flytrex / P3P signal loss / odd startup

[davestern2]

anyone have any experience with flytrex causing any interference or signal loss between the drone and the RC? I install the flytrex live 3G about two days ago and now have it working.

First flight with flytrex installed yesterday in the backyard (but perhaps before I had the SIM working) was unremarkable apart from DJIGO reporting signal loss maybe once, which hadn't happened in the 30 flights I've had. I attributed it to some interference caused by flytrex (mounted in their holder), perhaps physical interference as it seemed to happen when the flytrex unit was facing me. All flights beforehand had been perfect signal / video. Yesterday's flight is here: HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Today's experience was much more odd. Powered everything up and DJIGO was reporting a unit firmware and battery upgrade needed. Odd thing was I am up to date. The app however thought I had a P3 standard and wanted me to get to 1.5, which is less than the 1.6 I have on my drone (P3P). Powered off the drone and back on, same message. Rebooted my phone and the drone and everything was good again - firmware message gone - no idea what happened and has never happened before. A few times during the short flight, DJIGO was reporting signal loss and asked to RTH. I cancelled each time .. done was very close and I never lost control of the drone even with reported signal loss (note that signal bars were full always). Lost video / frozen video too .. again, no control issues at all. Also, the flytrex seems to have lost connection and is showing the flight as 3 separate segments (3 flights) .. not sure if those lost flytrex signals correspond to when DJOGO reported signal loss.

today's flight is here: HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
flytrex logbookis here (public?): http://www.flytrex.com/dave33/logbook/

I checked everything extremely thoroughly when I installed flytrex (checked everything 5 times including reviewing all cable connections, physical routing etc).

Today's flight was also in a field about 2 miles from a local airport - not sure if that caused any interference for me (I did call the control tower before flying.. .. I gave them info about my planned flight, with which they had no issues..most important to them was that I had registered, which I had, and I didn't have any issues doing).

I am also wondering whether the flytrex cable routing makes the video or remote /sensor signals on the 6 and 8 conductor cables more susceptible to interference than the factory standard routing?

Any experience with flytrex signal interference or any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance....

 

[flyNfrank]

The HD site data doesn't show a signal lost.

 

[davestern2]

The HD site data doesn't show a signal lost.

Thanks. I'm not sure what happened. The app was clearly reporting signal loss and asking whether to RTH, which I cancelled at least 3 times. I had video loss as well. Not sure how the app (and therefore the remote?) could report signal loss without it being in the log? But it was clearly happening or at least being reported. I wonder whether somehow the flytrex caused an issue which is presenting itself in an odd way..? Will have to check all the wiring again at a minimum...

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[flyNfrank]

Thanks. I'm not sure what happened. The app was clearly reporting signal loss and asking whether to RTH, which I cancelled at least 3 times. I had video loss as well. Not sure how the app (and therefore the remote?) could report signal loss without it being in the log? But it was clearly happening or at least being reported. I wonder whether somehow the flytrex caused an issue which is presenting itself in an odd way..? Will have to check all the wiring again at a minimum...

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure you can experience that same issue if the usb connection is loose in some way. But it didn't show a loss to the flight log data that the HD site reads from.

 

[davestern2]

so check out this flight today, which I've done before with no signal issues at all before flytrex. See the sensor signal loss map .. had signal loss even close by. And, when calibrating compass, happens pretty consistently on the second pass (when nose pointing down) that I lose signal.

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Flytrex flightbook shows it as one single flight, so whatever happened on my other flight to split it into segments didn't happen here, which is good.

I may remove the flytrex and try the same thing and see if the signal issues go away... can't quite figure it (as I would not think the flytrex would cause signal issues). I've asked them for a new set of cables so will try to replace the cables and see if that helps (and ordered a new 6 conductor ribbon cable from DJI .. will swap that out too).

 

[amitregev]

so check out this flight today, which I've done before with no signal issues at all before flytrex. See the sensor signal loss map .. had signal loss even close by. And, when calibrating compass, happens pretty consistently on the second pass (when nose pointing down) that I lose signal.

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Flytrex flightbook shows it as one single flight, so whatever happened on my other flight to split it into segments didn't happen here, which is good.

I may remove the flytrex and try the same thing and see if the signal issues go away... can't quite figure it (as I would not think the flytrex would cause signal issues). I've asked them for a new set of cables so will try to replace the cables and see if that helps (and ordered a new 6 conductor ribbon cable from DJI .. will swap that out too).

