I would like an official rollback option. If not for the forum members unofficial rollback option my P4 would still be bricked and unflyable. A month is too long for this to be going on.
August 7 Month long DJI firmware failure.
- Thread starter Slipstrm
- Start date
This is one response that another forum member articulated, these are his words and i whole heartedly agree.
What we do know is that:
1. DJI released firmware that was clearly flawed with several issues being identified by many users (some issues have grounded the devices)
2. The original DJI Assistant software and DJI support staff stated that firmware could be rolled back but that option was removed leaving owners with no fall back from the faulty update.
3. Some folk in these threads devised a very easy and successful interim solution to roll back the firmware but those posts were removed by DJI with no alternative solution provided.
3. Folk in this thread were invited to provide their email address so that beta firmware could be rolled out but that beta code was, to the best of my knowledge, never sent to any P4 users
4. One month later and there are still numerous owners (including many commercial users) unable to fly their P4s due to a faulty firmware release and the best that DJI can do is to advise us to "be patient".
I really don't know what "being patient" is meant to mean given that there have been absolutely no timeframes or details given by DJI in terms of progress in resolving the issues or, in fact, about any details surrounding these issues at all.
I've loved using by original P3A and my P4 but this latest firmware disgrace and the way it's being managed is simply unacceptable.
What we do know is that:
1. DJI released firmware that was clearly flawed with several issues being identified by many users (some issues have grounded the devices)
2. The original DJI Assistant software and DJI support staff stated that firmware could be rolled back but that option was removed leaving owners with no fall back from the faulty update.
3. Some folk in these threads devised a very easy and successful interim solution to roll back the firmware but those posts were removed by DJI with no alternative solution provided.
3. Folk in this thread were invited to provide their email address so that beta firmware could be rolled out but that beta code was, to the best of my knowledge, never sent to any P4 users
4. One month later and there are still numerous owners (including many commercial users) unable to fly their P4s due to a faulty firmware release and the best that DJI can do is to advise us to "be patient".
I really don't know what "being patient" is meant to mean given that there have been absolutely no timeframes or details given by DJI in terms of progress in resolving the issues or, in fact, about any details surrounding these issues at all.
I've loved using by original P3A and my P4 but this latest firmware disgrace and the way it's being managed is simply unacceptable.
I have a friend who owns a P4 and after the firmware update the AC was useless. He tried rolling back using DJI Assistant but DJI took the old firmware down from the servers, he called DJI support and they tried to help but with no luck, they said to him to send the AC for examination and posible repair, he was reluctant to do it. I found on another thread a link to the other past firmware and a program to rollback the AC, after a lot of persuasion from me he decided to do it and the AC is back on the air. DJI should pay more attention to the users who at the end is who can decide if a firmware is stable or not, we are the base knowledge of the industry.
They absolutely DO NOT CARE!!! I have never seen a company so hell bent on destroying itself. Only a matter of time before DJI is out of business or sells out to someone else. So all these drones will be totally useless unless people figure out how to hack them on their own to fix all the problems.
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They do care (no, I'm not defending their disgusting butts, just being real), but there are other compelling reasons they are not allowing rollback to the previous firmware. Compelling, that is, to DJI and the Chinese government.
Here's what's really going on. DJI has been introducing and testing in increments a new GEO system for restricting flight by location, as well as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that data for restricted zones is refreshed regularly. The latter is currently only active in China, where the government is requiring this tighter control. DJI has no choice in China -- they have to have this functionality in their products.
This was the main reason for the update. They made a mess out of the system, and can't allow rollback because they need to keep everyone that's rolled forward "captured", lest they downgrade for good -- especially Chinese owners.
Further, some clever hombres over in Mavic-land discovered an exploit to control all sorts of aspects of the Mavic, like maximum altitude, horizontal and ascent speeds, and critically NFZ enforcement. It was further discovered that these same exploits work on the previous P4 firmware. This is just a taste -- there are dozens of parameters that can be tuned. I'll say no more than that -- google if you want to know more.
So, there's no way DJI is letting anyone back on that older firmware that they've gotten on the new release. In the mean time, there are engineers that haven't bathed in a week and slept in 48 hours. They're living on pizza (or the Chinese cultural/nutritional equivalent) and Coca Cola. Their manager's manager is hanging around, breathing down everyone's neck, asking how it's going constantly, pushing, and slowing things down.
