Phantom 4 discontinued

[John Locke]

I emailed DJI out of curiosity and they said that they are out of stock and don't know if they will get more in. Youn can still buy a refurbished though.

Yeah, and I bet those are tested too, as opposed to regular production units that aren't. There are too many obvious problems shipped out that could be caught if DJI would simply turn on the craft without flying it, no props needed. Gimbal vibrations and crooked cameras (more prevalent in P4P) are two easy things to detect, simply buy turning on the craft. You would think since the craft is linked to the RC they have to turn it on anyway. Why don't they look for these two issues at the same time? Sorry to hijack this thread with my rant, I just get so annoyed with manufacturing incompetence sometimes. DJI thinks it's acceptable for customers to be their outgoing inspectors. It seems so easy to improve their outgoing quality with simple and quick inspection steps.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yeah, and I bet those are tested too, as opposed to regular production units that aren't. There are too many obvious problems shipped out that could be caught if DJI would simply turn on the craft without flying it, no props needed. Gimbal vibrations and crooked cameras (more prevalent in P4P) are two easy things to detect, simply buy turning on the craft. You would think since the craft is linked to the RC they have to turn it on anyway. Why don't they look for these two issues at the same time? Sorry to hijack this thread with my rant, I just get so annoyed with manufacturing incompetence sometimes. DJI thinks it's acceptable for customers to be their outgoing inspectors. It seems so easy to improve their outgoing quality with simple and quick inspection steps.

It's a cost issue. Quality control costs money. Most will accept them as is, and many of the rest will crash before they discover it! For the few that complain, they'll send you another, which may be no better. Eventually, if you are too picky, you will go away, but they still have your money.

 

[UpLift Aerial]

Yeah, and I bet those are tested too, as opposed to regular production units that aren't. There are too many obvious problems shipped out that could be caught if DJI would simply turn on the craft without flying it, no props needed. Gimbal vibrations and crooked cameras (more prevalent in P4P) are two easy things to detect, simply buy turning on the craft. You would think since the craft is linked to the RC they have to turn it on anyway. Why don't they look for these two issues at the same time? Sorry to hijack this thread with my rant, I just get so annoyed with manufacturing incompetence sometimes. DJI thinks it's acceptable for customers to be their outgoing inspectors. It seems so easy to improve their outgoing quality with simple and quick inspection steps.

Agree totally! That's like DJI or any other repair shop repairing your phantom, or any drone for that matter, without inspecting it, calibrating it, or even test flying it, and just sending it back to the owner. Who knows what could be wrong. Then they (DJI) blame you and say your doing something wrong, and when you finally fight them to repair it, they turn around and go charge you for repairing that problem and shipping it, then it happens all over again.

I'll just copy that paragraph 100 times. That's how it goes. Lol.

 

[John Locke]

It's a cost issue. Quality control costs money. Most will accept them as is, and many of the rest will crash before they discover it! For the few that complain, they'll send you another, which may be no better. Eventually, if you are too picky, you will go away, but they still have your money.

Well, consider this. They have to turn on the craft and RC to link the two unit together anyway, right? That means they have to go through the entire boot cycle waiting period, about 45 seconds. Checking for a gimbal vibration would take about 30 second after boot completion. Looking at the camera to insure it's not crooked can be done at the same time, no extra time. So compare that to the hundreds of units they have to replaced, maybe thousands, from simple defects like this. I wouldn't cost much when workers are paid $4/hr. That's about 5 additional cents to inspect these two things. It's hard to believe the 5 cent cost of inspection is more than the cost of shipping, handling, repair or replacement of thousand of drones in the US. I deem this incompetent manufacturing, they aren't maximizing profit IMO. I think it costs them way more money neglecting these simple inspection steps. It would also help their bad press about obvious inspection omissions.

 

[UpLift Aerial]

It's a cost issue. Quality control costs money. Most will accept them as is, and many of the rest will crash before they discover it! For the few that complain, they'll send you another, which may be no better. Eventually, if you are too picky, you will go away, but they still have your money.

DJI is a 10 billion dollar company, I'm sure they can afford to test the drones that they sell.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well, consider this. They have to turn on the craft and RC to link the two unit together anyway, right? That means they have to go through the entire boot cycle waiting period, about 45 seconds. Checking for a gimbal vibration would take about 30 second after boot completion. Looking at the camera to insure it's not crooked can be done at the same time, no extra time. So compare that to the hundreds of units they have to replaced, maybe thousands, from simple defects like this. I wouldn't cost much when workers are paid $4/hr. That's about 5 additional cents to inspect these two things. It's hard to believe the 5 cent cost of inspection is more than the cost of shipping, handling, repair or replacement of thousand of drones in the US. I deem this incompetent manufacturing, they aren't maximizing profit IMO. I think it costs them way more money neglecting these simple inspection steps. It would also help their bad press about obvious inspection omissions.

I think you are still overlooking the fact that say 95% of the buyers will accept these defects that only matter to you and me, and not even notice them. If DJI discovers these defects during QC, then they have to fix them, which they won't have to do if the buyer never discovers the defect, or never complains about it. It's simple economics. It's not the cost of inspection. It's the cost of repair of a mildly defective unit that a buyer will likely never complain about. If they do, they just give them another. Trust me. If DJI could make more money doing it your way, they would! They make more money doing it this way. Returning a unit to DJI is a PIA and may not even result in any improvement.

 

[UpLift Aerial]

I think you are still overlooking the fact that say 95% of the buyers will accept these defects that only matter to you and me, and not even notice them. If DJI discovers these defects during QC, then they have to fix them, which they won't have to do if the buyer never discovers the defect, or never complains about it. It's simple economics. It's not the cost of inspection. It's the cost of repair of a mildly defective unit that a buyer will likely never complain about. If they do, they just give them another. Trust me. If DJI could make more money doing it your way, they would! They make more money doing it this way. Returning a unit to DJI is a PIA and may not even result in any improvement.

I see what you're getting at, but still, you're not going to use old ingredients to make a cookie and give someone the cookie even if they don't know you used old ingredients. You're going to use good ingredients and make sure it's safe to eat, whether they notice or not.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I see what you're getting at, but still, you're not going to use old ingredients to make a cookie and give someone the cookie even if they don't know you used old ingredients. You're going to use good ingredients and make sure it's safe to eat, whether they notice or not.

Not if you have lots of old ingredients you still need to unload! Ever noticed how, even at CostCo, the freshest product is at the very back, out of reach, and the nearly expired stuff is right out in front at eye level? Most people never check the sell by dates! They also won't complain because it will most likely still be consumed before it expires, much like the drone will be crashed before they notice, or they bought DJI Care Refresh, and it gets sorted out that way. Most new buyers are afraid to fly, and won't discover a mild gimbal vibration or a slightly misaligned camera. Not everyone is as sophisticated as you and I, nor flies daily, nor even know what these drones are truly capable of. Simply stated, most mild defects are never complained about.

 

[realsting]

IMHO it doesn’t matter if they discontinue it, so long as they’ve ironed out the bugs. The P4 with its new addition f/w v2 is a very capable machine and does quite a bit more than it did when I purchased it in March 2016. But again, so long as the bugs are fixed and users have a reliable machine. As I’ve always said - ‘if you don’t like change, get out of the technology business’

 

[Slipstrm]

they have already discontinued it by ignoring the Stuxnet firmware that has rendered many unflyable!

 

[Baddpuppy]

Don't panic.

The batts. are a "yuuge" profit center for them cause there's sooo many P3s out there.
I doubt they cost more than about $10-15 to produce.

Pl.!