Micro SD Error, Formatting Problem - Inspire 1 Pro; X5

Chris Hale · Aug 4, 2018

Hello. I've searched for this and haven't found a thread with this exact issue so hopefully this isn't a duplicate.

I have had this happen several times but inconsistently. I will boot up the Inspire and either get a "No Image Transmission" error (I can see all other data and fly the drone fine) or an "SD Card Invalid" error. Sometimes I can shut down, remove and reinsert the card and all is well...but sometimes I just have to buy a new card then everything works great for a while. I have reformatted the cards in the drone and that doesn't help. Sometimes it won't even recognize the card to allow me to reformat. I have also reformatted them in my Canon 80D and I thought I was on to something there for a while but I had it happen again today so that wasn't a fix.

I'm typically using 32 GB SanDisk Extreme PLUS cards. It seems to be a format error or corruption but once they are gone I can't get them to work again.

Today I was doing a job and got the error. Tried to format the card in the drone and got a "FORMAT FAILED DJI SDK unknown error code (255)". I put in a brand new memory card and it worked fine.

Has anyone had this happen or have any suggestions. I don't mind having plenty of memory cards but it would be nice to use them more than a few times!

Thanks,
Chris

Aviator · Aug 5, 2018

The obvious candidate for the problem is probably the camera.. other things to check are the ribbon cables connecting to the gimbals mounting point.
I have found in the past that intermittent errors can be caused by one of the pins on a ribbon cable not getting fully inserted which can cause arching/shorting.

Chris Hale · Aug 5, 2018

Aviator said:
The obvious candidate for the problem is probably the camera.. other things to check are the ribbon cables connecting to the gimbals mounting point.
I have found in the past that intermittent errors can be caused by one of the pins on a ribbon cable not getting fully inserted which can cause arching/shorting.

Thanks! I had the problem again today but this time when I removed the camera one of the contacts in the quick mount for the camera was bent. It may have always been loose but I couldn't tell from looking until today. I ordered a new mount/board and ribbon cables. Hopefully that does the trick. I appreciate the help. I'll update after I get the parts installed.

jakejhonson44 · Aug 5, 2018

Do not conclude easily, take recommendations and perform step by step process of solving this kind of problem.

Aviator · Aug 6, 2018

That could well be the cause of your problems - Keep us informed please Chris..

Chris Hale · Aug 9, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
Do not conclude easily, take recommendations and perform step by step process of solving this kind of problem.

Agreed. I think I've eliminated just about everything else. Thanks.

Chris Hale · Aug 9, 2018

Aviator said:
That could well be the cause of your problems - Keep us informed please Chris..

It looks like that was the problem. There was definitely a broken/bent contact inside the mount. I replaced the board and the cables tonight. I have gotten good image transmission every time I started it. I was also able to reformat and use all of the microSD cards that were previously giving me errors. Thanks for the input. BTW, the anti-vibration board was $99 and free shipping from BH PhotoVideo. The cables were $4 (plus $15 shipping!) from DJI. It took about 30 minutes to replace them.

I have had occasional/intermittent problems with "no image transmission" since the drone was new (the contact was not visibly bent or broken at that time). I just always thought it was a software glitch and it wasn't consistent enough diagnose.

I appreciate the input and advice.