Friday, August 28, 2015

Updating battery firmware on Phantom 3 intelligent batteries

A few days ago I picked up my first drone, a Phantom 3 Professional. It's so much fun!

Last night I went through the firmware update process, following the instructions from DJI. The instructions were clear enough to get the firmware updated on the aircraft and the controller, but the battery firmware was a bit confusing. Here's the part from the instructions:
The Intelligent Flight Battery is upgraded during the aircraft firmware upgrade process. It is recommended to keep the upgrade package files in your SD card. The upgrade will start automatically after power cycling the aircraft.
I assumed (correctly) that my battery firmware was updated, but I wasn't 100% certain how to upgrade my spare battery firmware. To do that, you need to:

  1. Put the spare battery into the aircraft.
  2. Place the firmware update package in the root of the SD card. You can just leave it there.
  3. With the controller off, turn the battery on. The upgrade process will kick off.
  4. Once you here a long beep, short beep, pause, the upgrade is complete.
Rinse and repeat with all of your spare batteries.