Mavic crash after update >>>confirmed by DJI but not covered

[BudWalker]

@b2n I had looked at this incident a couple of times and just couldn't determine the root cause.

The first event at time 303.275 lasted for about 6 seconds and seems to have been the result of some unusual control stick inputs. 100% right aileron and 75%elevator were abruptly released followed by some unstable pitching, rolling, and yawing for about 6 seconds and then finally stabilizing. Also during these 6 seconds you pulsed the throttle 3 times. Looked to me like what some of my FC friends would do test the stability of the FC.



But, then 30 seconds later the same instability developed without the control inputs that I thought caused the first instability. Both events were also characterized by the leftBack motorSpeed momentarily dropping to 0 RPM, but that appears to have been commanded.



In summary, all I'm seeing is what happened and can't really say why it happened. The first even could've been the result of exciting some FC instability, but the second event wasn't. The motorSpeeds all appear to have been commanded and not the result of some HW issue.

I seem to recall that you don't want to, or can not, send it to DJI repair. Also, you were speculating that a recent FW update was the cause. This being the situation I'd suggest that you update to the most recent FW and do several test flights in an unpopulated area.

 

[b2n]

Hello,

thank you for your analysis.

Yes the first time, when the mavic started to fall alone, i was not touching the stick (i was in stationnary mode) so when i saw that the mavic was starting to fall i pushed the left stick up (probably 3 times as you say) then the mavic come back to a normal situation. So i decided to make the mavic comeback to me. But on the way back, (i was just pushing the right stick up to make the mavic comeback to me) the mavic began to fall again, exactly like the first time few second before, but definitely this time.

So i am sure that it is due to a hardware or mechanical problem and not a human error. What i am saying is that this problem appeared just after the update and i read many story of people loosing the mavic after an update like me.

I cannot claim for warranty because i bought my mavic when i was in hollyday in Taiwan. (That is another problem than i had no idea when i bought it).

I cannot make some test again because the mavic is broken...

I am thinking about buying a new one (in France this time to avoid warranty problem) but before to buy a new one i must know what was happen exactly because if it could happen again on a new one i will not buy another dji product.
Thank you again for your help

 

[BudWalker]

......What i am saying is that this problem appeared just after the update and i read many story of people loosing the mavic after an update like me.
......

Could be, but consider this also. On any given day a lot of pilots will update their Mavics and the following flights will be without incident. We never hear about those flights. On that same day there will be a few incident flights that can be explained. Some of these we hear about. But, there may be a very few that aren't explained. That just means they're unexplained. It doesn't mean these incidents are are caused by the FW update.

 

[f3honda4me]

Hello, thank you.
Do you think this hardware failure is due to the update, because i saw many problem like this on internet.
Unfortunetly i cannot claim for warranty because i bought my mavic 4month ago when i was in asia.(no warranty for dji product bought in another area)
Is theire some other people who can confirm that it s a hardware faillure please ?
Thank you

No one here can tell you it was because of the update. But I'd say it's very unlikely. You'll read and hear all sorts of stories about drone crashes, and the vast majority won't be true.

You might want to try to get help from @msinger or @BudWalker. They are the expert on this.

What am I, chopped liver? But yea Bud is awesome, and I see he's done some fine work here. To me it seemed like a possible hardware issue in my quick 5 minute glimps because of the motors doing things that didn't seem to be commanded by pilot.

 

[b2n]

Could be, but consider this also. On any given day a lot of pilots will update their Mavics and the following flights will be without incident. We never hear about those flights. On that same day there will be a few incident flights that can be explained. Some of these we hear about. But, there may be a very few that aren't explained. That just means they're unexplained. It doesn't mean these incidents are are caused by the FW update.

Yes i understand, i am not 100% sure that the problem come from this update, maybe it's just a coincidence but when i had contacted the reseller where i bought it in taiwan he tell me than he had 5 mavic come back to him for the same problem, crash just after this update. Unfortunetly he cannot proove it, he can just tell the fact like me without any proof. If it's a problem from the firmware update DJI will not tell it and as it's not an opensource software nobody will could proove it or not, so we will never know.
The sad thing it's that i loose my 1500 dollars mavic after only 4 month and it's (i am pretty sure) not a human error.
The other bad thing it's that mavic product buy outside of your living area are not warranty (of course i had no idea of that when i bought it)
And the worst thing it's that i am affraid to buy a new one unless i know what's happened because the new one could also crash without reason after few month (and even when you have a warranty you are not sure to find your drone, depend where it crash, so maybe no warranty again )...
Thank you for your help, if you suddenly have an idea about what could happen to my mavic please let me know

 

[b2n]

No one here can tell you it was because of the update. But I'd say it's very unlikely. You'll read and hear all sorts of stories about drone crashes, and the vast majority won't be true.


What am I, chopped liver? But yea Bud is awesome, and I see he's done some fine work here. To me it seemed like a possible hardware issue in my quick 5 minute glimps because of the motors doing things that didn't seem to be commanded by pilot.

