DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Crash Again. Almost $1000 Dollars in Repairs, Only 3 Successful Flights (Faulty Model?)

JakeTaz

Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
15
Reactions
1
Age
33
Hello MavicPilots Forum,

This is my first post on this forum and I will also be posting it on the official DJI Forum shortly. A few months ago I received my DJI Mavic - first flight, everything went swell. Second however, I didn't turn off auto return to home on low battery and hit a telephone wire, causing the drone to nose dive. Although frustrating, I suppose that one was on me. A week or so later I brought my drone to a local store (Computer Answers, Schenectady, NY) because I had heard about the extremely long, tedious, and somewhat dysfunctional DJI support. The technician there diagnosed it as a gimbal problem, and close to 400 dollars and a week later, I was back up in the air. The following day after receiving it back from repair, I had my second successful flight with little to no problems (just had to sit around for an update). 3 days later I took it up again for what is so far my last successful flight. Few days later I took it up in a large parking lot and shaky footage occurred, making any recorded clips essentially useless and live feed hard to follow. Flying was definitely too dangerous and I noticed as I was landing an overloaded gimbal error. I was hoping it was just strong wind as it was kind of windy that day I put it back in the air a day later... the same problems occurred. At this point I was quite annoyed, and ended up putting it away for a few weeks until my dad decided we had to do something about it. My dad looked around and referred me to a new company by the name of Expert Drones. I emailed them and got a quick response, asking me to send it in. ($150 dollars just for diagnosis, $40 to ship the drone itself) I was told it needed a new camera, which was a disappointing result. We had literally just forked over $400 to the other guy (Computer Answers) which made me wonder if they didn't fully repair the Mavic or didn't go about it in the right way. While getting ready to ship I observed a loud high pitched noise coming from the drone as well as the shakey footage. Either way, the device was still not working and needed to be fixed regardless. The camera cost $350 and we had to spend $40 to ship it back to us. I just received the package today. I was feeling pretty relieved, figuring everything was finally fixed. I charged up the battery and took it out to the front yard to give a whirl. Everything seemed normal at first and I flew a few yards out and hovered, taking a look at the live feed. I noticed it was moving and in alarm realized I myself wasn't moving anything on the controller. It started to go back to a pretty stable hover, and I started to bring it back to see what happened, but as soon as I did I lost control. It started flying to the side and I had zero control. I started screaming for my dad and sheer panic took over as I watched it crash into the ground and now we have yet again another broken camera and/or gimbal. This time I can't possible think of a way this was user error. Could this have been a fly away? At this point I am unbelievably frustrated and am starting to wonder if I have received a faulty model. Time after time, with issues after issues. I can't imagine this is normal, and if it is I am starting to wonder if this is even a product I want to continue to invest in. Please leave your thoughts and advice below, I'd appreciate it.

(I have attached a picture of the camera now.)mavic_camera_destroyed.jpg
 
Hi
I love my mavic
I recommend DJI care
I received my mavic last fall and a few weeks ago I had a gimbal overheat motor error
No crash - it was due to a firmware update in the field over cellular ( corrupted )
Anyway I sent it to DJI - they repaired it ( no charge) and I was without my drone for two weeks.
Working just like new - don't go to drone repair guys because you don't know if their any good / and cost a lot!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ggessel
Hello MavicPilots Forum,

This is my first post on this forum and I will also be posting it on the official DJI Forum shortly. A few months ago I received my DJI Mavic - first flight, everything went swell. Second however, I didn't turn off auto return to home on low battery and hit a telephone wire, causing the drone to nose dive. Although frustrating, I suppose that one was on me. A week or so later I brought my drone to a local store (Computer Answers, Schenectady, NY) because I had heard about the extremely long, tedious, and somewhat dysfunctional DJI support. The technician there diagnosed it as a gimbal problem, and close to 400 dollars and a week later, I was back up in the air. The following day after receiving it back from repair, I had my second successful flight with little to no problems (just had to sit around for an update). 3 days later I took it up again for what is so far my last successful flight. Few days later I took it up in a large parking lot and shaky footage occurred, making any recorded clips essentially useless and live feed hard to follow. Flying was definitely too dangerous and I noticed as I was landing an overloaded gimbal error. I was hoping it was just strong wind as it was kind of windy that day I put it back in the air a day later... the same problems occurred. At this point I was quite annoyed, and ended up putting it away for a few weeks until my dad decided we had to do something about it. My dad looked around and referred me to a new company by the name of Expert Drones. I emailed them and got a quick response, asking me to send it in. ($150 dollars just for diagnosis, $40 to ship the drone itself) I was told it needed a new camera, which was a disappointing result. We had literally just forked over $400 to the other guy (Computer Answers) which made me wonder if they didn't fully repair the Mavic or didn't go about it in the right way. While getting ready to ship I observed a loud high pitched noise coming from the drone as well as the shakey footage. Either way, the device was still not working and needed to be fixed regardless. The camera cost $350 and we had to spend $40 to ship it back to us. I just received the package today. I was feeling pretty relieved, figuring everything was finally fixed. I charged up the battery and took it out to the front yard to give a whirl. Everything seemed normal at first and I flew a few yards out and hovered, taking a look at the live feed. I noticed it was moving and in alarm realized I myself wasn't moving anything on the controller. It started to go back to a pretty stable hover, and I started to bring it back to see what happened, but as soon as I did I lost control. It started flying to the side and I had zero control. I started screaming for my dad and sheer panic took over as I watched it crash into the ground and now we have yet again another broken camera and/or gimbal. This time I can't possible think of a way this was user error. Could this have been a fly away? At this point I am unbelievably frustrated and am starting to wonder if I have received a faulty model. Time after time, with issues after issues. I can't imagine this is normal, and if it is I am starting to wonder if this is even a product I want to continue to invest in. Please leave your thoughts and advice below, I'd appreciate it.

