I can't figure out who's got the problem, pilots or DJI

[BlackHawk388]

Personally, I think it's partially DJI China, who doesn't have some duds come out of the production line?, and a large part of poor DJI customer service in all countries. This leads to pilots who either make errors and crash or, pilots who simply try to get their aircraft to fly as advertised, becoming frustrated with the DJI experience.

Personally, I wouldn't choose to own another DJI product while their customer service remains such a hot mess.

But then, I'm also not going to go on a posting spree about it either. Say what you mean, mean what you say, know what you're saying and you'll only need to say it once.

 

[silverstoned83]

I would feel better knowing that if I do everything by the book, I will have no issues.

Wouldn't that be nice..? I sure learned the hard way... My recommendation is to give it a thorough inspection as soon as you get it. Almost all of the other issues I've read about appear to be pilot error.

 

[Daninho]

There are very few complaints when you compare them to the number of Phantoms sold. Keep in mind that most people who have no problems are not posting about their good experiences.

thats actually not correct, there were polls in the DJI forums which showed that the amount of ppl with problems is in fact very high. There are also ppl with problems that are not visiting any forums at all. When the number of ppl with problems in internet forums is high than its a good indicator because those are actully the geeks which post regulary and not only when there is a problem. I would say Phantoms biggest problem is the bad quality control and then the FW coders which dont test it enough. There are countless examples for that in the past.

 

[IflyinWY]

thats actually not correct, there were polls in the DJI forums which showed that the amount of ppl with problems is in fact very high. There are also ppl with problems that are not visiting any forums at all. When the number of ppl with problems in internet forums is high than its a good indicator because those are actully the geeks which post regulary and not only when there is a problem. I would say Phantoms biggest problem is the bad quality control and then the FW coders which dont test it enough. There are countless examples for that in the past.

I'm just curious if you can provide a link, or links to where you are getting your data?

Thanks

 

[Daninho]

I'm just curious if you can provide a link, or links to where you are getting your data?

Thanks

I did say that, in the DJI forums. There are countless polls about this for a while now.

 

[IflyinWY]

I did say that, in the DJI forums. There are countless polls about this for a while now.

And if I wanted to go to "Whatever" DJI forums you mention I may, or may not be able to find the data you quote..

Well, I choose not to search for the PINK ELEPHANT so if you would be so kind.
Quit wasting our time and produce results.

Thanks.

 

[Daninho]

And if I wanted to go to "Whatever" DJI forums you mention I may, or may not be able to find the data you quote..

Well, I choose not to search for the PINK ELEPHANT so if you would be so kind.
Quit wasting our time and produce results.

Thanks.

Nope, it takes a lot of time to find old threads in the DJI forum. Im also not sure if the masses of polls popped up last week took place in this forum or in the DJI forum. Anyway, there was a poll with the title "Do you have problems with your P3" or something like that and i couldnt find this poll on this forum and on the DJI forum, so obviously a lot of polls were removed i guess. Im sure many ppl here remember those polls. Ppl even posted "now enough with those polls".

Here i found for example a poll but there most be a lot more than that!

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=21797&page=1&extra=#pid159262

 

[Daninho]

I dont know but the iphone and other western products made in china are bad examples. Those phones are only made in china but apple is US american and all the designing, testing etc.. is done in the US. Its actually not from interest where a product is made or lets say from far less interest. Apple decide what materials are used and how strict the quality control is etc.. Thats the point the Phantom is lacking behind western products. The quality control is really poor, for example the P3 gimbal. The testing is another thing, i bought the original Phantom 2,5 years ago and the Phantom2 in 2013 and DJI always had problems with Firmware, they sometimes pulled FW back from there servers. With the P2 you had quads falling from the sky because of the smart battery, i guess the software detected their own battery sometimes as a copy.

Another example, the 24 hours Phantom3 service. When you click on it a chat window will pop up in chinese language, you have to translate it by yourself. It will give you error messages as soon as you want to start a chat. I never experienced something like that before

I like to collect LED flashlights and i mostly have chinese brands like Fenix, Nitecore, sunwayman, zebralight etc.. they are really good for the money but i would say a surefire or Lupine is just different in quality. the solderings and boards are not done perfectly, you can get new ones with scuffs and bad anodizing etc.. The manuals are translated really bad etc.. All those things and small details you wont see with western products for example.

