Drone flew into hill! Can I sell "broken" gimbal/camera unit.

[seychellian]

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from a trip to Central Asia and managed to crash my Mavic Pro on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. The crash was a bit of a mystery which probably deserves it's own thread but I was following a gradual uphill incline (of around 25 degree) and the drone just flew directly into the hillside. The guy at the repair store told me that in this scenario the collision avoidance will not prevent it from making impact as it only works for objects that are "directly in front" or "directly below" of the drone and not ones that at an angle in front of it (which is effectively a blind spot). He said that the only way to do that is to put the drone in Terrain Mode which means taking it out of Cinematic Mode which is the only mode we have had success with footage so this in itself is a little problematic for us. Perhaps some people on here have some comments about that as I was flying completely blasé to that fact thinking that the collision sensors would prevent it from colliding with the ground under any circumstances. I had it moving full speed towards the hillside thinking that it would just adjust to the incline automatically. You can see footage of the incident in the YouTube video below....

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So the end result was impact with a rock that broke the camera lens and made the remote unable to adjust the gimbal. We removed the lens protector glass and flew it a few times and could see the footage clearly but we had no control over the gimbal and there was a slight twitch/vibration to the footage. After the trip we passed through Dubai and took it to the DJI service centre there and they advised that despite the fact that the camera still worked perfectly they couldn't repair the gimbal but rather would replace the entire camera/gimbal unit with a refurbished unit (for a cost of $230). I asked him what we could do with the existing camera as it still "worked" and he said that there were places online where people buy them but he didn't know the exact site name.

So I am now here wondering if anyone on here knows a. Which sites I should be looking at in order to possibly sell the unit and, b. If I am likely to be able to sell a camera/gimbal unit in that condition.

Thanks in advance for the advice,

Seychellian

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Stick it on eBay. Not sure there's much mystery to the crash. Looked like controlled flight into terrain to me...

 

[benjaminkan]

Sorry that you ended up with a broken gimbal but from the look of the video, it seems that the mavic was flying too low and the controls were a little erratic as well. At that speed even the sensors would not help you with collision prevention not because it's a blind spot but it was moving too fast to be able to stop. Hope you find a buyer

 

[PDXteriors]

Haha dude you flew it right into the ground, I'm not sure what you expected to when you're flying that fast and low?

 

[Stride8]

Another one bites the dust unfortunately

 

[Cyberpower678]

@Thunderdrones might buy it. He's our guy for parts, repair, and salvaging drones.

 

[seychellian]

Haha dude you flew it right into the ground, I'm not sure what you expected to when you're flying that fast and low?

Heh yeah I was a bit out of control. I didn't have line of sight to the drone and couldn't see the screen on the remote too well because of glare and was sort of winging it. Again I plead stupid because I honestly thought that the drone would just automatically avoid the ground regardless of speed. I have only been flying for a short period of time and I guess I learned the hard way. I will get in touch with @Thunderdrones and see what he thinks.

 

[MoonstruckView]

The forward crash avoidance sensors don't work in Sport Mode or high speed. A buddy of my flew his drone right into the water on the 3rd day of ownership for the same reason. This brings up another fallacy which owners have regarding the bottom sensors. Even at lower speeds, the Mavic does not connect speed with the landing mode when you are holding the left stick down. If you hold it down, whether you are stationary, or at speed, it will land!

 

[digdat0]

You can sell in the classifieds here. How much domyou want for it?

 

[seychellian]

You can sell in the classifieds here. How much domyou want for it?

Hey digdat0, I have literally no idea what is it worth. Perhaps you could advise me if you have any experience with re-conditioning/reselling parts. I was just hoping to offset some of the costs of the repair to be honest or if I am lucky cover them completely.

 

[ric96]

Might have been smarter to fly in tripod mode and speed it up in editing.

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

Sorry about the Mavic crash. Footage looked really cool though.

 

[HVYMTL]

So I have to ask.. did you fly it into the ground intentionally? I saw nothing in the video that even remotely looked like you tried to save it.

 

[seychellian]

Haha dude you flew it right into the ground, I'm not sure what you expected to when you're flying that fast and low?

So I have to ask.. did you fly it into the ground intentionally? I saw nothing in the video that even remotely looked like you tried to save it.

Like I said, I (stupidly) presumed that it would avoid the ground regardless of how I was flying it and I didn't have a really good grip on it's location and speed. Yes very dumb I know.

 

[DrPeppar]

You were flying that thing like a raped ape!

 

[Former Member]

Sorry about your crash. Sent OP a pm.

