I’m a first time drone owner. I received my (new) Potensic Atom 2 from AliExpress yesterday. I’ve downloaded the Potensic Eve app to my Pixel 6, connected to my controller and to my drone. But things aren’t going well.
Firstly, I can’t apply the current firmware update. Most of the time when I select this, nothing happens and the process times out. Sometimes, the controller LEDs flash in sequence and the blue light on the drone flashes as if the firmware is being transferred, but this quickly stops with an error code “2_21” or “2_24” and an option to retry, which never does anything. The drone becomes hot during this process, although I believe it is supposed to get hot if switched on but not flying?
Trying to fly the thing is a shambles. I seen to get either zero or 1 RC bar despite being within a couple of metres of the drone with the antenna extended and pointed towards it. The channel display is “green”. The drone seems to disconnect from the controller and the controller seems to disconnect from the phone quite randomly. I’ve only flown the thing a few feet in the back garden as the drone has already decided to land itself on a fence, falling on to a path during one of these events. I’m not very confident of taking it out and about.
Is this normal in any way? Is this just radio interference from being in the house/built up area or is it a dud? Should I just return it? The Potensic costumer service is closed over the weekend and I’m already on the 48h countdown timer for Potensic Care, which I don’t want to purchase if the machine is going to be sent back anyway.
I’ll attach a photo for illustration of the icons. It has been taken indoors, so obviously no satellite fix but the RC is only at one bar despite the drone being right in front of me.
If I had had the same experience I’d be sending it back. My experience is limited to my new DJI Mini 4, but there were no such problems: the new firmware installed, and the machine flew exactly as it was supposed to do, without any hassle. On the contrary.
I’d say you’ve definitely received a dud, I’m afraid. I recall you saying you had found it at a great price - I hate to think it, but I suppose in the worst case it could even be a counterfeit?
Thanks @TheLittleRedJen . I think it is genuine - the camera quality looks good and it registers without issue in the Potensic app, neither of which I would expect for a knock-off. I’m strongly suspecting it to be a faulty RC, but I’ll try to take it far away from habitation tomorrow to try it out without interference. i suppose it is possible there may be something jamming it locally? I’m feeling a bit like a burst balloon with it all, so thanks for the kind words
I have an Atom 2 and the only problem I’ve had are disconnections during flight but the controller remains connected to the drone so no problem getting it back. Potensic sent a replacement cable (Android C-C) and while it hasn’t disconnected yet, I’ve not used it much with the new cable. I think it’s the app, not the cable.
The flat back of the aerial with the WiFi logo needs to face the drone, not the top of it which would give you really poor signal.
The update needs a strong signal and drone battery above 30% so if you’re pointing the wrong part of the aerial at it, that could be that issue.
I’ve tried another USBC-USBC cable but that doesn’t give any connection to the controller at all. I always find USB cables tricky in that they can look identical but have different capabilities. I can use that cable to tether my phone to my laptop, so I suppose it must be capable of data transfer but it doesn’t work with the RC at all. I don’t have another device to try with it, sadly.
@Crackerjack I’d found your thread earlier. I think we’re sitting at n=2 Android users having trouble. I’ll see what customer support say on Monday but if there’s any flimflam I think I’ll just return it. A real shame, because lots of people seem to get good results from it.
Their customer service is fairly decent using the messaging from the app but it’s not the easiest messaging system I’ve used. Despite them saying Mon-Fri, I’ve had replies over weekends. Send your message with all the detail, they’ll reply when it’s allocated to someone.
The cable is an OTG cable, nothing unique to Potensic
Not sure what I’ll do if I do send it back. If it was working, it’d be very impressive but I don’t know if I can take the risk of getting another one. Curious to know if there are people flying these on Android with consistent success?
I read a post online about someone who was having difficulty connecting to the drone using a Pixel 8, saying that modern Android versions restrict data transfer over USB and that the Potensic app wasn’t handling that appropriately. So I dug out an old Nokia 6.2 from the back of the garage and spent the afternoon bringing it back to life but, unfortunately, it was exactly the same story. At least I can rule out the phone as the problem.
It’s sort of unique to Potensic in the length and right angled connectors. There’s other OTG cables you can buy, as well as OTG adapters that turn a normal C cable into OTG.
Sorry to hear of your problems,it doesn’t sound like a genuine product.
I have an Atom 2 I bought direct from Potensic and it has no issues and fly’s as good as my dgi neo.
I would definitely get a refund and purchase from elsewhere .I would definitely rate my Atom up there with dgi.
I’m increasingly sure it is genuine, as everything seems to check out as legit on speaking to Customer Services. I think I’ve just been unlucky. I’m betting it is the RC which is faulty but fingers crossed it is just the cable. Would love to fly this thing. It is encouraging it is working well with you on a Pixel.
