u/sopherFellow

WARNING: drone newbie alert!

A friend got a box of old drone stuff from somewhere and asked me (non-droner, like him, but a retired engineer) to see if they will run and can be rehabbed. One lot was a Mavic Pro Platinum, two batteries for it - one bulging and clearly a discard and another battery that lit up 1 light when I first hit the switch and completely dead since then. It also had a charger that didn't have the right connection or voltage. Also a RC-1B controller. I ordered a charger, the 1 battery charged up and I can connect with my phone on wi-fi mode and it will fly. No matter what I do it will not link or connect to the RC-1B. I have downgraded and then upgraded the drone firmware over 4 different versions and reset to factory defaults each time in DJI Assistant 2. I have upgraded the RC-1B firmware.

I put the drone in RC mode, start it, push the link pin, then use the 4 button combo on the RC-1B to put it into linking mode and nothing happens except the annoying 60 seconds of beeping. At some point in one of these softwares (Assistant 2?) I found a controller Serial# saved on the drone and it is different from the Serial# of the RC-1B. Is the drone possibly locked to a specific controller and if so is there any way to assign a new controller? Any other ideas?
Thanks for any hints. I'm very leery of flying it on my phone using the virtual sticks.

FYI, the other module was a Phantom 3 Standard and I replaced the drop pins and blades, replaced the battery and added blade guards and it is working fine with it's controller (you bat 500 in the major leagues and you're a hero, but not here!). I have flown them only 8 feet up and then immediately land to test if they work, as I realize he needs to register them before they are legal - I'm just testing to see if they work!