Please be warned that what DJI support tells you, may not always be true.
I am currently disputing this case and will make the results known as well.

Hopefully DJI looks and listens more closely to this problem, it can't be the only time this has happened...

CAS-1862460-M1C9R3


My 9 month old Mavic Pro was working great with no issues - then on a recent shoot in a clear area, it took off roughly. One of the arms seemed to start shaking and it made a hard right at about 10 ft and crashed lightly. There were no obstacles around for about 20 feet in circumference when it stuttered and crashed.

I cleaned it up, replaced some props and took off again - thinking, maybe a propeller was chipped or something. As before, it lifted fine, but at about 4 ft. or so, it shook and crashed again, cutting a hard right and landing on grass.

I examined it, tried one more time (on full grass), and the shaking happened immediatly. I knew I had to send it in.

It seemed maybe the front right prop motor (if viewing from behind), was having an issue and causing imbalance/crash. It also had some scrapes and bumps but nothing major that I could see. I had confidence in DJI, its products and services and expected they would hread my description, examine my evidence and simply fix the unit.

I supplied flight logs and all requested materials to DJI support and figured they would correct whatever made the flight(s) malfunction and do it under fairly under the warranty ...


Then they sent back the dialog below - which states I hit an obstacle and it caused the crash, user error. My fault... Not true even slightly.

Nothing would or could show such an obstacle hit or user steering error. No crash happened until the drone malfunctioned. Nothing was around me when my flight took off. Nothing even close. It just shook and pitched and crashed. No obstacle sensors went off. No wayward steering happened. I only lifted the drone straight up and it shook and came down. I did not even turn it, just went straight up. Every time.

I have included the correspondence that they sent me here:

NON-WARRANTY PER DATA ANALYSIS. User stick command error FLY112 1. Unit was in P-GPS mode and was responsive to RC input; 2. At t=00:16s, relative height=3.4m, unit recorded external impact, then fell. 3. User commanded left stick command during flight causing craft to strike obstacle. Incident date: 5-6-2018 Incident GPS location: 3.140506, -82.314099 Activation date: 9-23-2017 SN: 08QUE8C10100BL Conclusion: User stick command error. Impact in air. [Non warranty Repair] Dear Customer, Unfortunately, damage that is not caused by a product malfunction or is out of the warranty period is not covered by DJI aftersales policy. We will either repair it or replace it with a product that's new or equivalent to new in both performance and reliability after payment has been received. For more information, please visit http://www.dji.com/service/policy




Just please be warned that what DJI support tells you, may not be true.
I am disputing this case currently and I will make the results known as well.

Hopefully DJI looks and listens more closely to this problem. This can't be the only time this has happened.

Rob Springer
Mavi Pro User

Sorry for your incident. Of course there can be nothing wrong with the DATA (Sarcasm), IMO anytime I buy a DJI drone , or any drone for that matter, I view it as a lottery ticket, use disposable funds and hope for the best. I help protect my investment(s) with a cheap State Farm Policy but realize every flight could be the last. I would continue being aggressive with your claim and wish you luck in a successful conclusion.

QuadKid Posted at 2018-6-21 08:15
Sorry for your incident. Of course there can be nothing wrong with the DATA (Sarcasm), IMO anytime I buy a DJI drone , or any drone for that matter, I view it as a lottery ticket, use disposable funds and hope for the best. I help protect my investment(s) with a cheap State Farm Policy but realize every flight could be the last. I would continue being aggressive with your claim and wish you luck in a successful conclusion.

I hear ya and well said - I don't disagree, I actually mention same thing to others about the risk/gamble/lottery ticket concept whenever the drone leaves the ground

...I was just hoping that DJI would have our backs when a non-user issue happens.

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-21 08:19
I hear ya and well said - I don't disagree, I actually mention same thing to others about the risk/gamble/lottery ticket concept whenever the drone leaves the ground

...I was just hoping that DJI would have our backs when a non-user issue happens.

They DO, our GREENBACKS !!

