Is this normal for slightly used drone?

[pnovotny]

This is a picture of a used Mavic 2 Pro I'm considering purchasing.

Seller (seems legit), says drone flew no more than 10 times and drone looks to be in good shape other than these scratches.

Is this normal for this claimed usage?

My Enterprise comes with a padded gimbal cover and so mo marks. My Air 2S doesn't have padding and was used many more times but isnt scratched....

What do you guys think?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Yes, the 'tray' that the camera fits into in the gimbal cover tends to cause scratches... though yours shows a lot of scratches.
In a hot, dry and perhaps dusty environment I suspect you would get more dust collecting on the camera and tray then in cooler, damper environments.
I put a layer of thin, brown, parcel tape on the top of my camera to prevent the scratches.

 

[vindibona1]

Interesting. He hasn't taken the sticker off the arm yet. It doesn't seem to have any damage or scratches around the front of the drone other than the top of the gimbal. I've just checked the top of my M2P's gimbal. And yes, I have a few scratches from the cover, but not as many as the one in your photo. At least the seller is disclosing this. Based on what I'm seeing on my drone, used with care, it doesn't appear that this is a big deal.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I left the stickers on mine, they act as scratch protection where body parts are close.
Having crashed my zoom I would say, check that the front arms both droop by the same amount, I bent a pin in the pivot of one arm and that caused the affected arm to droop more than its companion.
Check the rear arms for slop/rotation when they are in the open/flight position, there is a rotation stop on the inner end of each arms' pivot. This "stop" seems prone to being broken off in an appropriate crash and it allows a damaged arm to lift/rotate slightly from the rest position when the motors are powered up. The stop is inside the drone and no damage was visible externally, the movement/problem came to light during a test flight when the arm and drone sometimes wobbled.

It was a GOOD crash !

 

[pnovotny]

Interesting. He hasn't taken the sticker off the arm yet. It doesn't seem to have any damage or scratches around the front of the drone other than the top of the gimbal. I've just checked the top of my M2P's gimbal. And yes, I have a few scratches from the cover, but not as many as the one in your photo. At least the seller is disclosing this. Based on what I'm seeing on my drone, used with care, it doesn't appear that this is a big deal.

Thank you! Other pictures look good as well, only this... seems a bit strange...

 

[Ty Pilot]

I've got a three+ year old M2P with hundreds of flights but less than a third of the scratches as that one. I replace and remove the gimbal guard each and every flight. To get like that amount of scratching in ten flights seems a little odd to me but some scratching should be expected.

 

[FLDave]

There is nothing "normal" about any claimed usage. A seller is able to make any claim desired. So, buyer beware. There is a USED drone. As a buyer it should be normal to request all .txt logs of all flights. You should also be able to verify purchase date and original seller. The point is to get all possible details you can, including what steps seller will do so you can register it with DJI.
Your offer of a price would the perceived value to YOU, not the seller.

 

[pnovotny]

As a buyer it should be normal to request all .txt logs of all flights

Thanks for the detailed response and very useful information.
Where might I locate these files?
Are they not something they can delete?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

There is nothing "normal" about any claimed usage. A seller is able to make any claim desired. So, buyer beware. There is a USED drone. As a buyer it should be normal to request all .txt logs of all flights. You should also be able to verify purchase date and original seller. The point is to get all possible details you can, including what steps seller will do so you can register it with DJI.
Your offer of a price would the perceived value to YOU, not the seller.

I wouldn't make flight logs available, full stop, they are private information.
I have only ever asked for them once and then just a sample and lets just say I have quite a few drones and all but one are second hand.
The most I would expect a seller to make available is the flight-history summary in the app and each battery's charge count.
Besides, what constitutes "all flight logs", we have NO way of knowing, logs can be removed from phones/controllers or different phones used and none of them need know what has been flown with another phone.
If the seller says only 10 flights all one can do is take their word for it.
Even looking at the DAT numbers of the M2P gives only an idea, within 0 to 99, of how many times the drone has been switched on. The counts in video and photo names can be reset.
The DAT's on the drone might contain the total flight count but we will never know since they are encrypted and only DJI can read them.

 

[FLDave]

I wouldn't make flight logs available, full stop, they are private information.
I have only ever asked for them once and then just a sample and lets just say I have quite a few drones and all but one are second hand.
The most I would expect a seller to make available is the flight-history summary in the app and each battery's charge count.
Besides, what constitutes "all flight logs", we have NO way of knowing, logs can be removed from phones/controllers or different phones used and none of them need know what has been flown with another phone.
If the seller says only 10 flights all one can do is take their word for it.
Even looking at the DAT numbers of the M2P gives only an idea, within 0 to 99, of how many times the drone has been switched on. The counts in video and photo names can be reset.
The DAT's on the drone might contain the total flight count but we will never know since they are encrypted and only DJI can read them.

