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Some additional Nvidia Shield K1 Info

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Greetings, new Mavic owner hoping I can share some info someone else may get use out of someday.

My Shield had already been "upgraded" to 7 Nougat prior to finally purchasing my Mavic. Like most (but not all) others, I too had many crashes with 7, even within seconds of opening the app. I thought I could make 7 work if I tried enough settings changes, but no. Everything - tablet, DJI app, Mavic and remote, etc. all totally up to date as of a week ago, so nothing as of this writing has changed in regards to updates to fix the problem. I can only think that the folks who succeed with 7 have something set differently on their tablet to prevent, somethign undone which is the cause of the crashes, but we may never know what. Anyhow, reverting to 6 Marshmallow did indeed work. Several posts here and on the DJI forum gave me enough direction to finally get it done. So - if you are a Shield owner, as you probably know, keeping or going back to 6 Marshmallow does seem to work.

Along the way I wanted to remove the upgrade notification, I hate knowing it's there bugging me and I like to make things work the way I want them to work (character flaw, perhaps). I "rooted" the tablet, which wasn't a bad job to do. If you have gone through the experience of taking your Shield software back from 7 Nougat to 6 Marshmallow then you can do the rooting job. Other than an additional download and step using "TWRP" software and related command, you have experienced the base steps. It's just more ADB ___ and / or Fastboot ___ etc. lines in the command window and keeping an eye on your Device Properties for yellow triangles with exclamation marks. I won't get into all the steps here since it took me a few tries and computer and tablet reboots with do-overs, but they are easily found via internet searches. My point is - if you can revert the OS, you can root as well.

Once rooting was done I used an app "DisableService". Under the System tab, then Google Play Services were 2 spots that I unchecked - SystemUpdateGCMTaskService and SystemUpdateService. Further down past Google Play Services was another menu for System Upgrade, and inside of it were 4 more services, all of which I unchecked. After a reboot I had no notifications of any sort for an OS upgrade and it has stayed that way since!

I guess the last thing I have to share, not software but FYI for Shield owners, I bought a USB cable to connect the Shield to the remote, and since I didn't want the Shield to be charged by the remote I got clever (so I thought) and removed the + voltage pin from the end of the cable itself. The idea was to leave the inner data stream pins intact but simply cut off the charging connection. Well, it didn't work, without that pin in place the Shield wasn't smart enough to realize anything was connected to it at all, and it was unable to be used to fly the Mavic. The charging wires seem to need to both be intact to alert the Shield something is plugged in, and then act accordingly. Once I went back to an older cable with all 4 pins, it worked fine. Seemed like a good idea but did not work.

TLDR:
* DJI app on Android 7 couldn't fly the Mavic, going back to 6 fixed it
* Rooting the tablet isn't bad if you've done the work above, and is needed to run an app to stop the OS upgrade nag
* DisableService app can be used to eliminate the upgrade nag
* Still looking for a way to prevent the Shield from charging up by stealing from the remote, modified USB cable is not the answer

I've learned a lot from this forum already, hopefully this helps someone.
 
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I decided to use the SD card which came with the Mavic, a 16GB gold Sandisk Extreme, as an internal storage device for the shield since I'd replaced it with a 64GB card. With Atto DriveBench, left over from years ago when I was trying to tweak the ultimate gaming PC, I saw write speeds in the low 70's MB/sec, pretty darned fast. If I don't end up using it in the Shield for video cache (currently turned off since I was doing everything I could think of to prevent app crashes), I may end up using it for movie storage (i.e. Netflix app movie downloads).

Right now I have a factory Marshmallow setup with just the DJI app, but I think I'll eventually get a few more apps on it just to make it a more useful table to travel with. I'm no pro in need of dedicated screen equipment, so I'd like my Shield to actually perform somewhat as a normal tablet. I'll probably start adding them on one at a time until I see an issue, still keeping a minimalist approach in mind (i.e. Kindle and Netflix yes (run when asked), Facebook no (always running))
 
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Got a notification of a "like" for the first post, figured I'd follow up if it turns out a few people, probably Shield owners, were helped at all.

So far, so good. Still on Marshmallow, did the root mod and app to prevent upgrade notifications. I still manually go look for app updates. The DJI app and all firmware are up to date, and the setup has been completely bullet proof so far.

I do have Kindle and some other apps on it, doesn't seem to have harmed anything.
 
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Greetings, new Mavic owner hoping I can share some info someone else may get use out of someday.

My Shield had already been "upgraded" to 7 Nougat prior to finally purchasing my Mavic. Like most (but not all) others, I too had many crashes with 7, even within seconds of opening the app. I thought I could make 7 work if I tried enough settings changes, but no. Everything - tablet, DJI app, Mavic and remote, etc. all totally up to date as of a week ago, so nothing as of this writing has changed in regards to updates to fix the problem. I can only think that the folks who succeed with 7 have something set differently on their tablet to prevent, somethign undone which is the cause of the crashes, but we may never know what. Anyhow, reverting to 6 Marshmallow did indeed work. Several posts here and on the DJI forum gave me enough direction to finally get it done. So - if you are a Shield owner, as you probably know, keeping or going back to 6 Marshmallow does seem to work.

