Video stream issue...

[J R]

I figured that....might as well wait for the cable. Send a support ticket too along with your sample video.

I sent them a note after my 2mi test flight when the bird went wacko. They responded and basically said because of the high wind it was overcompensating to stay on path which was causing the gimbal to try to compensate as well. I guess I'll accept it but the wind wasn't nearly what I've flown my other birds in. I was going faster than I normally would have because I didn't know the limits of the battery yet.

After I had this issue, I did a reply email to the same tech early this morning. I indicated what was now happening and sent him a link to this thread. I have not heard back from him yet.

Jerry

 

[Raybro]

Have you split the body of the P3 yet? I've heard it's not as easy as the P2.

 

[J R]

Nope. I've flown the heck out of it for months now and haven't had any need to pull it apart! Don't get me wrong, I've had my issues with the "white" one as well but really just firmware stuff. Other than that it's been a solid bird and a lot of fun to fly. At this point, I can only hope that I feel the same way about my Solo in a few months. Not real happy with the "black" one right now.

Jerry

 

[Raybro]

Hopefully you get the cable pretty soon. It's that or the board. If it's the board and your under 30 days you may be able to get to Best Buy and swap it out. Otherwise 3DR will do an RMA.

 

[J R]

Just an update. 3dr support believes it's the HDMI cable. Hopefully, they'll get me one shortly. I ordered the 3dRelish and I got confirmation that it shipped. Of course the USPS tracking service tells me it's not a valid tracking number. Emailed 3dRelish 2 days ago to inquire but haven't heard anything back from them.

Jerry

 

[Del]

Just an update. 3dr support believes it's the HDMI cable. Hopefully, they'll get me one shortly. I ordered the 3dRelish and I got confirmation that it shipped. Of course the USPS tracking service tells me it's not a valid tracking number. Emailed 3dRelish 2 days ago to inquire but haven't heard anything back from them.

Jerry

Hey Jerry..keep in mind that your 3D Relish order might take up to 4 weeks to come in.. I think they ship from Singapore if I'm not mistaken..

 

[J R]

Del,

Yeah, that's what I was concerned about after seeing what others had said. Hopefully, I'll at least get the one from 3dr so I can get back up a little before the weather changes.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Jerry

 

[J R]

After spending most of the night going back and reading about video issues I came across a few threads and posts regarding similar video problems. EarlGray in a couple of his posts brought up the heat issue with the GPH4 Black. I decided I should put the bird back together and try the GP cold as suggested. Well, guess what? Perfect feed. So now that I have an HDMI ribbon cable coming from Singapore, I ordered 2 spare cables from another link I found on this forum and 3dr is going through the process of sending me a free replacement, I should have a lifetime excess of HDMI cables! Now I guess I have to do a bit more research on the actual GoPro issue! BTW, 3dr support advised me after reviewing my case that they thought it was the HDMI cable. Just thought I should keep everyone posted.

Jerry

 

[RolandS888]

I thought Id add this in here as it relates to a video streaming issue.
(There was an update to 3DR services app today that I have yet to fly with so hopefully it may help.)
The Android App !!!
It has problems. And this is not new, theres lots of references to this sort of issue arising on tabs using this app.
First you may get picture freezing up, then maybe scrolling of the picture (as in vertical hold issue) then it may go black, then the feed may come back....or not. At this point people land and start resetting gopros and tabs and things.
I have been chasing a video feed issue for about a week now, checked the hdmi cable, changed gopros, even changed my wifi cards back to stock incase I stuffed something up during their installation..
Out flying today , had a really good day, 1000m (3300ft)+ range on the stock wifi cards (and antennas) is nothing to complain about, didnt even hit RTH, just decided to come back.
On the 3rd flight battery (and this is the third time it has happened on the third battery) the video feed started cracking up, I was ready this time and took some screen shots.
Then something happened that I hope exposes where the feed issue actually is. The app locked up and crashed, disconnecting from Solo wifi with the bird in the air, telemetry and control were solid the whole time.
I am hoping that this will show that the app is responsible for at least some of peoples problems in relation to video feed issues.
But why only after about 40 minutes flight time? I dont turn the tab or app off between flights, so perhaps it is logging and overloads a log file or something,. I dont know, but its starting to get predictable.
In future I will reset the app before each flight and see if that makes a difference.
These screen shots were taken over a 30 second period while the picture was coming and going and scrolling.
Anyone else see this sort of problem at all?

GoPro Hero-4 Black overheating with Gimbal | 3D Robotics Drone Forum

 

[J R]

I thought Id add this in here as it relates to a video streaming issue.

Roland,

It almost seems like your pad is overheating? Have you noted whether it's heating up or not? I've read about heat problems with some pads on other forums. Are you running both the Solo and Tower apps together or just the Solo app?

