Phantom 3 Standard no-linky with a twist

Hey everybody… First time poster and obviously new to the forum. I’ll cut to the chase for your benefit and mine cuz this topic has been drug through the mud since the conception of the Phantom. First, used Phantom3 Standard purchased on Ebay for $98… drone only. No remote, charger, battery, nuthin… just the drone. Since that purchase I acquired all of the essentials to make it fly however, even though it wants to it won’t. I know that I wont have wifi with the camera and gimble (sp?) missing but I don’t care. All I wanna do is fly the sucker. No fancy video or pics. Just want to fly it.

Here’s a list that will hopefully give you enough information to maybe help me figure out what is probably operator error:

  • Start Controller… wait for a few seconds

  • Start the groan (literally)

  • Controller (purchased “new” on Ebay for 80 bucks) shows solid red power button that has never
    turned green unless fully charged.

  • Groan goes through start up sequence… red, yellow, green and then will either blink green or yellow
    depending on the presence of a gps signal or not (I think).

  • I then flip the bird (literally) and depress the link button which starts out as solid red but starts to blink
    red after releasing the button after anywhere between 1 and 1,232,676 seconds.

  • From that point on its the same thing only different. The controller and the boid aren’t talking and I
    think it has something to do with the frequency that they are NOT sharing but without wifi I can’t
    access the menu screen in DJgo where I could manually change the frequency.

  • The status in the app doesn’t say that I’m disconnected all the time. The majority of the time
    (especially when going through start up process B (explained below)) it will just say, “controller
    frequency is weak”. Obviously I’m missing something but here’s something a little different…

  • If I depress the link button before starting the battery and hold it until the battery starts up the link
    light will blink a slow green and remain that way but will not link to the controller using either the “S2
    button and wheel method” or the “linking RC” button in the controller portion of the app.

  • Controller method will result in a 60 second time out if unsuccessful in linking and the S2/Dial
    method will produce a relentless beeping from the controller until the battery dies.

  • Indicator LED’s will occasionally say that it’s ready to fly in gps mode so S1 switch is placed in the up
    position when flashing a slow green or in the middle position when flashing a slow yellow.

  • App shows that it’s ready to fly and allows me to use the auto take off but then says that the take off
    failed but that’s probably due to the fact that I cant get the motors to start. Controller will not respond
    to my stick instruction to start the motors. No linkey linkey…

  • I have watched just about every freaking Youtube video on this subject and frankly, I’m getting really
    sick of hearing so many people say the same thing just in a different video. Gets really old getting
    the same information from 5,261 people who want me to subscribe to the same thing that 5,260
    other people also want me to subscribe to for some unknown reason…

  • In closing… I have found information and am becoming familiar with the LED status lights and what
    their various color patterns mean but there is very little information about the birds belly button and
    why it blinks green rather than remain solid as it should when linked to the aircraft.

  • I have no clue if the firmware matches between the two because for all I know the drone, which is in
    excellent condition, may have sat on a shelf to the last 5 years or so and the controller may have the
    latest and greatest but who knows. Also on that note, firmware upgrades are more difficult when ya
    don’t have a micro-sd slot on the drone. In fact, if it needs some kind of firmware upgrade or
    something I’m just ditching the sucker… Sucks cuz you can pick up a nice used Phantom3
    Standard (with a camera, battery, remote, and charger) for about $300 but these yahoos want $200
    or more to purchase just the camera.

Any thoughts or ideas? I really want to get this in the air but I’m not putting another dime into it cuz so far, I fell like I may be trying to resurrect something that is too far gone to breathe again. My main drone is a spark but I was hoping to make up some of the cost of the spark by selling what I have purchased off the Phantom but I refuse to sell it unless I see it fly. Unless of course I get it in the air and love it so much that I can’t sell it. to be honest, that would be the happiest ending! Thanks in advance to any of you that can shed a little light on this for me (without posting the DJI “how to link your controller” vid. : )

Mike

By the way… the initial screen in the DJI app where ya select your aircraft at the very top says, “connect your device”. Down lower, below the picture of the P3S it says, “remote controller connected, connect your aircraft”. Not sure if that tid bit is useful at all but thought I’d mention it. Sorry for the length of my previous post but I wanted to be as detailed as possible so we can hopefully solve the issue in less than one page rather than typing one-liners for a few days. :slight_smile: Been reading a lot around here… More information than I could have imagined! TIA

Mike

Does the remote controller ever successfully link? The light on the remote controller should be green when it’s powered on and connected to the drone.

Your issue is likely being caused by a firmware or hardware issue. If firmware, there is nothing you can do since you don’t have a gimbal. If hardware, you’re probably going to spend more than it’s worth trying to fix it.

I thought I read on here somewhere that someone successfully rewired and aftermarket GoPro gimbal to their phantom and was able to fly. is there any truth to that? And if so, are there wiring diagrams available anywhere? You’re righ though…purchasing a gimbal and camera is out of the question for this aircraft since I only paid $98 for the Drone. My guess is that without the gimbal and camera I will have a hard time selling it anyway. So maybe I hang on to it in case one day I can purchase a camera

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What’s up with the blinking green binding or linking light? I can’t find any documentation on I it blinks green instead of red. Also their aircraft after starting up and going through its normal process indicates that it is ready to fly in either attitude or GPS mode. It says that my remote controller is connected but that I need to connect the aircraft. I’m assuming that’s with the Link light on the bottom which blinks green.

You could mount a 3rd party camera, but you won’t be able to connect it to the gimbal or see the live view in DJI GO.

I believe that’s an indicator of a firmware mismatch. If you had a camera/gimbal installed, the first thing I’d try is reinstalling the firmware to ensure all components are updated and running compatible versions.

The you guys figure this out. Cause i have the same problem. Is weird cause it acts like is connected. Going by color. Drone is flashing green but controller solid red. If you try to manually fly nothing. But here is the thing. If you turn controller off the drone will flash yellow and the linking button goes red. Turn controller back on wait for couples of minutes boon the drone is back at green but nothing.

dude…pls tell me u got an answer…i litterally am goin threw the same ■■■■,pissin me off cuz imma nerd and know this stuff but apparently im not that nerdy cuz i havent touched it{drone}in a month or two …and i ■■■■ loved it wen it was workin…food for thought…i have a tello ryze and wondering if i could wire it up to my phantom as a brain and it ??? mynumber is 9063706952 my name is sean…hit me up please

Hey bud did you ever figure it out have same issue