Flew my drone with no problems or warnings on Saturday morning and all was well. Went back after lunch and everything started up fine and I brought the drone up to about 10ft and paused there for a few seconds to think about which way I was going to go. It was at the moment the drone just fell out of the sky, and hit the ground. There was thankfully no physical damage as the ground was soft and the grass I had hoped cushioned the blow. I did a once over and fired it back up. I received the motor overload/remove gimbal lock warning but it went away. Took the drone up and the gimbal started vibrating/shaking back and forth. Set it back down and tried the gimbal calibration. It would get hung on 73% and never complete. Now it will not do anything but bounce up and down and is non responsive to the camera control. I went back and looked at the flight log and the flight where it fell out of the sky did not record, just the flight where I took it back up and it started shaking. I've already submitted a return to DJI but wanted to see what your thoughts may be on this

Check to make sure the gimbal is secured below the three tabs, there is a video on the website regarding this.
Regards,
-d.

I did check that. I spent the majority of the afternoon searching the web for a fix and all I could come up with is others who have had this problem with no fix but to send it in. The falling out the sky and not recording that flight is really strange to me

Unfortunately when they miniaturized the gimbal they miniaturized it's robustness, as it can't take much shock without the internals being destroyed. Mine fell about 5 feet onto grass and gimbal was destroyed even though there was no physical damage. $300+ repair bill for new gimbal.

I hope Mavic Pro 2 comes with a more rugged and robust gimbal because I've read about many incidents similar to yours.

I will be highly upset if I get a bill because the drone cut power on its on and fell. That's why I went in to look at the flight log which is not there. I do have DJI Refresh but I'm hoping I do not have to use it since this wasn't caused by pilot error

If the battery failed, then that flight's log file wouldn't have been properly closed. This is something that DJI might be able to recover during their diagnostics. This definitely sounds like something that should be covered by the warranty and not count against your Care Refresh replacement plan, which is more for pilot error accidents. Good luck.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-2-13 08:32
If the battery failed, then that flight's log file wouldn't have been properly closed. This is something that DJI might be able to recover during their diagnostics. This definitely sounds like something that should be covered by the warranty and not count against your Care Refresh replacement plan, which is more for pilot error accidents. Good luck.

Good luck. Can anyone post the link to the video of how the gimbal should be secured?

Do ever start wondering if, not only should you record all your flights from the drone, but nearly have something on the ground trying to record your drone at all times. Evidence to show, it did just "drop out of the sky" and that you didnt hit anything etc.

I know the nature of people is to only really post a complaint, and thats why there are floods of complaints here on the forum, but still makes for scary reading... Still going to buy one in the next few weeks mind

I do now wish that I had been filming from the get go, but it happened so quickly that it never crossed my mind. 10 seconds from liftoff to crash. I'm not really mad about what happened, more of shocked that it just lost power and did not log the flight at all.

Plowboy1065 Posted at 2017-2-13 08:59
I do now wish that I had been filming from the get go, but it happened so quickly that it never crossed my mind. 10 seconds from liftoff to crash. I'm not really mad about what happened, more of shocked that it just lost power and did not log the flight at all.

Are you sure you weren't flying a Karma? (kidding)

I hope it works out for you. But I suspect you will get an estimate for repair with "Non-warranty. Damage from impact" or something similar in the damage assessment even though it sounds like a malfunction at some level.

GSI_IRE Posted at 2017-2-13 08:55
Do ever start wondering if, not only should you record all your flights from the drone, but nearly have something on the ground trying to record your drone at all times. Evidence to show, it did just "drop out of the sky" and that you didnt hit anything etc.

I know the nature of people is to only really post a complaint, and thats why there are floods of complaints here on the forum, but still makes for scary reading... Still going to buy one in the next few weeks mind

All flights are recorded on the app and also can be recorded on the aircraft, it's also equipped with a black box ..

Plowboy1065 Posted at 2017-2-13 08:11
I will be highly upset if I get a bill because the drone cut power on its on and fell. That's why I went in to look at the flight log which is not there. I do have DJI Refresh but I'm hoping I do not have to use it since this wasn't caused by pilot error

Hi plowboy, first thing to do is sync your flight in the dji go app, and start a ticket, some of the mods here might have a quick look at your flight log and maybe give you a heads up on what might have happened.
Hope it works out for you, good luck..

Hallmark is right.  Sync the logs, start a ticket.  If it dropped out of the sky due to no fault of your own DJI will see that and respond appropriately.

method007 Posted at 2017-2-13 11:56
Hallmark is right.  Sync the logs, start a ticket.  If it dropped out of the sky due to no fault of your own DJI will see that and respond appropriately.

It sounds like the OP would not be able to sync the logs due to the flight record not recording in the DJI Go app. The only avenue of requiring flight data is via the .DAT files that are stored on the aircraft. The repair technicians would be able to extract the files in order to evaluate them for a potential warranty service.

Plowboy1065 Posted at 2017-2-13 08:59
I do now wish that I had been filming from the get go, but it happened so quickly that it never crossed my mind. 10 seconds from liftoff to crash. I'm not really mad about what happened, more of shocked that it just lost power and did not log the flight at all.

Did the app crash at all when this occurred? The app closing prematurely, it could have caused the flight to not record in the app as well.

Sorry to hear about your crash, since you've submitted a case number and sent it in, our engineers will help you analyze the data and let you know the reason why it crashed.
If it's caused by product faulty, and within warranty, it will be covered by our warranty.  If it's pilot error, then you need pay for repair or replace it with DJI Care Refresh since you purchased it.

Natalia,

Is it possible for you to check on the status of my case? It's was delivered and has not been updated since I received the notification from the shipper that it arrived.

CAS-449940-G0F4N5

Just wanted to update my repair status. Received an email today that the repairs are being covered by warranty and not having to use my refresh. Auto email says all should be done within 3-5 days so we will see how that part goes. Is there a way to find out what they determined caused the issue for repair?

Plowboy1065 Posted at 2017-2-22 15:26
Just wanted to update my repair status. Received an email today that the repairs are being covered by warranty and not having to use my refresh. Auto email says all should be done within 3-5 days so we will see how that part goes. Is there a way to find out what they determined caused the issue for repair?

I would say just ask them insist you need to know, it will be important to you to know this won't happen again.
Glad you had a good result, hope all goes well.

Good luck

Interesting - this is identical to what happened to mine (forum post https://forum.dji.com/thread-84239-1-1.html ) but in my case DJI are refusing to honour the warranty (and I was over water when exactly the same thing happened - dropped out of the air, logs and camera stopped, nothing in the logs).

It really does sound like there are some Karma-style battery connection issues here - which is fine when DJI honour the warranty - but not cool when they don't.

Glad you got a good result for your case.

I must be lucky as this was the 2nd try in 2 days I've started a web chat and got through on the first try. Rep looked at my case info and said the only notes was a hardware malfunction not caused by pilot error. Now I'm wondering since they are replacing the whole unit if I get a brand new Mavic or a refurb

lol right now I would be happy with a refurb, my case has been going a month and all they've offered is 30% off a new one, and no explanation for why a drone stopped logging and recording mid air