Karma refusing to pair - Reverse engineering investigation
- Thread starter Argiris
- Start date
Ironspear
Well-Known Member
Hiya mate. I haven't read about this happening to anyone on here before. At least your still flying. Mine is still working fine, no issues as of yet. Have fun.not sure if anyone here is still around but i recently bought a used karma drone and ran into the pairing issue where the drone turns on but wont connect to the controller or even turn off when i hold the power button, i tried everything on youtube and forms but non really helped so i put it back into its case and left it for like 24 horus with the battery in it and gave it a try again and it just worked so i took it out and flew it around and then tried to put in a new battery to fly some more and the same issue started again. I noticed that when the controller won't pair the gimble will for some reason just not work or turn on the camera but when the gimble works and the camera turns on everything works fine. I left the drone to sit for about an hour after i flew it with the fresh battery in it and when i went to start it hold and behold it worked again so i turned it off using the button and back on again and the pairing problem started again along with the gimble and camera not working so i started repeating this and it kept only working after 1 hour then after a couple of tries it started working after 30mins then 20 then 18 (for some reason never at 15mins) but now its down to a 6min wait but now i can swap the battery between flights as long as i do it in less than 10 seconds i can also now turn on the drone and off as much as i want. im not sure if this is isolated to just me or if it is something that might work for everyone but it's here hope this helps some if not all
i just noticed i missed an entire page of this form, have you tried changing the CMOS batterys? i think if those batteries are dead it maybe a contributing factor to some of the issues that some people face.
Ironspear
Well-Known Member
Hey Argiris, did you have any luck with this ?
After reading the DJI post it is all a lot clearer. It looks like if we can find the mode switch/pad we should be able to boot into a mode that lets us write back to the drone. Although it was interesting to see that you were failing on the camera/gimble, was it connected at the time ?
Last edited:
I would avoid those guys in France,company in France repairing karmas.
Solving the Drone Karma® Pairing Problem – ValorConseilCalvados
valorconseilcalvados.com
facebook group about gopro karma problems, sometimes, there're interesting informations.
Log into Facebook
Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.www.facebook.com
View attachment 622
source:
Log into Facebook
Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.
They claim that they have a large industrial site but the address they provide is to a small house in the suburbs.
They claim to have offices all over the world but no one is able to find any of them
They claim that the repair cost is normally very low but many people have received very high bills (in the hundreds)
They claim that this site and the facebook site have tried to blackmail them for something like $80,000 but these are open platforms
They claim that they have left this site and facebook but they are still activity monitoring and replying
They respond in a manner that is inappropriate when someone's opinion is not in line with theirs to the point that they have had many comments removed
They claim to have a machine from GoPro that formed part of the assembly line for the Karma when GoPro wont even talk to people about the Karma
They claim that the unit needs a special serialization from the machine that GoPro gave them yet you can just any drone and controller and pair them
A lot of what they say comes across as pure dribble, to someone not training in electronics it might sound like they are real smart but most of it is trash.
Im happy for them to prove me wrong by supplying some real evidence that any of the above is incorrect but there normal response is to just shower you with disrespectful comments and make false claims about you.
Ironspear
Well-Known Member
This is all very very true. Pretty sure they are a scam company. You just need to check their website out and see all the utter rubbish they have written on that lol. I think a 12 year old could have built a more convincing webpage. There are NO other "worldwide" contacts on the sites that can be found. Even the chap that is named as the Australian rep doesn't exist. Plus Louise <sic> Nobre stated that his company has several ex US GoPro Karma engineers working for him. As if your going to leave the US and work as an engineer for this scammer!!! There is also evidently a production line at the factory, however no pictures of this factory or the production line have ever been produced. There are no pictures on the website. I mean if you want to try them out then go for it but maybe research the company before you do. For some weird reason you have to post your karma core, gimble, gopro camera and batteries to him at his home, then HE takes it to the factory for repair. His quotes start from 25 Euros to hundreds of Euros! I have not seen anyone on FB or here mention a 25 Euro repair. Plus the postage to France. In one message I read Louise <sic> Nobre even refused for people who lived close to him to bring the drone to him instead of posting???!!?? It ALL sounds very very dodgy. I too though would be happy to be proven wrong. Buyer beware I guess should be the motto here. Have fun.
I am going to hit my contact at GoPro up about this claim
The solution to this issue is to replace the NAND flash memory with a newer model. Thanks to our agreement with GoPro, the assessment of this problem and the labor are covered. Thus, the only cost for you, as a beneficiary, is that of the components, which amounts to €20 (excluding VAT). This offer also includes a warranty at cost price for a duration of 3 years.
Apparently, its flat rate with the assessment and labor covered by GoPro. Apparently, he has not read how GoPro is ghosting everyone for years.
lols, anyway mine is still flying and I dont have to put up with his rubbish to get mine repaired.
Sorry but this is a catastrofe... I don't belive that 90% of karmas are bricked because the memory is dead... In my opinion there is a cmos battery or we lost power for too many times and one module is reseted. It is neccessary to implement new firmware directly to the mainboard.
My question is - have you ever opened karma? Have you got any info if we have cmos battery or not??
I found some mainboard foto in the internet. Is it a battery?? I have no possibility to confirm it, my karma is not with me now
My question is - have you ever opened karma? Have you got any info if we have cmos battery or not??
I found some mainboard foto in the internet. Is it a battery?? I have no possibility to confirm it, my karma is not with me now
Attachments
Last edited:
I have previously posted a screenshot of the debug output. The initial sectors of the flash memory (bootloader) are broken. That's why the drone cannot start. Also, NAND flash is not a very reliable memory.
The drone has two CMOS batteries. One is for GPS, the other I don't know. But flash memory should not die because the battery is low.
Ironspear
Well-Known Member
Yes, mine is still flying strong. Had it out last weekend. Never had a problem with it actually. Oh well. Have fun.
Hmm it means that this is Battery 337 or SR416SW. It is the same. I will order it and replace.
Hi all, I did not get far with my attempts, but @kamil.janiszewski, are you sure the item in the photo is a battery? I remember seeing 4 of those on the PCB and the marking started with a 'C', indicating a capacitor...
Y'all! DEAD DRONE FLYS AGAIN!
I had the issue where the controller couldn't see the drone, and the gimbal was limp. I tried unpairing and of course was unable to pair again. I figured it was toast.
But I found that if I attempt to start it up continuously, it occasionally works! So I eventually got it paired again. It still acts that way, but if I keep at it, I can get it going every time.
Pull batt. Push batt. Press power. Floppy gimbal? Repeat. Could take 10-20 tries, but once you see that gimbal straighten up, it's onnn!!!
I had the issue where the controller couldn't see the drone, and the gimbal was limp. I tried unpairing and of course was unable to pair again. I figured it was toast.
But I found that if I attempt to start it up continuously, it occasionally works! So I eventually got it paired again. It still acts that way, but if I keep at it, I can get it going every time.
Pull batt. Push batt. Press power. Floppy gimbal? Repeat. Could take 10-20 tries, but once you see that gimbal straighten up, it's onnn!!!
Interesting, would like to see what's happening on the UART port. Sounds like you have a different root cause to what most people are suffering from as its normally a boot failure for the DM368 due to a broken Uboot image in the NAND. What country are you in ?