New to the group with a Q500 Typhoon

[BestMd]

I received this drone after my brother in-law passed away. Not sure how long he had it, 1 battery is swelled and it appears to have had a hard landing. 2 props were broke and the landing gear on 1 side is scratched up. Bought a repair kit for it from Ebay with replacement props. The motors all turn well by hand.

The controller is a ST10+.

When I first powered on the controller then the drone, it took 15 minutes for the camera to recalibrate. After that I could turn it and see the surroundings on the screen in the controller. After I put a 128gig card in it, it stopped connecting to the controller.

So I reset the controller. I'm guessing I should update the controller, cameral and drone to stable updates
My questions are:
Controller: Current stable update for the ST10+
Camera: Current stable update
Drone: Current stable update, if necessary

I have found the site, Yuneec Skins to reference from. I would like opinions from the experts here.
Thanks!
Mike

 

[h-elsner]

I would not update anything. The last FW is 9-10 years old. There is a good chance that the FW is up to date.
I don't know if a 128GB card is working with the CGO3 but I doubt. I use 32GB (better more smaller than one big) with U3 speed (SanDisk Extreme A1 U3) with good experiences.
Format is FAT32!

 

[DoomMeister]

Welcome to YuneecPilots!

The advice from @h-elsner is sound.

 

[Peter b]

I hope you get everything straightened out. It's a sweet drone!! Welcome aboard!

 

[WTFDproject]

........So I reset the controller......

Is the camera a CGO2, a CGO3, a GO-PRO, something else?

Does everything seem to be working normally now?

If not, did you refresh the bind between controller and drone and between controller and camera after the reset of the controller?
Q500 to ST10 Binding Verification

 

[BestMd]

Is the camera a CGO2, a CGO3, a GO-PRO, something else?

Does everything seem to be working normally now?

If not, did you refresh the bind between controller and drone and between controller and camera after the reset of the controller?
Q500 to ST10 Binding Verification

The camera is a CG03. I will go step by step with the binding.

It was odd, everything connected well after the first 2 "turn on's" then the camera connection didn't happen. In my wisdom of resetting the controller, all the set up data is gone. So I'll need to update that to start over.

 

[BestMd]

I tried to bind per the set up sheet provided. I had to stop at item #37 because there was no "receiver ID". Neither for the camera also

I used 2 different instruction sheets to update the firmware to "st10plus_tx_b32". I can transfer all the files to the micro SD card, but the controller won't read it. I suspect the controller can't read the 128gig card I was using because the firmware number didn't show up. I ordered a 32gig that will arrive tomorrow.

Anything I might be missing?

 

[WTFDproject]

It's probably not a good idea to put the 128gig SD card into anything related to a Q500. Stay with 32gig or smaller, and equally important, use FAT32 format. There may be other formats and sizes that work, but FAT32 on small cards seems to be less of a challenge to the system.

More to the real point; If the rear LED and the wing vent LED are flashing as described in Steps 29 and 30, the issue is probably in the controller. Knowing you just did a reset and an update and knowing the Yuneec instructions for the ST10 update are really bad, I suspect the second half of the update (system part) either was not performed or it failed.
You mentioned you had used two guidelines. If you have not used the guideline linked below, wait for the 32 gig SD card, and then follow the guideline linked below. If you already have a copy downloaded, I recommend adding a new "Step 37" to shut down and restart the controller after creating the new model and before binding to the drone/camera.
ST10+ Firmware Update

Edit: Updated document linked above to include new steps 37 and 38. The new steps will shut down and restart the controller as a standard practice.

 

[DoomMeister]

The STxx series of controllers can only use a maximum size SD card of 32GB formatted in FAT32.

 

[BestMd]

It's probably not a good idea to put the 128gig SD card into anything related to a Q500. Stay with 32gig or smaller, and equally important, use FAT32 format. There may be other formats and sizes that work, but FAT32 on small cards seems to be less of a challenge to the system.

