Stress cracks on the Mavic Air

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I had recently purchased a new dji Mavic air. When I say new it has only flown 4-5 times by the previous owner according to the flight log. Once I had got the drone I have been flying it for about a month with 0 problems. But nothing can be perfect. About a week ago during a preflight inspection I noticed a small stress crack under the back folding arm. This seems to be a major design flaw as I have seen several of these on many different units of my Mavic minis. So I did what anyone would logically do in this scenario and busted out a box of matches and sealed the crack back up. I don’t understand how dji doesn’t know about this and why they don’t change the boring old designs of the Mavic series.

Whilst cracks around the pivots of Air type drones are, from memory, not unknown, I would question your generalised comments about Mavics and in particular you comment about the Mavic Mini.

Between my Mavic Minis and my Mini 2s I have over 1,720 flights and none of those drones exhibit stress cracks.
My main-use Mavic mini has over 900 flights-logs/flights and I have lost some flight logs. Its last DAT is number 754 and since DATs are numbered sequentially and I add the appropriate "hundred" counter, that DAT number is an accurate count of how many times the drone has been switched on and off.
BTW that Mavic Mini has had the odd minor crash.

The only cracked 'mini' I have seen was a mini 2, bought wrecked, that had obviously been crashed hard, both rear arms were partially torn out of the middle shell. I reshelled that drone with a second hand shell, flight count unknown, that I had lying around and that shell still has no cracks. I have put 118 flights on that shell.
Yes I keep detailed records.

The appearance of stress cracks in the Air series has made me wonder, how do people open and close their drones arm? I.e. do they let them snap open and or closed?
I have done that by accident occasionally and even with the diminutive minis the thump felt when the arm is let snap open and possibly closed is quite significant. Normally I control the movement of each arm all the way from closed to open and vice versa.
I can only wonder if these stress cracks are caused by people allowing their drones' arms to snap open/closed and thump against their stops.

 

[Rmcolon]

I had recently purchased a new dji Mavic air. When I say new it has only flown 4-5 times by the previous owner according to the flight log. Once I had got the drone I have been flying it for about a month with 0 problems. But nothing can be perfect. About a week ago during a preflight inspection I noticed a small stress crack under the back folding arm. This seems to be a major design flaw as I have seen several of these on many different units of my Mavic minis. So I did what anyone would logically do in this scenario and busted out a box of matches and sealed the crack back up. I don’t understand how dji doesn’t know about this and why they don’t change the boring old designs of the Mavic series. View attachment 166316

New or pre-owned? Could be crash cracks? Just saying...

 

[Xitor]

Seems suspicious to have this damage so early in its life, may be why the previous owner was selling after so few reported flights.

 

[Carsco]

Many people turn off the drone by turning it 180° or open the arms letting them slam to the end, then come here to say they have stress cracks..

 

[Davros007]

Jeepers. What’s up with people. He posted feeling upset he’d noticed some apparent stress cracks, and how he’d fixed them. No one asked for opinions about the integrity of his drone’s history. Nothing constructive to add, don’t say anything! I would say the only two types of replies would be to either express sympathy, suggest fixes if you have any, or compare to your own experiences of the drone. Me, flying an old mavic one, the front lip buckled up from something and people advised how to fix it. Done!
I hope the melt trick works mate, sorry to hear of your dilemma!

 

[Freddy K]

There was 1 sentence in the original post that triggered my attention:
So I did what anyone would logically do in this scenario and busted out a box of matches and sealed the crack back up.
Can you please elaborate on this procedure? I'm always happy to learn something new.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

There was 1 sentence in the original post that triggered my attention:
So I did what anyone would logically do in this scenario and busted out a box of matches and sealed the crack back up.
Can you please elaborate on this procedure? I'm always happy to learn something new.

I too wondered about that and dread to think that it might mean what I thought/think it meant/means but time might tell.

 

[tuliofotos]

There was 1 sentence in the original post that triggered my attention:
So I did what anyone would logically do in this scenario and busted out a box of matches and sealed the crack back up.
Can you please elaborate on this procedure? I'm always happy to learn something new.

I believe it's the simple procedure of heating the crack up until it melts a little and it seals back togheter, soldering it. For best results, you can sand it down for a smooth finish. You can do that also with an old soldering iron (but it'll be just for it since it can be hard to clean it up after).

I avoid doing this because of the heat near electronic parts, for jobs like these I think it's preferable to use PVC pipe glue, that can fill small gaps nicely.

 

[EliteBleader]

The way you seem to miss all the informative, interesting, polite, friendly threads that dominate the forum.

Hmmm maybe I don’t come here enough to see them. I only log in for a specific purpose and today it was to find out more about these 4g dongles