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

[blade strike]

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

If you take them down past 20% flight they will not last long. Same with any lipo.

You should get 200-300 flights out of the packs if taken care of.

By the way not going to reply too much but the one poll was regarding a firmware issue. 40% is actually pretty accurate when talking about the people effected in the last update.

This is not failure rate.. There are now over 100,000 p3's in the air.. Right there should show the p3 has very few issues.

 

[IflyinWY]

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

Yea, I should have said, if you "never" do a firmware update.

 

[F6Rider]

If it is mainly a Software/Firmware issue then it stands to reason with all else being equal that the problem is in the installation/implementation/operation by the user causing most issues. If 95% of pilots are not having major issues then it stands to reason the other 5% are doing something incorrectly. As a former helicopter Crew Chief & Maintenance supervisor I have worked on birds for years, but I was still required to do repairs/replacements 'By the book', and I mean literally page by page by the book. This was to insure that everything was done exactly the same, and preclude 'short cuts' So I have made both a maintenance schedule and pre-flight checklist that I use, and I have yet to have an issue except for the non-level horizon which I was able to compensate for with the gimbal roll adjustment. Are some of these issues caused by faulty chips or components, sure they are, but I also bought a brand new car that was a lemon and spent more time in the shop than on the road. How many of you have bought new electronics that were defective or even DOA. If these issues happened to a RC car or boat you wouldn't care much, just fix it and move on, but because it's an A/C and will fall out of the sky it's much more important to get it right, every time.

 

[30secs]

Look... Dji decided to create a convoluted firmware update method. Let me repeat, convoluted. If you follow the steps you still have no idea what happened and no way to check, roll back or anything.

I've done my firmware. I don't even know if the issues I'm having are related, but they are definitely a Dji issue.

USB disconnection
Horizon off despite calibrations
Lost signal
Wobbles in wind
Laggy video

Are those my errors? If so how.

 

[greenskeeper]

That is the best answer I have heard yet, well said. With all of the praise and no-issue flights, I have to believe that what's left is the occasional "bad bird" coming off the line and the rest is just not doing it by the book, every time. I would love to get a copy of your pre-flight checklist and maintenance schedule, as would a lot of other people, I'm sure.

 

[Daninho]

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.

Well, i think its even higher, not only 20% when you take the jello Gimbals into account as well. You can see clearly that not all phantoms are the same because so many ppl have jello gimbals and some have perfect ones. With jello gimbals i mean vibrations from the gimbal itself visible on the ground. So this is the best proof that not every phantom is the same and there is more than just a bad motor every 100th phanoms. When you ask "who has a jello gimbal" you will hear hundreds of ppl in the forum alone screaming "here!".

 

[30secs]

Or off horizon. That's not use error sorry. Not for us experienced pilots. I know how to calibrate and even reversed calibrated and air calibrated and it didn't fix it

 

[blade strike]

Look... Dji decided to create a convoluted firmware update method. Let me repeat, convoluted. If you follow the steps you still have no idea what happened and no way to check, roll back or anything.

I've done my firmware. I don't even know if the issues I'm having are related, but they are definitely a Dji issue.

USB disconnection
Horizon off despite calibrations
Lost signal
Wobbles in wind
Laggy video

Are those my errors? If so how.

Umm there is a log on the sdcard that shows exactly what has happened during the upgrade. X:\misc\log\logname

 

[blade strike]

Well, i think its even higher, not only 20% when you take the jello Gimbals into account as well. You can see clearly that not all phantoms are the same because so many ppl have jello gimbals and some have perfect ones. With jello gimbals i mean vibrations from the gimbal itself visible on the ground. So this is the best proof that not every phantom is the same and there is more than just a bad motor every 100th phanoms. When you ask "who has a jello gimbal" you will hear hundreds of ppl in the forum alone screaming "here!".

Nope not even .05%

BTW ANY gimbal will have signs of jello under certain conditions. To expect not then you truly don't understand these things.

(And I run gimbal from $3k down to $100, dji , alexmos and various other gimbal / controllers)

 

[30secs]

Umm there is a log on the sdcard that shows exactly what has happened during the upgrade. X:\misc\log\logname

And it said it was successful.

 

[blade strike]

And it said it was successful.

The above log path shows alot more than that.

Just replying to your post that the upgrade process doesn't let you know anything. Which is completly false...

 

[30secs]

The above log path shows alot more than that.

Just replying to your post that the upgrade process doesn't let you know anything. Which is completly false...

You taking one part of my entire sentence literally then saying completely false... Good logic there.

So if the log is so incredibly all knowing how come I haven't seen a single post about the former update log file to try and troubleshoot some of the issues the member they are having?

And how is Dji explanation of the firmware is just some bug fixes? Did they provide a log of what was in that firmware update?

 

[DattaGroover]

That is the best answer I have heard yet, well said. With all of the praise and no-issue flights, I have to believe that what's left is the occasional "bad bird" coming off the line and the rest is just not doing it by the book, every time. I would love to get a copy of your pre-flight checklist and maintenance schedule, as would a lot of other people, I'm sure.

And additionally- it's a fragile technology. There are bugs and there will be for some time. I personally believe it may be some bad birds, but many of the events (the ones that are not pilot error) are random things that this fragile technology is susceptible to.

 

[blade strike]

You taking one part of my entire sentence literally then saying completely false... Good logic there.

So if the log is so incredibly all knowing how come I haven't seen a single post about the former update log file to try and troubleshoot some of the issues the member they are having?

And how is Dji explanation of the firmware is just some bug fixes? Did they provide a log of what was in that firmware update?

Because it's a know issue and dji is already working on a solution. If you would research rather than trying to stretch the truth you would know this.

