JockC
Second Officer
Flight distance : 459416 ft
Australia
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I'll take the word of a service centre rep as they generally tell it the way it is and are less likely to be bound by marketing directives. I'm sure that the online DJI folk in these threads are well intentioned but I also have no doubt that they are not fully aware of the details of firmware changes. They can only repeat what they're told whereas the support folk would likely have far more accurate and detailed information available to them. What I really take note of, though, is the large number of experienced DJI owners who have found that their range has been magically reduced after upgrading their firmware. Whilst some reported issues are clearly user error or misunderstanding, there are far too many range discrepancies being reported by very experienced users and they appear to have all mysteriously occurred after upgrading the firmware/software. I doubt it's just a coincidence. In most cases, when they report it they're conveniently told by the online reps that their product needs repair or, worse still, they're shown a link to a YouTube video telling them how to position their antennas. For owners who have had DJI products for several years, being shown that video link must be somewhat insulting.
DJI brought the mistrust upon themselves by releasing several versions of firmware or software whilst failing to declare that it contained significant changes which would affect owners. It's no wonder that owners become very suspicious of any new updates. Release notes are meant to advise users of all changes which might impact them, not just the changes that DJI would like them to know about.
The disabling of third party batteries was a prime example. There was no question that DJI knew that many owners were using them because there had been many threads on the topic in theses and other forums yet DJI simply didn't mention it at all in the release notes. I doubt that its omission was accidental. There may well be good reasons for not wanting people to use those batteries (I, personally, would never use them) but to simply disable them with no mention in the release notes and without any option for users to make their own decision left many customers with hundreds of dollars worth of unusable batteries and helped build the mistrust in the company.
I love my P3A but when it ultimately comes time to upgrade or replace that device, my decision will be based not just on the available products themselves but also on the reputation of the manufacturer and its supporting agencies.
DJI needs to regain owners' trust by being far more open and honest about what changes they have made in their various firmware and software updates.
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