More to the real point; If the rear LED and the wing vent LED are flashing as described in Steps 29 and 30, the issue is probably in the controller. Knowing you just did a reset and an update and knowing the Yuneec instructions for the ST10 update are really bad, I suspect the second half of the update (system part) either was not performed or it failed.
You mentioned you had used two guidelines. If you have not used the guideline linked below, wait for the 32 gig SD card, and then follow the guideline linked below. If you already have a copy downloaded, I recommend adding a new "Step 37" to shut down and restart the controller after creating the new model and before binding to the drone/camera.
ST10+ Firmware Update

Edit: Updated document linked above to include new steps 37 and 38. The new steps will shut down and restart the controller as a standard practice.

I did use your form to try the update first. There was another on the Yuneec parts and file depot online. Neither worked which is why I suspected the SD card after that.

I'll use your updated "Update" tonight after the new card arrives.

Thanks for your input WTFDproject!!

 

[BestMd]

Well, thanks to @WTFDproject, and a 32gig SD card, the controller works and is updated properly. But there is still no "receiver ID" for the binding of the model or camera.

Ideas?

 

[WTFDproject]

Well, thanks to @WTFDproject, and a 32gig SD card, the controller works and is updated properly. But there is still no "receiver ID" for the binding of the model or camera.

Ideas?

Does the camera ID show up on your home WiFi or Smartphone WiFi list?
You can't connect to those without software, but they should both at least show the camera ID as an available network.

It still sounds like part of the update is not working. The drone ID and Camera ID are two different frequencies/antennas in the controller. Both sets of hardware failing at the same time seem to be unlikely, which is a "clue" it is still a firmware issue. However, the quick check above is to confirm it really is a controller issue.

 

[BestMd]

Does the camera ID show up on your home WiFi or Smartphone WiFi list?
You can't connect to those without software, but they should both at least show the camera ID as an available network.

It still sounds like part of the update is not working. The drone ID and Camera ID are two different frequencies/antennas in the controller. Both sets of hardware failing at the same time seem to be unlikely, which is a "clue" it is still a firmware issue. However, the quick check above is to confirm it really is a controller issue.

I'll check to see if the camera ID shows up on my phone or computer later after I get home from work.

Thanks for the help

 

[BestMd]

I'll check to see if the camera ID shows up on my phone or computer later after I get home from work.

Thanks for the help

No wifi shown from the camera, no items to bind in the menu either. (see pic)

The rear lights below the motor are 4-red lights then 1 blue. Initialization failed?

Green light is flashing from the camera mount. Wifi initialized?

The tail light flashes several white then 1 each red-green-Blue.

Any advice?

 

[BestMd]

No wifi shown from the camera, no items to bind in the menu either. (see pic)

The rear lights below the motor are 4-red lights then 1 blue. Initialization failed?

Green light is flashing from the camera mount. Wifi initialized?

The tail light flashes several white then 1 each red-green-Blue.

Any advice?

Additional pics

 

[WTFDproject]

No wifi shown from the camera, no items to bind in the menu either. (see pic)

The rear lights below the motor are 4-red lights then 1 blue. Initialization failed?

Green light is flashing from the camera mount. Wifi initialized?

The tail light flashes several white then 1 each red-green-Blue.

Any advice?

Alright. I'm proper drowning in a soup of strange information. These questions might help get a handle on where we are:

1.) Earlier, you had run the binding verification and made it to Step 37 before encountering a problem. That suggests the rear LED was normal when checked at Steps 26 and 29.
Was that correct at the time?

2.) The rear motor LEDs normally flash 3 reds and 1 blue during the initialization. The front motor LEDs would normally be flashing 3 whites and one blue during this time. (Clarification; the "blue" is actually on all the time and is a different LED inside the motor housing. This gives the normal "three reds", the appearance of "3 reds and a blue".)
Are you certain you are seeing 4 reds and 1 blue on the rear motor LEDs?
What are the front motor LEDs doing?

