Great DJI Service Department Work

[flyNfrank]

In the US at DJI's Repair Facility in L.A, California does a great job on quality work. The Accounts Receivable Manager said he was sending me a quad that will be in better condition then those coming off the prouction line. He said not only would his tech's go through everything completely, but that they would also test-fly it and make sure it was flawless.

Using the quad I took a short 1 1/3 minute video showing their how well they're in L.A. Pay close attention at the very beginning, and around 55 seconds as the camera pans down ward.

Let me know if you have seen anything like this, and how you dealt with it.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1bZx5tDC9g[/youtube]

 

[BlackTracer]

Yeah that sure is flawless. Not. You are talking about that wavy video. Have never seen that before. Is that jello and maybe you hsve some bad vibration? Glad they tested it thoroughly and it is flawless as promised. Good grief Charlie Brown.

 

[capodrone81]

i noticed mine had a similar instance this weekend while shooting video.. Id like to know the fix for this as well

 

[hunch]

in the beginning of the video the movement down has to do with transistors on the stator part of the motor.
the wavy video is caused by another flaw of the DJI.
some cameras come with the rubber dampener inside the lens and some don't.
if you open up the camera part, 4 screws then pop off the cover and there are 2 more screws on the camera lens board diagonally.
take those out and pop out the board with the lens. there is suppose to be black rubber dampener inside the case and if it's not
hence the wavy video.
i've gone through over 200 cameras and more than half didn't have that dampener.

thank you DJI

 

[flyNfrank]

Yes it is the wavy video. It shows up in the video when the camera pans downward near the end. The other thing I didn't mention the quad gives a "unknown mcu error". I do not know if it is related to the wavy camera issue or something else. I kind of think it has to do with a bad battery possibly? I say that based on the logged data shows large current drops when this error appears. I really need to do more testing in for myself to come up with some kind of diagnoses. Need to know if it happens consistently or every now & then.

Btw, I'm currently using firmware v3.08. I thought I should mention that cause I did see where the new v3.12 was causing the same type of problem.

hunch, if the rubber dampener is not there, what can be used in it's place as I'm sure those parts do not come in a way that we can order them, or do they?

 

[max]

And you were so proud of your custom drone too..

Good luck Frank, I hope you can get it fixed up without too many troubles!

 

[Skynet1]

And you were so proud of your custom drone too..

Good luck Frank, I hope you can get it fixed up without too many troubles!

Talk is cheap, whiskey cost money. Sorry to say, but I believe DJI is mixing and matching parts salvaged from some of the returned units like Dr. Frankenstein. " It's Alive! " : )

 

[RichWest]

Frank, have you learned anything yet?

 

[flyNfrank]

Frank, have you learned anything yet?

Yeah, not to depend on those you have shown you would bend over backwards for....

On another note, I spent a lot of time digging through logged data, then removed the top cover and began for inspecting loose connections by powering the quad on. I monitored the video of what I was doing using the same tablet I use for flying. I did not find any loose connections, but I did one main wire set that runs from the top of the camera to opposite end the main board. About 1/2 way this wire was routed to where it was running between the battery and one of those square green sensors with a white arrow pointing in the direction towards the front of the quad. Even though the wire set was covered with a shield sleeve, I feel as though it was picking up some electrical interference. After getting the wires clear of everything I was no long able to pick up the interference. I then started the quad up and went through the same process with checking all connections as the motors were running without props of coarse. The results were the same, no more interference.

I then worked on the gps puck that is mounted in the top cover. It had the factory copper shield that I felt was pressed around the puck itself too much. So I got it to where the shielding was all below the puck. When I put the quad back together and powered it up the satellites received in the house had went from 4 to 8. That right there alone was a very nice accomplishment.

Now I just need to test fly it to see if all the gremlins are behind me.

 

[justin00]

whats this interference you speak of Frank ?? How were you determining you were getting interference, and how'd you determine it was all good after rerouting wires ??
Any pics of what you are talking about ? Getting rid of interference by moving cables sounds like it could be good, depending on what it is hehe
*edit* just thinking about it... the FPV antenna's have white arrows if I recall ??

btw.. speaking of GPS... You should do the 4mm antenna mod.. costs $6... If you were in Aus I'd give you one of my spares for free
Sounds like your GPS is working great anyways... but can always have great(er) :]

When do you think you'll be confident in the replacement and ready to do your 'normal' flights ?

 

[hunch]

Frank,
Yeah you can't get that rubber ring unless you pull it from
A salvaged gimbal that had one in there.
I have a pile of them but use them in the gimbals I get
In to be serviced that didn't come with so I install it
For the customer if it's not there for free.
But that is the issue for sure and the reason I know
Is I tested it several times on the same camera with
And without the rubber ring. And every time I didnt
Have the ring installed the video was wavy and vice versa.
Hani

 

[hunch]

this is what i'm talking about.
camera on the right has the dampener in it and the one on the left doesn't


closer look



so when camera lens is in place it will either hold it in place with the rubber dampener and keep it steady
or have about 3 micrometer of space in between the lens and the case of the camera so when blades are spinning
it is causing it to shake hence the wavy effect on the video.


Hani

 

[flyNfrank]

whats this interference you speak of Frank ?? How were you determining you were getting interference, and how'd you determine it was all good after rerouting wires ??
Any pics of what you are talking about ? Getting rid of interference by moving cables sounds like it could be good, depending on what it is hehe
*edit* just thinking about it... the FPV antenna's have white arrows if I recall ??

btw.. speaking of GPS... You should do the 4mm antenna mod.. costs $6... If you were in Aus I'd give you one of my spares for free
Sounds like your GPS is working great anyways... but can always have great(er) :]

When do you think you'll be confident in the replacement and ready to do your 'normal' flights ?

