Some background: So, my experience of Yuneec's Breeze drone has been mixed, to say the least.
The first one I purchased developed an issue with the camera's servo motors. Loud scraping noise, then it froze completely. Drone was replaced under warranty - great stuff.
This replacement drone then refused to put out a wi-fi signal, so was completely unusable. Tested with various different devices - iOS, Android - nothing worked. Drone was replaced under warranty. Again, great service. I'd now been trying to get a working Breeze for around a month.
Third one I received had major flight issues - it went out of control a number of times, luckily under controlled circumstances, at low heights, in empty fields. An upgrade of the firmware seemed to help.
So I had a couple of weeks' worth of uninterrupted flying, got some great photos - I was happy.
Now, here's the new bit. The May 2017 firmware update, and an Android app upgrade around the same time, simply bricked the drone. No wifi signal once again. And the most annoying thing - there was no option not to install these updates. The app simply wouldn't open without first installing the new update.
My solution may help a few of you out there - I found an early version of the firmware, I think posted on this forum. Downloaded onto PC and saved to the drone's root memory forcing it to 'upgrade' to this older software.
Then I found an early build of the Android app. Saved it as an .apk file on my phone.
After uninstalling the latest Breezecam app from my phone, I installed this older once instead. Voila - no issues whatsoever. Several successful test flights later and I think I have a working drone.
Then this morning, my phone automatically updated the older app to the new version. AAAAGGH.
So I've reinstalled the older .apk file and stopped any of my apps automatically updating. This is really annoying as I will now have to manually approve any update to any app installed on my phone. Just so I have a working drone.
Well, I hope that this journey of mine helps someone. Remember though, this SHOULD NOT be necessary. Regular consumers, the target market for these drones, would have little to no interest in carrying out these steps, and probably be unable to find the necessary files to do so anyway.
A drone like the Breeze should just WORK. All the time, every time. Firmware updates and app updates should now cause issues like this. I'm running it on a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, so it's not like it's a legacy device.
So come on Yuneec, get your act together.
I can't even sell my Breeze and put the cash towards a DJI Spark
- I wouldn't want to risk negative feedback on eBay if a buyer had similar issues to mine!
The first one I purchased developed an issue with the camera's servo motors. Loud scraping noise, then it froze completely. Drone was replaced under warranty - great stuff.
This replacement drone then refused to put out a wi-fi signal, so was completely unusable. Tested with various different devices - iOS, Android - nothing worked. Drone was replaced under warranty. Again, great service. I'd now been trying to get a working Breeze for around a month.
Third one I received had major flight issues - it went out of control a number of times, luckily under controlled circumstances, at low heights, in empty fields. An upgrade of the firmware seemed to help.
So I had a couple of weeks' worth of uninterrupted flying, got some great photos - I was happy.
Now, here's the new bit. The May 2017 firmware update, and an Android app upgrade around the same time, simply bricked the drone. No wifi signal once again. And the most annoying thing - there was no option not to install these updates. The app simply wouldn't open without first installing the new update.
My solution may help a few of you out there - I found an early version of the firmware, I think posted on this forum. Downloaded onto PC and saved to the drone's root memory forcing it to 'upgrade' to this older software.
Then I found an early build of the Android app. Saved it as an .apk file on my phone.
After uninstalling the latest Breezecam app from my phone, I installed this older once instead. Voila - no issues whatsoever. Several successful test flights later and I think I have a working drone.
Then this morning, my phone automatically updated the older app to the new version. AAAAGGH.
So I've reinstalled the older .apk file and stopped any of my apps automatically updating. This is really annoying as I will now have to manually approve any update to any app installed on my phone. Just so I have a working drone.
Well, I hope that this journey of mine helps someone. Remember though, this SHOULD NOT be necessary. Regular consumers, the target market for these drones, would have little to no interest in carrying out these steps, and probably be unable to find the necessary files to do so anyway.
A drone like the Breeze should just WORK. All the time, every time. Firmware updates and app updates should now cause issues like this. I'm running it on a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, so it's not like it's a legacy device.
So come on Yuneec, get your act together.
I can't even sell my Breeze and put the cash towards a DJI Spark
- I wouldn't want to risk negative feedback on eBay if a buyer had similar issues to mine!
