Mavic Air - Buying used

wr6warren · Jan 23, 2020

Afternoon!

Recently sold my P3A with the aim of getting something smaller, have been looking at a used Mavic Air with 22hrs flight time and around 30cycles on each battery! Just wondering if this is what people would consider "high miles" for one of these or would it likely be good for another couple years of light usage.

Thanks!

slup · Jan 23, 2020

Well ... bought my Air used also ... in July 2019. It was then fairly new if not considered brand new with only 5 charging cycles per the 3 included batteries & brought out from the store in June. It was/is my first, had thought about getting one for awhile but cached up then because of the good deal with complete Fly More kit & a couple extra goodies for 60% $ from new.

So the interest have been on top & have tried to fly as much as possible ... have now according to GO4 being airborne for about 20h & have around 30-40 full charge cycles on my batteries.

So in whole ... half a year enthusiastic use. Can never believe that my machine are even close to end of life already now. Service life time wise I'm sure the drone are good for much, much more ... if I keep it away from crashes & take care of it as it should. Batteries is of course consumables ... monitoring the trends over paid Airdata.com subscription & yes, can see some degradation during my ownership but it's expected, proper taken care of they will last long yet.

So most important is to get hold of the history ... have it been crashed, how have it been handled/stored, how have the batteries been handled. It's more thing's like this that matters I believe.

Prismatic · Jan 23, 2020

I got my MA Fly-More two years ago. After about 70 charge cycles each on the original 3 batteries, I had one fail in-flight (the long story is here), one that was about to fail (based on its history as viewed on a paid Airdata acct.), and one that seems still safe to fly, but I monitor its condition because I expect trouble sooner-than-later.

The first two batteries are retired and used only for non-flight purposes like downloading images or checking the aircraft settings. I've replaced them with brand-new batteries from DJI. (I'd never trust 3rd-party power!)

lannes · Jan 23, 2020

Do you have a chance to test fly the MA, is there a cooling off period where you can return it ?

If you can, I'd check for the following:

Do the hover and yaw test, does the AC return to a stable hover without too much drift, does it respond to all yaw commands
Take some video and photos to make sure the camera/ sensor is OK, view the photos and videos directly off the SD card to assess
Obviously check for crash damage, cracks in arm and body connection points and for prop strikes, check all sensor covers for damage
Check Obstacle avoidance sensors, by having a look at the OA radars on the DJI Go4 screen to see that the sensors are measuring correctly in relation to obstacles. They should change based on the distance to the obstacle
Makes sure it acquires a home point and check it's accuracy on the map, this shows GPS chip is working (do this outside as inside the house the GPS signal may be blocked)
Check for battery swelling and any corrosion on the connectors (battery and AC)
Charge the batteries up and check the capacity/number of cycles and voltage stats in DJI Go4, any material in-balance in cell voltages could result in a battery failure, which you wouldn't want when flying
Check recharged batteries the next day to see if they have held the charge over night, automatic self discharge starts after the default 4 days, so they should still be near a full charge.
Have a look at the IMU and compass sensors to check if all 4 are online and working (this is in the DJI Go 4 app)
Have a look at the gimbal on start up to see that it is free moving and not restricted in any way and that the gimbal is not tilted or not centered and moves fluidly when pitching up and down (gimbal control on RC)
Restart the RC and AC several times to see if any error messages pop up

Deleted member 94047 · Jan 24, 2020

Pretty much what is said already. If the drone hasn't been crashed it is safe; these things are sturdy and well built. Batteries is another story though and you need to check them out. Depending on how they were used and stored, they may be either pristine or near their end of life. I have had my mine for nearly a year now and have about 70 cycles on each of the three batteries and one is already showing signs of approaching its end of life; one is not as good as it was but is still OK to fly with and the third is still going strong. So either ask for an opportunity to investigate the state of the batteries and drone in person, or at the very least ask for the flight history of the batteries - they can upload their logs to a free AirData account and you can see the sate of the batteries from there. Or have a significant discount enough to allow you to buy three batteries if in case they are bad.

hiflyer201 · Jan 24, 2020

I would buy a drone only if it appeared like new. Don’t buy used batteries.

wr6warren · Jan 24, 2020

Cheers for the input guys. I had been prioritising getting a fly more, mostly because of the extra batteries but if this seems to be the area of much concern I'd probably be best getting a nice standard for cheaper and getting myself a second brand new one.

@lannes Thats a fantastic list, much appreciated.

Im really only after it for a few nice b-roll type shots of scenery, then Id like a bit of active track for cars (going on a few trips soon).... half of me is considering a spark. Its about half the price, far more of them for sale and it might actually do me ok..... not sure.