Mini 3 Pro, Warranty, Refurb or New

[ThorDar]

I just received a replacement Mini 3 Pro under warranty, which I'm happy about but I'm wondering if there's any way to tell if it's new or a refurb? Related, I'm also curious if there's any way to find out the date of manufacture. It doesn't seem be anywhere on the aircraft as it was on older Dji drones.

Thanks!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Did you have to activate it?
If so then take it as new. That will, I think, be as far as you can go, unless there happens to be marks or cracks on the drone and if it is a DJI refurbished drone then I doubt there will be.

If you DID NOT activate it then
DJI
and again activation date will I think be as far as you can go.

I have not found a manufacturing date for any of my dornes P3 to mini 2 so where have you seen this on older drones?

I imagine that a refurbished drone will have had its memory cleared but just in case.
Download the appropriate assistant 2, google it for the Mini 3 pro. Instal the program, boot it and then follow any instructions in the download user manual for the drone. Connect the drone in accordance with instructions and at a guess click on "export logs".
I do not have a mini 3 to play with and am going from memory of doing the same thing with a Mini 1 and a Mini 2.
If, by any chance, there are old DAT flight logs on the drone, I expect none, then they are from memory time stamped.
The logs themselves are probably of no use to you as they are probably encrypted. I expect there will only be a few logs so how far back you can go will be limited. If you do want to download the logs make sure the drone's battery is well charged and direct the output of a cooling fan over the drone. These logs are SLOW to download. I have dne that but realistically I would just take a screen capture of the time stamps of any logs.
Be aware each drone sitch on starts a new data so if there are old DATs on the drone then each switch probably displaces the oldest DAT.

 

[ThorDar]

I was able to determine the month and year of manufacture on my Mavic Pro 1. There used to be a website that would extricate the manufacturing date from the serial number. It was key in getting a replacement under warranty due to defects in the plastic used for the shell in the first manufacturing run. I was able to provide evidence that it was a manufacturing defect and part of the evidence was proving that my machine was from the first run. But that website no longer works.

Yes, I did have to activate it. I have used Dji Assistant 2 before so I am aware of how slow the transfer of the logs is. Again, with the MP1, there were utilities available that could read those Dji logs. That's no longer the case either. I'll try you suggestion, however.

Thanks!!

 

[Starz]

Reading material.

DJI Serial Decoder

Does anyone know if there is still a method available to derive the manufacturing date of Mavic 1 / 2 / Batteries from the Serial no.? A link to the Serial Decoder (DJI SERIAL DECODER) aparently does not work anymore - at least for me ( error msg. below). If I remember correctly, there was also...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

there were utilities available that could read those Dji logs. That's no longer the case either.

I know, it's a pain in the derrière. I can read my P3 DATs and they have been useful.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I just received a replacement Mini 3 Pro under warranty, which I'm happy about but I'm wondering if there's any way to tell if it's new or a refurb?

No way to tell, but do you think it should be new? If so, why?

 

[ThorDar]

Did you have to activate it?
If so then take it as new. That will, I think, be as far as you can go, unless there happens to be marks or cracks on the drone and if it is a DJI refurbished drone then I doubt there will be.

If you DID NOT activate it then
DJI
and again activation date will I think be as far as you can go.

I have not found a manufacturing date for any of my dornes P3 to mini 2 so where have you seen this on older drones?

I imagine that a refurbished drone will have had its memory cleared but just in case.
Download the appropriate assistant 2, google it for the Mini 3 pro. Instal the program, boot it and then follow any instructions in the download user manual for the drone. Connect the drone in accordance with instructions and at a guess click on "export logs".
I do not have a mini 3 to play with and am going from memory of doing the same thing with a Mini 1 and a Mini 2.
If, by any chance, there are old DAT flight logs on the drone, I expect none, then they are from memory time stamped.
The logs themselves are probably of no use to you as they are probably encrypted. I expect there will only be a few logs so how far back you can go will be limited. If you do want to download the logs make sure the drone's battery is well charged and direct the output of a cooling fan over the drone. These logs are SLOW to download. I have dne that but realistically I would just take a screen capture of the time stamps of any logs.
Be aware each drone sitch on starts a new data so if there are old DATs on the drone then each switch probably displaces the oldest DAT.

I took your advice and had a look at the logs with Dji Assistant 2. To reiterate. I did have to activate it. The condition of the drone externally is pristine. For all appearances, it looks brand new. Here's the logs list:


There are a total of 17. One on Oct 6/22. Several on Dec 29/22. That was the day I was notified they'd made a decision and were shipping me a replacement under warranty. Then a few from my test flight on Jan 5. (The replacement was delivered Jan 4th). Between those three items, one could deduce the manufacture date was in or near early October and that it is, indeed, new. I did also export the logs but that was a waste of time. They are, of course, encrypted and unreadable.

