Dont upgrade=voided warranty!!
- Thread starter dirtybum
- Start date
I would challenge it. If you take a look here, DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography, specifically at the process flow diagram. We'll assume it did not meet "refund and exchange policy" so it was then verified to determine if product or issue complies with warranty policy.
After that the information is scattered all over the place:
DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography
Warranty Period of Main Parts | DJI
and more...
However, I have not been able to find any documentation (yet) that explicitly spells out "must be on most recent firmware". Any way...its at least worth a challenge via e-mail.
After that the information is scattered all over the place:
DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography
Warranty Period of Main Parts | DJI
and more...
However, I have not been able to find any documentation (yet) that explicitly spells out "must be on most recent firmware". Any way...its at least worth a challenge via e-mail.
I'm not OP, but from what I can tell the latest firmware major change relates to cold weather conditions. So I'm reluctant to update mine, in that regards. Where in summer and never get below zero.
I read of people with batteries that shut off when voltages goes below a certain number, and that range I dropped below today in my first flight. I don't want it dropping out of the sky due to changes meant to address a problem that's not present in my climate.
Absolutely, my reply was not in sharing an opinion regarding whether to upgrade firmware or not; I'll leave that decision to each owner to decide for themselves. I just added my post as the OP was denied, I believe, warranty coverage because his/her firmware was not up to date. My .02 is that, from what I have seen, the supporting warranty/service policies/documentation is fairly light and scattered so he/she may be eligible for warranty coverage.
Curious to know what the flight log contains that they analyzed for warranty compliance determination... especially as @Phantos said, nowhere can you find any statement that dictates warranty coverage requires installation of the latest firmware... consider that the firmware download page at DJI also states a disclaimer for warranty of firmware (Phantom 3 Advanced - Specs, FAQ, Tutorials, Downloads and DJI GO | DJI)...
* Disclaimer of Warranties:
* Disclaimer of Warranties:
SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. provides the firmware “as is” and “as available” for your use, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including all implied warranties of merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose. You expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use the firmware is at your sole risk. In no case shall SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of any of the firmware, including but not limited to, any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of your misuse, transmitted, etc.
Sounds like you need to educate yourself better about DJI, atleast where these firmware and Go app updates are concerned. They never "X-plane" fully what their updates and firmware fixes address. Anymore than detailing all the interesting facts and details about our intelligent flight batteries. When 2.7K video was released for iOS users, there wasn't even any mention of this in the liner notes. We had to discover, that it had been added, totally by accident. I stumbled across the feature while doing some camera adjustments for different indoor lighting, while flying at the airport hangar, last week...
But about battery info, this was published recently on the djiforums.
How do Intelligent Batteries Work?
The Inspire 1’s intelligent battery has many functions: Battery Level Display, Battery Life Display, Auto-discharging, Balance Charging, Over Charge Protection, Temperature Detection, Over Current Protection, Short Circuit Protection, Battery Cell Damage Protection, Battery Information History, SleepMode, and Communication.
Some functions can directly display the current state of the battery by checking whether an LED is on or off, while other functions of the battery can only be worked with DJI GO app. The app displays how much remaining power the battery has,and the system can automatically analyze and calculate the power and time required to return home and land safely, so that users will not always worry about a low battery during flight. The Intelligent Battery also displays the voltage of each battery cell, the total charging and discharging times, the health status of the battery, and so on.
There are some advanced functions, like the Inspire 1’s Smart Low Battery RTH:
When the Battery Level Indicator displays a low battery warning, the motor is not able to output enough power. Users are advised to land the drone immediately, otherwise the drone will land automatically. An automatic landing may damage the drone, endanger by standers, or cause other problems. To prevent such hazards, when low battery is triggered, the main controller of Inspire 1 can intelligently estimate whether the current power level is enough to return home from its current position. The DJI Go app will advise users to return home if this is the case. The drone will automatically return to the Home Point if no action is taken within 10 seconds. Users can cancel RTH by pressing the RTH button once. Smart RTH will only work once per flight.