Hi Davestern2

This shouldn't happen of course and I honestly can't think of a way that the Live can cause anything like that. As far as I can recall I also don't remember seeing any similar report by other users, but there is always a first time -- so we're definitely trying to review this more closely and see if and how the Flytrex Live system might be related.

If you get a chance, please post a few pictures here showing your Live setup, how it is installed and routed on your Phantom machine.

I hope that we might get a clearer picture about your setup with these pictures and might be able to give some tips that will help with it.

Looking forward to your follow-up. Thanks and Happy New Year!

 

[davestern2]

Amit - thanks. See pics below. Two notes:
1) the DJI 6 conductor cable is clamped under the piece that holds the gimbal .. this is different than shown on your site (I assume from a DJI design change) and necessitates removing the camera & gimbal to install (otherwise the grey 6 conductor cable is too short to route back to the flytrex) .. the dark portion is a tube which DJI encases the cable in .. I would have guessed it would be ferrous, but I can't tell for sure. I have ordered a replacement 6 conductor cable from DJI and will assume it ships without that tube, so will replace it with the new one. I did also ask your cust. service for a replacement set of cables for the flytrex, just to try that. (and did also email the pics, in case you can use them to update your guide)
2) I did *not* affix the small external board to the drone (no double sided tape). What I found was that the flytrex 8 conductor cable is a bit long in my configuration (see my photos) and when I checked what would happen, it seemed that affixing the external board to the drone could cause either your 8 conductor cable or the DJI 8 conductor cable to reduce the ability of the gimbal to float freely .. so for me, not affixing the board to the drone would minimize to the extent possible vibration transmitting to the camera platform - although it would mean checking the connections more frequently, as that 6 conductor DJI cable does not lock onto the board. As you know, the flytrex cables are a little bit stronger than the DJI cables, but also a little bit less flexible. There's not much space between the flytrex unit and the drone and I didn't want to compress the cables and touch the camera platform. in fact I was checking whether I could reverse the 3d mount you send and create more space, but didn't want to put too much torque on the 3d printed flytrex holder. I was thinking that if the 8 conductor flytrex cable could have a right angle connector where it attaches to the gimbal, it might help in that crowded space (will have to check again as it was a few days ago).. but I do think the cable management could be optimized a bit further either with different length cables, a right angle connector, or perhaps a more flexible 8 flytrex 8 conductor cable (see how mine routes as installed).

I *may* uninstall the flytrex temporarily and see if the problem goes away before I change the DJI cable .. if it does, that may help narrow it down. If you are able to mail a replacement external board too, I'll try to swap that out (Rebecca from your cust service has my address), as I'm wondering whether perhaps some part of the signal is being weakened as it routes through the flytrex board so that the drone thinks the signal is lost or in fact causes the received / transmitted signal to have issues.

 

[flyNfrank]

I removed my complete flytrex live 3G setup due to not working properly and absolutely no tech support. Just like others, we had to spend well over $1000 just to be at the level of the most recent flytrex product. Anyone spending money like this should never ever have to experience bad tech support. There is no acceptable excuses that can excuse such business practices. This company was struggling worse then any other company in this industry has, and rather then fix it, they added more new products that allowed for even further neglect to the Live 3G customers.

Once upon a time this company had to potential to be one of the best ever. But it took a turn for the worse, and I for would nothing more then like to see them find and satisfying resolution for all that had to experience what they did. It's now a new year. Hopefully a turn around is in the works.

 

[Perseas]

Hello guys, this is my first post here, although I read this forum the last few months and I am very grateful for the knowledge I've gathered regarding my P3P. Happy New Year to all

I have encountered the same problems with the Flytrex Live 3G, loss of signal, video loss, no data ever sent and all these weird things with the stiff cables that were mentioned above.
When I fly or hover up to 6-10 feet, I have video signal, but if I thrust the motors to go higher, the video transmission stops and the DJI GO app reports signal loss, no matter where I am.
I am quite disappointed and I disassembled it today from my P3P, after 3 days of frustration. It cannot even send data to the Flytrex servers, after following all the instructions for setting it up the way it should be. I'll return it back, it has caused me only problems.

 

[davestern2]

I am going to try a test this weekend.. Am planning to remove (uninstall) the flytrex and see if the issues go away .. At least that will help meet narrow down the issues

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[flyNfrank]

I'd like to be sent a shipping label to return mine for a refund as well. You can check my flytrex account and see that I have not used the product beyond finding out it did not work properly.