Hello, thank you for your time.
Do you know if there are often software or hardware problems on mavic? are they not very reliable or is it very unusual? I loved this drone but I am affraid to buy another one
thank you

 

[f3honda4me]

Yes i understand, i am not 100% sure that the problem come from this update, maybe it's just a coincidence but when i had contacted the reseller where i bought it in taiwan he tell me than he had 5 mavic come back to him for the same problem, crash just after this update. Unfortunetly he cannot proove it, he can just tell the fact like me without any proof. If it's a problem from the firmware update DJI will not tell it and as it's not an opensource software nobody will could proove it or not, so we will never know.
The sad thing it's that i loose my 1500 dollars mavic after only 4 month and it's (i am pretty sure) not a human error.
The other bad thing it's that mavic product buy outside of your living area are not warranty (of course i had no idea of that when i bought it)
And the worst thing it's that i am affraid to buy a new one unless i know what's happened because the new one could also crash without reason after few month (and even when you have a warranty you are not sure to find your drone, depend where it crash, so maybe no warranty again )...
Thank you for your help, if you suddenly have an idea about what could happen to my mavic please let me know

I'd take what the reseller said with a big grain of salt. I highly doubt that he did what we do here, pull the DAT, and look through the logs to try to find a cause. As for saying DJI would hide it from us, that's very unlikely as well. And, I do not see this as some widespread issue either, at least based on what we see here on the forums.

 

[f3honda4me]

Hello, thank you for your time.
Do you know if there are often software or hardware problems on mavic? are they not very reliable or is it very unusual? I loved this drone but I am affraid to buy another one
thank you

I can count on one hand the number of crashes we could even give a 50% chance of being caused by application or firmware in the 1 year I've been on these forums. These drones are very reliable in my eyes. This coming from someone who used to hate DJI and used to think they were garbage. But having owned an MP, P4P and Inspire 2 has completely changed my mind.

 

[b2n]

I'd take what the reseller said with a big grain of salt. I highly doubt that he did what we do here, pull the DAT, and look through the logs to try to find a cause. As for saying DJI would hide it from us, that's very unlikely as well. And, I do not see this as some widespread issue either, at least based on what we see here on the forums.

I am agree with you, i think the reseller hasen't do any analisis. He just tell me that after this update 5 people come back to him with the same problem "never had any problem then do this update then crash without reason" but maybe it's just coincidence i don't know.

 

[b2n]

I can count on one hand the number of crashes we could even give a 50% chance of being caused by application or firmware in the 1 year I've been on these forums. These drones are very reliable in my eyes. This coming from someone who used to hate DJI and used to think they were garbage. But having owned an MP, P4P and Inspire 2 has completely changed my mind.

Ok so I hope I'm the only one unlucky and this problem will not happen to any other drone.
What would reassure me is to have several opinions that would confirm that what happened is very rare and that there is a very very very few chance that a new drone will crash all alone because of a software or hardware problem (while it is less than a year old) but if I understand your explanations it's very difficult to prove that's it?

 

[f3honda4me]

I am agree with you, i think the reseller hasen't do any analisis. He just tell me that after this update 5 people come back to him with the same problem "never had any problem then do this update then crash without reason" but maybe it's just coincidence i don't know.

It's just a case of, this happened therefore this must be the cause. When it really isn't.

 

[Porto]

What am I, chopped liver? But yea Bud is awesome, and I see he's done some fine work here

Well....even an F1 Honda is (now) not so reputable...just kidding!

 

[Callum]

Ok so I hope I'm the only one unlucky and this problem will not happen to any other drone.
What would reassure me is to have several opinions that would confirm that what happened is very rare and that there is a very very very few chance that a new drone will crash all alone because of a software or hardware problem (while it is less than a year old) but if I understand your explanations it's very difficult to prove that's it?

If your in contact with the retailer in Taiwan is there no way you could ship it back there and have him help you with the return to DJI?

Must be cheaper than buying a new one.

 

[b2n]

If your in contact with the retailer in Taiwan is there no way you could ship it back there and have him help you with the return to DJI?

Must be cheaper than buying a new one.

It s what i try to do but the big problem is that if i send it to taiwan from france customs will probably take it and it will be very expensive and complicated to prove that i am allowed to import that in taiwan... but this is another problem that i dont wanna speak about for the moment. My target is to understand exactly the reason of the crash

 

[Callum]

It s what i try to do but the big problem is that if i send it to taiwan from france customs will probably take it and it will be very expensive and complicated to prove that i am allowed to import that in taiwan... but this is another problem that i dont wanna speak about for the moment. My target is to understand exactly the reason of the crash

No problem, you have obviously given it some thought.

Hope you get the answers you are looking for.

 

[ykwarks]

i would just send it to DJI in France/euro and pay for the repair. still much cheaper than buying a new one and if it crashes again after the repair, then it would be under the warranty from the repair they’ve done. i’ve bought my mavic in the US but i’m now living in china and have crashed here not due to pilot error. they couldn’t give me warranty bcs I didn’t buy it here BUT offered me 30% off on parts. later found some minor gimbal problem, sent it back to them and was replaced at no charge. repair cost is not as expensive as you think so at least try sending it in for an estimate and find out the actual cause of your crash.

 

[b2n]

Hello every body, final conclusion of this thread:
DJI has just confirmed to me that the crash is due to the DJI go 4 update but they refused to cover it.

Just to remember you my problem:
I made the last update on October 20th of 2017 on the mavic and on DJI go 4 then i went flying 2 days after. After few minutes of fly the mavic start to fall from the sky a first time, come back to normal (before to touch the ground), fly normaly for few second then fall from the sky a second times, definitly this time.
I bought the drone when i was in Taiwan but i am now in France. DJI Europe refused to cover it because i bought the mavic outside of Europe and DJI Asia refused that i send the drone to them from France (even if i pay for that) apparently due to customs problem.
So i as sent the drone to my stepbrother in France who toke it with him for his journey to taiwan to send it to the reseller in taiwan who sent it to DJI Asia (china) then DJI Asia just answer this.

So for conclusion:
- Never buy a DJI product outside of your living area to avoid warranty problem
- 1500 euro drone die due to an update
- no warranty covering even if DJI recognise that it's an update problem