Compared with a traditional battery, intelligent batteries bring pilots great convenience. Let’s see how the battery, a basic energy storage medium, developed into a multi-functional intelligent battery by looking at some of its special functions more closely.
Over Discharge Prevention
When using a battery, users often worry about over discharging. To avoid the problem, battery designers installed an over discharging protective circuit. Discharging will stop when battery reaches a preset voltage. However, if discharging stops, lots of data cannot be processed, and the drone will lose power. Hence, automatically stopping discharging is the last level of battery protection; the battery circuit also calculates the endurance of battery life and warn users to take safety measures when necessary.
For example, the Inspire 1’s battery data is integrated with its flight control data, which can provide three level battery warning protection.
1. Low Battery Level Warning - When the battery level indicator displays that the remaining battery level is 30% (the exact percentage can be set by users), the red light starts slowly flashing. Users are notified of the remaining battery level and should returnto the Home Point as soon as possible.
2. Critical Low Battery Level Warning - The drone will automatically return to the Home Point if the remaining battery level can only support the drone’s return home. The thresholds for the warning are automatically determined based on the current flight altitude and distance calculated with intelligent battery data and the flight control data.
3. Intense Critical Low Battery Level Warning - The drone will automatically land if the remaining battery level cannot support a normal RTH (return time being delayed by headwinds, for example) to avoid crashing.
The endurance of battery life is determined based on the current flight distance, altitude, and current output power of the motors. Since these elements are dynamic, all data should be calculated in real time. All this requires exceptional battery cell management and algorithm design.
Battery Charge Protection and Storage
There are some special requirements for charging lithium batteries. Currently, lithium batteries use serial-parallel battery cells. But since battery cells are different, this leads to imbalanced charging and discharging. Therefore, it is necessary touse a charging management circuit. Another function of the Intelligent Lithium Battery is that it has an intelligent charging and discharging management system.
The Inspire 1’s intelligent battery can manage the charging and discharging process, and it is also able to automatically discharge. The battery will auto discharge to around 65% if the battery level is more than 65% and it is idle for more than 10 days (users can set the exact time themselves).
Checking Battery Level in Real Time
Users used to check battery levels, output voltage, and electricity by using a multimeter, or mounting a “beep-beep” tool into the battery, which was inconvenient. Today, batteries are more intelligent and display the remaining battery and other information in real-time.
Take Inspire 1’s battery as an example:
1. You can check the remaining battery level easily. 4 LED lights display the current remaining battery level in real-time on the ground and in flight.
2. The DJI GO app will display the cell voltage of the battery by transferring voltage data from the aircraft in real time.
3. A record is stored about the battery’s history, detailing the number of uses, previous warning messages and battery life over time.
4. The Inspire’s LED light displays battery errors. It will display errors caused by short circuiting,over current charging, over voltage charging, high temperatures, low temperatures, and so on.
Here are two examples of intelligent battery functions: battery level display and charging protection display.
Battery Level Display:
No Contact Plugs
Imagine you are mounting a battery onto a DIY drone, the plug sparks. If the situation happens again, the plug will oxidize under the high temperatures when the battery discharges. The conductivity of the plug will decrease, and the plug will overheat and dissolve. Some crashes are caused by the aging electrode plugs. To solve the problem, the Intelligent Lithium Battery’s management circuit was developed.
When placing the battery into Inspire 1, the electrode contact will not discharge, so there will not be any electric erosion. As such, the life of the battery plug contact point increases. The battery will output power only after pressing the on/off button. When powering off, users should press the power button twice, and hold it the second time.
Battery Authenticity
The intelligent battery's authenticity is well protected. First, users can only use lithium batteries produced in the original factory, so the quality of the battery is guaranteed. Therefore,users must only use batteries produced by the company, or else the aircraft will not takeoff. Even if the system can be cracked, the company can upgrade the firmware accordingly.
The 5 points above explained more about the battery, battery pre-check before flight, battery storage and the benefits of protection so users can use their batteries more safety. The next section will discuss battery guidelines and notices.