 

[Shammyh]

Hi Davestern2

This shouldn't happen of course and I honestly can't think of a way that the Live can cause anything like that. As far as I can recall I also don't remember seeing any similar report by other users, but there is always a first time -- so we're definitely trying to review this more closely and see if and how the Flytrex Live system might be related.

If you get a chance, please post a few pictures here showing your Live setup, how it is installed and routed on your Phantom machine.

I hope that we might get a clearer picture about your setup with these pictures and might be able to give some tips that will help with it.

Looking forward to your follow-up. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Nice to see you posting here... but what's up with support as of late? I've had unanswered questions for like, 3 months?

And any notes on the Flytrex 3G Plus finally correctly supporting the P3A/P?

It's kind of like you guys have dropped off the face of the Earth. Hope it's not a solvency issue.

Take care.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

I bought a module at the begining of november. And I am struggeling with my second Flytrex live module. The first one did not connect and after many weeks of sending video's and photo's to very friendly Rebecca from Flytrex (now fore sure you now her too) she offert that I had to send the live module back and that she would send a replacement. Four weeks later I finally received my new flytrex module. Installed it, fired up the Phantom and.... nothing. This time the module didn't even started. No leds, nothing. Again contacted Flytrex explained the situation and a very friendly rebecca felt very sorry for me and told me that she escaleted the mail to the technical guys... Ok... So i thought I finally get sombody who nows how I can get my flytrex working. But no, after 8 days I get a again very friendly rebecca mail with the request if I could make a video of the led sequense on the Flytrex.... Eeeh.. but I already told you that the module does not fire up. So there is no led activaty. But okay I make a video of the flytrex module and sended it again to Rebecca. That is four days ago. Don't tell me I am not patient[emoji4]

Between these mail conversations about a module that prevents loosing your Phantom, I lost my Phantom. I lost it in the ocean so it wouldn't have helped anyway but it is a waste of such a nice company. That has to change otherwise this company will stop existing in the future for sure. I want a working flytrex for my new Phantom. But I am not the only one so I see here. Any progress I will post here. Thx for opening this @davestern2

 

[Perseas]

Rebecca kindly responded to my request for refund and tomorrow I will send the module back to Flytrex.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Rebecca kindly responded to my request for refund and tomorrow I will send the module back to Flytrex.

Rebecca is ok[emoji57] Is there something else we could use?

 

[Shammyh]

Rebecca is ok[emoji57] Is there something else we could use?

Yea, give me a couple hundred thousand in seed money and I'll run Flytrex out of business in a week.

Unfortunately, thus far, no one else has done the 3G Modem + CAN Bus integration that Flytrex has. So your options are limited.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Yea, give me a couple hundred thousand in seed money and I'll run Flytrex out of business in a week.

Unfortunately, thus far, no one else has done the 3G Modem + CAN Bus integration that Flytrex has. So your options are limited.

Thought so, hope I can get it working.

 

[davestern2]

I'd rather get mine working than return it as it is in theory a very elegant solution. Mine tracks, but I think it's interfering with others p3p signal processing (TBD). I can get an outboard sirfstar GPS tracker for cheap and stick a sim in... Would do the job if it can't get flytrex to work. With all of the effort they put into flytrex, unless there is a basic engineering flaw in the design, it should be able to work. I think lack of focus (funding?) hurts and customer service is fixable. Rebecca is great as long as she gets the support she needs. She asked me for a video too, and I replied with text, deficit was sufficient to fix my sim issue. One thing it told me was that their online info is not complete (as I could have figured it out myself with more info), or they are afraid of having their intellectual property stolen or copied. They can be great with some focus. Will post back after my next experiment.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Shammyh]

Also worth noting that the Flytrex 3G Plus is still not completely compatible with the P3. No battery voltage or flight mode information.

After waiting several months to get the product (some waited over 6 months from payment to delivery) I've now had in for several months, and it still hasn't been updated to support the P3 properly. I use it, but only because there isn't anything better.

Plus, I don't think they ever actually shipped the Flytrex Sky drone. You'll notice Amit has gone quiet here as well. I honestly think it's a funding issue, and while they're managing to pay at least one support staff (Rebecca), they have zero development staff at the moment.

Really quite a frustrating experience overall. Would love to see an American company pick up the torch... As I feel there's a lot of money to be made here, but what can ya do...

 

[Perseas]

It seems my Flytrex module was DOA, it never worked and after second though I prefer to invest money in a parachute system. I'll wait for a better implementation of the Stop Flyaway system, because It has a bigger parachute than Mars. From the schematics of the manual, I suppose it needs soldering.