Hello,

I am Geoffrey, I am 40 years old French living in the Philippines, dji user for 4 years, graphic designer and video producer.


I come to share with you my experience with DJI support

In  March 2020 in the Philippines, a video mission for a resort in Coron,  capture the resort in the sunset and the pretty model on his paddle board  50 m from the shore.

After less than 10 minutes of flight while  the drone approaches the lagoon in the direction of the paddle, the drone  suddenly falls when I lose the signal on the radio control.  Unbelievable !
After 30 searches I found the drone in 50 cm of (salt)  water, the battery inflated and open on one side, detached from the  drone but still in its housing.

I therefore concluded that the  battery having swelled for indeterminate reason was disconnected in  flight, ending the flight capacity of the machine.

Then comes my first email to dji support, explaining the circumstances of the crash with SN, photos, video, crash report.
After  3 months they replied to me saying that the battery was still under warranty  and may cause the crash they will send me a remplacement drone.
After few mails and more photos they finally say that it could be multiple reasons :

1. The APP was shut down or the mobile device was turned off.
2. The drone crashed or lost power.
3. The drone disconnected from the remote control for a long period of time.
Based on the information I provided, the specific reason for  this accident is unclear. The battery being disconnected from the drone  does not necessarily mean that this accident was caused by the battery  because it is also possible that the battery dropped from the drone  because of the crash.

People from the dji support really flew a drone in their life ? I never read such a stupid argument.

So they offer me a free repair of my mavic zoom, shipping to china and back to the Philippines.

Everyone knows the power of the salty water on a flying computer, processor,  motherboard and stuff are destroyed even after soaking it in clear  water for 12h.
What are they hoping to repair ? Why this non objectivity from an accurate and precise flight report ?

I  would ask your point of view because it's not my first issue with the  dji support. I am still exchanging emails, maybe 50 in a few months.
Do I lose my time...


Best regards

Whilst the time taken may be undesirable you have the offer of a replacement drone, is that not a satifactory outcome? Admittedly it might be more favourable if there were a repair centre in the Philiippines to which you could return it.

I have stripped a mavic 2 that spent several days in the sea, the only salvageable components were the plastic body parts and perhaps the camera shell so I suspect that your 'repaired drone' will actually be a new or new condition replacement.

A battery disconnection in flight will obviously stop the log recordings on the phone but it appears that shutting the App down will do the same. I just tried the latter indoors, with the drone hovering and then looked at the logs from the phone using CsvView. The logs, DAT and .txt, terminate with the App shutdown and a 'new' set start with the rebooting of the App. There was no loss of control of the drone and the drone continued to hover and or follow any commands given, all unpreturbed, but the drone was close and indoors.
Out of doors and at distance I am not sure what the outcome would be but would be surprised if it was immediately disasterous.

I have the recollection that loss of the App or, perhaps, not having a phone connected to the controller, can limit the distance and height to which the drone can be sent but what would happen if the drone was already at height and or distance?   
I certainly have had an App and or the phone crash / reboot whilst flying out of doors but, although it was unnerving, I do not remember the details expect that it is likely that the drone was not far away or high, so there can not have been any significant consequences. I do not remember the model of drone but it was a DJI drone.
I do not know what would happen if the drone were at height and or distance but I would be surprised if the loss of the App had any immediate detrimental consequences, it might mean that the drone can not be commanded to move further away or climb but I would guess it can be made to return using the control as per normal. After all am M2Z can RTH if the connection with the controller is lost.

However. if the App does crash then the drone would continue to record a DAT to its own memory. Depending on what action you took on recovering the drone, i.e. washing with fresh water and or alcohol, the DAT on the drone might still be available, if the drone could be powered up etc., but I would not be inclined to try and power the drone up for fear of damaging anything else. I believe Phantom 3's store the drone's DAT on a mSD card 'glued' into the mainboard but I saw nothing similar when I stripped the Mavic 2 so I guess the drone's memory is a chip.

Even if the drone could be powered up and the onboard DAT recovered only DJI can read the DAT in the drone, it is encrypted.

Yes i agree, it should be more easy if they send me a new drone, shipping a drone out of the philippines to china and back seams impossible.

Anyway i already try to fly without mobile device plugged in the controller, everything is fine (sport mod or else) all the issues will automaticly swich the RTH.

During the crash, the drone was 10 meters from me, 6 meters altitude.

They just don't want to admit the facts, that the dji mavic batteries are fucked, bloated or popping up...