Huge dilemma with DJI return home policy

[Drakenn]

Also, even if I cancelled the return home, how come that at 51% with the app disconnected the drone didn't go back automatically and start descending when the battery was critical? With 21% I'd have regained the control of the drone and have 30% battery and the camera to see where I landed? Wouldn't you expect something like this is if you buy such a great drone? Would you feel confident that even if I pilot miscalculate something the magic Failsafe RTH kicks in, yes or no?.

The app does not trigger the failsafe RTH. The controller does. Just because the app crashed or disconnected doesn’t mean you lost control. If you had bee in VLOS you could have flown it back.

72m is plenty high to have some sort of wind that you don’t feel on the ground. Any wind would increase battery consumption, it doesn’t require high wind to do so! Hence no warning.

As far as not finding it, who’s to say someone else didn’t find it first?

This is pilot error. You canceled the battery return to home and continued to fly. It sounds like the app crashed and you assumed that it would fly back which is not how that feature works. A little research and reading would have taught you that.

 

[Youser]

DJI might have bad customer service but you should've done your research before parting with your cash.

Look anywhere other than the DJI specs and you will see that the stated flight time is hard to achieve without risking the drone falling out of the sky or damaging the battery.

Just because it says it will cover certain distance, doesn't mean you go ahead and break the laws of flying within VLOS.

So, did the RC disconnect or just the app?

 

[abellodentro]

Thanks,

I had a lost signal and aircraft disconnected message on my phone.

Failsafe RTH:

Failsafe RTH happens when your drone loses signal for 3 seconds when using the remote controller or 20 seconds if using Wi-Fi. When it kicks in it will do one of three things depending on how you have set it up. Firstly, if you have it set to RTH then it will ascend to the set RTH height and start to fly back to you, and once you get the signal back, then you can cancel it. Secondly, if you have it set to Hover then your drone will just hover in its current position, so you can walk towards it and re-establish your signal. However, if you fail to re-establish your signal and the Battery RTH is triggered then the drone will either return home or land depending on your Battery RTH settings. Thirdly, it can be set to land, so it’ll just land in its current position.

And how about the Find My Drone app? Why the drone wasn't there? Is this something to do with me not looking properly having sent them the screenshot of the blue arrow my position on the red arrow drone position? Is this something to do with me too? Spending 7 hours going around that gps coordinate and aria even with a military compass of a friend of mine, but nothing? Why would DJI not refund me though? Do they test their products on their customers? Shall I do some research when they advertise a super product? Find My Drone is also a manufacturing problem, because I expect to find the drone where

 

[Drakenn]

Thanks for the detailed answer. Weather was perfect and there was no sign of wind. Not even at 72m otherwise as usual I would get a message.
Now assuming that I have 13 minutes and I have done 4.2 in 12 I should do the same and have still battery. Why this didn't happen? Why the Failsafe didn't activate although the drone wouldn't have descended to the home point but half way back to regain visual? If the app disconnects it has to be mandatory.
If the battery is critical you will get a message that the drone is descending. This is what you expect from this super drone. Spark does it.

Now how about the FIND MY DRONE app. Is that also inaccurate?

In the end, are we saying that we should by this drone for 1299€ in fly it in the garden?

You had a headwind of some sort. The drone will hold steady up to 36kph, you get warnings starting around 24kph, but any wind will cause the battery to drain faster. 4.2 out may have taken 12 min, but if there was wind it may take longer coming home. On top of that, you want to leave 10% on your battery for longevity.

App disconnects and controller disconnects are not the same thing. My app can DC and my controller still allows me to fly and maneuver or press the RTH button..... since you have logs from 28% I’m guessing only the app DCd and you still had control.

Find my drone is only accurate to the last point it was registered with the controller. If you turned off the remote prior to its final landing, or it lost track due to descending below a ground obstruction, or someone else took it home with them... then you are SOL

 

[Plawa]

Find my drone is only accurate to the last point it was registered with the controller.

With the app if I'm not mistaken

 

[Youser]

even if failsafe RTH kicked in, it wouldn't have made it home because you cancelled the RTH earlier when it only had enough battery to do so.

Find my drone was only updated to the point of disconnect.

 

[abellodentro]

Thanks for this.