Battery Usage Instructions
1. Please remove the battery from the drone while it is not being used, and keep it in a temperate environment to prevent the battery from over heating or freezing.
2. Do not charge the battery right after the flight; wait until it cools down. The charging environment should be between 0℃ to 40℃. Take care of the battery to avoid accidents.
3. Be aware of the battery during transport. A vehicle accelerating or decelerating and may cause the battery may collide with sharp objects and combust or cause other damage. Please keep batteries in a safe place while transporting in a car to prevent fire.
4. Check the status of battery before using. Lack of usage over may deplete battery power or lead to deviations in voltage level between the battery cells because of incomplete charging and discharging operations. Normally, these problems will ariseif the battery is within a 0.2V voltage deviation.
5. Please recycle a damaged battery, since lithium batteries are greatly harmful to the environment.
6. Suitable storage power range is from 50% to 65% if the battery is unused for a long time.
7. Air transportation is a concern of some users. Some are glad because of that the standard battery level of the Inspire 1 batteryTB47 is 99.9Wh, and can be carried onto a flight, since the limit of battery level is 100Wh. But the standard battery level of the optional battery TB48 is 129.96. Normally, only two of these batteries can be carried onto a flight.
8. While using the battery under low temperature environment, between -10℃ to 4℃, the internal resistance of the battery increases which leads to heavy drop in voltage. Therefore, please fully charge the battery before using. The voltage of battery cells reaches 4.35V. While the temperature is lower than 5℃, the battery needs to be fully charged, the voltage of battery cells should be higher than 4.2V, and warm-up and heat preservation actions should be taken before launching. The warm-up can be achieved with the battery heater or by hovering the drone at a low altitude for around one minute.
Many users are unfamiliar with complete discharging. For instance, the battery of Inspire 1 needs to have one complete cycle of charging and discharging after ten in complete cycles in order to calibrate the battery level.
There are two modes of discharging: the slow one and the rapid one.
Slow discharging: Install the battery into the drone, turn the battery on and leave it electrostatically discharging until it automatically turns off when the battery level lower than 5%. It is recommended not to turn on the electric motor especially those without rotating propellers, as it may lead to abrasion of the motor.
Rapid discharging: Install the battery into the drone, fly it until low battery level alerts and the drone automatically lands. Do not turn it off and keep it discharging until it automatically shuts down.
Nowadays one of the biggest limitations of the drones is the endurance of the battery. The intelligent battery can be improved to maximize efficiency or use another energy source such as hydrogen or solar energy, to extend the operationtime of the flight. If new energies can be utilized, it will be a huge step forward for the battery since its efficiency will greatly improve.
Thank to those of you who read this whole thread!
Let's look forward to the next revolutions in intelligent battery design!
Hope this helps you think about the battery update. It's never only all about -0*C=+32*F ambient temperature. But a whole lot else too. ;-)
RedHotPoker
Oso
Premium Pilot
I know that I am in the minority, but it reads differently to me. I see the remarks as two unrelated comments, but I'm just guessing of course like all of us.
1. Non warranty repair per flight log analysis.
They checked the log and found something that happened to the Phantom other than a defect and are denying the warranty claim.
2. Craft required update before flight.
DJI states that they will update to the newest FW unless requested not to on the repair form. They went ahead and updated to the latest (1.6) which had been released while they had your Phantom.
1. Non warranty repair per flight log analysis.
They checked the log and found something that happened to the Phantom other than a defect and are denying the warranty claim.
2. Craft required update before flight.
DJI states that they will update to the newest FW unless requested not to on the repair form. They went ahead and updated to the latest (1.6) which had been released while they had your Phantom.
Last edited:
So the Inspire 1 and P2A use the same batteries now? Also with all that, what has that to do with the current firmware? Also firmware isn't magically going to use another energy source hydrogen/solar energy and I'll be sure to know that my batteries will be using these new technologies long before I know I need to update my firmware to utilize them.Sounds like you need to educate yourself better about DJI, atleast where these firmware and Go app updates are concerned. They never "X-plane" fully what their updates and firmware fixes address. Anymore than detailing all the interesting facts and details about our intelligent flight batteries. When 2.7K video was released for iOS users, there wasn't even any mention of this in the liner notes. We had to discover, that it had been added, totally by accident. I stumbled across the feature while doing some camera adjustments for different indoor lighting, while flying at the airport hangar, last week...
