It's Alive!

[cameraz]

Last fall, while taking my Mini out for the first time in many months, I accidentally crashed it into my house. Stupid me; I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and meant to go straight up but instead went sideways. I immediately got error messages on my screen saying something like, "Malfunction, contact manufacturer for support." Also, the red and green lights on the back of the Mini were flashing frantically.

But except for the props on all 4 motors being nicked or scraped, there were no outward signs of physical damage. So, I figured I must've toasted the electronics. Oh, well, I thought. It's time to buy a new drone anyway.

But this week I was thinking about it, and figured that maybe I should send the drone back to DJI for repair. When I was on the DJI support site filling out the repair form, it required me to enter the date of the crash. Since I didn't remember, I fired up the drone, the remote and the DJI Fly app in hopes of finding a record of the crash. But instead of being bombarded with error messages, I only got one message, saying: "IMU needs calibration." (Actually, a couple of other messages in red appeared, but within seconds they mysteriously disappeared!)

So, I did a compass calibration on the Mini, and to my surprise, I got an "OK" message, indicating the drone was ready to fly.
I did a short test flight in my living room, and the drone works perfectly -- even with busted up props.

Anyway, I ordered new props and they should be here by tomorrow. I'm going on vacation in a week, and now I'll be able to bring my Mini with me. I still eventually want to buy a Mini 4 Pro, but now I'll have a backup drone to take on trips.

 

[MS Coast]

Be particularly careful when flying that drone, and be alert for problems. They don't just heal themselves. It' possible that the problem you observed is due to a poor circuit connection, cracked board, or some other intermittent issue. It didn't work once. Then, it worked. What happens next time?

 

[cameraz]

Be particularly careful when flying that drone, and be alert for problems. They don't just heal themselves. It' possible that the problem you observed is due to a poor circuit connection, cracked board, or some other intermittent issue. It didn't work once time. It worked the next time. What happens next?

Thanks, good point. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[cameraz]

Well, I've been flying my resurrected Mini for two weeks now, and it works perfectly! I'm really happy about that because it will give me more time to save up for a Mini 4 Pro.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

ince I didn't remember, I fired up the drone, the remote and the DJI Fly app in hopes of finding a record of the crash.

Very late reply but powering up the drone was unnecessary, the logs can be retreived from the phone without the phone even being connected to the controller ....... unless they wanted the DAT from the drone itself.