Crashed my DJI Air 3 when using waypoints

[DJI Drone Fanatic]

I was using the waypoints, and my drone ended up a little off from where I set it to fly (I understand GPS has some error margin). My obstacle avoidance sensors had been pretty reliable, so I got a bit too comfortable, assuming it would stop when it saw a tree—but it didn’t. The gimbal bracket broke, and the front-right vision sensor went from fisheye to macro. Now it’s out of focus and can’t detect anything, even though there’s no visible damage to the sensors. It seems like something inside broke from the impact of the fall.

The worst part is, where I’m from, it costs about $200 each way to ship it to Germany, which is where DJI told me to send it. I asked if I could fly to the closest and cheapest DJI store in Vienna to drop the drone off there instead. They said they’d get back to me, but I haven’t heard from them since. I’m not sure I can repair it myself since, as far as I know, there’s no calibration tool available for the general public, even though the parts can be found online. DJI please give us a right to repair our own drones for people that can’t afford 400$ shipping and probably 200$ repair.

 

[GFields]

DJI please give us a right to repair our own drones for people that can’t afford 400$ shipping and probably 200$ repair.

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and the struggle you're facing to get it repaired. If you had DJI refresh, DJI would cover the shipping cost.

However, I doubt that anyone from DJI will view your message.

 

[DJI Drone Fanatic]

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and the struggle you're facing to get it repaired. If you had DJI refresh, DJI would cover the shipping cost.

However, I doubt that anyone from DJI will view your message.

I don’t have Care Refresh. I got it from the DJI store 5 months ago, and it’s still under warranty, but in Thailand so the warranty is not valid for Europe

 

[DJI Drone Fanatic]

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and the struggle you're facing to get it repaired. If you had DJI refresh, DJI would cover the shipping cost.

However, I doubt that anyone from DJI will view your message.

I’m honestly not expecting a positive response from DJI at this point. It’s just really disappointing because I had been saving up money for it for years.

 

[Cafguy]

Sorry to hear about the crash unfortunately DJI is constantly making their Drones harder and harder to D.I.Y. Fix.
I hate to say it but really your only recourse is to get your Drone to DJI somehow.
You could do the repair yourself BUT believe it or not it will end up costing you lots more money then sending it in.
I know that's a pretty expensive shipping rate, but you will end up spending that money you saved on extra parts and serial matching services, if you do it yourself.

 

[DJI Drone Fanatic]

Sorry to hear about the crash unfortunately DJI is constantly making their Drones harder and harder to D.I.Y. Fix.
I hate to say it but really your only recourse is to get your Drone to DJI somehow.
You could do the repair yourself BUT believe it or not it will end up costing you lots more money then sending it in.
I know that's a pretty expensive shipping rate, but you will end up spending that money you saved on extra parts and serial matching services, if you do it yourself.

I’ve been doing research online, and it turns out the Air 2S was the last DJI drone you could self-repair using the tools available in the DJI Assistant app and GitHub. They stopped offering this for newer models like the Mavic 3, Air 3, and Avata. It’s frustrating because if they let us use the tools they clearly have, a repair would only cost around $60 (the price of the parts). I’ve repaired my own phones and computers before, so this is completely unnecessary. There’s really no good reason for them to lock the parts with serialization.

 

[DJI Drone Fanatic]

DJI really came through with this one. Since my drone is still under a DJI warranty in Thailand, they’re providing me free shipping to the repair center. I’m honestly so impressed with their customer service. I wasn’t expecting this at all.

 

[RodPad]

WOW!!

Rod ..

 

[Kiwicbrthou]

Let us know how it turns out for you.

 

[Deleted member 187531]

Gotta be careful with trees especially in the winter. People have noted it doesn’t work well if at all against leafless tree branches. So how did repairs go? Did you get it back yet?