DJI Admits Flyaways Their Fault!

[spudraleigh]

This was posted in another topic but I thought it deserved its own...

DJI has officially announced the existence of "fly away" due to technical problems that are their fault! Frank Wang (founder and CEO of DJI) says, "some customers are losing control of their drones because of technical issues, including a reliance on GPS signal, which sometimes can be lost, It's our fault. We have to make something that cannot go wrong in any scenario." The WSJ went on to say "DJI generally doesn't replace drones lost this way" Wow! Amazing to finally hear it from the horses mouth. I really believed that it was due to pilot error but apparently not :shock:

Here is a link to the article in WSJ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...T-3YBI&usg=AFQjCNEl3xjLh0xPmWx_THP_kjRbnsbCRQ Unfortunately, this link is no good anymore unless you subscribe... But here is the gist from my previous post in another topic:

More interesting to some is: DJI officially announced the existence of "fly away" due to technical problems that are their fault! Frank Wang (founder and CEO of DJI) says, "some customers are losing control of their drones because of technical issues, including a reliance on GPS signal, which sometimes can be lost, It's our fault. We have to make something that cannot go wrong in any scenario." The WSJ went on to say "DJI generally doesn't replace drones lost this way" Wow! Amazing to finally hear it from the horses mouth. I really believed that it was due to pilot error but apparently not :shock:

 

[planedr]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29372

So what is it? Their fault or your fault? :roll: :lol:

 

[CactusJackSlade]

I still believe that many of the "fly aways" are still pilot error - primarily, like not waiting for GPS to get a home lock. I've corrected local pilots who I saw doing this... taking off before the blinking green lights.... or ignoring other light blinking error codes (like compas needs to be calibrated etc) and flying anyway...

A pilot has to be responsible and make sure they go through the proper pre-flight procedure every time.

I am glad DJI has admitted a problem, but we all still need to follow all the pre-flight precautions and not depend entirely on pure technology to get our craft back - learning to fly in manual mode would (sometimes) be another failsafe when technology fails us.

Cheers

 

[oldphantompilot]

For what it is worth...
I purchased my first Phantom Vision 2 + early upon release in the spring. While my early July flyaway was my fault due to not waiting for enough GPS signals, I will share the following.
In mid July, I ordered a new Phantom Vision 2 +. Soon after that purchase, the original lost Phantom was found, pretty much undamaged. LOL. Too late however to return the second Phantom.
In August, I took them both into my yard, same place, same conditions, same same same. First the old one, which took many minutes to finally acquire 6-8 sats. The number varied, and dropped when video turned on. Turned both transmitter and copter off. Took the newer version out, and it acquired 10-12 sats, quickly, and no drop off when camera turned on. Again, same time within minutes, same place.
Neither version has been modified in any way.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

For what it is worth...
I purchased my first Phantom Vision 2 + early upon release in the spring. While my early July flyaway was my fault due to not waiting for enough GPS signals, I will share the following.
In mid July, I ordered a new Phantom Vision 2 +. Soon after that purchase, the original lost Phantom was found, pretty much undamaged. LOL. Too late however to return the second Phantom.
In August, I took them both into my yard, same place, same conditions, same same same. First the old one, which took many minutes to finally acquire 6-8 sats. The number varied, and dropped when video turned on. Turned both transmitter and copter off. Took the newer version out, and it acquired 10-12 sats, quickly, and no drop off when camera turned on. Again, same time within minutes, same place.
Neither version has been modified in any way.

I read that people were shielding the GPS and/or GPS wires better in the V1's... supposedly made a fair amount of difference

 

[bschaub]

Agreeing with CJS. If we learn to actually fly the quads before we start relying on advanced features we will be much better prepared for many technical faults. I belong to a club and have noted that many times newbies immediately fly in home lock or worse 'relative' mode where they don't have to learn orientation drills out at 200 yards. These guys have had 'fly always' when the quad goes into regular flying mode and the pilots are clueless as to how figure out the quads orientation and thus a flight path back to home. This usually happens as the batteries are getting low compounding the crisis. (Timer!!)

In my opinion it is the manufacturer's fault when the craft does not respond to basic radio commands and my fault when I cannot fly the quad visually.

Pilot to passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen and am sorry to tell you that we will be crashing somewhere because Boeing caused my plane to fly away. Stupid Boeing!."

 

[oldphantompilot]

To summarize my post from 12 Nov, I think DJI has improved the factory installed shielding in newer models vs older models. That is my take on my back yard experiment.

 

[BWJ]

I found out, if I fly near a truck with wireless remoted crane, the PH live its own life when the crane is activated.
It seems to jam all other signals :shock:

 

[thongbong]

What I've been saying all along, and all this time I've had many who didn't believe in fly-aways. And now from the horses mouth. This is actually good news, they are doing a better job at servicing Phantoms, probably because since last year becoming the #1 consumer drone builder has put them on a world stage. My buddy just got his P2V+ gimbal replaced, repaired by DJI free.