DJI holding Mavic hostage after firmware update causes "Disconnected"/LOS error

rlwr · Oct 3, 2018

I have a ~10 month old refurbished Mavic Pro that has merely ~1hr of airtime and ZERO hard landings/crashes/etc. I recently forced to do another obnoxious firmware update that took FOREVER and ruined the main aerial photo opportunity for which it was intended. Immediately after completing that update, my Mavic began failing to transmit video after 0-100 seconds, i.e., sometimes before ever taking off, although all flight controls (pitch/roll/etc) continued to work as I obviously maintained line of sight.

I sent it in under a warranty claim, and DJI is now apparently holding it hostage claiming it was expired and are demanding $124 to give me a repaired or replacement Mavic! Their ridiculous "Service Quotation" has does not provide any option to simply give my freaking Mavic back without paying, and even indicates that "replies to this message will not be monitored"!

Anyone else experience something like this or have a lucid explanation regarding the alleged relationship between defective DJI "Gimbal Arm Module" and Mavics' intermittent failure to transmit a video signal even 1-50 feet? Thanks in advance!

Former Member · Oct 3, 2018

In my experience, the gimbal arm, has nothing to do with video transmission or reception. The gimbal PCB has something to do with it, and the camera barrel has something to do with it, but nothing in the motor (arm) assembly could be stopping your video from transmitting.

The gimbal arm consists of 3 gimbal motors and 3 connectors for those motors. someone at DJI is either misinterpreting the problem to you, or doesnt exactly know what the problem is.

rlwr · Oct 3, 2018

Thanks! I am similarly skeptical, especially bc this problem is not correlated with mechanical manipulation or vibration of the gimbal (it happens randomly regardless of the direction the camera is pointing or whether the props are spinning).