Hi DJI Moderators,

My drone has a battery problem and finally DJI will be replacing it. It took almost two weeks before DJI reps figured out that I needed only a battery replacement not a full AC repair. I  guess you need to train your representatives to be more attentive in reading our replies. Anyway, my main concern is, the tech lady I dealt with said that my drone had multiple minor crashes before the battery issue happened that's why she's offering me a 30 percent discount if I would send my drone back for repair. My drone just had a single minor crash due to the inherited issue of the old firmware version. My drone did not sustain any damage because it just landed on a grassy surface and it just fell less than 2 meters from the ground. I'm wondering why she found records on the logs that my drone crashed multiple times. I remember that there were several occasions that I grabbed the drone and rotated the it to the side for the IMU to kick in to shut down the motors because the landing area was not flat enought for safe landing. Though it's a saftey feature of Spark but could that be the cause of the false log entries?  I'll greatly appreciate your inputs on this. Thanks.

Sorry for this case, could you please provide me with your ticket number so I can check more details for you?

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-9-28 18:16
Sorry for this case, could you please provide me with your ticket number so I can check more details for you?

Here's the case number - CAS-1021206-H5F1L9. Please check and let me know about your findings on those erroneous log entries. Thanks.

JB Droner Posted at 2017-9-29 04:24
Here's the case number - CAS-1021206-H5F1L9. Please check and let me know about your findings on those erroneous log entries. Thanks.

Well received, thank you very much! From the flight records, it seemed that the drone was not landed normally for several times, and we do not suggest to grab the drone as it will be dangerous.

Also, per the email history, the first time you contacted us to report that the motors were obstructed, I do not think it is related with battery directly. If you have more batteries, it will be helpful to verify the issue.

BTW, the aircraft performance can not be ensured if it had hard landing or crash, I would suggest you to send it for fully diagnosis.

Alright. I am no longer doing that drone retrieval anymore by grabbing since I know now how to safely shutdown the motors by holding the drone firmly and then pulling the left stick down. I know it's still quite dangerous but I only do that if prop guards are installed. There are really instances I need to do it especially if the area is not appropriate for normal landing. But I don't think that strains the motors or messes up the IMU. Yeah, that was my initial report but that error only popped up once and it only showed up when I switched to the 2nd battery which I later found to be the original battery of my drone. I was able to confirm that it was the original battery because I provided the serial numbers to the seller of the spare battery I bought. On that same day after the incident happened, I shared the video to our group on facebook. I learned that many drone owners already experienced the same problem. So they asked me to do isolation troubleshooting by swapping batteries and do a test flight on each one. And boom! root cause was determined. When the original battery was inserted, the drone was acting up. So I immediately sent the new findings to that tech lady to update the case description but it seemed she did not read my replies attentively. She kept asking for logs which I already sent twice. It's been two weeks now and we're still running in circles. Fortunately the last chat support I spoke to was very attentive and analyzed our email exchanges with that tech lady. He assured me that the case had been updated and I would only need a battery replacement. I will contact DJI again to get a new update. For now, I am flying my drone on that spare battery and no issues I encounter so far. If you're suggesting to send the drone back for full diagnosis, I'd be happy to comply if DJI would assure me that the repair or possible replacement would be totally free. As per contract with the store where  I bought the drone, the store does not take responsibility of the unit and shipment to DJI will be shouldered by the customer. Shipment alone costs a lot of money and it does not make any sense to me to spend bucks for the shipment just for full diagnosis even if my drone flies well with the spare battery. And in the first place, it your buggy firmware that brought a lot of issues to us. So it's not our fault if I our drone crashed or malfunctioned. I've been following the suggested pre-flight procedures and take the necessary precautions every time I fly my AC. That's why despite of several issues in your firmware, my drone is still intact. For now, the battery replacement is the best resolution offered. I hope DJI will completely resolve my case. Thank you

Hi Susan,

Need your assistance as well on this one. As per DJI warranty terms, a defective battery can only get a replacement if that is sent back to the county where it's meant to be sold. However, the faulty battery I have came with the drone and I bought here in the Philippines. While waiting for the case update.  Can you check if this battery is also meant for the Philippines? Below is the serial number.

0C0AE658320GGJ

Your assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-9-29 23:28
Well received, thank you very much! From the flight records, it seemed that the drone was not landed normally for several times, and we do not suggest to grab the drone as it will be dangerous.

Also, per the email history, the first time you contacted us to report that the motors were obstructed, I do not think it is related with battery directly. If you have more batteries, it will be helpful to verify the issue.

Although I can understand that you do not suggest grabbing the drone, definetely it is still not a crash. If the flight record says that the drone crashed, while it in fact was grabbed in a mid-air, then the flight reccord is simply wrong.

In fact I did grab my drone and rotate it 90 degree to switch off the rotors more than once. I fly mostly in a wilderness over thick foliage where I cannot land the drone normally. I palm-launch the drone to start it but the palm-landing rarely works as it should. I don't know why spark does not recognize my palm and refuses to land but it does. Thus, grabbing it in mid-air seems to be the only option for the time being, and now I read that every time this is reported as a crash?... Weird!

