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

[happydays]

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.

Was this from a DJI source like Tahoe Ed or Blade Strike? If not, then I find it hard to believe. Sorry.

 

[kdrak]

any mechanical+electronic that flies will experience a failure. How will it manage the failure will result to catastrophic or not results

This applies to real scale aircrafts.

 

[RedHotPoker]

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

I was visiting a friend on Wednesday who had never flown an RC model before. In my excited state, to show him how easy if was to fly, I forgot to calibrate the compass. Thankfully, it flew fine. I even let him hold the radio, and do a few forward and back, left to right moves. He was surprised how awesome it was. I may have found a new RC Pilot. ;-)

I will not forget the compass calibration again. That could have been a bad outcome.

RedHotPoker

 

[snerd]

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.

And there it is. Glad "you" said it lol!! It's amazing that while reading most any forum, you come across many, many people who simply cannot comprehend, much less follow, very simple instructions. I wouldn't want to be in DJI's shoes right now, it's a catch-22 situation. You simply cannot send out a new bird to every goofball that flew his into a brick wall. You'd go broke! But then the bad-mouthing you get from an unhappy customer is spread all over the world in a matter of minutes. They're in a tough position at the moment.

 

[taroh]

I had been a bit experienced R/C heli flyer, but Phantoms are different. However experienced pilot, never flies at 140'' high and 2 miles far. On conventional helis, I can adjust gravity center, file props, change flybar, but I cannot adjust Phantom by rewriting firmware (I'm a professional computer programmer however). If a novice person wants perfect machine, P3 is not, but if as flying tripod for experienced, it's, incredible. My P3P has FPV problem after 1.2.6, but I could override drift and felt nothing problem. Yes, I agree that's never a "anybody can fly" machine.
Off topic I think, DJI is certainly a Chinese company, but much better than average Chinese companies, of which products had been bothering me. They never said "sorry" to my shipping claim but sent a product rapidly. Never said "thanks" when I sent VPS error report & logs, but I believe they'll fix it, since they know business and have technology. Otherwise, 3DR or GoPro wins, and I can choose them next year. No problem.

 

[Volkhard]

All technical items fail at one point and no production line produces 100% error-free product.

But there is quality control that can be applied. IMHO there is a (cultural ?) difference in how different countries/industries producing. Who doesn't know the old slogan "made in Germany" and what it stands for?

China foccusses often much more on profit and massproduction to a market they are usually not really connected to. In my business I have negotiated and also bought industrial equipment and I had fo learn about these differences and to lower my expectations. Often one can be just happy if the product is complete and the issues somehow can be fixed locally as customer service from chinese companies is and has been often lacking and issues are usually part of the package.
Product liability is one of the legal topics, US and European companies are paying a lot attention to. I know, that some of my chinese equipment is not up to par and some details are badly engineered, so harm could come to the user/operator. Western equipment has higher standards but also is more expensive. Imagine an BMW or Audi multicopter, if anyone could afford it....
I don't think anybody would try to make a product liability claim against a Chinese manufacturer.Therefore there is less motivation for these companies for tightening their protocols, especially for consumer products like a Phantom. I have high hopes that my new P3P will arrive without flaws, cracks and holes around the screws) and will perform well. I think there is a pretty good chance it will and I think it is higher then 80% Should I get a lemon, I knew beforehand what I am getting myself in to and would need to return or spending weeks waiting for customer service as this is just the way it is. I don't see this changing any time soon and one needs to decide before ordering as these facts are parts of the package.

 

[Meta4]

In my excited state, to show him how easy if was to fly, I forgot to calibrate the compass. Thankfully, it flew fine.
I will not forget the compass calibration again.
That could have been a bad outcome.

Or it might not have ... you found out that it flew just fine without recalibrating the compass once.

I recalibrated this week because I am 1000 miles from home but otherwise I'm happy to fly for months without recalibrating.

 

[Meta4]

Tienamen Square, smog, Communism, hacking USA. Guilty: I do have stuff made in China

Careful Abs .. there's plenty about your own country that isn't squeaky clean either.
But this isn't a forum for that sort of discussion.

Do you know someone who actually ran into a brick wall and then tried to make a warranty claim? He shouldn't fly that close to brick walls. But, on the other hand, maybe it ran into the wall because the electronics went haywire.

Electronics going haywire and P3s zipping away isn't a topic that is being reported.
Pilots crashing into trees and other obstacles is a thousand times more common.