My point is that the buyer requests all available information. How the seller responds will help the buyer determine trustworthiness of the seller. The seller may not even know about flight logs so that would be some useful information about what the seller really does or does not know. Seller could simply provide dates and times of all flights, not all details.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I agree, if I posted my drone for sale I have and would show proof of flights/cycles and I were to buy I would ask the same for the reasons FLDave says.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Thanks for the detailed response and very useful information.
Where might I locate these files?
Are they not something they can delete?

The logs are stored on the screen device used with the drone, if the controller is an RC1A or RC1B then that will be a phone, if its the smart controller then the controller stores the logs.

As to how one access them .... see the instructions on DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Yes they can be removed and there is no way that I know of for the buyer to check if txt flight logs have been removed. Even with DATs, which are sequentially numbered missing logs say nothing about the trustworthiness of the seller, if a screen device is not connected then no log is recorded. I have quite a few gaps in the DAT logs of my drones and I normally save every .txt and DAT to computer.
With regards to DAT logs on the a phone, if the controller is an RC1B then there will be no DATs on the phone. If the controller is an RC1A then there should be DATs ....UNLESS the seller synced their logs with DJI in which case I think the DATs are removed during the syncing process.

Even if you were given the logs I think you would find you would have to use PhantomHelps log viewer or airdata or CsvView to read them unless the seller gave you their App's log in details. From the FLY app logs that accompanied one of my drones MY app would not see them because they were flown using a different login. I suspect Go4 will act in the same way.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I agree, if I posted my drone for sale I have and would show proof of flights/cycles and I were to buy I would ask the same for the reasons FLDave says.

Ok say I say my Mavic Mini has flown 10 flights and show the flight history summary from the app to that effect, are you going to take that a face value?

I am not being nasty or awkward but it is VERY easy to remove logs from a phone and the above summary reflects ONLY the logs on that phone delete or add a log and the totals change.
In fact I do not keep ANY logs on my phones, they are all moved to external storage.
My Mavic Mini has, in fact, 820+ flights but you have no way of knowing that and thats only the logs I haven't lost or accidentally deleted.
Perhaps the most telling information is screen captures of the battery-charge-count with the serial number visible in the app but they really don't tell you how many times the drone has been flown

 

[Ty Pilot]

Ok say I say my Mavic Mini has flown 10 flights and show the flight history summary from the app to that effect, are you going to take that a face value?

I am not being nasty or awkward but it is VERY easy to remove logs from a phone and the above summary reflects ONLY the logs on that phone delete or add a log and the totals change.
In fact I do not keep ANY logs on my phones, they are all moved to external storage.
My Mavic Mini has, in fact, 820+ flights but you have no way of knowing that and thats only the logs I haven't lost or accidentally deleted.
Perhaps the most telling information is screen captures of the battery-charge-count with the serial number visible in the app but they really don't tell you how many times the drone has been flown

No worries, I don't think you're being nasty or awkward and you make some good points. I think asking for a little proof such as flight/battery cycles will expose ones intent.

If you are selling a Mini and claim 10 flights - and have proof as you suggest you could, well thats a start. But if I said 'it looks like your drone has a lot more wear than what ten flights usually looks like'. Then the onus is back on you to satisfy my curiosity or hesitation. For this reason, asking for certain things such as logs/cycles will expose someone who is perhaps not being 100% upfront - nine out of ten times.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

No it’s not normal for 10 flights. How much ?

 

[pnovotny]

As a buyer it should be normal to request all .txt logs of all flights

Thanks for the detailed response and very useful information.
Where might I locate these files?
Are they not something they can delete

No it’s not normal for 10 flights. How much ?

$1400 with 1 battery & hard case

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Thanks for the detailed response and very useful information.
Where might I locate these files?
Are they not something they can delete

post number 12.

$1400 with 1 battery & hard case

Ouch, I don't know what the prices are like in Israel but that seems VERY expensive to me. ebay UK prices seem to have plummeted but the going rate when I bought was around £900 with a flymore kit.

 

[pnovotny]

post number 12

Thanks.
This is the asking price, doesn't mean he'll get it. We're experiencing a shortage of M2 batteries plus with the Mavic 3 out, prices for the 2Pro are going down...

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Thanks.
This is the asking price, doesn't mean he'll get it. We're experiencing a shortage of M2 batteries plus with the Mavic 3 out, prices for the 2Pro are going down...

If you do a search in ebay for the drone then, when you have the results, click on "advanced", to the right of the search box ,and then tick the "completed listings" you will see a list of finished auctions, prices in green have sold.
If they are anywhere near that $1400 it might be worth your while looking at the cost of getting one from the UK but check what charges your customs people will levy and whether or not the carrier in Israel charges a customs duty collection fee.

 

[a2tomm]

My Mavic 2 pro also has those light scratches but it comes from the gimbal cover ,there are other covers out there