So you are trying to tell me that, once I buy a product improved and advertised as a top drone when it comes to battery, distance, noise reduction and so on, I have to make further research to read that it isn't possible? I see.

 

[wsteele]

I look forward to the expert evaluation of your flight log and I only had my iPad to review it, but on the outbound leg you switched to sport mode which uses battery faster. At over 10 minutes into the flight and three miles out you apparently ignored warnings to initiate RTH. After receiving multiple warnings you hovered stationary 3 miles out rather than returning home. Discovering you were over extended, you switched to sport mode and wondered why battery was draining so fast.

You seemed naive to believe you would get the 30 minutes of fly time advertised by DJI in essentially laboratory conditions. I may agree that DJI customer service is not the best, but blaming DJI for what was in my opinion reckless operator errors is incorrect. Perhaps you’re lucky they offered any discount for replacement.

 

[abellodentro]

Thanks Drakken I wish I knew all of this before buying the product. I still think they do all their best to make you buy it and you find out that not only you cannot send it VLOS, so basically I could buy a 200€ drone, but also that they won't refund it.
You know what? I thank you very much for your time and great suggestions. I will still chargeback as I wasn't satisfied with product and service. Then it is their move. Cheers

 

[Youser]

did you think that by switching to sport mode you'd be able to return home without draining the battery faster?

 

[Plawa]

you switched to sport mode which uses battery faster

Not in relation to distance covered..

Mavic Battery and Speed efficiency chart

 

[abellodentro]

Man, I swear on my life and family that when the drone was hovering and I had lost connection all I was doing was trying to switch in and out the usb cable to reconnect the app. Think that happened to give me just the time to press again the return home button but as you see I still get those messages return home only enough blah blah. It's there that I was going furious and mental. Without any vision and with RTH failed I just tried to move the stick to bring it back home manually, but it didn't work. it pushed even more away. Eventually, I was panicking and when 30% battery I switched it in sport mode and tried to do some desperate action. It was meaningless of course. Very bad experience. No way I take 15% I'd rather charge it back and buy a new one.

 

[Drakenn]

Thanks Drakken I wish I knew all of this before buying the product. I still think they do all their best to make you buy it and you find out that not only you cannot send it VLOS, so basically I could buy a 200€ drone, but also that they won't refund it.
You know what? I thank you very much for your time and great suggestions. I will still chargeback as I wasn't satisfied with product and service. Then it is their move. Cheers

Your lack of knowledge and responsibility of the drone does not insinuate a failure by DJI... I see that the American (yes I am one) sentiment of “its never my fault” also applies to other countries as well.

 

[Plawa]

Oh yeah and let us know how the whole "REFUND MAH MOENY!!1!" things goes

 

[abellodentro]

No man. At that stage I was mental. App was switching on just for 5-10 secs the time to press return home button then disconnected again. This happened for all times you see in the image RTH failing to activate.

Halfbattery

Then after that I was moving the drone stick but wasn't responding to the commands and moving away.

Why did this happen?

 

[dbyantis]

They are just bullshitting me and they don't want to admit that something happened at 51% when the app disconnected and the drone should have tried to go back to the home point, no matter what. I paid 1299€ for a top drone, not for an average product. And I never failed to respect the specs. If a battery last 30 minutes at 10:07 of mid flight from full it has another 19:43 secs fly. I didn't buy this Drone to keep it VLOS. Thanks

App disconnect does not initiate RTH, controller disconnect does that. The logs show that the battery was low, but you did not bring it home, regardless of why the battery was getting low (wind).

 

[Drakenn]

No man. At that stage I was mental. App was switching on just for 5-10 secs the time to press return home button then disconnected again. This happened for all times you see in the image RTH failing to activate.

Halfbattery

Then after that I was moving the drone stick but wasn't responding to the commands and moving away.

Why did this happen?

I don’t know about you , but I have an RTH button on my remote. I don’t need the app to activate it.

It probably was movingly away because that’s the way it was facing...

 

[Youser]

Was this your first flight?

 

[colinfowler]

I will still chargeback as I wasn't satisfied with product and service. Then it is their move. Cheers

without a drone to give them back?

 

[colinfowler]

what height was your RTH set at