HOWEVER...

After I'd posted this question here, I got a follow up email from Dji asking if there was anything else I needed. I decided to pose the same questions to them.

Here, in part, is their response:

"We appreciate you for making the time in sending us an email and we have every desire to address your needs.
With regards to your concern, the replacement unit is like a new one with equivalent to a new unit with the same quality and performance."

They didn't address the question about whether there is a way to determine the manufacturing date.

This response would seem to indicate that it is refurbished or maybe remanufactured but I'm skeptical. The response is a little too generic for my taste.

I'll just have to accept that there is seems to be no way to know 100% for certain.

As I stated already, I'm only asking out of curiosity. I'm satisfied with the service and the end result.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Interesting post, I guess that means the memory is wiped during refurbishment and the drone is tested before sealing? and dispatch.
If I remember the way downloading those logs works, it might be interesting to tick the box against what was log 7 2022-12-29_18:21:50 to 2022-12-29_18:27:48 and see if it can be broken down into various sections. From memory that was possible with either my M2P or the Mini or both, though I have a vague memory that when that was possible there were 'page-tabs' along the top of the list. If a breakdown is available the compare, in terms of section sizes, the break down from separate logs of your where you did and did not fly the drone. I am just wondering if log 7 was a test flight and whether any available section sizes might indicate that.

 

[ThorDar]

Interesting post, I guess that means the memory is wiped during refurbishment and the drone is tested before sealing? and dispatch.
If I remember the way downloading those logs works, it might be interesting to tick the box against what was log 7 2022-12-29_18:21:50 to 2022-12-29_18:27:48 and see if it can be broken down into various sections. From memory that was possible with either my M2P or the Mini or both, though I have a vague memory that when that was possible there were 'page-tabs' along the top of the list. If a breakdown is available the compare, in terms of section sizes, the break down from separate logs of your where you did and did not fly the drone. I am just wondering if log 7 was a test flight and whether any available section sizes might indicate that.

That would be my guess. IF this is a refurb/reman, everything was reset to factory, including wiping any logs.

The flight logs on newer consumer Dji aircraft themselves are no longer readable by the user. Only the logs saved on the device the app is running on which are a subset of what's stored on the aircraft. I believe they started encrypting the aircraft logs back around 2018 or 2019. Something to do with satisfying security concerns of various government agencies. Just to test this, I uploaded a couple of the Mini 3 .dats to AirData. The dats from my MP1 would get processed. Nothing happened with the Mini 3 dats.

Bottom line, there is no way to view the data in the dat's exported from the Mini 3 itself. Nor any other recent Dji consumer drone. Too bad but it is what it is.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I was trying to suggest that since log 7 is significantly larger than the other, and if the sections of the log can be seen, then the sizes of those sections, when compared to logs 'you have created', might indicate whether or not the drone was, for log 7, flying or just sitting.

 

[ThorDar]

I was trying to suggest that since log 7 is significantly larger than the other, and if the sections of the log can be seen, then the sizes of those sections, when compared to logs 'you have created', might indicate whether or not the drone was, for log 7, flying or just sitting.

Oh that's easy enough. I did take screencaps of all the logs. For the purposes of the topic I didn't see the need to post the second one. Here it is:

Log # 12 was my actual flight and it is, indeed, almost exactly the same size as log # 7. So you're hypothesis is likely correct that they did a test flight before shipping it to me.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Actually that's not what I meant.
With one or other or perhaps all the Mavic 2, Mavic Mini and Mini 2 it was/may-still-be possible to see an individual DAT/log 'broken down' into sections, I don't remember the section names but I think there might have been 5 to 7 sections.

BUT I have just checked my records and it looks as if that view is not available with the Mini 1 / 2 or I never copied the broken down view from them to external storage.

 

[ThorDar]

Actually that's not what I meant.
With one or other or perhaps all the Mavic 2, Mavic Mini and Mini 2 it was/may-still-be possible to see an individual DAT/log 'broken down' into sections, I don't remember the section names but I think there might have been 5 to 7 sections.

BUT I have just checked my records and it looks as if that view is not available with the Mini 1 / 2 or I never copied the broken down view from them to external storage.

What you see there is all that's available for log export for the Mini 3. The other versions of Dji Assistant 2 I have installed won't connect to the Mini 3 at all.

 

[Triple7]

I got an Air 2s with fly more combo for $899 certified refurbished with 2 year warranty. Eligible for refresh, if I wanted. Looked and acted brand new, came packed like all my other DJI drones and color DJI box with RB on it. I'd buy one again.

 

[ThorDar]

I got an Air 2s with fly more combo for $899 certified refurbished with 2 year warranty. Eligible for refresh, if I wanted. Looked and acted brand new, came packed like all my other DJI drones and color DJI box with RB on it. I'd buy one again.

Where did you order it from?