Flygmaskin
 lvl.2
Flight distance : 70719 ft
Offline
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After about seven weeks, the Spark is now back with me. There have been alot of communication, some deal of misunderstanding, some data files and logs being sent in again and again.. I was asked to provide the Black Box data from the AC (which I had..) but that was a little hard, being that the AC was in DJI's care and not in mine.. My case also was confused with some other persons case, which regarded a Phantom 4..
At first, they assesed the damage and said 'No warranty', without examining the data files! That was eventually sorted out when I asked them to check the files/logs.
So lots of errors, but DJI's conclusion finally was that it was pilot error for flying in an unsuitable environment without connection to GPS. Sadly, no real answer regarding the technical questions I had, of which I am interested in. I would like to learn more about the AC, how it should behave in certain conditions and such.. In the flight, there was connection to GPS, but signal value (reception) varied quite a bit. In the exact moment of impact, there was connection with strong reception, but it drifted and touched a tree anyway. Also no answer as to why the AC didn't revert to OPTI-mode, using its sensors instead of GPS, since it was not available.
So, pilot error but they offered 30% off for the repairs.
My personal understanding/conclusion is something like "NO, you shouldn't be flying in the forest, even though you have several times before, NO, if the reception have varied, you cannot trust the AC to stay still even if you get lots of satellites connected with strong signal and NO, don't expect the AC to flawlessly change to P-OPTI if it looses GPS reception and also "YES, the AC should atleast on paper have behaved differenty in this situation, YES, you did have strong enough reception in the logs and YES, it should atleast on paper have changed to P-OPTI" hence the 30% offer. My own opinion is that it is fair. I am happy with that. Even if the AC on papper should be able to handle the situation/location, it might not be too wise to trust it dead on.. A more suitable location could be found.
The damage assesment did surprise me quite a bit.. I include it here, hoping that someone might have use for it:
Remark: No warranty. • Physical damage. Middle frame is damaged. • Functional damage: Gimbal shakes. Motor 1, 3, 4 make abnormal sounds. Fan makes abnormal sound. No GPS issue was found during the test.
Item List
Middle Frame Semi-finished Product Module (Excluding ESC and Motor)
Quantity: 1
Net Price : 11.57
Total Net: 11.57
Motor
Quantity: 3
Net Price : 8.26
Total Net: 24.78
Gimbal Roll & Pitch Axis Module
Quantity: 1
Net Price : 18.18
Total Net: 18.18
Fan
Quantity: 1
Net Price : 9.92
Tot Advanced al Net: 9.92
Repair Service Fee
Quantity: 1
Net Price : 50.00
Total Net: 50.00
Freight
35.00
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Seems I had really bad luck, a fall in soft moss from 1.5 meters broke or damaged all those parts.. The mid-frame, I noticed at home, that it actually was damaged, just under a motor, there was a crack. guess there could have been some root or rock under the moss.. The motors and fan though, I thought they sounded perfectly fine, the motors performed fine at the flight the day after.. Anyhow, I'm glad DJI found the problem with the abnormally sounding motors and fan, so that the parts could be replaced.. Wouldn't want to risk something going wrong do to motor failure in future flights..
Got a new quote with 30% off and with it, I had some questions about the cost of the shipping. DJI use UPS and wanted €35 + 25% VAT for the shipping, but when asking UPS, they quoted €16. I am sure that there must have been a mistake from UPS part when they quoted DJI the €35... Got a new quote for parts, repairs and with reduced shipping and no VAT since UPS includes it in their quote. I was happy to accept this quote.
After some correspondence with the same DJI employee which managed most of the process from start to finish, I even got the exchanged parts shipped back to me. Expecting the package to arrive today.
The employee was fast in writing replies, not always so precise in answering questions, but it seemed that he read what I wrote and he took good care of the case in general.
At first, they pointed to their policy, which dictates that replaced parts become the property of DJi, and the new parts become the property of the customer. Hence, they were not able to send me the exchanged parts back. Since this is Europe, I pointed out that the new parts have been payed for by me. The old parts have also been payed for by me, and I payed the service center to perform the repair/change. Thus I am entitled to have my property back if I wish. If I left my car to a repair shop and purchased parts from them and payed them to exchange them, I would get the old parts back if I asked them. Also, the service policy they pointed to, only covered returns, warranty repairs and possibly Dji Care Refresh. This was neither.
The employee checked with the 'Repair line service manager' and he agreed, I should have my parts back. For some reason, they said that the main core control board also was exchanged, but it wasn't listed on the quote.. Seems weird. I asked to have the exchanged board returned to me as well, but that was not possible, since I had not payed for that board. I found that fair, no problems there. I would like to know why they exchanged it though..
Anyway, one would hope that all is good here, but unfortunately not. I will post a new thread about it. I tried to test the Spark yesterday, after activating it, it was not able to take off due to No GPS (I used beginner mode, want to test the unit slow and easy) and even if it could take off, I wouldn't have, since the compass was heavily interferred, up to 1600 something, the red bar being full. I changed location four times, several kilometers away, still no luck. I have not calibrated the compass yet.
Strange errors after just getting back from service.. It finds 10-13 satellites, but get no reception. I waited a long time, didn't help.
I hope that someone found the post above useful.
Thank you to DJI for repairing my AC for a (in the end) fair price and for listening to the customers wish to have his parts back (as regulated by european customer agency). Let's hope that the errors I got will be sorted out without me having to send the AC back to The Netherlands..
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