Purchased what seems to be a stolen M3, DJI is aware, now looking for maintenance advice

[Yorkshire_Pud]

2) I have no idea. I never looked. He turned the drone on and the controller then handed it to me for the brief test flight.

It's an RC controller. I see what you're saying. I answered your questions in green above. I'm not home but I'll put a video together.
I believe that the guy logged out of the account on the RC & thus I was unable to login & unbound it.
However, the DJI fly app made me log into my own account (separate from the DJI account) This is what allowed me to go beyond the 4 flight restrictions.

with regards to answer 1) if you are currently using the original owners account then I assume that is also the account that bound the drone, if so then that account should be able to unbind the equipment ...... however, answer 1) seems to contradict what you say elsewhere in the above reply...so I think answer 1) is a typing error.

Question, once you had flown a test flight I assume you handed the controller back to the seller? If so did they fiddle with the controller to any great extent ?
Basically I am getting around to asking what .txt flight logs are currently on the controller ?

The App will ONLY show you flight logs flown whilst using the current login, so, if the App/controller is currently logged into your account then the App will show you ONLY flights flown using your login.

However, if you connect the controller to a computer, via USB, you can download to that computer ALL the flight logs that are stored in the controller.
You will have to do a google or search this forum or the DJI forum to find out how you find the logs on the controller but it is possible.
The logs you are interested in are the ones whose name has the format
DJIFlightRecord_YYYY-MM-DD_[hh-mm-ss].txt
and are, from memory, found in a folder named
"FlightRecord" which is found in "DJI.go.v5"
If you find those folders and logs then I would download all the 'DJIFl......txt' logs to your computer and also, whilst in the "FlightRecord" folder, have a look in the sub folder named "MCDatFlightRecords" for any logs with the extension ".DAT" and download ALL those logs to your computer as well.

If the seller did not wipe the flight logs from the controller before giving the controller to you permanently then you have ALL the flight records of flights flown using this controller available to you.
Each of those logs should include the location (GPS coordinates) of the homepoint for each log.
If you upload thoses logs to either airdata or phantomhelp's logviewer then you will be able to get those coordinates from the csv's that you can download.

There is a fair chance that these included the home of the original owner and or the seller.
Using Phantomhelp you would be limited to the number of logs you can upload in a two day period.
I think Airdata's freebie account allows you a limit of 100 logs on the site, to upload more you have to old logs and then upload the new logs.
Or you could upload all the .txt flight logs to a file hosting site, make the webpage public and PM me the address, I can then process all the logs and, if you would give me write access to the page, send you a csv that lists various details of the flights including each flight's home point.

 

[J. Dub]

with regards to answer 1) if you are currently using the original owners account then I assume that is also the account that bound the drone, if so then that account should be able to unbind the equipment ...... however, answer 1) seems to contradict what you say elsewhere in the above reply...so I think answer 1) is a typing error.

Question, once you had flown a test flight I assume you handed the controller back to the seller? If so did they fiddle with the controller to any great extent ?
Basically I am getting around to asking what .txt flight logs are currently on the controller ?

The App will ONLY show you flight logs flown whilst using the current login, so, if the App/controller is currently logged into your account then the App will show you ONLY flights flown using your login.

However, if you connect the controller to a computer, via USB, you can download to that computer ALL the flight logs that are stored in the controller.
You will have to do a google or search this forum or the DJI forum to find out how you find the logs on the controller but it is possible.
The logs you are interested in are the ones whose name has the format
DJIFlightRecord_YYYY-MM-DD_[hh-mm-ss].txt
and are, from memory, found in a folder named
"FlightRecord" which is found in "DJI.go.v5"
If you find those folders and logs then I would download all the 'DJIFl......txt' logs to your computer and also, whilst in the "FlightRecord" folder, have a look in the sub folder named "MCDatFlightRecords" for any logs with the extension ".DAT" and download ALL those logs to your computer as well.

If the seller did not wipe the flight logs from the controller before giving the controller to you permanently then you have ALL the flight records of flights flown using this controller available to you.
Each of those logs should include the location (GPS coordinates) of the homepoint for each log.
If you upload thoses logs to either airdata or phantomhelp's logviewer then you will be able to get those coordinates from the csv's that you can download.

There is a fair chance that these included the home of the original owner and or the seller.
Using Phantomhelp you would be limited to the number of logs you can upload in a two day period.
I think Airdata's freebie account allows you a limit of 100 logs on the site, to upload more you have to old logs and then upload the new logs.
Or you could upload all the .txt flight logs to a file hosting site, make the webpage public and PM me the address, I can then process all the logs and, if you would give me write access to the page, send you a csv that lists various details of the flights including each flight's home point.

Excellent info! I could plug this up and get that data.
And you're correct, I just got the controller out and I am logged in under my DJI account on both the fly app and on the controller as well. However, when I look up the bound section it shows the original owners email but with a couple of asterics.

Yes that's true, the seller did fiddle w/ the remote while advising me he needed to take out the sd card, etc... I figured he was unbinding the account. I didn't pay near the attention I should have.

 

[Infide1]

Can you get a care refresh? Then "crash" the drone and pay for a replacement? The replacement drone will not be bound to any account or controller.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Can you get a care refresh? Then "crash" the drone and pay for a replacement? The replacement drone will not be bound to any account or controller.

That is unethical to say the least, .and possibly fraud. Besides it maybe that a replacement will be sent to the original owner, DJI are not stupid.