If you would like the community’s help here to see if there is anything in the logs, I’d recommend uploading the log from your first crash to the following site and then pasting the resulting URL here.  There generally will be several willing to dive in and have a look.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/Upload/

Cases like these, and there are plenty of them, are reasons why people will buy the EVO now that there is a viable contender/option in the compact, foldable drone world. Plus no geofencing.

tvscreen: Please be warned that what DJI support tells you, may not always be true.
quadkid: Of course there can be nothing wrong with the DATA (Sarcasm),

Given need to re-update firmware or re-re-update firmware to get it take.  That would indicate that DATA (as quadkid pointed out); may not always accurately reflect what happened.
If you can have code and/or values corrupted during an update, that can lead to instructions corrupting other areas (code and/or values) and functions, it is possible for Flightlog / Blackbox Data to be corrupted.  


Have a feeling based on a few past posts with Flightlog data and DJI's response, DJI sometimes jumps on first warning / error message and uses it.  Rather than digging deeper into what led up to problem(s).

Defintely post Flightlog data as suggested above.  

I hope you are able to get it resolved quickly.

Good luck!!

are aircraft that use a lot of electronics / combined with sensor data. Hence, unwanted accidents. Just a flight data analysis can discourage DJI or user!

There is a saying in this hobby: 'It is not if but when you crash'.
I hope you get this resolved soon.

It’s very hard to comment on your case without flight logs, kloogee has given you the link below.
With regards to djis findings. They should show up in your log, and if they don’t show stick movements then you might have a case to go back with.
I have seen many warranty’s being offered by dji even some that I thought may not have been warranted, so I don’t think dji are as some are quick to say being disingenuous, you did after all say you had 2 crashes in succession, but we won’t know until you forward logs, and phantom Help logs will show if any or none stick movements were made to cause your crash.

Rob, we're sorry for the troubles. Just to verify, the flight record our engineers analyzed is the correct one when the first accident happened, right? If yes, please kindly check the first screenshot, there are left sticks commend, then the drone crashed at 00:16. If this does not match what you were experiencing at that time, please kindly advise with more details, thanks!

Hello All,

I disputed this case with DJI and their response is above. I must disagree with it since I was there and what they state did not happen... please do share any thoughts...and thanks in advance!

Unfortunately, the point that they are calling a crash and stick/steering maneuver was a slight stick altitude rise  with no obstacle to hit (as shown in the image), there were no trees or obstacles at the point where th mavic rose, stuttered & shook in the air and crashed in some grass.

This then happened 2 more times - the same thing, lift off, stutter/shake and crash. 3 times total and i sent it back. The 3 incidents are below - the first one being the first time. The problem happened 3 times in a row - the problem being flight malfunction and crash with no user error. 3 times in a row. stutter and crash. No obstacle hits caused it. No user malfunctions. No obstacle sensors going off. No hitting anything until the Mavic crashed after in flight failure.     

Here are flight logs of the 3 incidents in a row, and again, no obstacle sensors came on, no obstacle was hit, just flight malfunctions, and 3 low altitude crashes,  3 times in a row in a street where there are no obstacles for except about 15+ft. away:



FLIGHT ONE:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/SC22O5BNNNWRNUVE8KJ6/

FLIGHT TWO:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/D6LFAZT19HF59ODRUE2J/

FLIGHT THREE:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/OLAFLEI1KW45K42S5TRJ/

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-21 19:12
Rob, we're sorry for the troubles. Just to verify, the flight record our engineers analyzed is the correct one when the first accident happened, right? If yes, please kindly check the first screenshot, there are left sticks commend, then the drone crashed at 00:16. If this does not match what you were experiencing at that time, please kindly advise with more details, thanks!

Hello ,

I must disagree with this assessment since I was there and what was stated did not happen. that way...

The point that was called a crash and stick/steering maneuver was a slight stick altitude rise  with no obstacle to hit (as shown in the image), there were no trees or obstacles at the point where th mavic rose, stuttered & shook in the air and crashed into some grass.

This then happened 2 more times - the same thing, lift off, stutter/shake and crash. 3 times total and i sent it back. The 3 incidents are below - the first one being the first time. The problem happened 3 times in a row - the problem being flight malfunction and crash with no user error. 3 times in a row. stutter and crash. No obstacle hits caused it. No user malfunctions. No obstacle sensors going off. No hitting anything until the Mavic crashed after in-flight failure.     

