and because of the stories about distorted props I took note of  the condition of the props on mine. Attached are photos of the rear props once they had been unfolded ......or at least there would bephotos  if I could attach them to this post but it looks like I will either have to edit the post to add them (unsuccessful) or add them in a reply.
Photos added in the reply below.
Please note this drone is brand new and arrived sealed in the ususal 'cellophane' wrapping with the seal over the box's lid etc..
The box was opened for the first time some 3 hours ago, by me! The drone has not yet even been activated. It has only now been switched on once just to see the motors twitch etc. and was switched off about 30 second later, it HAS NOT been flown nor handled by anyone other than me and DJI. All four sets of props were perpendicular to the arms i.e. across the body and had their  transit sleeves in place.

My concern is the state of the left rear props.

My question to DJI is, are they usable?

photos

lets compare with mine



i think your left rear isn't normal. you cant to turn on the RC and then start the propeller without flying first. and dont forget to see is there a message in your DJI Fly apps

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-13 09:25
photos [view_image] [view_image] [view_image]

Left rear needs to be changed, it’s visibly damaged. If you read above notice from dji it clearly says change prop if damaged .

DJI really need to have a better QC of their props. Or their storage. What are they made of? Cheese? You should contact them to get a new set, considering this is a brand new drone.

Thanks, that what I thought. A bit disappointing when you consider this is straight out of the box. Ithas now been activated, ploughing through the fly app menus. A suitable phone arrived today too otherwise the drone would still be in its box.

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-13 10:34
Thanks, that what I thought. A bit disappointing when you consider this is straight out of the box. Ithas now been activated, ploughing through the fly app menus. A suitable phone arrived today too otherwise the drone would still be in its box.

Let me guess, a galaxy S6

Observant chap, I was a bit embarassed when I noticed that that was what the handy box was but by then I was 'editing' the shots

Will you try to fly anyway, maybe indoor with the prop protector?

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-13 09:25
photos [view_image] [view_image] [view_image]

Hard to believe Left Rear prop passed DJI QA and left factory bent downward as bad as blades are..
Wondering if Left Rear blades were folded incorrectly at factory, resulting in blades being bent.

DJI should send you a free set of props for Left Rear.

I do not see anything unusual with @Sean-newbie pictures but... the angle of view isn't flat or inline, there is no contrasting background, the pictures are dark, some of the blades are in one orientation, some on the opposite...

To properly judge and compare with the only known good references that I have the props should unmounted and pinned flat against a surface from the screw hole, the view should be in-line with the side profile of the blade blade and from behind (lower side of the blade closest to camera).

I have no problem dismounting the props re-using the screws... but since this is a completely brand new sealed unit I advise NOT DO TO SO.

I suggest you go ahead and take your first flight... if you don't notice any errors your props are fine. You may rather want to consider the Care Refresh programme before activating your Mini.

I have flown it, vertical flights over a catch net lol, so far it's ok. It will be interesting to see what comment DJI make about the props, I don't want to swap bits before they do.
I have the impression it 'wanders' less than my P3 adv but it is a windless day here and the P3 hasn't often encountered such conditions.
The controller seems to be discharging quite quickly but I suppose I am running the app quite a lot without actually flying, i.e. fly a bit, 'find' a feature of the app I wish to discover, land, investigate, fly a bit more etc. An undirected read through of the manual tends to not make things sink in.
One thing I am missing when compared to the P3's go app  is the" battery life needed to get home" display, maybe I just haven't found it yet or found how to switch it on.

m80116  did you see the group of 4 photos? I'd have thought they had a suitable background, I agree the  single photos do not have a good background which is why I took the images used to make up the group of 4.
The arms of the drone surely provide a reference? Is it not apparent that the blades of the left rear are significantly depressed?

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-13 12:30
m80116  did you see the group of 4 photos? I'd have thought they had a suitable background, I agree the  single photos do not have a good background which is why I took the images used to make up the group of 4.
The arms of the drone surely provide a reference? Is it not apparent that the blades of the left rear are significantly depressed?

Rear-Left are porked obviously.

This is a Factory QC issue.

Curious if you get the warning though.

Are you on latest firmware?

If it looks like a duck...quacks like a duck then, it's gotta be a duck...lol.

No warning yet but haven't been pushing it. Just emailed DJI so we will see what happens. Haven't looked at updates yet, it remains as it was supplied.

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-14 02:20
No warning yet but haven't been pushing it. Just emailed DJI so we will see what happens. Haven't looked at updates yet, it remains as it was supplied.

You may want to look at the rpm of the LBack motor while flying. Please see this thread: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=214023 on how to do this. I would be curious to know if your motor speed are affected by the state of this prop.

Ta I will look into the logs though I am having difficulty getting them but I will look at your link, thanks

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-13 12:30
m80116  did you see the group of 4 photos? I'd have thought they had a suitable background, I agree the  single photos do not have a good background which is why I took the images used to make up the group of 4.
The arms of the drone surely provide a reference? Is it not apparent that the blades of the left rear are significantly depressed?