 

[F6Rider]

Well that's kind of what I thought, there are too many good reports to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. I plan to read and watch videos and learn from all of you BEFORE I take to the skies. It seems like most issues can be avoided by proper preparation and knowledge. We will see soon!

This statement can pretty much by applied to ANY endeavor in life. I sure am glad I don't have a dog in this fight, my P3 is flying like a dream, and will do so as long as I pay attention to details.

 

[ianwood]

There's clearly two camps of thought here:

1. Some think DJI makes crappy products that don't work. Not coincidentally, many in this camp have a Phantom that no longer works.
2. Others think many of the issues are caused by under-informed users who didn't bother to understand how to operate their Phantom before taking to the air.

Camp 1 is not entirely wrong. A number of P1s ate it because of a bad RF design. A number of P2s died because of batteries shutting down mid-flight. The P3 may have a yet to be uncovered issue of it's own. But, the number of easily identifiable user errors out there is astounding. Percentage-wise there is no comparison.

Don't believe me? Go to Youtube and search for Phantom flyaway and tell me how many of those videos started with someone taking off from an iron manhole cover, or the roof of a car, or a granite path, or maybe they used cheap carbon fiber props, or decided the GoPro WiFi would make a good cheap FPV. The count of self-inflicted crashes is infinite.

With 10,000 of these things selling per month, this forum would have been an incessant flood of complaints from day 1 if they didn't work.

 

[Chris P Duck]

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.

Because they are already selling their products faster than they can make them?

 

[J.James]

Even if ALL the problems people were having were all factory defaults its still No were even close to 20% By any means. if any thing its not even .2% and compared to all the other models of phantoms there have been very few issues with the p3s

Ive even had a few issues pop up on my p3 scene the latest firmware update. But it was pretty close to being perfect before that., and even the minor issues that have poped up are not any thing I can say are to do with any thing that is a factory defect and is just a firmware bug which im sure will be fixed by the time they have new firmware out.

 

[Hovtech]

I said this before, but if you are not technically inclined, you're probably not going to do well with the Phantom. You also have to be rather smart about your phone's operating system, or else you'll probably end up freezing the phone screen.

 

[Gangapat]

I've flown drones worth anything from 1000 to close to 100 000 dollars. The functionality and reliability you get with the phantom 3 is amazing. I've flown expensive plane-type birds and have had to repair them daily and I've crashed a lot. This new line of drones at the 1000-1500$ price point is amazing and more reliable than anything we've had access to in the first decade of drones. I'm not saying they're perfect and it still sucks when you're stuck with a dead rig, but the % of failures has dropped way down and the ease of use is another world compared to what it was just 3-5 years ago. Enoy your phantom folks!

 

[30secs]

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.

Hard to believe this is your thought process. We're talking mostly firmware/software issues. Those are NOT products of assembly lines.

Is it hard for you to believe that Microsoft makes a single identical product yet there are thousands and thousands of different reported issues?

Is it hard for you to believe that something man made (especially many-men written) is not perfect?

I can tell you don't have experience with IT. Seems like you should open your mind a bit more and understand that in IT there are at times software issues that only God can understand why they are happening.

 

[DattaGroover]

I'm new to the Phantom forum but have been lurking for a while, mine will arrive Monday. Anyway, I have read of failure of this and failure of that but at the same time I have seen many posts that praise the Phantom and no issues at all, even after the dreaded firmware updates. My question is, I almost have to believe that most failures are due to something done wrong, downloaded or installed wrong or something not calibrated properly. I can't believe that DJI's quality control is so bad that 2 or 3 out of ten or more Phantoms come off the line bad. If they were handmade, maybe, but from an assembly line, just hard to fathom. Do you think that most failures are pilot error and not DJI failures? I would feel better knowing that if I do everything by the book, I will have no issues. There is a lot to calibrate and get right before taking off and if it's done correctly, all problems should take care of themselves. Am I being naïve or are there quality issues at DJI?

When they work, they are great. The problem is when they don't. I have owned 3 Phantoms (all 2s) and in my opinion and experience DJI has serious quality control issues. That is an opinion only, but one I share with many. DJI knows they have QC issues.

Many people who own products tend to swing for or against, often to the extreme. With bad experience they may hate, and without bad experience, they may like to stand up for the "team" of happy owners and not like to hear anything negative about the product or company they have invested so heavily in.