I did read somewhere (I'm reading non-stop these days) on this forum about some known issues with the Tower app that are supposed to be resolved shortly but I don't remember exactly what the issues were.

One of the things I hate about these Android devices is that they default to auto-update your apps anytime a new update shows up. I have turned that feature off and do my selected updates manually now.

I had some serious video preview issues with my "white" bird. I screwed around with it for a solid week. The last thing I did was reset my Nvidia Shield to factory default, set-up just my email and my network and then immediately made sure that auto-updates were turned off. Since I just use my Android devices for flying all I need is my flying apps on it. I loaded my selected apps and haven't had an issue with the "white" one since.

I haven't gotten to the bottom of my video issue on my Solo yet. What I have determined (I think) is it's not the board, connections, HDMI cable or gimbal. I'm having the issue with both my Nvidia Shield and my Tab 4 so I'm kind of ruling out the pads as well. That leaves me with the GoPro for now.

Bench tests today show that everything is functioning as it should. It's too windy here for any flight tests so I'm kind of at a standstill.

Keep us posted on anything you might find out and I'll do the same. Good luck!

Jerry

 

[Cosber]

It almost looks like a cable thats not Connecticut all the way ..?

Nice autocorrect!

 

[Del]

Nice autocorrect!

Good observation!

 

[RolandS888]

SOLVED!!!.
Im pretty sure I have found the cause of the intermittent freezing, rolling and picture loss.
Firstly, through a process of elimination I found that it is not the gopro, not the tab, not caused by anything heating up, not the app and not the wifi cards or the antennas .
I would disconnect/reconnect the hdmi cable every time i was in there looking at something, and coincidently that would clear the issue for 2 or 3 flights, then the video would start breaking up again.
Once this dawned on me i changed the hdmi cable for a sheilded ribbon and that was it.
The video is actually more stable than it has ever been. It started off as very intermittent and slowly got worse until it was faulty all the time.
Thanks for your help and suggestions guys, thats the reason i hang out in these forums there is always lots if good people and info to be had

 

[Brandon C.]

It's gotta be wiring. I even put some buffer pads in mine on the gimbal to keep rattling wires on the inside from bouncing against the fuselage

 

[Projeffrey11]

Maddog,

It does appear that it's been isolated to the bird or gimbal not the GoPro. "Tear into", referenced taking apart the bird and/or gimbal. Although I'm comfortable doing so, it's getting to the point that I'm working on this thing a bit more than I would have expected. Learning, testing, and trying to gain experience is one thing, continually opening up a brand new bird due to hardware and design issues isn't giving me the warm and fuzzies.

Jerry

2 big problems with The Solo, 1, HDMI cable is way to long and thick, 2, data cable is the same old story as 1, I my self can't believe that 3DR has not done anything about it in the factory this is just crazy and careless for a company to just ignore the truth about the obvious design flaw.

 

[Projeffrey11]

So, apparently I'll have to take the whole bird apart to get at the other end of the HDMI cable. I guess I may as well shelve the damn thing until I get the new cable from 3drelish in Singapore. Glad I still have my Phantoms, both up and running.

Thanks for the help Ray.

Jerry

I've mass produce a after market HDMI cable just like the one that 3drelish sells only diffence is I'm going to sell mine cheaper with free express shipping with in the US and Canada. going to be testing them out before I sell them.

 

[Projeffrey11]

SOLVED!!!.
Im pretty sure I have found the cause of the intermittent freezing, rolling and picture loss.
Firstly, through a process of elimination I found that it is not the gopro, not the tab, not caused by anything heating up, not the app and not the wifi cards or the antennas .
I would disconnect/reconnect the hdmi cable every time i was in there looking at something, and coincidently that would clear the issue for 2 or 3 flights, then the video would start breaking up again.
Once this dawned on me i changed the hdmi cable for a sheilded ribbon and that was it.
The video is actually more stable than it has ever been. It started off as very intermittent and slowly got worse until it was faulty all the time.
Thanks for your help and suggestions guys, thats the reason i hang out in these forums there is always lots if good people and info to be had

What type of sheilded ribbon are you using?, I'm having the same issue with the stock cable.

 

[RolandS888]

Just the standard 20 pin 0.5mm pitch shielded ribbon and micro hdmi ends, same as what relish is offerring. I have the parts for these at hand. I build a lot of different stuff. This kind of ribbon works very well.

 

[Projeffrey11]

Just the standard 20 pin 0.5mm pitch shielded ribbon and micro hdmi ends, same as what relish is offerring. I have the parts for these at hand. I build a lot of different stuff. This kind of ribbon works very well.

Very interesting so you build your own HDMI ribbon/cable?

 

[RolandS888]

Is just a hdmi shielded ribbon with the micro hdmi plug ends changed to what i need, one micro UP and one micro DOWN. All available on aliexpress for a few dollars.