Here are flight logs of the 3 incidents in a row, and again, no obstacle sensors came on, no obstacle was hit, just flight malfunctions, and 3 low altitude crashes,  3 times in a row in a street where there are no obstacles for except about 15+ft. away:



FLIGHT ONE:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/SC22O5BNNNWRNUVE8KJ6/

FLIGHT TWO:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/D6LFAZT19HF59ODRUE2J/

FLIGHT THREE:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/OLAFLEI1KW45K42S5TRJ/

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-28 08:12
Hello ,

I must disagree with this assessment since I was there and what was stated did not happen. that way...

I will have a look at logs later, but above shows aircraft at 3.9 metres, you turning aircraft straight for the trees, that’s what above shows.
As I said I will take a closer look later.

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-28 08:12
Hello ,

I must disagree with this assessment since I was there and what was stated did not happen. that way...

Would like to clarify something.  The flight log analyzer shows you flying in forest along edge of road.
Knowing Maps and Satellite images do not always sync with GPS coordinates, and GPS coordinates can be off by several meters...

Were you actually at edge of winding road and planning to fly along road / above road?  

BTW: Pretty area to fly and live in.

EDITED: Based on your description of what happened, the GPS cordinates do not fit.  Are you sure you uploaded correct flight logs?  Can you post a Sattellite Image (screen snap) of where you were flying.  

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-28 08:12
Hello ,

I must disagree with this assessment since I was there and what was stated did not happen. that way...

Looking at your log one of shows aircraft being flown in Atti mode for almost all of the flight, you took off with very weak gps, and were straight into Atti mode.
One flight log is just to short, to say anything about it.

The one dji are claiming was a crash , certainly looks like you hit something, you can clearly see aircraft being turned left by controller hitting something then clearly loosing ground with no stick movements.

I think it’s fairly clear that in one flight your problem was no gps and aircraft in Atti mode, the third flight clearly shows what dji have shown above, whether it just clipped a branch or hit the tree is debatable, but it hit something and altitude is correct as above.

Your envoirment was not great for flying a drone plenty of trees to block gps signal causing problems with aircraft not been controllable, this first flight should have been enough warning for you.

You really need minimum 11 satellites to fly your drone.

Being there are conflicting analysis, suggest downloading and installing JJBspark's FlightLog Analysis Program.

Here is a link to Thread on his program - Update 2 Analysis program
Very first post has a link to his program.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-6-28 10:07
Would like to clarify something.  The flight log analyzer shows you flying in forest along edge of road.
Knowing Maps and Satellite images do not always sync with GPS coordinates, and GPS coordinates can be off by several meters...

Hello,

Flying over road when the malfunction happened that caused the crash. The same thing happened 3 times around the same spot

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-28 13:06
Hello,

Flying over road when the malfunction happened that caused the crash. The same thing happened 3 times around the same spot

Kind of thought so.  Seems GPS coordinates recorded by drone are slightly off, and likely the Maps and Satellite imagery are not exactly aligned with actual GPS coordinates.

Been through this with a person who tried to claim property as his based on Online Satellite images pointed to by GPS coordinates from his handheld GPS unit.  Despite being able to point to old existing corner markers, he was insistant.  Took getting a Land Surveyor out to flag property line.

tvscreen Posted at 2018-6-28 07:18
Hello All,

I disputed this case with DJI and their response is above. I must disagree with it since I was there and what they state did not happen... please do share any thoughts...and thanks in advance!

The data analysis is based on the flight records you offered, and we do not suggest to fly after the crash as the stability cannot be ensured. Also, we do not analyze the data from the third party software for now, if you have the video when the accident happened, please share with us, so that we can forward to our engineers for further review.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-21 19:12
Rob, we're sorry for the troubles. Just to verify, the flight record our engineers analyzed is the correct one when the first accident happened, right? If yes, please kindly check the first screenshot, there are left sticks commend, then the drone crashed at 00:16. If this does not match what you were experiencing at that time, please kindly advise with more details, thanks!

Looking at screenshot #1, it shows stick yaw to left doing a rotation and yet the log says that the aircraft was moving horizontally at 11km/h

At that moment the drone was on GPS and with a good 11 satellites locked. That looks off to me, doesn't it?

Very similar to the issue I had and that proved that it wasn't a pilot error. Hope this helps.

Cheers
Rami