Trouble Connecting Camera to Phone

[Docvfr]

I have never been able to connect the camera to my phone to use the handheld portion of the Q 500 using Wifi.

Are there troubleshooting points I should be trying?

Thanks.

Daniel

 

[Steve Carr]

I have never been able to connect the camera to my phone

Do you see the camera on the list of available wifi's on your phone? If not your phone may not use 5.8GHz wifi.

 

[Docvfr]

It does not show up, but I have read elsewhere after reading your post that iPhones since the 5s have had that capability. Not convinced this is true.

 

[Steve Carr]

It does not show up, but I have read elsewhere after reading your post that iPhones since the 5s have had that capability. Not convinced this is true.

If you can find the wifi specs for your phone online then you should see what the capabilities are.
The five Wi-Fi (802.11) technologies (a, b, g, n and ac) are often abbreviated BGN, ABGN and A/B/G/N/AC
The 5GHz band is A or AC. Some phones have settings to turn on or off a band.
If the camera works with the aircraft but you can't see the wifi signal on your phone, the phone is generally not capable of using the 5GHz band.

Which phone are you using?

You can install a free app; wifi analyzer. It should show you all the wifi signals in the area both 2.4 and 5GHz.

 

[Docvfr]

Here are the spec pages for my phone. It shows 'ac.'

 

[Steve Carr]

View attachment 7832 View attachment 7833
Here are the spec pages for my phone. It shows 'ac.'

Excellent. So you should see the camera listed in the phones available wifi's. Try it with the Q turned on, but the controller off.

 

[Docvfr]

Sadly, today while out at the lake and attempting a second (first was successful) fishing line delivery to 300 yards, a “Five motor error” showed up on the st10 and the Q immediately started losing altitude. While we had just initiated liftoff from a low position, there was little time to atttempt any type of maneuver and it took a dive. Even the water noodles I had tied to the skid didn’t prevent it from tipping, probably from me not killing the motors or sending it “home” immediately. Clearly moot point at this time, do you know what causes that error? Thanks.

 

[Steve Carr]

do you know what causes that error?

Very likely an ESC failure. If an ESC is going to fail, it is usually during the first 60 minutes of use. Often if you smell around each motor you will notice one that has a burnt smell.
Connect the Q to your computer with the USB charging cable and open the GUI. It will tell you if an ESC has failed. You may have to enable motor testing.

 

[Docvfr]

Is motor testing something worth doing on a drone that went for a swim? Are those elements salvageable and considering the cost of any internal components and the camera, is it worth saving them?

 

[Steve Carr]

Ah...lots of answers for a simple question. If it was fresh water and you recovered it quickly, the only damage might be the battery. Even the camera may dry out and work again provided it didn't get water inside the lens or lens barrel. It would be obvious by looking at the lens. The battery will get water inside the circuit board and it is nearly impossible to get it dry. Setting the Q inside a drying oven at 100 deg F will dry everything out in about a day. Then you can test it with no props to see if everything is functioning. I don't have enough information about the final condition of your Q to offer more.

 

[Docvfr]

Steve thanks for your help. The Q is flying if you can believe that, and the battery is working as well. The camera takes pictures, however the image was still blurry so I don’t have high hopes for that.

Prior to the crash, we weren’t able to activate the video camera, only pictures. The button on the ST 10 to start the video camera did not have any sensory feedback. Meaning, it could be depressed, but there was no clicking or any sense of activation, the button for the camera however did operate and did click when it was depressed.

Thanks

 

[Steve Carr]

Steve thanks for your help. The Q is flying if you can believe that, and the battery is working as well. The camera takes pictures, however the image was still blurry so I don’t have high hopes for that.
Prior to the crash, we weren’t able to activate the video camera, only pictures. The button on the ST 10 to start the video camera did not have any sensory feedback. Meaning, it could be depressed, but there was no clicking or any sense of activation, the button for the camera however did operate and did click when it was depressed. Thanks

You have made a lot of progress. I'm very surprised it flew again since one motor circuit failed in flight.
As far as the camera, do you see moisture inside the lens?
The switch may be bad or it may need cleaning. I just had an ST10 opened up last night to clean a camera switch which was intermittent. It went well and is working perfectly now. You might try the same thing, but you need to sort out the camera problem first. How does the video feed look on the ST10?