3.) The green light in the mount is not related to WiFi. (That's the LED for the gimbal.) There should be a small pin hole LED to the left above the camera lens. The pin hole should either be flashing yellow or green. If it is flashing red, it is a WiFi failure. If it is dark, the camera is dead.
Is there any light from the pin-hole LED above/left of the camera lens?

4.) The "several white" followed by red/green/blue sounds a lot like a very low battery charge. Otherwise, the red/green/blue is used to indicate several conditions in the Q500 system. One of which is "Initialization in progress".
Have you rechecked the battery voltage or recharged the battery?
Does the "several white" occur with both controller on and controller off?

The Q500 should be checked on the GUI to see why it is not initializing properly.
Do you have the USB adapter and a copy of the GUI firmware?

 

[BestMd]

Alright. I'm proper drowning in a soup of strange information. These questions might help get a handle on where we are:

1.) Earlier, you had run the binding verification and made it to Step 37 before encountering a problem. That suggests the rear LED was normal when checked at Steps 26 and 29.
Was that correct at the time?

The light is orange inside the air vents (Step 27). I don't recall the rear lights being blue flashing (Step 26) Ran through Step 28 without issue.

2.) The rear motor LEDs normally flash 3 reds and 1 blue during the initialization. The front motor LEDs would normally be flashing 3 whites and one blue during this time. (Clarification; the "blue" is actually on all the time and is a different LED inside the motor housing. This gives the normal "three reds", the appearance of "3 reds and a blue".)
Are you certain you are seeing 4 reds and 1 blue on the rear motor LEDs?
What are the front motor LEDs doing?

See the attached pic showing the motor lights. The red ones are the ones I mentioned blink 3x but the blue stay blue.

3.) The green light in the mount is not related to WiFi. (That's the LED for the gimbal.) There should be a small pin hole LED to the left above the camera lens. The pin hole should either be flashing yellow or green. If it is flashing red, it is a WiFi failure. If it is dark, the camera is dead.
Is there any light from the pin-hole LED above/left of the camera lens?

The camera light does cycle through till it turns green then off.

4.) The "several white" followed by red/green/blue sounds a lot like a very low battery charge. Otherwise, the red/green/blue is used to indicate several conditions in the Q500 system. One of which is "Initialization in progress".
Have you rechecked the battery voltage or recharged the battery?
Does the "several white" occur with both controller on and controller off?

This occurs with or without the controller on or not

The Q500 should be checked on the GUI to see why it is not initializing properly.
Do you have the USB adapter and a copy of the GUI firmware?

I installed the GUI software. Downloaded Q500_v1.07_09_28_2015.bin to install. The software see's the update, uses Com 3 to send it to the drone. But it fails to communicate.

All this is really my fault. When I first turned it on everything was working. It just had a little damage to it. The controller had all the info in it, it was technically ready to fly. The camera, when on worked and I could see myself on the controller screen.

The trouble started after I read the set up instructions and it mentioned I could use of to 128 gig SD Card that is what I plugged into the camera. Then nothing seemed to work after that!

 

[WTFDproject]

The last point in question #4 about the battery voltage may hold the key to a lot of the issues you see. If the battery is bad, it will go from full voltage to dead quickly, even with the system not turned on. The camera LED going dark and the "several white" led flashes are big hints to check the battery charge.
It would be good to know if the main flight battery is charged.

I would disagree about "fault". There is none.
I have never heard of a large card or wrong format actually damaging anything. Normally they just don't work. Even if it did, it's something folks need to hear about. Alerting everyone to a potential unknown trap is a very good thing.

 

[DoomMeister]

The CGO3 can use a 128GB SD card formatted as exFAT.

The ST10+ can only take SD cards up to 32GB.

 

[BestMd]

@WTFDproject
I thought I loaded this last night.

Pic of the red lights on the rear motors. They blink 4x fast. Then off, then repeat. Fronts always stay blue

**I'll get the battery fully recharged tonight.