors of Assistant 2 software...
As you can imagine, I dove down the rabbit hole of research to figure out how to fix this. Per Austin's suggestion, I steered my efforts toward the Assistant 2 software. I already have a modded version of Assistant 2 on my laptop, so I thought I would start there. I connected the M300 to my laptop. I heard the telltale Windows beep and confirmed the connection in the Device Manager. I then opened Assistant 2 to no avail. I wasn't worried, as I'm sure my modded version of Assistant 2 was probably too old to see the M300. So I downloaded the latest/greatest version, fired it up and....same thing. No connection. Hmmmm...
After doing more Grok research, it turns out that there are TWO flavors of Assistant 2. There is the "Assistant 2" that we have all come to know and love over the years. And there is "Assistant 2 ENTERPRISE." AHA!!! This would have been good information to have from the get-go, but no worries, we endeavor to persevere. I downloaded and installed Assistant 2 ENTERPRISE and et voila! We have bush! (Old "Revenge of the Nerds" reference). The M300 was now successfully connected to my laptop and the Assistant 2 software.
Lesson 4; DJI does what it wants, not what it's told...
Happy and excited, I clicked on the "M300" button and accessed the firmware page. For some unholy reason the M300 had updated itself to v64.xx.xx.xx. WHAT?!?!?! It had ignored my command to update from the .zip file and just arbitrarily crawled the Internet on its own and downloaded and installed a firmware version that, according to the M300 firmware download page, didn't even exist!!! The good news is that Assistant 2 gives the user the option to roll back ("downgrade") the firmware. The BAD news is that the 3 "older" options were all 64.xx.xx.xx versions. As it turns out, this is a big deal. I learned that v64 works with the "RC Plus" controller ONLY. In order to connect to the "Smart Controller," I had to roll the firmware back to v10.xx.xx.xx. I moved forward with research on how to roll back the M300 to a legacy firmware version.
According to Grok, there exists an "Update manually" function in the Assistant 2 software. It took me a minute as the "Update firmware MANUALLY" option is in a completely different location from the "Update firmware" location. More DJI developer Tom-Foolery. It took a minute or two, but I found it.
Exactly as before, I pointed to the .zip file and commanded the M300 to dine on it. The only difference being that this was Assistant 2 on a Windows machine vs. using the DJI controller. After a few minutes, success!
From here it was pretty easy to link the controller to the bird. YES!
Next item on the list; Fix the battery situation. Armed with the latest FW version, I connected the Smart Controller to the BS60. I proceeded to successfully update the firmware on the previously-unupdatable™ batteries. After roughly 30 minutes of updates I removed the batteries, plugged them into the M300 and fired it up. No more "Non DJI battery" error message. Success!
On the docket for today are actual test flights of these batteries and a hack for actively updating the Home Point in real time while driving in a truck (Yet, another thing that should be a user option, but alas, is not).
Once again, I am facing the day bright-eyed and bushy tailed and full of hope. The skies are calling. You guys have a great day.
D