Someone in the QA dept, some high-level dude like a General Manager, is going to lose his position if not his job. Lawsuit threats from professionals grounded are without a doubt rolling in.
Folks, I have absolutely no sympathy for DJI at all, as they did this to themselves. This was so badly planned, managed, and executed. The bugs are so blatant and ubiquitous there's no excuse that it was tested and just worked fine. Yeah, only if "tested" means individual unit tests by each engineer at their desk in a simulator with the feature they coded and nothing else.
Anyway, I've lived through this scenario a few times in my career. I have no doubt the above drama is exactly what's playing out. DJI isn't sitting around kinda ignoring this. They're at DEFCON 1 in full panic mode.
They just haven't fixed it yet. QA is making sure this time
Here's what's really going on. DJI has been introducing and testing in increments a new GEO system for restricting flight by location, as well as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that data for restricted zones is refreshed regularly. The latter is currently only active in China, where the government is requiring this tighter control. DJI has no choice in China -- they have to have this functionality in their products.
This was the main reason for the update. They made a mess out of the system, and can't allow rollback because they need to keep everyone that's rolled forward "captured", lest they downgrade for good -- especially Chinese owners.
Further, some clever hombres over in Mavic-land discovered an exploit to control all sorts of aspects of the Mavic, like maximum altitude, horizontal and ascent speeds, and critically NFZ enforcement. It was further discovered that these same exploits work on the previous P4 firmware. This is just a taste -- there are dozens of parameters that can be tuned. I'll say no more than that -- google if you want to know more.
So, there's no way DJI is letting anyone back on that older firmware that they've gotten on the new release. In the mean time, there are engineers that haven't bathed in a week and slept in 48 hours. They're living on pizza (or the Chinese cultural/nutritional equivalent) and Coca Cola. Their manager's manager is hanging around, breathing down everyone's neck, asking how it's going constantly, pushing, and slowing things down.
Someone in the QA dept, some high-level dude like a General Manager, is going to lose his position if not his job. Lawsuit threats from professionals grounded are without a doubt rolling in.
Folks, I have absolutely no sympathy for DJI at all, as they did this to themselves. This was so badly planned, managed, and executed. The bugs are so blatant and ubiquitous there's no excuse that it was tested and just worked fine. Yeah, only if "tested" means individual unit tests by each engineer at their desk in a simulator with the feature they coded and nothing else.
Anyway, I've lived through this scenario a few times in my career. I have no doubt the above drama is exactly what's playing out. DJI isn't sitting around kinda ignoring this. They're at DEFCON 1 in full panic mode.
They just haven't fixed it yet. QA is making sure this time
Surely you are right and the engineers of DJI are on red alert and work 100% to solve the disaster that has done, but does not serve as an apology. The problem is why do they get a firmware with such serious failures? Have they tested it? Surely not enough and there is the problem, you can not get a new firmware with more errors than hits, however much they are committed to put a new geolocation system, if it is not ready the errors are going to be more than the benefits. Bad, very bad DJI. Sorry for my English.They do care (no, I'm not defending their disgusting butts, just being real), but there are other compelling reasons they are not allowing rollback to the previous firmware. Compelling, that is, to DJI and the Chinese government.
Here's what's really going on. DJI has been introducing and testing in increments a new GEO system for restricting flight by location, as well as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that data for restricted zones is refreshed regularly. The latter is currently only active in China, where the government is requiring this tighter control. DJI has no choice in China -- they have to have this functionality in their products.
This was the main reason for the update. They made a mess out of the system, and can't allow rollback because they need to keep everyone that's rolled forward "captured", lest they downgrade for good -- especially Chinese owners.
Further, some clever hombres over in Mavic-land discovered an exploit to control all sorts of aspects of the Mavic, like maximum altitude, horizontal and ascent speeds, and critically NFZ enforcement. It was further discovered that these same exploits work on the previous P4 firmware. This is just a taste -- there are dozens of parameters that can be tuned. I'll say no more than that -- google if you want to know more.
