Drone got crazy and crashed after RTH! Possible warranty? [log inside]

[Tony McDrone]

I would think DJI has means of determining tampering such as a sticker somewhere such as over a screw.

You are correct. They have a tiny amount of silicone covering only one of the screws. You cannot access the internals without removing that screw along with the others.

 

[elborak]

He already stated that the refresh program is not available to him. He also stated that crash was pilot error. Therefore, he has no recourse thru DJI, as he admitted the crash was his fault. He is literally on his own.

There's a big difference between saying "The warranty doesn't apply in this case", which is true, and (quoting you) "The only warranty DJI offers is the refresh program" which is clearly false.

 

[Tony McDrone]

Are you referring to this?

 

[z28lt1]

OK, so I couldn't get the txt file to work and I'm far from an expert on DAT files, but this line in the OP had me interested:

"2. Instead of just going straight up to 30 meters, it first went forward, hit a tree in the front, then rotated to the side and then ascended up to hit the branches for the final impact. Why? It is programmed to go straight up!"

If this actually was the case, then there might be a warranty case, as this is not how the drone was designed to work. That said, from the DAT file, assuming it is the correct one, I do not see this at all. After the low Battery RTH, the drone starts to ascend , gets about 5M up and I see no real change to yaw or position until it starts coming down, after I assume it hit the branch or tree.

I thought one of our log experts would have been around by now, but I see at least one hasn't been on the forum in the while. Maybe @slup can take a quick look as well.

 

[itsneedtokno]

For clarity.
The only warranty DJI offers is the refresh program, so you have no warranty. Since the crash was pilot error, not hardware or software related, you can’t return it or exchange it. You will have to do the repair yourself.

The arms are far more difficult to replace, as they require micro soldering. The camera is held in by 6 screws and can be replaced without opening the drone. And yes, it is a software issue that challenges most DIYers once they’ve installed the new camera.

I cannot speak to the quality of the parts on AliExpress. For me, it would be quicker to order them from Amazon, but I don’t live in Israel either. Maybe getting them from China would be quicker for you. If so, give us an update on the quality of the parts?

As per your own post:

"The only warranty DJI offers is the Refresh program" (not true)

So by your own words, "DJI does not offer a warranty, but the only warranty they have is Refresh, but a hardware issue that is exchanged, is "warranty", but not Refresh...?




Meh, I've had a long day.

Warranty is a thing. An exchange because of faulty equipment IS a warranty replacement, so saying Refresh is the only "warranty" is misinformation.

I'm not trying to start anything, just clarifying.

That would be considered a hardware issue. Its stated in post #10 that those exclusions would apply. Please read entire post.

 

[slup]

...However, there were some unexpected issues:

1. The drone was only 25 meters from the home point! It should not RTH at such a short distance.
2. Instead of just going straight up to 30 meters, it first went forward, hit a tree in the front, then rotated to the side and then ascended up to hit the branches for the final impact. Why? It is programmed to go straight up!
3. The all thing took a second and a half. Didn't get a countdown or something. Didn't have time to cancel it not it reacted to the control sticks ordering it to go down.

...Given that info, can I qualify for activating Dji warranty?

Only find one smaller unexplained issue in the logs ... which can be explained by that you actually DID click on the lowbattery RTH prompt, & perhaps by mistake clicked OK ... more about that further down. But in general I think this will be a hard case if you want to proceed & claim warranty.

Below chart show the last 20sec of the flight. No special or odd happening is shown ... when the battery came to 17% which was the lowbattey RTH threshold it initiated RTH. When this happened the MA2 started to ascend straight up to reach the set RTH height that was 30m. The MA2 was 25m from the HP so RTH on set height was the correct action. The MA2 didn't move horizontally just before or during the ascending, distance to HP didn't change, the heading speed was 0m/s & the MA2 didn't yaw until it crashed into the branches & was falling down.

The log shows that you indeed got a lowbattery RTH countdown starting from 10sec ... & here comes the only oddity, the countdown should be 10 sec but here we see a countdown from 10 to 5 then the countdown stops & the RTH is initiated. Both the DAT & TXT show the same. My thinking is that depending on that you claim that no countdown was shown ... you by mistake confirmed RTH on screen which stopped it at 5sec & when you looked at the screen the prompt was gone & the MA2 was ascending into the tree ...

This isn't much more than a pilot error I'm afraid ...

(Click on the chart to make it larger)

 

[msinger]

Not sure what's up with Phantomhelp. The MavicMini version of TXTlogToCSVtool is required.

There were a few issues. The log contains no battery cell info (or it's in an unknown format) and the wrong version of TXTlogToCSVtool was being used.

