Cendence Beta Testing

droneseyeview · Aug 15, 2017

Anyone else beta testing DJI's Cendence RC? Got mine in the mail today and did some testing- quickly ran into a few bugs which can be seen in the YouTube videos.
Additionally, I can't figure out how to change the units on the LCD screen that is on the RC from Metric to Imperial.

Edit: DJI released an update early this morning to support the Cendence RC button customization options. I will be testing that shortly.

Edit: I forgot to mention that on my second flight, the Cendence completely turned off on its own, leaving me disconnected from the drone. I waited maybe 10 seconds before turning the RC back on and everything reconnected without any issues, but I quickly landed just to be safe.

tibook · Aug 15, 2017

They don't call it beta for nothing

Glad to see this is getting out in the wild though. I heard they were pushing to get these ready for the M210 launch. Please keep us up to date esp with the firmware updates.

Casey53 · Aug 15, 2017

droneseyeview said:
....
Edit: I forgot to mention that on my second flight, the Cendence completely turned off on its own, leaving me disconnected from the drone. I waited maybe 10 seconds before turning the RC back on and everything reconnected without any issues, but I quickly landed just to be safe.

I've had that happen on the stock RC unit as well: Green power led turned off, but others stayed on. Another DJI bug no doubt.

Now to watch your video....

Whoa! That's some seriously messed up gimbal yaw work off the stick. How does DJI pass this off as working when it ain't even beta worthy? Alpha maybe, but not beta.

The Editor · Aug 16, 2017

droneseyeview said:
Anyone else beta testing DJI's Cendence RC? Got mine in the mail today and did some testing- quickly ran into a few bugs which can be seen in the YouTube videos.
Additionally, I can't figure out how to change the units on the LCD screen that is on the RC from Metric to Imperial. Also (unless I am missing something- there is no user manual after all) a lot of the buttons/switches with exception of the standard C1 and C2 buttons can not be programmed currently. I am assuming there needs to be a further update to support the Cendence controller's ability for the additional buttons to be programmed as the user desires.

Edit: I forgot to mention that on my second flight, the Cendence completely turned off on its own, leaving me disconnected from the drone. I waited maybe 10 seconds before turning the RC back on and everything reconnected without any issues, but I quickly landed just to be safe.

Are you not under NDA? You should not be reporting any beta testing (hardware or software) on here but reporting back to DJI since you will have a direct path back to R&D.
DJI do monitor (and sometimes contribute on) these boards and have come down heavily in the past for beta testers divulging information.
I assume your NDA is the same as mine where public discussions about the beta program is not permitted.

droneseyeview · Aug 16, 2017

The Editor said:
Are you not under NDA? You should not be reporting any beta testing (hardware or software) on here but reporting back to DJI since you will have a direct path back to R&D.
DJI do monitor (and sometimes contribute on) these boards and have come down heavily in the past for beta testers divulging information.
I assume your NDA is the same as mine where public discussions about the beta program is not permitted.

"Also, please don’t forget to post reviews and/or testing videos on the DJI Forum or third-party forums and send corresponding to links to [email protected]."
Straight from DJI's email regarding Cendence testing- did I misinterpret their message?

Tahoe Ed · Aug 16, 2017

Yes you are to post but be aware that there is a new version of firmware for Crystal Sky. If you would have asked the question to beta you would have known that. Please download and install the new firmware and modify your post. Thank you.

droneseyeview · Aug 16, 2017

Tahoe Ed said:
Yes you are to post but be aware that there is a new version of firmware for Crystal Sky. If you would have asked the question to beta you would have known that. Please download and install the new firmware and modify your post. Thank you.

Downloaded the firmware this morning- that email with the update came after I made this post. I will modify- Thanks.

droneseyeview · Aug 16, 2017

The latest: After updating both CrystalSky tablets with the latest firmware, the customization options for the Cendence RC do work and are satisfactory. However I now ran into a bug where the "slave" RC is unable to connect to the inspire despite trying to reset the connection with the master (cendence) RC as well as restarting both the slave RC and CrystalSky tablet multiple times. I was trying to see if the gimbal still returns to center point randomly on its own, however I was unable to get that far.

tibook · Aug 17, 2017

I'll be curious to hear how you think its improving your use. Does it make single operator easier, is it just nice to have if you're the camera guy in dual operator, etc

Tahoe Ed · Aug 19, 2017

There has been another update. You can connect a slave to the master.

droneseyeview · Aug 19, 2017

Tahoe Ed said:
There has been another update. You can connect a slave to the master.

Thanks, I'll give it a try shortly!

Advexure · Aug 19, 2017

tibook said:
I'll be curious to hear how you think its improving your use. Does it make single operator easier, is it just nice to have if you're the camera guy in dual operator, etc

Ditto, did you make it out today for some air time, @droneseyeview?

droneseyeview · Aug 20, 2017

Gave the new update a shot today and I was able to connect the 2 controllers once again, however I am still having the same issues that are shown in the two above videos. If DJI can fix those two bugs so that the master and slave remotes can function well together, I must say that this is an excellent remote which I would recommend.

The vast amount of customizable buttons really are helpful when it comes to keeping the drone in motion while changing settings, or doing something like lowering or raising the landing gear.

droneseyeview · Aug 20, 2017

tibook said:
I'll be curious to hear how you think its improving your use. Does it make single operator easier, is it just nice to have if you're the camera guy in dual operator, etc

It definitely makes single operator easier, since you're able to yaw and pan down at the same time on the Cendence RC since the two dials allow you to do both without touching anything else.
If you have the extra money to spend on the Cendence for dual operator, I'd recommend it, but I don't think it is a must-have. It really does help with single operator however.