Along the way I wanted to remove the upgrade notification, I hate knowing it's there bugging me and I like to make things work the way I want them to work (character flaw, perhaps). I "rooted" the tablet, which wasn't a bad job to do. If you have gone through the experience of taking your Shield software back from 7 Nougat to 6 Marshmallow then you can do the rooting job. Other than an additional download and step using "TWRP" software and related command, you have experienced the base steps. It's just more ADB ___ and / or Fastboot ___ etc. lines in the command window and keeping an eye on your Device Properties for yellow triangles with exclamation marks. I won't get into all the steps here since it took me a few tries and computer and tablet reboots with do-overs, but they are easily found via internet searches. My point is - if you can revert the OS, you can root as well.

Once rooting was done I used an app "DisableService". Under the System tab, then Google Play Services were 2 spots that I unchecked - SystemUpdateGCMTaskService and SystemUpdateService. Further down past Google Play Services was another menu for System Upgrade, and inside of it were 4 more services, all of which I unchecked. After a reboot I had no notifications of any sort for an OS upgrade and it has stayed that way since!

I guess the last thing I have to share, not software but FYI for Shield owners, I bought a USB cable to connect the Shield to the remote, and since I didn't want the Shield to be charged by the remote I got clever (so I thought) and removed the + voltage pin from the end of the cable itself. The idea was to leave the inner data stream pins intact but simply cut off the charging connection. Well, it didn't work, without that pin in place the Shield wasn't smart enough to realize anything was connected to it at all, and it was unable to be used to fly the Mavic. The charging wires seem to need to both be intact to alert the Shield something is plugged in, and then act accordingly. Once I went back to an older cable with all 4 pins, it worked fine. Seemed like a good idea but did not work.

TLDR:
* DJI app on Android 7 couldn't fly the Mavic, going back to 6 fixed it
* Rooting the tablet isn't bad if you've done the work above, and is needed to run an app to stop the OS upgrade nag
* DisableService app can be used to eliminate the upgrade nag
* Still looking for a way to prevent the Shield from charging up by stealing from the remote, modified USB cable is not the answer

I've learned a lot from this forum already, hopefully this helps someone.
I have been thinking about this charging issue but I haven't had the time to try an idea. Maybe you can, how about placing a diode in series with the red (positive) line, with only .7 volt drop, it should allow the tablet to connect to the remote while blocking the reverse current flow of the remote charging the tablet.

Just a thought, hopefully it will work.[emoji1]
 
Interesting idea. I guess it depends on exactly how the tablet knows it is connected. Does the RC sense the tablet first, start pushing data, and that wakes up the tablet? I was thinking more the other way where the tablet sensed power from the RC and then started into the data sharing. If the latter is the case I'd think the diode preventing the tablet from siphoning power from the RC would also prevent it from waking up to start with. I really don't know.
 
I have been running a 5000ma portable phone charger into to micro USB on the controller when I fly, the controller stays at 100% as it is charging the tablet.
I don't know if this is OK but I have not had any problems with this yet.
Everything stays charged for several hours.
 
Nice! Do you have a clever way of holding the battery, i.e. attached under the RC or tablet with velcro, or is it some other totally different kind of setup?

I could tell that worked but never really monitored how long it would last. Unlike with iphones / ipads, the Shield is able to run with something in the side port while the tablet is plugged into the bottom.

I only have 2 Mavic batteries, and combined with some time spent checking my settings and looking at maps I have everything turned on for only about an hour total, or a little less. Even when charging the tablet that long I still show that I've got something like 65% battery power left in the RC when I am wrapping up and heading home.
 
Interesting idea. I guess it depends on exactly how the tablet knows it is connected. Does the RC sense the tablet first, start pushing data, and that wakes up the tablet? I was thinking more the other way where the tablet sensed power from the RC and then started into the data sharing. If the latter is the case I'd think the diode preventing the tablet from siphoning power from the RC would also prevent it from waking up to start with. I really don't know.
I guess we can find out experimentally, If I have time this weekend, I might just try it.
 
Nice! Do you have a clever way of holding the battery, i.e. attached under the RC or tablet with velcro, or is it some other totally different kind of setup?

I could tell that worked but never really monitored how long it would last. Unlike with iphones / ipads, the Shield is able to run with something in the side port while the tablet is plugged into the bottom.

I only have 2 Mavic batteries, and combined with some time spent checking my settings and looking at maps I have everything turned on for only about an hour total, or a little less. Even when charging the tablet that long I still show that I've got something like 65% battery power left in the RC when I am wrapping up and heading home.

Attaching to the back of the tablet with Velcro or 3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener (a little goes a long way) and about 8" cord.
I really like the Jackery Pop Slim 5000mAh because it has a test button that shows the charge (three lights) with out having it hooked up to anything, I'm sure there are others with this feature and it is very handy.

Running with the phone charger my the RC is 100% and the Shield is over 80% at the end of an hour.
Hope this helps.
 
I love my shield tablet, and have only had one disconnect at all when using it, however I find I don't have any if I turn off the wifi when flying. (This was a solution I found on a number of tablets and phones here on this site).
I plug a charge battery device in my pocket, one of those cell phone charger things, plug it into the controller, and it keeps both the tablet and the controller charged all the time without issue. The advantage is that the controller and the tablet both outlast my three batteries on the drone.
 

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