RC/AC Updating

[RugbyRef]

I had the exact same issues some of you have had when trying to upgrade the firmware in the remote controller and aircraft. After a very frustrating day yesterday, I was able to get a hold of a tech (EU) on the DJI website through the chat feature. We spent approximately 25 minutes going back and forth with different suggestions to upgrade the firmware. In the end he was able to help me correctly perform the upgrade, so I thought I would add to the process the little tidbits of information that, as it turns out, are critical in correctly completing an upgrade to the RC and AC.

FIRST THINGS FIRST - after trying to format and reformat multiple thumb drives and micro SD cards and installing the firmware upgrade on them prior to upgrading the RC and AC...only to find that neither the RC or AC would recognize the thumb drives or micro SD cards, I realized maybe I should just go get new ones (thumb drive and micro SD card) to format and try it that way. It worked....but there are a few other things I learned during and after the process. BTW - I am NOT a computer guy...

1. Check Battery and SD Card Capacity - Important - in addition to ensuring you have enough battery power on the RC and AC, and memory space on your thumb drive or micro SD card - ensure the drives are formatted correctly. If formatting with a Mac: Select “MS-DOS (FAT)” if the card is 32 GB or smaller. If it’s a 64GB card, select “ExFAT”. If formatting with a PC: Select FAT32. Got this info from the tech at DJI.

I have been unable to format the micro SD card through the app as advertised, but I am probably just doing something wrong.

2. Prepare the Firmware Update Package - download the latest firmware from the DJI website. Before you do that, look on the back of your remote controller and check to see if you have the following series of letters and numbers: GL658A or GL658B. If you have the "B" variant, it should come directly from the factory with firmware v1.3 already installed according to the DJI tech. I had the "B" model, but I did not have the v1.3 firmware installed, so that was part of the problem. You can check which firmware you have in the RC by connecting to your mobile device (iPad, tablet, etc.) and turning the RC on. Look in the DJI GO app settings and it will tell you what version you are running. If you have the v1.3, then you don't need to update as that is the latest and greatest update for the RC. If not, do this:

• Again, format the thumb drive or micro SD card as described above.
• Download the firmware (zip file) you require to your desktop. Unzip (or extract) the file...again to your desktop.
• Copy the .bin file...and ONLY the .bin file...to your thumb drive or micro SD card.

3. Update the Aircraft - Insert the micro SD card into the SD card slot on the camera of the Inspire 1. Apparently you can watch the upgrade progress on the DJI Go app, but I have not tried that. Power-on the aircraft. You will here a series of beeps to let you know the update has begun. A loud D-D-D-D, followed by the gimbal itself emitting a rapid sequence of beeps (in fours) during the upgrade. It could take a maximum of 25 minutes to finish. You'll know your good-to-go when you hear the beeps slow to a "D...DD" to indicate the update is complete. The aircraft should restart itself at that point. If you did not have the app launched while doing the update, you will need to manually power-down the aircraft and then power it back up.

Check the settings in the app to see if the firmware version has changed for the aircraft.

4. Updating the Remote Controller Firmware - The firmware for the RC is included in the aircraft firmware package (with the exception of v1.4 - that is an update for the aircraft only). If you have a micro SD card adapter, you can use that with a card-reader and update the RC that way. You could simply use the same micro SD card you used to update the aircraft (for v1.3 or below). I chose to use a brand new thumb drive, correctly formatted, with just the .bin file on it.

• Plug the thumb drive into the back of the RC in the USB port.
• Turn the RC on.
• Wait approximately 20 - 25 seconds, and then the update should begin.
• The RC will make a beeping noise and the status light will turn blue.
• After a few minutes (+/- 10 minutes), the status light on the RC should turn solid green.
• Check the update version on the DJI Go app under settings.

5. Updating the Intelligent Flight Battery Firmware - this is done automatically when the aircraft is updated. Ensure you update ALL of your batteries.

Everyone else feel free to add your input to this. This is what worked for me....someone else might have other issues with their RC or AC that is stopping them from upgrading.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Tim