Yes. I notice what you're claiming... but as for shape of the blade per se I am not sure.

If you don't get the motor speed error it is generating enough lift. It might be just a play that goes away once tensioned by the rotary force.

I am not claiming this is normal, but... at this point if you really want to have a batter understanding, you may want to try new blades on that motor. And even have a new set of pictures of the props currently on with some new ones, or even swap with those on the right motor that you know they're good, to verify the fit on the left motor.

Sean-newbie Posted at 5-14 02:20
No warning yet but haven't been pushing it. Just emailed DJI so we will see what happens. Haven't looked at updates yet, it remains as it was supplied.

You need to be on the latest .500 firmware to get the Motor Speed Error warning.  Like zeb told you, do the RPM test, better if you do a simple indoor hover: auto takeoff, hover 2-3 minutes without touching the controls, auto-land. Then post the results in the other thread, we're getting good results spotting damaged props with that method.
In any case, thanks for being so diligent and taking photos of your props as you received them from DJI, there is definitely something wrong the way they package/ship the MM, which causes more or less damage to the Left Rear props. My MM has never had an issue and I never got a single warning, yet the RPM test clearly showed that my Left Rear prop was in worse shape (pun intended) than the others.

Ahhhh.
Had to change the props,  a gust caught it as it was coming down to land and it clipped a branch with the left rear of course. One of the left rear props split. My locked down take off point is all but surrounded by trees, so it's vertical ascent and descent.
I have it hovering in the house on the new props, not that that is of any use in this respect.
Anyhow I just wanted to say it complained about lack of GPS and poor lighting and the likely hood of it being unable to hover and honestly I doubt it has drifted more than an inch or two.
I am impressed.

With regard to the charts below the first is an indoor automated take off and landing with a hover at what ever height it rose to, at one point I did try gently pushing it to its left.
With regards to the second chart I was up and down the garden.

Thanks! Have you got by any chance a graph with the old LBack prop but when hovering? Would be interesting to compare like for like. Also, do the replacement LBack props look less flattened than the original?

We're at a point that his forum contains several hover tests it is now more reliable to do a short hover indoors and compare with available online reference.
Comparing pictures or props I realize isn't everyone''s cup of tea.

Hi Zeb, comparing the new and old blades the new blades certainly look less bent/depressed radially with perhaps more angle of attack at the tip, I would say the amount of 'concaveness/convexness' at the tips are similar. I will see if I can find a hovering flight with the original blades but being honest there were a lot of short in-house up-and-down side-to-side etc. etc. experimentation flights (getting a feel for the controls etc.) and not many if any just hovering flights. However I will try to find one if it exists.

..............................................

Daniel what does that mean?


The simplest thing to do was put the old blades back on and do a stickless input flight ...so.......

Hmmmmm, if I am reading that correctly the right back is consistantly the fastest motor. That said the old props have had some or all their 'depression' removed  whilst stored in a stiff plastic bag. Oh well guess it's back to looking for a hover from before their removal.

Many thanks Sean. Very informative. I suppose when you say old, the LBack are new ones though, since you clipped them, and . Indeed with the old props, the RBack looks elevated, and according to your account it is consitent with storage issues. Those who think it is purely a firmware bug are wrong. On the contrary we see that MM is quite a tech marvel, being able to regulate speed motor to keep lift/horizontality of the drone. Some props need more speed to achieve this - the lift capability is not consistent. It is possible however that the error message shows too often and the algorithm to detect abnormal rpms is too sensitive (not surprising considering it has been introduced with this FW).

ichan.id Posted at 5-13 09:53
lets compare with mine
[view_image]
[view_image]

Woow.. I mean, yeah we get a replacement props with the fly more combo.. But the fly more combo case shouldnt destroy the props in the first place.

Hopefully masterairscrew will soon have good carbon props.

A couple more motor speed graphs from before the prop swap. I chose the txt files to convert before I saw their graphs. 015 is a random choice and 019 was shosen because it is one of the biggest txt files amongst the early flights
ooops just spotted no speed readouts, let me re-reproduce them

They look nice to me, under 10000 rpm on average. LBack is fastest, which is what we have seen most of the time in flight logs (on my new MM it is actually the LFront, followed by LBack). DJI has it seems communicated that the hovering rpm specification for those motors is 10,200 rpm (I assume this is a recommended or "safe" value) and on average all of your motors are well under that value. After swapping do you see any change?

OK and thanks

Got the warranty replacement blades 15 minutes ago, 2 pair = 4 blades

To avoid motor speed error, always store your drone with propellers in a position like in picture glued in fly more combo box.

Thanks but sorry, I believe the across the body position necessitates bending the props to get them to intermesh with one another.

BESIDES which, the Mini (NEW AND SEALED) had the props in those positiions, as partially shown in the attached photo taken as I unpacked it and, as noted earlier in this thread, some blades were warped.

You will note that the props still have the shipping tie in place.