I take it you didn't see the attached video in the OP? It shows the waviness. As mentioned I think I got it taken care of, I hope. Starting today all the super cold *** weather is behind us finally. I'm now getting 8 satellites inside my house so I don't see a need for improvement there. I should take flight sometime in the next 2-3hrs from now to test. As for back to normal flying is a little uncertain. I have been dedicating time each day to helping with the development of a vPlus app. The developer has been great to work with which makes all the difference when it comes to being involved. However, I'm not sure what I will do should we get a day with 20mph and above wind gust. I may have to try and take advantage of that one.

 

[flyNfrank]

hunch, great info!

I have a salvage vPlus I bought from someone last year that had been under water a couple of weeks. I pulled it's camera apart and removed the rubber piece you mentioned. Turns out my camera did have that same rubber piece.

As I mentioned on the page back, I had one of the main data cables that had been routed in between the battery an that green sensor in the battery box that has a white arrow. It appeared that with the cable in that location each time the gimbal became active it caused the interference displayed in the app. Once I rerouted the cable I could no longer get any interference when wiggling the cable.

 

[RichWest]

that green sensor in the battery box that has a white arrow.

FWIW, that "green sensor" is one of your bird's FPV antennas.

 

[justin00]

Yeah saw the video, didn't relise thats what you were referring to when you said interference.
So rerouting the wires to the FPV antennas (I believe its the antenna's) fixed the waviness ? Wierd... but good that you hopefully got it fixed and sorted.
Would of thought interference would of been cut outs/freezes etc etc... but who knows, and as long as its all working thats all that matters.

very jelous of your snow btw... never lived anywhere that has snow.. would be like a winter wonderland!! All though it probably gets annoying and cold after a few weeks, but still.. would be cool to experience it for a little while.

whats this interference you speak of Frank ?? How were you determining you were getting interference, and how'd you determine it was all good after rerouting wires ??
Any pics of what you are talking about ? Getting rid of interference by moving cables sounds like it could be good, depending on what it is hehe
*edit* just thinking about it... the FPV antenna's have white arrows if I recall ??

btw.. speaking of GPS... You should do the 4mm antenna mod.. costs $6... If you were in Aus I'd give you one of my spares for free
Sounds like your GPS is working great anyways... but can always have great(er) :]

When do you think you'll be confident in the replacement and ready to do your 'normal' flights ?

I take it you didn't see the attached video in the OP? It shows the waviness. As mentioned I think I got it taken care of, I hope. Starting today all the super cold *** weather is behind us finally. I'm now getting 8 satellites inside my house so I don't see a need for improvement there. I should take flight sometime in the next 2-3hrs from now to test. As for back to normal flying is a little uncertain. I have been dedicating time each day to helping with the development of a vPlus app. The developer has been great to work with which makes all the difference when it comes to being involved. However, I'm not sure what I will do should we get a day with 20mph and above wind gust. I may have to try and take advantage of that one.

 

[rbhamilton]

Nice to see the US office has finally mastered the art of Chinese customer service and quality control. Good to see you got things working a bit better. Keep us posted and let us know if you notice any of these new features and improvements that have yet to be introduced to the general public.

 

[Drone-Outlaw]

so when camera lens is in place it will either hold it in place with the rubber dampener and keep it steady
or have about 3 micrometer of space in between the lens and the case of the camera so when blades are spinning
it is causing it to shake hence the wavy effect on the video.


Hani


Great Post Hani!!

Moose

 

[flyNfrank]

Nice to see the US office has finally mastered the art of Chinese customer service and quality control. Good to see you got things working a bit better. Keep us posted and let us know if you notice any of these new features and improvements that have yet to be introduced to the general public.

The customer service I dealt with is here in the US. The accounts receivable manager that had called me to say my quad would not be warrantied because of having yellow check mark on the esc's (which is bs). He then turned into a salesman that just said lie after lie to get me to buy the refurbished quad. Btw, the only difference I have seen as far as improved mods is, routing of wires, the type of copper shielding under the gps puck, and a couple of plug connections having hot glue that I have not seen on other V3's.

Anyway, the problem I have has not gone away. The waviness and interference through the middle part of the display is not as intense or as exaggerated, but is still there "some of the time". I made real short video to send to DJI support to see if they say something other then send it to us. Where you see the camera twitch in the video, in person I can hear the gimbal motor sound like it is stressing against a stop as if it is trying to tilt the camera higher but can't. You can see it has a rhythm to what it's attempting. Kind of like 1..2..pause..1..2..pause. And then it stops after a couple of attempts. Other then calibrating the gimbal switch on the controller, I can't think of any other option to adjust the behavior of the gimbal itself?

Btw, does any of you remember reading someone say they had some kind of issue taking place, and they unplugged the camera and replugged it in again and claim that it took care of whatever the problem was they were having? I just can't remember what the problem was this was addressing?


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCO9EXmXwCA[/youtube]

 

[Skynet1]

Definitely an issue of concern, and unacceptable. This replacement unit I presume has a like new warranty. You may want to considered sending it back after all . This may be your best alternative before you may do something which may simply void any warranty presently in place. I've experienced some jello effects when applying some zip ties to the remaining (2) anti drop holes on the camera support bracket, but that was because of my fastening the ties too tight. The issue as shown in the video definitely is affecting the camera more so than vibration, and may require extensive work on the Gimbal itself as you are probably well aware. Why accept something reportedly said to be in better than new condition and not, where my thoughts.
In any regard you hopefully will get it all taken care of one way or another. Best of luck!

Btw, If I recall correctly the suggestion to unplug and re plug in the camera I believe may have been regard to an inability to obtain a live video feed from the camera onto the camera app issue, if I remember correctly, which may not at all be the case.