Hence you see moves here to shut down any criticism, even when based on direct experience. Not everyone is like that, but I do see a trend. All that said, I still may eventually get a P3, though I plan to wait a while. I have a P2 as well as a 3DR Solo. None are perfect. I just believe it's better going in if you know the risks.

Bottom line: If you are not okay putting your entire purchase investment at risk, don't do it. For myself and many others, it is worth the risk. Just watch out for the "It's all pilot error" or "an infinitesimal number of DJIs have QC issues" THAT, in my opinion, is simply B.S.

 

[greenskeeper]

30, I absolutely understand what you are saying, and if this is a firmware/software issue, then the answer to my original question is, it's DJI's problem. What I am questioning is if so many are flying fine with no issues even after the firmware updates, then where is the problem, with DJI or the pilots? You are correct, I am not in IT and I would venture to say that the majority of Phantom owners are not IT savvy either, but how can some Phantoms work so well and some not? I assume they are all running the same firmware, give or take an update and they should all be the same coming off the line the same, so that leads me to believe that most of the errors that we are reading about are pilot errors, don't you think? I'm not arguing one way or the other, just trying to understand and maybe even help folks to get their own Phantoms operating properly. It all boils down to, if the firmware is installed to the letter and the manual is read front to back and all the calibrations are done exactly as instructed, will I have a problem free Phantom?

 

[IflyinWY]

30, I absolutely understand what you are saying, and if this is a firmware/software issue, then the answer to my original question is, it's DJI's problem. What I am questioning is if so many are flying fine with no issues even after the firmware updates, then where is the problem, with DJI or the pilots? You are correct, I am not in IT and I would venture to say that the majority of Phantom owners are not IT savvy either, but how can some Phantoms work so well and some not? I assume they are all running the same firmware, give or take an update and they should all be the same coming off the line the same, so that leads me to believe that most of the errors that we are reading about are pilot errors, don't you think? I'm not arguing one way or the other, just trying to understand and maybe even help folks to get their own Phantoms operating properly. It all boils down to, if the firmware is installed to the letter and the manual is read front to back and all the calibrations are done exactly as instructed, will I have a problem free Phantom?

I bet you will have a "Problem free Phantom".

 

[TonG]

It all boils down to, if the firmware is installed to the letter and the manual is read front to back and all the calibrations are done exactly as instructed, will I have a problem free Phantom?

Maybe.

Before the last firmware update my phantom was rocksteady, also inVPS.
After the update which I performed correctly the P3 is only reasonably stable. It is drifting a little bit so in tight spaces you have to watch it carefully.
There are a lot of people on this and other forums who are complaining about this update, so its a little bit naive to think because the P3's are made in automated production (which is only partly true) all the errors are pilot errors.

By the way there are a lot of things about the P3 who are not explained in the manual!!!

 

[dalebb]

30, I absolutely understand what you are saying, and if this is a firmware/software issue, then the answer to my original question is, it's DJI's problem. What I am questioning is if so many are flying fine with no issues even after the firmware updates, then where is the problem, with DJI or the pilots? You are correct, I am not in IT and I would venture to say that the majority of Phantom owners are not IT savvy either, but how can some Phantoms work so well and some not? I assume they are all running the same firmware, give or take an update and they should all be the same coming off the line the same, so that leads me to believe that most of the errors that we are reading about are pilot errors, don't you think? I'm not arguing one way or the other, just trying to understand and maybe even help folks to get their own Phantoms operating properly. It all boils down to, if the firmware is installed to the letter and the manual is read front to back and all the calibrations are done exactly as instructed, will I have a problem free Phantom?

The phantom 3 is really a great flying camera. Will you be problem free? That's hard to say. My first P2V+v3 the right rear motor would cut out but I was high enough that it would recover it's self, sent that one back and got another one which works perfect, but I never did any of the updates other when I pulled it out of the box back in December. Don't fix whats not broken.

My P3A which is in a watery grave was great too till I made the mistake of doing a CSC at 60'. I replaced that with a P3P and am very happy with it, but again I have not updated it to the new update. It works great, don't fix whats not broken and I keep a close eye on my sticks when flying backwards or sideways.

With that said, I think if you read the issues with the P3 and keep them in the back of your mind you will do just fine.

To answer your question, I don't think I can do that. I'm walking a thin wire here with the mod's and the pro's. But I wish you the best of times, it can be a lot of fun.