 

[MoonstruckView]

Seychellian,

I think its awesome for you to post what happened and even take a little criticism for something that you probably have figured out already. I may have done the same thing. In search for every answer, I sometimes will expose the obvious mistakes to make sure and learn everything from what happened. You'll do fine.

I may have done the same thing myself had it not been for a friend that got his drone 1 month before I did. He made the mistakes and I got a chance to learn from them. One of my personal biggest mistakes was that I went flying down a beach in sport mode at 60 feet or so and I let go of the sticks in order to find another place to fly to. The Mavic was stationary, I took my eyes off of it for 10 seconds, looked back and I couldn't see it in the sky! I looked at my phone display and it was right there were I left it, but I couldn't see it in the sky. I got scared and I panicked. I was smart enough to press the RTH button, and it beeped to let me know it took the command. Someone came up to me from behind and said, "You don't know where your drone is do you", at that moment my remote said, "LANDING", I looked up and pointed straight up to the sky and said, "Its right there!". Was I shaking, oh ya! But I knew enough!

You know enough now.

 

[rcflyingaddict]

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from a trip to Central Asia and managed to crash my Mavic Pro on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. The crash was a bit of a mystery which probably deserves it's own thread but I was following a gradual uphill incline (of around 25 degree) and the drone just flew directly into the hillside. The guy at the repair store told me that in this scenario the collision avoidance will not prevent it from making impact as it only works for objects that are "directly in front" or "directly below" of the drone and not ones that at an angle in front of it (which is effectively a blind spot). He said that the only way to do that is to put the drone in Terrain Mode which means taking it out of Cinematic Mode which is the only mode we have had success with footage so this in itself is a little problematic for us. Perhaps some people on here have some comments about that as I was flying completely blasé to that fact thinking that the collision sensors would prevent it from colliding with the ground under any circumstances. I had it moving full speed towards the hillside thinking that it would just adjust to the incline automatically. You can see footage of the incident in the YouTube video below....

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

​

So the end result was impact with a rock that broke the camera lens and made the remote unable to adjust the gimbal. We removed the lens protector glass and flew it a few times and could see the footage clearly but we had no control over the gimbal and there was a slight twitch/vibration to the footage. After the trip we passed through Dubai and took it to the DJI service centre there and they advised that despite the fact that the camera still worked perfectly they couldn't repair the gimbal but rather would replace the entire camera/gimbal unit with a refurbished unit (for a cost of $230). I asked him what we could do with the existing camera as it still "worked" and he said that there were places online where people buy them but he didn't know the exact site name.

So I am now here wondering if anyone on here knows a. Which sites I should be looking at in order to possibly sell the unit and, b. If I am likely to be able to sell a camera/gimbal unit in that condition.

Thanks in advance for the advice,

Seychellian

I'm impressed with the MP build ... $230 to get your MP back in action is money well spent for a flight right into the ground. Did the dji shop repair it on the spot? I ask because the dji service center here in China did not seem equipped to do any /real time repair.

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Seychellian,

I think its awesome for you to post what happened and even take a little criticism for something that you probably have figured out already. I may have done the same thing. In search for every answer, I sometimes will expose the obvious mistakes to make sure and learn everything from what happened. You'll do fine.

I may have done the same thing myself had it not been for a friend that got his drone 1 month before I did. He made the mistakes and I got a chance to learn from them. One of my personal biggest mistakes was that I went flying down a beach in sport mode at 60 feet or so and I let go of the sticks in order to find another place to fly to. The Mavic was stationary, I took my eyes off of it for 10 seconds, looked back and I couldn't see it in the sky! I looked at my phone display and it was right there were I left it, but I couldn't see it in the sky. I got scared and I panicked. I was smart enough to press the RTH button, and it beeped to let me know it took the command. Someone came up to me from behind and said, "You don't know where your drone is do you", at that moment my remote said, "LANDING", I looked up and pointed straight up to the sky and said, "Its right there!". Was I shaking, oh ya! But I knew enough!

You know enough now.

I may have done the same thing too had I not studied the manual and watched some YouTube videos. All the gear, no idea?

 

[seychellian]

I'm impressed with the MP build ... $230 to get your MP back in action is money well spent for a flight right into the ground. Did the dji shop repair it on the spot? I ask because the dji service center here in China did not seem equipped to do any /real time repair.

They told me that they could send it to Hong Kong which is where the main repair centre is located which would take ~ 30 days. He estimated that that would have cost the same price (AED850). In this scenario DJI would replace the damaged gimbal/camera unit with a new part and keep my one. However because we don't live in Dubai this wasn't really an option. So as an alternative they offered to replace it with a re-conditioned unit themselves and give me back the damaged unit. In this scenario they were able to do the repair within 5 days.

The service centre in Dubai was was called Advanced Media.