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Did my drone crash?

Qbflyer

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So how many drones have I owned?
I think owning drones is a series of learning lessons. My first drone was a Phantom 2 or 3 and it met its end when the wind flipped it over in air and it came crashing down like a meteor. Very dramatic. Lesson learned – don’t fly when its too windy.
My next drone was the Mavic pro. Got if for Christmas just before our trip to the Rockies in Canada. Got on site for a real nice flight over the lake and into the rock slides. Laid out the helipad and decided to put the batteries on the charger for a bit. Then decided to take a quick drive while we waited. About 10 yards later I got the sickest feeling- I’d driven the truck over the drone. I couldn’t even go look for myself. My wife went over and checked on it. It was gone. I felt like I’d killed something. Lesson learned. Don’t park your drone in front of / behind a vehicle. Needless to say I didn’t get any good footage that day.
On same trip we replaced ‘squishy’, since we were still in the mountains. Same model. Silver lining – now I had 4 batteries! Fast forward a year. My brother is asking to borrow it for his fishing trip. He has had experience with them from work and he wasn’t ready to buy his own yet. I decided ok, and we discussed if something happens to it he’d have to replace it. So about a month after it was to be returned and I finally get it back. We could tell right away something didn’t look right. Accessories were missing like 1 of the two rotor harnesses. The gimbal travel clip was missing, and a battery was tossed loosely in the bag to get tossed about. But the biggest surprise was the label on the nose was missing. I’d used painters tape to put my name and email address on it in case of a fly away drone. I can’t come up with any reason for this other than there was a mishap and brother had to replace it. But he didn’t say anything, and I can’t shake the feeling that this is the case. The problem is with warranty and feeling like I don’t have my own drone anymore. Lesson learned – don’t lend your drone.
I’d like get some input from the group how best to determine if my theory is right… Could someone take a look at the logs to see if my theory is correct?
 
Did you ask your brother straight out if he had to replace your drone ? If you didn't ask maybe he figured you were ok with whatever drone he gave back to you. The worst case scenario is you ask - he says no - then you determine he lied to you - so much for brotherly love :(
 
Maybe download the dat files. It might show what happened in the last few flights.
Yes I’m going to. But wanted evidence first. Guess I’m not going to like what I find. I’m actually more upset he is being deceitful. Even though we discussed mishaps before I sent it. Plus he kept it longer than agreed to.
 
So I got onto this drone with the usb, found the dat files in the blackbox dir but wasn't able to download them to my pc.. not sure why ,, but clearly from the dates this is not my drone. All my flight data is gone from 2019. the only dat files there are from when he had it and i can tie the bbx dat files to dates his images were captured - he left his SD card in it. So where i had a gut feeling before ; now is confirmed.
What logs are needed to find serial number? and where to find them? I know i wont find the old serial number on this drone, but maybe on my samsung phone I use on the remote. He must have used his own phone bc usb was for apple.
 
So I got onto this drone with the usb, found the dat files in the blackbox dir but wasn't able to download them to my pc.. not sure why ,, but clearly from the dates this is not my drone. All my flight data is gone from 2019. the only dat files there are from when he had it and i can tie the bbx dat files to dates his images were captured - he left his SD card in it. So where i had a gut feeling before ; now is confirmed.
What logs are needed to find serial number? and where to find them? I know i wont find the old serial number on this drone, but maybe on my samsung phone I use on the remote. He must have used his own phone bc usb was for apple.