Fixed here:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[BudWalker]

Only find one smaller unexplained issue in the logs ... which can be explained by that you actually DID click on the lowbattery RTH prompt, & perhaps by mistake clicked OK ... more about that further down. But in general I think this will be a hard case if you want to proceed & claim warranty.

Below chart show the last 20sec of the flight. No special or odd happening is shown ... when the battery came to 17% which was the lowbattey RTH threshold it initiated RTH. When this happened the MA2 started to ascend straight up to reach the set RTH height that was 30m. The MA2 was 25m from the HP so RTH on set height was the correct action. The MA2 didn't move horizontally just before or during the ascending, distance to HP didn't change, the heading speed was 0m/s & the MA2 didn't yaw until it crashed into the branches & was falling down.

The log shows that you indeed got a lowbattery RTH countdown starting from 10sec ... & here comes the only oddity, the countdown should be 10 sec but here we see a countdown from 10 to 5 then the countdown stops & the RTH is initiated. Both the DAT & TXT show the same. My thinking is that depending on that you claim that no countdown was shown ... you by mistake confirmed RTH on screen which stopped it at 5sec & when you looked at the screen the prompt was gone & the MA2 was ascending into the tree ...

This isn't much more than a pilot error I'm afraid ...

(Click on the chart to make it larger)
View attachment 117086

I had a closer look at the OP's observation
"2. Instead of just going straight up to 30 meters, it first went forward, hit a tree in the front, then rotated to the side and then ascended up to hit the branches for the final impact. Why? It is programmed to go straight up!"
The data, from both the .txt and .DAT, shows the MA2 may have moved laterally at most 6 inches. The time integrated velocity data looks like this

The MA2 had ascended roughly 4 meters before any lateral movement was recorded.

For those wondering why the .txt and .DAT time scales are different the reason is that the DatHeader is missing. DatCon can't determine the clock speed and uses 4.5MHz by default but the MA2 clock speed is 3.83 MHz.

 

[OverSite Services]

Self repair, or repair by a center not certified for warranty work will potentially void your warranty on future issues.
Don't confuse a DJI certified repair center from a DJI recommended repair center. DJI will only maintain warranty on the former even if the latter is factory trained. If you're close to the end of the 1 year warranty, then getting it repaired won't matter much.

At 10pm ambient light was likely insufficient for OA to take effect. OA might have helped if it indeed went forward on RTH and approached a tree and there was sufficient light. MA2 I don't believe has upward sensors so it couldn't avoid overhead obstacles. Even if it did like the M2 does, it's only IR.

And possibly create unnecessary liability if you have a serious, reportable event in the future.

 

[Roc Rat]

I sold my Mavic Pro months ago because of the undependable "follow me" feature. I never trusted it to work after several bad experiences that I was able to recover from at the last minute. My question... is the Mini or mini 2 more reliable now . All I want to do is use it for my sport related activity..

 

[JohnLietzke]

Slup is a guru with logs. His interpretation and analytics are spot on.

 

[spsphotos]

Sucks crashing. I crashed my MA2 2nd time I flew it...like 5 seconds after takeoff because if did not look up. THought I was clear of the trees but..well...wasn't and saw them at last second but was to late..came crashing down. luckily no real damage other than the side cover on one of the legs popped loose and just snapped back on. Won't make that mistake twice...well..actually..lol. Didn't het a tree with my Mini 2's test flight but was keeping it like 2ft off the ground and walking behind it doing a slow run from my back yard and down the driveway...it started to drift toward the

neighbors house so I went to move it sideways a bit and gave it little too much juice...bounced off my house instead. No damage (well tiny scratch on arm, but works fine...blades didn't even get nicked). Happens to all of us at one time another. Hasn't really happened to my Mavic Air (1), but only because I rarely flew it...lol.

 

[itsneedtokno]

I sold my Mavic Pro months ago because of the undependable "follow me" feature. I never trusted it to work after several bad experiences that I was able to recover from at the last minute. My question... is the Mini or mini 2 more reliable now . All I want to do is use it for my sport related activity..

Skydio?

 

[elborak]

My first (and thus far only) crash with my FA2 was due to still being early in my flying experience and not used to all of the possible things that could kick in unexpectedly.

I was flying in my back yard, near a large Maple. But I wasn't very high (~20 feet) and was only about 20 feet away (although the RTH point was probably about 100 feet away - an important point), so I was rather cavalier about flying with a low battery. I knew I could land it in a matter of seconds, so what harm could come? Well, the auto low-battery RTH kicked in and before I could cancel it it started to climb, clipped several branches on the tree, and tumbled to the ground.

Damage was one broken prop and one slightly damaged prop, otherwise perfectly unharmed. A very cheap lesson for me.