Never expected this damage

[Eagle430]

I own my mavic 3 for 2.5 years its well looked after, in as new condition, always storing it careful, cleaning it etc.
Two days ago I had my first damage,an incident i never thought it might happened.
I had my drone on my landing pad, switched off , as I tried to turn on my controller a strong wind gut caused the landing pad to move upwards in the air, causing the drone slip and to roll two times in the asphalt as it got thrown off the landing pad. At first I thought nothing serious other than a small scratch in the body, but after closer inspection last night unfortunately the glass on the front vision system/sensor was also scratched. Drone can fly with no problem but I don't know if the scratched glass is a problem? Also hate to see my well looked after drone having scratches due to this incident I never thought can ever happen. I have a dji refresh plan but don't know if it worths using it. Any suggestions if I can do something for the scratched glass on the vision system?

 

[Cafguy]

That could very well effect the sensor Most likely you would start seeing your drone may not want to takeoff if it has any effect, and it just may not. I would check carefully for errors from this point and if you get an error that wont let you takeoff then I would send it to DJI. You can check the sensors by simply turning the drone on and watching the controllers indicators as you walk around it. If after doing this , you see nothing unusual you should be fine once again just watch the sensors closely for a few flights. they make stuff that can remove scratches from glass. DON'T use it on the sensor.

 

[Eagle430]

So far I had 3 flights with no issue, but will keep an eye on it

 

[Murph66]

Gutted for you looking after it so well, hope things are sorted soon, good luck

 

[Eagle430]

Yeah also gutted for this stupid thing to happen.
Any suggestions of how I should proceed? If I send it to dji for repair it will be considered as a drone replacement ? If yes is it worth to use my drone replacement from my refresh plan? I talked to a dji agent and he told me replacing the drone body is not expensive but for the scratch the whole vision system needs to be replaced and this is a bit expensive

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yeah also gutted for this stupid thing to happen.
Any suggestions of how I should proceed? If I send it to dji for repair it will be considered as a drone replacement ? If yes is it worth to use my drone replacement from my refresh plan? I talked to a dji agent and he told me replacing the drone body is not expensive but for the scratch the whole vision system needs to be replaced and this is a bit expensive

You might also be able to polish out the scratches using the same compound used for polishing out eyeglass scratches and used on cloudy headlights. Worth a try. Using a light coating of something like WD 40 will also hide the scratches temporarily during flight, if the scratched sensor otherwise becomes an issue. Good luck!

 

[Cafguy]

but for the scratch the whole vision system needs to be replaced and this is a bit expensive

they would just need to replace the scratched unit, that would cost around 60 bucks in parts HOWEVER You have a new Drone under Warranty so I would not try to fix it yourself. If the sensor starts acting up I would certainly return it for repair, If you ignore the problem and it does cause a crash whats to say DJI won't charge you because you flew the drone with a Known problem? If you are not getting errors now I would call myself lucky and lesson learned.

 

[Starz]

DARN !!

 

[Dogpilot]

Replacing the sensor is not actually very challenging. It only costs around $10 on Aliexpress. Downside is you must do a sensor calibration, which means sending it in to a service center. Kind of why bother to even try to do it yourself. I have had exceptional service from Cloud City Drones in RI. Each and every time I send one in for virtually anything I get back a new drone.

On the pad flipping up in the wind. I have had to come up with a solution, Ince up here in the Colorado Plateau, it is windy, ergo the preponderance of Ponderosa Pines, they need wind to multiply. Downside, those cheap little stake don't in the essentially the soil over rock. They need to be more piton than stake. I ended up making some little pouches of colorful nylon I had lying about. I fill them with lead shot. They lie flat so the drone does not interact with them. They keep the edges from lifting, avoiding any pad movement. Rocks pose too much a risk to the drone, kind of why I like this solution.