So short version, first mini 2 I bought had vision system error on second flight, reboot fixed it. It then had a camera malfunction, also went away with reboot. Then mid flight over water, no obstacles, no wind, gimbal motor overload.

Sent back to DJI, got a replacement, the replacement couldn't hover at all. Even with 20 GPS satellites it would drift to the left and had to be constantly corrected.

This is the 3rd one. Worked fine for a couple days, then I got motor error check propellers. I rebooted, the error went away. I was able to fly for a day then today I try to take off and it shows motor unable to rotate. Even 8 reboots made no difference.

Now credit given where credit's due, DJI tech support has been very friendly, they replaced the drone, but at this point, it doesn't matter. Quality control for the Mini 2 is awful. I understand they wanted to keep the price down, I appreciate it, but QC is about the craziest thing you could cut corners on. Will update once I get my 4th DJI mini 2 but this drone is highly unrecommended by me. How consistently do these things fail??

Sure it wasn't too cold there in the snow???

Monkey007 Posted at 1-20 16:13
[view_image]

Sure it wasn't too cold there in the snow???

Yeah not really the cold. For one, I've flown in colder weather, for 2 the drone was in my car before I set it on snow and it hadn't have the time to get cold.

Are you keeping these somewhere dusty or sandy and or are you transporting them in something that is sandy or dusty?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 1-20 17:39
Are you keeping these somewhere dusty or sandy and or are you transporting them in something that is sandy or dusty?

Not at all. I leave them in the protective bag all the time.

I tried again, it sometimes works, sometimes not. This thing has a wish toy quality

I've got 3, one of which was bought as a crashed and trashed scrapper for parts (centre shell destroyed), all three are fine except for one that seems to refuses to activate FPV mode in the gimbal but that's new behaviour and I haven't investigated it yet. Two are second hand as is the third sort of) but it was an unactivated care fresh replacement.
If you can not find some common aspect linking all three then I think you have had bad luck.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 1-20 18:18
I've got 3, one of which was bought as a crashed and trashed scrapper for parts (centre shell destroyed), all three are fine except for one that seems to refuses to activate FPV mode in the gimbal but that's new behaviour and I haven't investigated it yet. Two are second hand as is the third sort of) but it was an unactivated care fresh replacement.
If you can not find some common aspect linking all three then I think you have had bad luck.

Doesn't this confirm that they have no quality control for the Mini 2 tho? The purpose of quality control is to limit this degree of bad luck.

I dunno if there's anything in common. They had very different problems. First one vision system error, gimbal malfunction, and camera malfunction.

2nd one had drift issues.

This one has a failed motor.

Either DJI is sending me refurb drones and their engineers suck at testing refurb units (I have no problem with refurbished products if the refurbishing was done by a trained technician and not an idiot halfassing the job) or they have no quality control to force that "affordable" price tag.

It may, as you say, be related to a bad batch* or repairers-that-suck and maybe QC related to either 'that' batch or the repairer but as to bad QC over all, I would say, no.
They must have sold x100.000's if not x 1,000,000's of these. If QC over all was bad forums would be inundated with posts such as yours but in reality such threads are relatively rare. Yes there have been others but they are rare and not necessarily Mini 2's
Remember also that threads are normally created when problems occur or when people are seeking knowledge. It's not often that a thread is started for the sole purpose of signing praises, so, with regards to problems, what you see on forums is a skewed sampling.
With regards to your problems, the gimbal overload and stuck motor could both be due to dust, dirt sand etc. getting into the relevant motors or gaps which is why I asked about that. Extending that Idea, dog or cat or human hair? I have seen one post or thread where some one found onr of their wife's hairs tangled in a sticking prop motor.

* I did think about asking you to check drone serial numbers to see if there is/was a way of determining if there was a common batch but you'd probably have to give the numbers to DJI. Given how random they look I would be surprised if any non DJI person could spot a pattern.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 1-20 19:08
It may, as you say, be related to a bad batch or repairers-that-suck and maybe QC related to either 'that' batch or the repairer but as to bad QC over all, I would say, no.
They must have sold x100.000's if not x 1,000,000's of these. If QC over all was bad forums would be inundated with posts such as yours but in reality such threads are relatively rare. Yes there have been others but they are rare and not necessarily Mini 2's
Remember also that threads are normally created when problems occur or when people are seeking knowledge. It's not often that a thread is started for the sole purpose of signing praises, so, with regards to problems, what you see on forums is a skewed sampling.

https://youtu.be/ybMVGP0MFV4

Also when I brought up this topic on Reddit I met a guy who got a DJI care refresh replacement that had drift issues, I had the same issue with the first replacement I got from dji. This video above shows the same thing, except in my case it was a bit worse.

Seems problems with DJI repairs are far from uncommon. If they can't be bothered to hire decent technicians they should replace our drones with new ones.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 1-20 19:08
It may, as you say, be related to a bad batch* or repairers-that-suck and maybe QC related to either 'that' batch or the repairer but as to bad QC over all, I would say, no.
They must have sold x100.000's if not x 1,000,000's of these. If QC over all was bad forums would be inundated with posts such as yours but in reality such threads are relatively rare. Yes there have been others but they are rare and not necessarily Mini 2's
Remember also that threads are normally created when problems occur or when people are seeking knowledge. It's not often that a thread is started for the sole purpose of signing praises, so, with regards to problems, what you see on forums is a skewed sampling.

Also, here's one more report complaining of the refurbs DJI likes to send back. Same problem as my 3rd mini 2, failed motor

What really sets me off is that you pay for these.. not just when you buy care refresh, but also when you claim a replacement.. in my case I didn't pay to be honest cause it's a warranty issue, but it still sucks. DJI is shamelessly ripping people off on care refresh if this is true

I have had drift issues a few times with Mini 2s.  Each time it happened I noted that some (not all) of the screws were loose on the props.  Check and tighten.  Just in case.

If that's what you want to think then who am I to argue, best of luck.

TonyPHX Posted at 1-20 19:24
I have had drift issues a few times with Mini 2s.  Each time it happened I noted that some (not all) of the screws were loose on the props.  Check and tighten.  Just in case.

The unit that had drift issues was sent by DJI, with the screws installed with loctite by DJI themselves. I sent it back and it was replaced with an even worse one.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 1-20 19:26
If that's what you want to think then who am I to argue, best of luck.

I mean so many people running into issues with the replacements, including me with 2 consecutive replacements. It's hardly unjustified thinking right?

Max_K Posted at 1-20 19:27
The unit that had drift issues was sent by DJI, with the screws installed with loctite by DJI themselves. I sent it back and it was replaced with an even worse one.

yep.  I get your concern.  Maybe they all have some drift, dunno.  I noticed it myself yesterday as well and that was with new props just put on.

Any correlation between the direction of the drift and the wind direction?

I had slight drift issues particularly when yawing on my Mini 2 out of the box.

Did both an IMU and stick calibration and it's now rock solid in the hover and when yawing.

Not sure which fixed it, but I'm frankly amazed at just how stable this thing is at holding its position.

Obviously a true fault wouldn't be fixed this way, but it's worth a try for drift errors.

-N.O.T.