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A sad story with DJI Tech Service

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BigBoozer

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Hi folks, I had a bad experience with DJI Tech Service and I would like to hear from you some constructive comments. Here's the short story:
  1. August 3rd, I fly my two-years-old Mavic Pro in a stone quarry in Tuscany, Italy, where some sculptors are making a lot of rock dust with their grinders, during a sculptor's symposium. I find a cool thing to do some footage through the dust, for a very dramatic cinematic effect, right? Of course the abrasive dust gets into the gimbal, and blocks it almost immediately. OK, my fault, no discussions.
    If you are interested, this is resulting video
  2. I land the bird, go home quickly, spray some drops of WD40 in the motor controlling the up-down movement of the gimbal and get a partial unblocking effect.
  3. I fly the drone in the following days to see how the gimbal behaves, and it's not 100% OK: almost fixed, but not totally, it shakes wildly sometimes.
    During these test runs I beat two personal records: fastest fly (69.6 km/h, or 43.5 miles/h) and longest distance covered (8,745 m or 5.46 miles). This bird flies perfectly.
  4. I consult a couple of local drone shops and they recommend to send the drone to DJI Tech Service in Holland. I do it, paying my UPS bill without a problem: It's out of warranty, I'm more than ready to pay for repair and delivery. I add a detailed report, asking for either cleaning the gimbal or for its replacement with a new one.
  5. I get after a week this diagnosis from DJI Tech Service : "No crash damage. Liquid damage. Aircraft damaged. There is oil everywhere in the craft, customer self serviced it and it's impossible to clean oil from the entire craft. According to the assessment made by our Engineering staff it has been discovered that this unit is a total loss. For safety and the proper functionality of the unit we advise a complete replacement. [...] Please be kindly noted that, the original unit will not be sent back according to after-sales policy."
  6. After a short exchange of emails - where I tell them that the drone is mine and I want it back with the gimbal as faulty as it is, whatever their internal rules say - they send me back the drone, unrepaired as agreed.
  7. When I get the drone back, I try to fly it and... no way. No GPS signal, IMU problems, the bird cannot take off. It switches on regularly, makes all its routine checks, the gimbal goes up and down, the propellers move few mm as usual, but the motors will never start.
  8. I make a complaint with DJI in China, they do all their routine checks with The Netherlands, they even kindly call me from Shenzen, China, to understand what happened (I had to re-explain the whole story, my written and detailed report was probably not clear enough...) and they send me two pictures where some wet parts are visible in the gimbal's seat and in the electronic card inside the drone. (The few drops of WD40 which I sprayed only in the gimbal's motor probably were pushed inside the drone - through the front grill - by the air during the test flights, and is really present in a very, very limited quantity: I have now dismounted the drone, and the wet it's barely visible). DJI refused to clean the oil (they call this "a liquid damage" that can damage electronics) and even refused to replace the whole gimbal (because the drone was "a total loss").
What do you think I should I do now?
Technically: The gimbal can be replaced, of course. But do you think the flying problem can be fixed?
Legally: I sent to DJI a perfectly flying drone with a faulty gimbal, and I got back a NON flying drone. Now it's a total loss, not before!

Thanks for reading this sad story until here.
 
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Hard to answer your questions since I don’t know what DJIs checkout routine entails.

likely the problems stem from the WD40. I hope your problems work out to your satisfaction. You might try DJIdroneservice.

I do have to say that the best thing for removing dust is likely just a can of compressed air.
 
It's possible during shipping that oil got into places in the AC that caused damage. It could have been a problem waiting to happen.

Does the S/N of the returned AC match what you sent? It probably should be obvious if this is the same AC since there's probably evidence of WD in places.
 
Sending to DJIdroneservice night not be feasible or best option since he doesn't appear to be on this side of the ponds.
 
Send it to a third party repairer for an assessment.
Thanks, but I do not know any around here. I do not want to send it abroad, I would not like to spend more money in Customs duties and back and forth shipment...
 
It's possible during shipping that oil got into places in the AC that caused damage. It could have been a problem waiting to happen.

Does the S/N of the returned AC match what you sent? It probably should be obvious if this is the same AC since there's probably evidence of WD in places.
Thanks. Yes, it's 100% my AC.
 
Hard to answer your questions since I don’t know what DJIs checkout routine entails.

likely the problems stem from the WD40. I hope your problems work out to your satisfaction. You might try DJIdroneservice.

I do have to say that the best thing for removing dust is likely just a can of compressed air.
Thanks. Yes, compressed air was my first choice... if I only had a can in that remote village where I was.
 
You have the bird disassembled now so why not have a crack at repairing it yourself?

As you have probably worked out now, the addition of the WD40 to the stone dust would have made a nice slurry.

Get some IPA and a soft brush and carefully clean everything. You will have to disassemble the gimbal to do it properly.

You have a really good chance of fixing this- probably won’t need any parts.
 
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You have the bird disassembled now so why not have a crack at repairing it yourself?

As you have probably worked out now, the addition of the WD40 to the stone dust would have made a nice slurry.

Get some IPA and a soft brush and carefully clean everything. You will have to disassemble the gimbal to do it properly.

You have a really good chance of fixing this- probably won’t need any parts.
 
