Phantom 4 flipped over, flew powered into ground from 200 feet!

[AlecW]

After-Sales Service Policies - DJI

Product and Part Replacement
When after-sales service involves the replacement of a product or part, the replaced product or part becomes DJI’s property and the replacement product or part becomes your property. Only unaltered DJI products and parts are eligible for replacement.
While a product or part replaced by DJI may not be new, it will be in good working order and functionally equivalent to the original product or part. The replacement product or part will be covered under warranty for the remainder of the original product’s warranty.

 

[wa5tef]

On the other forum DJI Ken said you PM'ed him several times within 15 mins and you were mad it took him an hour or so to reply. Just saying....

I SURE DID!!! He promised me he would get me the data I needed and he did not. I had been trying to get this information since January 23, 2017 and NO ONE AT DJI has the authority to do anything! It seems that we are operating under Red Chinese policies and cannot expect more. I gave DJI-Ken several chances to reply and he ignored me, thus the multiple PM's which really amounted to one large PM. However, he STILL HAS NOT ADVISE ME THE DATA! I really hate that I trusted DJI to be honest. From what I am reading on the multiple forums, I probably won't get my own drone back. No wonder it only took them 3 days to fix it??? Well, we'll settle that matter Thursday when it arrives and I check the fuselage and serial number. I'll post the results here but in the meantime I am getting a very negative opinion of DJI!
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[wa5tef]

After-Sales Service Policies - DJI

Product and Part Replacement
When after-sales service involves the replacement of a product or part, the replaced product or part becomes DJI’s property and the replacement product or part becomes your property. Only unaltered DJI products and parts are eligible for replacement.
While a product or part replaced by DJI may not be new, it will be in good working order and functionally equivalent to the original product or part. The replacement product or part will be covered under warranty for the remainder of the original product’s warranty.

Yeah, right!
Jim

 

[wa5tef]

On the other forum DJI Ken said you PM'ed him several times within 15 mins and you were mad it took him an hour or so to reply. Just saying....

1. OOPS! Sorry, I thought I posted a reply to DJI-Ken, but I don't see it. Anyway, I did send him several pm's in a very short timeframe, he can probably tell you, but it was a cluster of information that could not be easily be confined to one message. DJI-Ken has said he requested the data logs but has not produced them. If he is to really be a DJI rep, whether paid or not, he should take his position seriously and deliver. If he cannot get a reply to an email, he should send another, then a phone call! If that does not work, then he should have gone one level up in management and "asked" for these files. If that did not work, then he should take DJI for what they show they are and quit being a DJI participant. After all, he is taking the blame for not producing the data showing a warranty issue, nothing else. I still say that a Phantom 4 CANNOT FLIP ON ITS OWN WITHOUT A COMPONENT FAILURE! I dare DJI to prove me wrong.
2. And, I doubt I will be bothering DJI-Ken again but should he actually get back in contact with me either private or on the forums, I'll be surprised.
3. Thanks,
4. Jim WA5TEF

 

[AlecW]

I still say that a Phantom 4 CANNOT FLIP ON ITS OWN WITHOUT A COMPONENT FAILURE! I dare DJI to prove me wrong.

Maybe a bird hit it?

 

[rocketflyer]

I have no idea if you can intentionally flip a P4 and have no desire to try. In general it should be pretty hard as phantoms don't have acro modes (they are camera platforms after all). IMO the only way this can happen is as a result of failure of the IMU and loss of the gyro function.

Now IIRC you did mention on the DJI forum that you had a crash some time before this incident. It may well be possible that there may have been sufficient damage at that time to cause an intermittent failure although this should be mitigated by the fact that the P4 has redundancy here. The fact that you could still fly after that doesn't necessarily mean that there was no damage at all. For example a weakened solder joint may take some time to manifest itself. Ultimately you'll only get speculation as to the true cause of the crash without the logs and a response from DJI.

 

[wa5tef]

Yeah, I thought of that. But at some 200 to 250 feet altitude,would not the Phantom corrected it self and continued to fly? From the other forums I have visited, most tend to think like I do. It had to be an "internal" error or a part failure, thus warranty! I don't care about the $239 I sent them to get the drone repaired but I do want to know why such a thing could happen in the first place, SO IT MIGHT BE PREVENTED FROM HAPPENING AGAIN! I doubt I'll hear anymore from DJI since the negative comments I have written about them but I am going to continue to try to figure out what happened.
Thanks for your posts.
Jim

 

[AlecW]

Yeah, I thought of that. But at some 200 to 250 feet altitude,would not the Phantom corrected it self and continued to fly? From the other forums I have visited, most tend to think like I do. It had to be an "internal" error or a part failure, thus warranty! I don't care about the $239 I sent them to get the drone repaired but I do want to know why such a thing could happen in the first place, SO IT MIGHT BE PREVENTED FROM HAPPENING AGAIN! I doubt I'll hear anymore from DJI since the negative comments I have written about them but I am going to continue to try to figure out what happened.
Thanks for your posts.
Jim

You'll go nuts on forums in a couple days when you get 'your' fixed bird back and it's not the one you send in. Calm down, your getting too wound up over this.

 

[rocketflyer]

Doesn't apple do the same thing? You get a refurbished phone and unless there was some cosmetic problem that wasn't there before I can't see why it would be an issue. They do it simply to expedite turnaround.

Also OP, what exactly are they fixing for your $239, which sounds pretty reasonable.