Considering the above comments, I have two suggestions for firmware improvement:
1) If the craft hovers in place and then is rotated 90 degree to shut-down the rotors, then the firmware should recognize the situation and log it as emmergency shut-off of the rotors and not as a minor crash.
2) Improve the palm-landing. Maybe allow the reverse of palm-launch sequence, i.e.: grab the drone and press the power button twice to switch-off rotors (not press twice and hold for complete power-down, just press twice as for palm-launch) and land on a palm.

I suggest, instead you rotate the drone horizontally to turn on off the motors, you can simply hold the drone while it's hovering. Hold it tight then pull down the left stick of the controller until the motors shut down. Based on my observation, it's not really ideal to rotate the drone horizontally for IMU to kick in to shutdown the motors. Spark tends to resist it thus it releases sudden burst for power from the battery which can shorten the battery life of your drone. It strains also the motors.

El Diablo Posted at 2017-10-6 03:04
And holding the drone while it wants to lift due to the bottom sensors will not strain the motors a bit uh...?

it depends on how you hold it. If you just hold the battery without any part of your hand directly below the vps sensors, the drone will not veer away from you.  The best way to do it is let your drone hover and yaw it around so that the front sensors will not be facing you. Then grab the battery then quickly pull down the left stick. There are tutorials on youtube on how to safely do that. That's the kind of landing I use since then without straining the motors.

Yeah. It takes a lot of practice. I was very scared when I first tried it. So as a precaution, put the prop guards on and make sure you're in an area that has strong gps signal. Most accidents happen if users fly their drones over a heavily populated area. So I only fly my drone in a very wide and open area to secure a gps lock.  I master this landing technique already so to me, it's very useful in safely retrieving my drone.

JB Droner Posted at 2017-9-30 06:18
Alright. I am no longer doing that drone retrieval anymore by grabbing since I know now how to safely shutdown the motors by holding the drone firmly and then pulling the left stick down. I know it's still quite dangerous but I only do that if prop guards are installed. There are really instances I need to do it especially if the area is not appropriate for normal landing. But I don't think that strains the motors or messes up the IMU. Yeah, that was my initial report but that error only popped up once and it only showed up when I switched to the 2nd battery which I later found to be the original battery of my drone. I was able to confirm that it was the original battery because I provided the serial numbers to the seller of the spare battery I bought. On that same day after the incident happened, I shared the video to our group on facebook. I learned that many drone owners already experienced the same problem. So they asked me to do isolation troubleshooting by swapping batteries and do a test flight on each one. And boom! root cause was determined. When the original battery was inserted, the drone was acting up. So I immediately sent the new findings to that tech lady to update the case description but it seemed she did not read my replies attentively. She kept asking for logs which I already sent twice. It's been two weeks now and we're still running in circles. Fortunately the last chat support I spoke to was very attentive and analyzed our email exchanges with that tech lady. He assured me that the case had been updated and I would only need a battery replacement. I will contact DJI again to get a new update. For now, I am flying my drone on that spare battery and no issues I encounter so far. If you're suggesting to send the drone back for full diagnosis, I'd be happy to comply if DJI would assure me that the repair or possible replacement would be totally free. As per contract with the store where  I bought the drone, the store does not take responsibility of the unit and shipment to DJI will be shouldered by the customer. Shipment alone costs a lot of money and it does not make any sense to me to spend bucks for the shipment just for full diagnosis even if my drone flies well with the spare battery. And in the first place, it your buggy firmware that brought a lot of issues to us. So it's not our fault if I our drone crashed or malfunctioned. I've been following the suggested pre-flight procedures and take the necessary precautions every time I fly my AC. That's why despite of several issues in your firmware, my drone is still intact. For now, the battery replacement is the best resolution offered. I hope DJI will completely resolve my case. Thank you

Sorry for the late response first. The designated team will keep follow up the status. If you have more questions, please reply our colleagues' emails directly.

_pk Posted at 2017-10-1 22:28
Although I can understand that you do not suggest grabbing the drone, definetely it is still not a crash. If the flight record says that the drone crashed, while it in fact was grabbed in a mid-air, then the flight reccord is simply wrong.

In fact I did grab my drone and rotate it 90 degree to switch off the rotors more than once. I fly mostly in a wilderness over thick foliage where I cannot land the drone normally. I palm-launch the drone to start it but the palm-landing rarely works as it should. I don't know why spark does not recognize my palm and refuses to land but it does. Thus, grabbing it in mid-air seems to be the only option for the time being, and now I read that every time this is reported as a crash?... Weird!

One point to clarify: I means the drone does not land normally, instead of crash.

As for the plam-landing, please put your plam under the drone about 0.5cm and wait for 2 seconds. Do not move the plam. After detecting the people in the front and palm under itself, the drone will land automatically. More practice will help you understand this feature better.