These are the relevant log files:

TXT log: DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
 
So how many drones have I owned?
I think owning drones is a series of learning lessons. My first drone was a Phantom 2 or 3 and it met its end when the wind flipped it over in air and it came crashing down like a meteor. Very dramatic. Lesson learned – don’t fly when its too windy.
My next drone was the Mavic pro. Got if for Christmas just before our trip to the Rockies in Canada. Got on site for a real nice flight over the lake and into the rock slides. Laid out the helipad and decided to put the batteries on the charger for a bit. Then decided to take a quick drive while we waited. About 10 yards later I got the sickest feeling- I’d driven the truck over the drone. I couldn’t even go look for myself. My wife went over and checked on it. It was gone. I felt like I’d killed something. Lesson learned. Don’t park your drone in front of / behind a vehicle. Needless to say I didn’t get any good footage that day.
On same trip we replaced ‘squishy’, since we were still in the mountains. Same model. Silver lining – now I had 4 batteries! Fast forward a year. My brother is asking to borrow it for his fishing trip. He has had experience with them from work and he wasn’t ready to buy his own yet. I decided ok, and we discussed if something happens to it he’d have to replace it. So about a month after it was to be returned and I finally get it back. We could tell right away something didn’t look right. Accessories were missing like 1 of the two rotor harnesses. The gimbal travel clip was missing, and a battery was tossed loosely in the bag to get tossed about. But the biggest surprise was the label on the nose was missing. I’d used painters tape to put my name and email address on it in case of a fly away drone. I can’t come up with any reason for this other than there was a mishap and brother had to replace it. But he didn’t say anything, and I can’t shake the feeling that this is the case. The problem is with warranty and feeling like I don’t have my own drone anymore. Lesson learned – don’t lend your drone.
I’d like get some input from the group how best to determine if my theory is right… Could someone take a look at the logs to see if my theory is correct?
You've never tied your dog to the bumper of your car, have you Clark? :)
 
So very surprised. I located the shipping box the drone came in and wow , the serial number there matched what is under the battery on the drone that came back from my brother. So that makes no sense based on the flight logs on that drone; Even if it was me flying on new years eve in the winter ... at 7 pm in the dark.. where are the rest of the logs up to June when brother had it? very strange i'll be taking a look at the logs with assistant. I've never done any of this before so wish me luck! My wife thinks he may have switched out the panel under the battery. And of all the things he asked about ... do the serial numbers match?
 
I think it's best you just have a straight talk with your brother. It might sour your relationship if you do find he crashed it, and be dishonest about it.
Have you turned it on? Does it take off? If you have AirData, the flight logs will have internal serial number. You can compare that with your old flight logs.
Maybe he just got the front replaced, as it might be a cosmetic damage. It's odd if he's decided to fix it on his own. If you have Care Refresh, he would've been better off paying for the replacement with Care Refresh.
 
Your relationship with your brother is questionable.
1. Confront him with specifics
2. Weekend drone pilots are inexperienced flyers, this is a skill that needs to be practiced.
3.Buy another drone
 
Hi;
The references I have gathered all point to the logs on the mobile device (samsung) (instead of the aircraft) so i have it plugged into my phone i use for flights , which is not the one my brother used. He used his own phone (apple).
I've examined the verbose txt log from may 5 before i sent it to brother, none of the column headings in the verbose logs specifically 'i am the internal AC serial number' but regardless , I searched the whole document and found no reference to the serial number under the battery - and on the box from purchase. I'm going to upload the logs to the site which are here on the phone 'This PC\Galaxy S6\Phone\DJI\dji.go.v4\FlightRecord' . See if you guys can make sense of it. I do note that the mystery newyears eve flight on the aircraft flight data is not on my list of txt files.
 

Attachments

  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-05-05_[10-23-28]csv-verbose.zip
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got them ;
are there any serial number files on the flash memory of the AC? i'm going to copy the whole dir off the drone to my pc ; then go for a flight and get comparison data
 

Attachments

  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-05-05_[10-23-28].txt
    369.7 KB · Views: 17
  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-05-05_[10-14-51].txt
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  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-05-05_[10-06-49].txt
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Yes there are serial numbers in each file

Model: Mavic Pro, build on: 2. September 2017

2019-05-05_[10-06-49].PNG2019-05-05_[10-14-51].PNG2019-05-05_[10-23-28].PNG
 
Last edited:
got them ;
are there any serial number files on the flash memory of the AC? i'm going to copy the whole dir off the drone to my pc ; then go for a flight and get comparison data

These records are for the aircraft 08RDE9200100SW, manufactured in September 2017.
 
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