According to Frank Wang himself most of the chinese ppl even think china cant made good products and that he is proud that DJI is kind of one of the few full chinese companies that went big. they think all good stuff is coming from the west.

DJI could be really good, they have the money. I dont know why they dont invest in better service, better quality control, maybe hire more software developers and so on. Maybe they fear that the drone market will collapse anyway when new laws are introduced. I guess the difference in mentality is also a reason.

I dont know what you mean exactly with that dog comment.

 

[ScottyT]

DJI I'm picking.

All i know is I'm not making this up. Can't be pilot error when one out of five times when I power up my P3 I'm presented with a new error - the bird is still on the ground. As a 'pilot' I'm still doing calf stretches and limbering up, haven't even touched the sticks.

Or when in flight, I lose RC signal at short range, the app crashes, I get some other error in the app, the feed drops, or FPV just generally lags as the app is poorly coded. By and large I can get by and I kinda just laugh now...but it's buggy as all hell at the minute, both with firmware and within the app. RTH seems to work well though!

When it crashes (inevitably?), I doubt it will be my fault.

I won't get started on their support dept, or lack of comms.... Bless

 

[Andy Collins]

When Dodge introduced the 707 HP Helcat, I sat back and waited to see how fast people could tear them up. I spent two years drag racing professionally and can tell you from experience there are a lot of people that can afford power than have the skills to handle it (not that they can't develop the skills in time)

Quad copters, any of them, seem to be sort of the same thing,,for a few hundred dollars you can get a quad that can do crazy things,,but its not like getting in your car and driving down the street, you have to treat it more like flying a plane, you check things out before you fly, you check weather, conditions, preflight the plane etc etc.

I think if we dug into it the vast majority of problems are related to pilots not following the necessary steps or flying 'over their head'.. Are there some problems with Phantom's,,,I'm sure there are, but I don't see hundreds of people saying they got a DOA Phantom,,,there are and will be some problems,,but this is a very complex craft

I've had my P3A for a week, about a dozen flights, I am amazed at how easy it is to fly (have a Storm Racing Drone and little Alias for fun). for $1k, it is AMAZING what this thing can do,,,

 

[ranges]

DJI I'm picking.

All i know is I'm not making this up. Can't be pilot error when one out of five times when I power up my P3 I'm presented with a new error - the bird is still on the ground. As a 'pilot' I'm still doing calf stretches and limbering up, haven't even touched the sticks.

Or when in flight, I lose RC signal at short range, the app crashes, I get some other error in the app, the feed drops, or FPV just generally lags as the app is poorly coded. By and large I can get by and I kinda just laugh now...but it's buggy as all hell at the minute, both with firmware and within the app. RTH seems to work well though!

When it crashes (inevitably?), I doubt it will be my fault.

I won't get started on their support dept, or lack of comms.... Bless

I have the same issues as you sense the firmware update. My P3A will not crash. It is a paper weight until until the firmware is fixed.
Back to the topic.

Best Regards

 

[gingerbloke]

I'm an experienced R/C pilot (gliders, aero, helis) and love my P2V+, but it IS a somewhat shoddy product.

I know and accept that it will one day go 'random' and hit the dirt hard at some point, but when it works it's brilliant. I just can't accept the view that people who post with problems are all numpties (but DJI do falsely market these as 'anyone can fly').

A DJI quad is a complex beast, it shouldn't really be sold without an efficient and helpful support department and an attitude to stand by the product when something is not right. Hiding behind a 6 week return to manufacturer CS system is idiocy. They know most people won't bother and will use forums (like this one) to try to sort it themselves.

DJI (as it is today) will not exist in the marketplace once people like GoPro get their products in place.

 

[greenskeeper]

I'm only saying that it is hard to believe that anything coming off an assembly line can have so many problems and issues when they are all made exactly the same. I'm sure that once in a while maybe one of the motors isn't wound just right or a screw is over torqued or something like that but for so many people to have no problems and then to see problem after problem on the forum, I have to wonder, who's at fault. I guess I still haven't gotten an answer to that question yet. I'm not blaming anyone, a pilot or DJI, but I want to believe that the Phantom I receive is the same Phantom that everybody else is getting and there are a lot of folks here that have experienced no problems and enjoy flight after flight with no issues, even after the firmware debacle. Mine will be here Monday and I guess my whole thread could change if mine comes in defective, but I have spent hours reading and watching videos about how to do things properly and I promise you mine won't come out of the box and get into the air, it will go through the whole update deal and all of the pre-flight checks before I ever get it in the air. Then, if something is wrong, well, I'll deal with that then.