 

[wa5tef]

Yes, good point! I appreciate you mentioning that other crash, on November 25th. It could have caused some intermittent problem that only showed itself on January 21 but I really doubt it. Don't you? Given DJI's reputation on the various forums to hide issues such as mine,I'll never believe that the drone was damaged in that way. I flew eight missions after that date that were logged on the iPad and I flew all the month of December, during the Holiday season, and New Year's of which the data was somehow not logged. I have no idea how many flights that would have been but no faults were noted on any of them.The drone was in first rate condition when the crash occurred! And I am still waiting on DJI-Ken on the DJI forum to obtain the flight records and advise me. Thus far, he has not been able to produce them.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[rocketflyer]

It could have caused some intermittent problem that only showed itself on January 21 but I really doubt it. Don't you?

I think it is entirely possible but like I said, it's only speculation on my part as there is no information to go on.

 

[wa5tef]

You'll go nuts on forums in a couple days when you get 'your' fixed bird back and it's not the one you send in. Calm down, your getting too wound up over this.

Hey Alec, I'm already about to go "nuts". HA! Thanks for noting that. Yeah, DJI apparently has the ability to do that to one. If they do indeed switch out drones on me, I hate the fact that I checked the link every day, most of the times, multiple times to see just where my drone was in the repair process. As you probably know, there are 4 or 5 steps including flight testing and analysis. Why bother with all the deception? I just don't understand having to run a business like that. If they were going to swap drones on me, why not just ship one back as soon as they saw that it was a warranty issue, after I had already paid for the damages??? It had to take someone some extra effort to report updated repair status on their web link. I guess there are employees assigned that task if what I read is true. Anyway, I'll know Thursday afternoon about three pm CST. I'll report status here. Thanks to all who are following this and if any of you know how to flip a drone using only the flight RC controller, please post it.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[GadgetGuy]

If there was any crash prior to this inexplicable flight, all bets are off. The failure which caused this crash and upside down landing was likely a pre-existing condition from the prior crash. Delicate electronics inside the aircraft can easily be ruined, or severely damaged, even though everything looks fine on the outside, except for a few scratches and replacing a prop or two. Circuit boards can crack, and the aircraft can then fail at any time, in unpredictable ways.

 

[wa5tef]

Yeah, I guess you are right. However, I have managed to find one of the missing flight logs on my iPad and am continuing to look for more. Maybe, just maybe, the January 21 flight will be found!!!
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[wa5tef]

If there was any crash prior to this inexplicable flight, all bets are off. The failure which caused this crash and upside down landing was likely a pre-existing condition from the prior crash. Delicate electronics inside the aircraft can easily be ruined, or severely damaged, even though everything looks fine on the outside, except for a few scratches and replacing a prop or two. Circuit boards can crack, and the aircraft can then fail at any time.

 

[wa5tef]

Yes GadgetGuy, I agree with you 100% I have been a ham radio operator for 54 years and have had numerous situations where such a condition existed on radio equipment. But if that was the case, DJI would have jumped on it first thing and denied warranty up front, rather than slow walking the results to me. In fact, they are unable to do that and therefore will not reveal the flight data logs on the Phantom. I really hate all this has happened. I liked DJI because of its products but I really did not believe all the negative publicity out there on them. Now I do. So, Still waiting on DJI-Ken to get back with me on the logs.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yes GadgetGuy, I agree with you 100% I have been a ham radio operator for 54 years and have had numerous situations where such a condition existed on radio equipment. But if that was the case, DJI would have jumped on it first thing and denied warranty up front, rather than slow walking the results to me. In fact, they are unable to do that and therefore will not reveal the flight data logs on the Phantom. I really hate all this has happened. I liked DJI because of its products but I really did not believe all the negative publicity out there on them. Now I do. So, Still waiting on DJI-Ken to get back with me on the logs.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

Unfortunately, the internal flight logs are not unlimited, and older flight records are overwritten by newer ones, as the internal miroSD card soldered to the main board is only 4GB in size. It's very possible that the prior crash log was already overwritten, depending upon the duration of your intervening flights, as the longer the flight, the larger the .DAT file. If .DAT flight records were not being recorded, then the prior crash did, indeed, cause irreparable damage to the main board, which likely led to the second fatal crash. $289 is still cheaper than DJI Care, and if you had never crashed at all, you'd be money ahead. DJI still makes the best drones, and your refurb will come with a warranty for the remaining duration of your original P4 warranty. Let it go. Just don't crash the new one. By now, you should have learned how to fly without crashing! The first crash what is caused the second crash!

 

[L3thalB3ard]

It was the THE DRONE POLICE reminding you not to fly above 400 feet! Case closed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[wa5tef]

Naw, we are in rural area and the limit by FAA is 500 feet.
Thanks
Jim

 

[wa5tef]

Unfortunately, the internal flight logs are not unlimited, and older flight records are overwritten by newer ones, as the internal miroSD card soldered to the main board is only 4GB in size. It's very possible that the prior crash log was already overwritten, depending upon the duration of your intervening flights, as the longer the flight, the larger the .DAT file. If .DAT flight records were not being recorded, then the prior crash did, indeed, cause irreparable damage to the main board, which likely led to the second fatal crash. $289 is still cheaper than DJI Care, and if you had never crashed at all, you'd be money ahead. DJI still makes the best drones, and your refurb will come with a warranty for the remaining duration of your original P4 warranty. Let it go. Just don't crash the new one. By now, you should have learned how to fly without crashing! The first crash what is caused the second crash!