Not to hit you while you're down but it's a good learning experience for everyone. WD-40 shouldn't really be used around any precision equipment. It's at least partially a petroleum distillate and can damage synthetic components. I've heard clock repair techs hate the stuff as it gums up when it ages, well meaning do-it-yourselfers use it and make things worse. I had someone bring in their scuba regulator for service, I don't recall what the original problem was but he figured it was gunked up somehow, so he sprayed WD-40 into the ambient pressure ports. Had to do a full rebuild on that regulator just because there's no way of telling what damage was done to the o-rings.
 
I have never got the same Mavic Air back whenever I send to service.
That goes for my Spark service as well.
I am currently in a dispute with reliability of DJI Service as well.
Monday I will receive my THIRD service attempt to correct a downward sensor issue.
Started with "recalibrate vision sensors" message that would not complete calibration.
Then the unit I got back from service hit the ground on auto land because it could not"see the ground.
Sent that one back in and the one received again hit the ground same as before on the second flight back from service.
If it does not fly right, send it back in.
by the way, here is a short list of my experiences since I got my 1st Mavic Air in March 19 and second Mavic Air in April:

Purchased refurb FlyMore (1) - had stuck pixels recording/ shooting photos - exchanged for new
(1) One of 3 batteries in the flymore package were DOA - Exchanged for new
(1) Exchanged for new Mavic has stuck pixels – sent back in
Purchased a second, new Mavic Air standard package (2) for my fleet - battery DOA
(2) Mavic Air has dead pixels while recording/ shooting photos.
Controller on Mavic Air (2) reboots on its own even in flight – controller exchanged
(1) & (2) Cannot shoot panos - spheres or 180s with the second Mavic Air – Exposure not even - even with manual
(1) MA returned with stuck pixels
(2) MA gimbal cannot hold the horizon
(1) & (2) have IMU errors – sent in and exchanged
(1) & (2) started YAWing without stick input and downward vision sensors not working
Sent MA (1) in for not holding horizon, stuck pixels and downward vision sensors not calibrating.
Received MA (1) and downward vision sensors are not working.
Sent MA (1) in AGAIN for not holding horizon, stuck pixels, downward vision sensors not working, and motor shut off 1ft above the ground.
Received MA (1) and on second flight, bumped the ground on landing/ downward vision sensors STILL not working.
Sent in MA (1) for a THIRD service to correct the downward vision sensors and YAWing

Overall after repair:
Still Cannot shoot Spheres or 180s due to uneven exposure
Gimbals will not hold the horizon after a few flights even after calibrating
Still YAWs without stick input even after calibration

Poor repair service.
Everything listed has been repaired or attempted repair under warranty since 23March19
 
I have to start by admitting I'm no expert but If it were mine, I'd scrap it.

Even if fixed to the point of 90% satisfaction, you'll never know if/when it will fail completely as the result of WD40 working it's way from a drop you missed cleaning up somewhere inside the drone , or interacted with the drone structure itself, and the possibility of a malfunction in a flying location where it may cause serious collateral damage.

I may be over cautious but that that is the way I would handle it.
 
Your yaw issue could be the remote. Often that's overlooked as a cause. Calibrating the sticks likely will expose that as the problem. Before actually selecting to calibrate, it will show the current stick % as you move them. Should be 0 without touching, 100% at full position without having to apply force at the limit.

Another cause of chronic compass symptoms is AC needing to be demagnetised.
 
I would try a self fix then only fly in remote areas till you were sure theres no more problems. Scraping a 1000$ + is not an option if theres a chance you can fix it
 
The one thing I’ve not heard anyone address is that he said DJI originally didn’t want to even return the aircraft due to safety reasons. It sounds like after squabbling a little bit with them that they decided to return it. Is it possible that they somehow electronically killed the aircraft in order to avoid any liability on their part and at the same time satisfying the OP’s demand for the return of the aircraft?
 
I am more aquainted with motherboards in pc's. With a motherboard if it was contaminated with an oily substance it would be cleaned with a soft brush and either a waterbased or spirit based motherboard cleaner (available online) then rinsed with lukewarm water (with the bios battery removed and the board earthed before cleaning ). Leaving to dry for at least 24 hours.
I don't know if the mavic main board has an onboard fixed battery. if so this would not be possible.
This process would thoroughly remove all the oily mess left by the dust and WD.
 
The one thing I’ve not heard anyone address is that he said DJI originally didn’t want to even return the aircraft due to safety reasons. It sounds like after squabbling a little bit with them that they decided to return it. Is it possible that they somehow electronically killed the aircraft in order to avoid any liability on their part and at the same time satisfying the OP’s demand for the return of the aircraft?
Well, they didn't have any liability as they didn't carry out a repair. By at first refusing to return it, perhaps they were trying to minimize their shipping costs? As for the complete failure when the OP got it back, I suspect the WD40 was more than likely the start of the problems. I stated in another topic posting that when I used WD40 on my bike chain and gear clusters, it created a dirt/dust magnet. Stopped that practice.
 
You have the bird disassembled now so why not have a crack at repairing it yourself?

As you have probably worked out now, the addition of the WD40 to the stone dust would have made a nice slurry.

Get some IPA and a soft brush and carefully clean everything. You will have to disassemble the gimbal to do it properly.

You have a really good chance of fixing this- probably won’t need any parts.

Thanks. Here the problem is not the gimbal - that I can either try to clean or replace myself with little hassle - it's the drone! It was perfectly flying before the visit to DJI Tech Service, and it is not anymore flying now!
 
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