 

[Meta4]

thats actually not correct, there were polls in the DJI forums which showed that the amount of ppl with problems is in fact very high.

I wouldn't draw much from anything that shows up on the DJI forum.
It appears to attract a large number of people that would have trouble tying their shoelaces.

 

[happydays]

I'm only saying that it is hard to believe that anything coming off an assembly line can have so many problems and issues when they are all made exactly the same. I'm sure that once in a while maybe one of the motors isn't wound just right or a screw is over torqued or something like that but for so many people to have no problems and then to see problem after problem on the forum, I have to wonder, who's at fault. I guess I still haven't gotten an answer to that question yet. I'm not blaming anyone, a pilot or DJI, but I want to believe that the Phantom I receive is the same Phantom that everybody else is getting and there are a lot of folks here that have experienced no problems and enjoy flight after flight with no issues, even after the firmware debacle. Mine will be here Monday and I guess my whole thread could change if mine comes in defective, but I have spent hours reading and watching videos about how to do things properly and I promise you mine won't come out of the box and get into the air, it will go through the whole update deal and all of the pre-flight checks before I ever get it in the air. Then, if something is wrong, well, I'll deal with that then.

One of the issues that might come into play is that everyone assumes there is only one factory producing these and therefore there will always be consistency. As with many, many mass produced products, the likelihood is that they may well not all be made in the same factory, never mind the same production line - and they almost certainly are made using different products supplied by different subcontractors. That's how mass production works. It also explains quite a lot about how a firmware update affects some folks' phantoms but not others.

 

[N017RW]

I'm only saying that it is hard to believe that anything coming off an assembly line can have so many problems and issues when they are all made exactly the same. I'm sure that once in a while maybe one of the motors isn't wound just right or a screw is over torqued or something like that but for so many people to have no problems and then to see problem after problem on the forum, I have to wonder, who's at fault. I guess I still haven't gotten an answer to that question yet. I'm not blaming anyone, a pilot or DJI, but I want to believe that the Phantom I receive is the same Phantom that everybody else is getting and there are a lot of folks here that have experienced no problems and enjoy flight after flight with no issues, even after the firmware debacle. Mine will be here Monday and I guess my whole thread could change if mine comes in defective, but I have spent hours reading and watching videos about how to do things properly and I promise you mine won't come out of the box and get into the air, it will go through the whole update deal and all of the pre-flight checks before I ever get it in the air. Then, if something is wrong, well, I'll deal with that then.

They are designed, built, and used by humans.

The fault lies there.

 

[Altanore]

My only quality concern with DJI are the batteries. Been reading a lot of posts stating how the battery lasts 50-60 cycles and them it is garbage. Perhaps they didn't treat the batteries properly and drained them all the way when flying. As for my P3P, it has been a dream. Even on my first flight where I made the mistake of forgetting to calibrate the compass. It still flew as if it I did do it.

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

 

[greenskeeper]

Then I hope I get one from the "good" factory. I know we have a Honda plant here in Alabama and having never visited the place, I would have thought that everything comes and goes off the same line. They do buy seats from one place, glass from another and so forth, so there are factors other than Honda that could cause a defect. But, that being said, they do inspect each and every vehicle and there are some lemons that come off the line, I suppose. But a 20% fail rate seems excessive and I would not buy from DJI if I thought that 1 out of five is going to be defective. I have no like or dislike with DJI, I think they have a product that people are buying as fast as they can make them, and I see many people say that they have no issues and love their machine and then I see people badmouth them like they were producing Edsels. I do understand what you are saying about production lines and I guess that could explain some of these issues but I still have to go back to the old saying, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

 

[happydays]

20% fail rate? Where did that statistic come from? Seems VERY unlikely to me.

 

[greenskeeper]

20% comes from an earlier post. I personally don't think that 20% of the Phantoms coming off the line are defective, no way. It seems that the answer to my original post is, there is no answer. Not every Phantom coming off the line is perfect, not every pilot is perfect, just follow the manual and soak up as much knowledge you can get your hands on. After that, good luck.