People are losing their drones over this issue so today I am publishing this open letter to DJI on all the contact email addresses, social account I have including their public relations regarding the DJI O3 issues with DJI Goggles 3.
Dear DJI,
I am writing to highlight and share information on what I believe is a critical safety issue with the DJI O3 Digital FPV Air Unit when used in combination with the new DJI Goggles 3.
Myself and members of the fpv community have discovered an issue where, in the event of signal loss on O3 when used with Goggles 3 the FPV live feed will not re-establish the link until the O3 air unit has received a disarm command via MSP display port.
The Issue In Detail
Normal DJI O2,O3 and O4 on DJI drones wireless system behavior is
In the event of losing video signal you can reconnect again once your drone or air unit comes back into range of your goggles.
As an example: You may fly behind an obstacle and loose signal, however once passed the obstacle O3 would reconnect and you can view your live feed again. This is the case on DJI O3 with the DJI V2 Goggles, Goggles 2 and Goggles Integra as well as DJI’s consumer and enterprise drones.
However it has been discovered that with DJI O3 in combination with DJI Goggles 3 this is not the case. On the Goggles 3 in the event of signal loss with the O3 air unit regardless of the cause the O3 air unit will not reconnect to the DJI Goggles 3 unless you disarm the air unit via MSP displayport command.
This means even a momentary loss of signal will mean you can no longer fly and the only way to recover the fpv live view link is to disarm your drone mid-flight. This is obviously not safe and the reality is the only way to reestablish the link is to try and land and disarm the O3 air unit.
This issue happens when the O3 air unit is used as per the manufacturer’s instructions receiving a valid arming command via MSP DisplayPort via Betaflight.
I have performed extensive testing on this issue and I can confirm the following
● This bug is only happening with O3 air units in combination with DJI Goggles 3, DJ O3 air units used with Goggles 2,Goggles Integra and DJI FPV Goggles V2 are not affected. ● I have confirmed this behavior on both Goggles 3 firmware versions that support DJI O3, v01.00.0400 and v01.00.0300.
● I have confirmed this affects both CE and FCC users the same.
● I have confirmed this happened in both Auto and Manual Channel Modes and all bandwidth modes.
● I have confirmed this still happens regardless if low lower mode is on or off, if recording or not recording.
An important note is that when the O3 Air Unit is not armed via MSP the connection will reconnect as it should at all times. Without MSP arming regardless of the low power mode state i.e. low power mode on or off it works as expected, however this is not normal operating conditions. DJI O3 only provides full RF power when used with a valid arming command.
My testing has shown this issue is very repeatable across multiple air units and I can replicate it 100% of the time.
This issue is causing users of O3 to crash and even in a number of cases lose their drones as a result of this issue and it is my opinion that this represents a safety issue as the DJI O3 link does not perform reliably in normal use and needs addressing urgently.
Further to this specific issue, since the release of Goggles 3 I have seen extensive reports of people also experiencing random loss of video link, in many cases completely out of the blue even at very short range, this issue may or may not be related to the issue above but there does appear to be a correlation between the two.
Today it appears to be the case that the DJI O3 Air Unit when used with DJI Goggles 3 is not providing the usual high level of reliability we are used to from DJI O3 as it does with the other DJI Goggles.
I have provided this information in the spirit corporation and in hopes to help raise awareness that then leads to a resolution as this is a very serious issue for O3 users on DJI Goggles 3.
Other Feedback
Finally, while these are not related to the above issue, I would like to take this opportunity to raise awareness of some functionality that could be improved in DJI O3 that would greatly benefit the community and improve DJI’s use in these scenarios..
DJI O3 Low Power Mode
DJI O3 Low Power Mode does not work in the same manner as the Original DJI FPV Air Unit and the Air Unit Lite ie Caddx Vista and Runcam Link. WIth the earlier air units you could fly without a flight controller providing an arming command and you could get full RF power by turning off Low Power Mode.
Extensive testing on DJI O3 has found the low power mode option does not work the same, In FCC regions turning off low power mode does not provide full RF power and the only way to get
full RF power from O3 is with a flight controller providing a valid MSP displayport arming command.
We would ask if this behavior is changed to allow full RF power at all times when low power mode is turned off.
DJI O3 Full Custom OSD.
DJI O3 supports MSP DisplayPort however has a limited font set available, this works with Betaflight however Inav and Ardupilot have a more complex set of needs for icons and fonts due to the wider functionality available. This makes using O3 with Inav and others a massively more limited experience and for many this is a barrier from using DJI O3 with these systems.
It would be very beneficial to the community if DJI introduced the ability to use custom font packs like other digital FPV systems allow such as HDZero and Avatar HD so users can get the full experience with DJI O3.
DJI O3 Power Output Settings
DJI O3 does not have the option for the user to be able to set their own power level to reduce the RF power output, this was available on the original FPV system.
There are occasions where users may wish to limit the RF power output and we would appreciate an option to manually set the maximum RF power.
DJI O3 Signal Loss Slow Recovery
While this issue is similar to the main issue above, it is not directly related. On all goggles used with DJI O3 air units it has been found it is much slower to re-establish the link compared to the original FPV system in signal loss. The original DJI FPV Air Unit and Air Unit Lite would reconnect instantly as soon as the signal was strong enough. O3 seems to lag substantially with long range pilots finding it taking minutes sometimes.
Request is to improve and optimize O3 link re connection when signal is good enough.
Finally I would like to thank you for taking this feedback onboard.
I am more than happy to provide any assistance or provide further technical detail where needed.
Kindest Regards
Ian Lewis
Mads Tech
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