Release notes are posted on the dji website.

 

[F6Rider]

Look... Dji decided to create a convoluted firmware update method. Let me repeat, convoluted. If you follow the steps you still have no idea what happened and no way to check, roll back or anything.

I've done my firmware. I don't even know if the issues I'm having are related, but they are definitely a Dji issue.

USB disconnection - app crash due to slow processor, heat, to many other processes in background?
Horizon off despite calibrations - Known issue, not serious buy annoying. manual gimbal roll adjustment worked for me
Lost signal - on what? Video? see above, controller?
Wobbles in wind - IMU cold calibration, compass error? How much wind?
Laggy video - see above, Ipad 2 mini lags when hot as do others, I dumped mine and went with Air 2 much better.

Are those my errors? If so how.

Some or all could be a result of bad IMU or Compass calibrations, overheating iPad or low power processor. Please post your configuration with more information, many have had some or all of these issues and have corrected them (except the off slant horizon which is a known issue)

 

[Daninho]

Nope not even .05%

BTW ANY gimbal will have signs of jello under certain conditions. To expect not then you truly don't understand these things.

(And I run gimbal from $3k down to $100, dji , alexmos and various other gimbal / controllers)

I wont hassle with you about this, i just read the forums. There was even a pre release video with jello and you have perfect gimbals in the brightest sunlight as well on the ohter side. In the DJI forum i have at least 12 ppl writing they have the same problemwith pulsating vibrations. I brought my Phantom to DJi Europe in person and they say said they will calibrate it on a machine. I just believe my own eyes, dont want to downgrade DJI in any way, this is just what i read in the forums. If only .05% have this problem i was unlucky i guess. The strange thing is that the H3-2D never showed any signs of jello and i had 3 of them. The H3-3D were more prone to jello, again some of them. I got a lemon as well, some are perfect. In the DJI forum you can meet a guy with two P3s, one has extreme jello, the other one is fine. So it is clearly a quality problem, they need to mange equal gimbal quality, somehow.

 

[blade strike]

I wont hassle with you about this, i just read the forums. There was even a pre release video with jello and you have perfect gimbals in the brightest sunlight as well on the ohter side. In the DJI forum i have at least 12 ppl writing they have the same problemwith pulsating vibrations. I brought my Phantom to DJi Europe in person and they say said they will calibrate it on a machine. I just believe my own eyes, dont want to downgrade DJI in any way, this is just what i read in the forums. If only .05% have this problem i was unlucky i guess. The strange thing is that the H3-2D never showed any signs of jello and i had 3 of them. The H3-3D were more prone to jello, again some of them. I got a lemon as well, some are perfect. In the DJI forum you can meet a guy with two P3s, one has extreme jello, the other one is fine. So it is clearly a quality problem, they need to mange equal gimbal quality, somehow.

With over 100k in the air and your saying you have read 12 reports? Like I said very few considering the total. (Invite you to do the math)

I know this doesn't help if you're one of them. If you are seeing jello under normal conditions then more than likely the gimbal needs to be repaired or replaced.

 

[jcknows0]

I wont hassle with you about this, i just read the forums. There was even a pre release video with jello and you have perfect gimbals in the brightest sunlight as well on the ohter side. In the DJI forum i have at least 12 ppl writing they have the same problemwith pulsating vibrations. I brought my Phantom to DJi Europe in person and they say said they will calibrate it on a machine. I just believe my own eyes, dont want to downgrade DJI in any way, this is just what i read in the forums. If only .05% have this problem i was unlucky i guess. The strange thing is that the H3-2D never showed any signs of jello and i had 3 of them. The H3-3D were more prone to jello, again some of them. I got a lemon as well, some are perfect. In the DJI forum you can meet a guy with two P3s, one has extreme jello, the other one is fine. So it is clearly a quality problem, they need to mange equal gimbal quality, somehow.

I have to agree with you on the H3-3D gimbals as I had 2, one never had a single issue and the other was off calibrated from day one (yaw twitch issue). While I coped with it and took it with me on vacation, nevertheless it was frustrating albeit helpful in making me fly slower to avoid the issue. With only one day with P3P under my belt, the tech performance is vast. I cannot say much about new firmware issues(I upgraded last night stupidly without checking forums first) as I was only able to fly for a few minutes today in between rain drops.
I also can't comment on waiting weeks for a brand new Phantom from DJI only to have QA issues as I have only ever bought any of the equipment used at a substantial discount. I am sure people had problems and I benefited from them being able to fix them with some grey muscle. I also drove B&H nuts returning several H3-3D gimbals trying to get around the firmware reset issue. IMHO DJI to use the PC analogy, is like Apple when it comes to the beauty of hardware/software integration in a "walled garden" approach, but they are frustratingly like Microsoft when it comes to firmware, pushed out the door ready for all the unwitting beta testers to iron out the kinks.
My hat is still off to them as bad as I hear their CS is, as they are pioneering the industry which is tough for any young company to do.

 

[ScottyT]

Because it's a know issue and dji is already working on a solution. If you would research rather than trying to stretch the truth you would know this.

Release notes are posted on the dji website.

The release notes are a joke. "Various bug fixes". Come on.

 

[30secs]

I don't get it why people are putting themselves in camps and honestly I'm starting to think it's just trolling.

I can't believe the ones that say they have zero issues really have never had a single issue, not even app crash or off gimbal at times? Don't buy it.

And for those that have some issues.. Like myself, I still love my p3, it's a great machine. But it's not perfect. Just now I went out with brand new 1ft USB cable and the app kept losing signal at 60ft away. AND the gimbal was off.. Again. So what should I do? Contact Dji about replacement or wait for the next update?