But about battery info, this was published recently on the djiforums.
....
Many users are unfamiliar with complete discharging. For instance, the battery of Inspire 1 needs to have one complete cycle of charging and discharging after ten in complete cycles in order to calibrate the battery level.
There are two modes of discharging: the slow one and the rapid one.
Slow discharging: Install the battery into the drone, turn the battery on and leave it electrostatically discharging until it automatically turns off when the battery level lower than 5%. It is recommended not to turn on the electric motor especially those without rotating propellers, as it may lead to abrasion of the motor.
Rapid discharging: Install the battery into the drone, fly it until low battery level alerts and the drone automatically lands. Do not turn it off and keep it discharging until it automatically shuts down.
Nowadays one of the biggest limitations of the drones is the endurance of the battery. The intelligent battery can be improved to maximize efficiency or use another energy source such as hydrogen or solar energy, to extend the operationtime of the flight. If new energies can be utilized, it will be a huge step forward for the battery since its efficiency will greatly improve.
Thank to those of you who read this whole thread!
Let's look forward to the next revolutions in intelligent battery design!
Hope this helps you think about the battery update. It's never only all about -0*C=+32*F ambient temperature. But a whole lot else too. ;-)
RedHotPoker
My point is, you don't know what the full details are for a battery firmware update. They don't reveal the whole story. ;-)
There may have been other valuable updates, unmentioned. We just don't know, all of the various details. Eh, only you know what's best for your drone, correct? Yeah, so definately stay with that, older version. Never update. Ha
RedHotPoker
There may have been other valuable updates, unmentioned. We just don't know, all of the various details. Eh, only you know what's best for your drone, correct? Yeah, so definately stay with that, older version. Never update. Ha
RedHotPoker
If that was your point, then it was seriously lost by posting a whole bunch of un-related information. Maybe stay on point next time, if you're after a better succinct discussion.
Yes Sir. You have your points of view, I already made mine, about the battery care and knowledge.. Thanks.
Always Keep yours fully charged before takeoff, eh? Ha
Have fun, fly safe, happy landing.
RedHotPoker
Always Keep yours fully charged before takeoff, eh? Ha
Have fun, fly safe, happy landing.
RedHotPoker
Page 8 of the Phantom 3 Professional/Advanced Safety Guidelines and Disclaimer (V1.2) Clearly states: "For safety, always update the firmware to the latest version when an upgrade notification is shown in the app."
It also states that if you choose to ignore the current firmware update, you are required to accept the prompted disclaimer. I have personally not chosen to ignore any firmware updates so I can only assume that the "prompted disclaimer" probably has language to the effect that your warranty is voided if you fly without updating.
It also states that if you choose to ignore the current firmware update, you are required to accept the prompted disclaimer. I have personally not chosen to ignore any firmware updates so I can only assume that the "prompted disclaimer" probably has language to the effect that your warranty is voided if you fly without updating.
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Someone with an inspire has run into this same situation over at the rc forum. This isn't a one off, it seems.
I still do not see where it says "will void your warranty" if your firmware is not up to date. Safety implications are different from warranty implications in my mind. I need to read that "disclaimer" that is presented when you decline the firmware update prior to flight; warranty implications must be stated there.
Again, my interest/debate here is not IF you should or should not upgrade your firmware but the specific warranty implications based on action taken or not taken. The reality is I am very surprised I have had such a difficult time finding the exact line where non current firmware at time of crash/incident voids warranty. I would have expected that to be one of the first lines written.
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Yes, your rite and i read that on day one!
Theres a lot, i mean lot of people who ask ahould i or should'nt i on this forum and i hope they read this post and instead ask should i or should'nt i void my warranty.
For the record i updated EVERY time it was required within (1) day
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