So, there's no way DJI is letting anyone back on that older firmware that they've gotten on the new release. In the mean time, there are engineers that haven't bathed in a week and slept in 48 hours. They're living on pizza (or the Chinese cultural/nutritional equivalent) and Coca Cola. Their manager's manager is hanging around, breathing down everyone's neck, asking how it's going constantly, pushing, and slowing things down.
Someone in the QA dept, some high-level dude like a General Manager, is going to lose his position if not his job. Lawsuit threats from professionals grounded are without a doubt rolling in.
Folks, I have absolutely no sympathy for DJI at all, as they did this to themselves. This was so badly planned, managed, and executed. The bugs are so blatant and ubiquitous there's no excuse that it was tested and just worked fine. Yeah, only if "tested" means individual unit tests by each engineer at their desk in a simulator with the feature they coded and nothing else.
Anyway, I've lived through this scenario a few times in my career. I have no doubt the above drama is exactly what's playing out. DJI isn't sitting around kinda ignoring this. They're at DEFCON 1 in full panic mode.
They just haven't fixed it yet. QA is making sure this time
Can't help but wonder if the US Army's dumping of DJI was more about these firmware update issues rather than security. Maybe some of both as I believe they would have to be interlinked to some extent.
Dwallersv is right in this, this is an scenario that happened before to others Tech companies. How many times Apple (to mention one) had a new firmware for the iPhone and two days later rolled another one to fix the things that the previous broke or made it not working. In the DJI case, we don't hear any voice from them saying "we are aware of the problem and we are working our butts off to fix it ASAP". Me personally didn't had any problem with my Phantom's, but in this case we hope for the best.
Firmware received successfully in my p4p+ never had an issue. Apparently according to the FAA app tells me I'm in a no-fly zone where I live, but yet my drone still flies perfectly fine. It does however tell me that I'm near an airport which is ovet 7 miles away from me a Hospital with a Helo pad that's about it a quarter of a mile from where I live. But I have since yet experienced any of the problems that people have complained about with this new firmware. Unless trying to fly more than 400 feet which I only need 90 to 250 feet. I did notice flying or at least trying to fly past 400 ft my controller says maximum altitude has been reached. But for me flying at that altitude is too high and I don't need to be quite that high. Since getting my controller modify allowing me to have better range to go even farther than stock the most sending my drone out has been a little over 2 miles away losing field of site while flying past trees and buildings just to capture the awesome scenery.
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Just wondering, no sarcasm intended, how can this update be a failure when it is working as advertised for a majority of owners? We need to keep in mind that (as has been said countless times by many on this forum) people usually only post negative issues and rarely success stories about their birds. I have heard of a few online surveys that have over 80% success rate with latest update. This update, IMHO, has been no different than some from the past - some have success and some have no luck at all. I personally had better luck with this current update than with the one most seem to want to rollback to. I think they need to figure out why it doesnt work well for some, that is where they are failing.
Cant agree more.... Sales on the p4p weather plus or not plus are unbelievable and yes they have the most up to date firmware. Few 3 party stores around me can not keep in stock. Returns are very few but finding out the returns are exchanges. As I pointed out in my post quality control is very important and if stores like Best Buy sell the product they only assume DJI assembled and tested. Very hard to believe the latest firmware caused a mess. Otherwise every p4p would be a problem. For as the US military (posted in thread) scrapping DJI drones, please do a facts check before jumping the gun. The order was given for a reason do to our home land security in the United States. These were not designed for military use for our Government to be using.
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Yup, I agree... not sure why one needs over 400 feet. The most I would ever need is about 250. The scenes are still great to see.
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There are times when one may want to go over 400 feet. On instance is flying up a mountains side - you may never be more that 250 feet off the ground but the aircraft might rise to 3000ft as far as it is concerned.
If Ford made cars in which only 80% were usable, would that be acceptable?
Well I get your point and it is valid. As with anything online the vast majority are posted from someone who had a problem. But I have to say as an engineer "80% success rate" SUCKS. In the engineering world that is flat out a disaster.
I try to never update. I recently sold a P4 with older firmware. The new owner tried to update and bricked it. I had him send it back and gave him another. I checked out the one he sent back and it was bricked. I had a new processor section. Put it in and it was fine. Now i have to wait for DJI to come up with a cure. My cost was $75 plus shipping. I suspect i am out $100