(I have attached a picture of the camera now.)View attachment 18232

You may want to quit throwing good money after bad. I'd think about buying a new Mavic with DJI Carefresh. Sell your old one for parts. Chalk it up as an expensive lesson learned.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrsTreat and Rbruz
I second @Thunderdrones
At least he will not rip you off and will do a good job.
Maybe your last flight was Operator error, the logs will show what happened.
It could be that you did not have proper Compass, GPS locked on and that's why you couldn't control the Drone.
It happens especially if you are trying to fly close to other objects which may cause interference.
Really hope you can sort it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrsTreat and newguy
If I had paid someone $400 to fix the gimbal and then still had gimbal problems I would have gone back to them first for a second repair under their warranty. I certainly wouldn't wait for months and then go somewhere else.

You don't say whether you ever calibrated your compass or IMU after those crashes and repairs. Did you?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rbruz
Hindsight is 20/20. 1) Buy from a dealer where you have 30 days return policy without a restocking fee. 2) If you see technical problems during SIMPLE flights, return and exchange it. 3) Repeat until you get a good drone. 4) Don't get too brave with flying the Mavic until you have the basics of flying down and you have eliminated technical issues or problems with the Mavic. The goal is to never crash!

I sometimes wonder if DJI needs to have a more comprehensive test after manufacturing before they send them out the door.
 
Hindsight is 20/20. 1) Buy from a dealer where you have 30 days return policy without a restocking fee. 2) If you see technical problems during SIMPLE flights, return and exchange it. 3) Repeat until you get a good drone. 4) Don't get too brave with flying the Mavic until you have the basics of flying down and you have eliminated technical issues or problems with the Mavic. The goal is to never crash!

I sometimes wonder if DJI needs to have a more comprehensive test after manufacturing before they send them out the door.
This wasn't DJI's fault. The OP flew his Mavic into a telephone wire and then had a poorly done repair.
 
The drone wasn't faulty when you first got it. It sounds like the first repair facility botched the job. For future reference, if a shop doesn't provide a warranty covering their repairs, find a different shop. This goes for drones, cars, phones, washing machines... anything.

That said, I agree with @james_mav; go buy a new drone and sell the old one for parts. Someone here might buy it or put it on ebay.
 
Thank you for the mention @Cyberpower678 and @Michael Ainsworth

OP, Im sorry to hear about this whole mess. I understand your frustration.

I dont think you got a lemon, just bad luck with the first repair.

You can start a conversation with me and maybe I can save you some money on your repair.
Thank you :)
I took a look at your last flight. Something definitely went wrong. The drone's movement and your stick inputs do not line up. You initiated forced landing which should still give you horizontal control of the drone, while the drone forcibly lands. By the looks of it, all but one of the motors was still spinning. Or logging crashed in that aspect. In any event, I wouldn't trust flying that device. Pinging @BudWalker and @Robbyg
 
I took a look at your last flight. Something definitely went wrong. The drone's movement and your stick inputs do not line up. You initiated forced landing which should still give you horizontal control of the drone, while the drone forcibly lands. By the looks of it, all but one of the motors was still spinning. Or logging crashed in that aspect. In any event, I wouldn't trust flying that device. Pinging @BudWalker and @Robbyg
Unbeknownst to you @JakeTaz had reposted in another thread. Here is some of the analysis I did
Almost $1000 Dollars in Repairs, Only 3 Successful Flights (REPOST)

I asked @JakeTaz to do a test flight so that I could take a closer look at the compass data. But, so far, he hasn't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Robbyg and MrsTreat
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,599
Messages
1,554,259
Members
159,605
Latest member
petravka