Stress Cracks WTF

[John Locke]

I have a theory that DJI actually tests their refurbs, something they don't do with production craft. So the odds of getting a craft that's 100% good functionally, are greater with a refurb. Glad it's working for you.

 

[mark99]

It is a penny pinching issue, the plastic is just very poor quality and of inconstant quality, they are number 1 in the market "at present" just like betamax video was.
The competition is right on their heels, GDU, if they could every get their marketing act together, Autel who again, fail at publicity, all make good strong well made products.
DJI wil only care when they have to care and along with the spyware, constant firmware update issues and crap plastic, they will be toppled.

 

[John Locke]

The competition is right on their heels, GDU, if they could every get their marketing act together

That's true, before today I had never heard of GDU. Poor marketing. 2Km range of this craft is kids play, it will be DOA IMO, not a serious challenge for DJI.

Nobody will give DJI serious competition unless they FIRST create communications technology as good as lightbridge, instead of using plain old Wi-Fi. That's step one.Then you have the massive software challenge to be as good as GO4 is, which is easier than designing a lightbridge equivalent, but still a huge task. Example is Yuneec, still not anywhere close to GO4 in they're app capabilities. Then you have camera technology, DJI has past everyone up like they are sitting still (ie go pro) with small, light, large sensor cameras . Then you have DJIs massive product selection, proving there authority. They have a full range of products from the Spark consumer drone, up to the M600 commercial grade craft, among others. I ready don't see anyone catching DJI in the next 10yrs, IMHO.

3DR is now making software for DJI craft. How's that for embarrassing? Autel hasn't released much in the last year, which seems to indicate they're starving for revenue.

First step is a lightbridge equivalent. Until that occurs, no context IMO.

 

[mark99]

Lightbridge is basically a digital video broadcast camera outdoor link, nothing new, 10 year old Sony technology, good old fashioned radio link as opposed to the fascination with WIFI, which was never designed for range.
Nothing new except, the other drone makers have not thought of it.
Improved stills with zoom field of view will be the next break through.
Currently the 5K+ market, can DJI bring it to the consumer market ?

 

[John Locke]

Nothing new except, the other drone makers have not thought of it.

They haven't thought of it? Lightbridge has been out 3 yrs. If it was so easy to implement in a drone the competition would have done it by now. But nothing but crickets in that realm, even from Qualcomm who claims to be making drone building blocks. They seem oblivious to this essential technology that's needed to improve the integrity of air to ground communications.

 

[mark99]

No i dont think they have thought of it, why , because it is very old technology, it has been around 10 years in present digital form and a good 25 in analogue.
If you have ever used v lock sony broadcast equipment you will be familiar with two way video link technology, small packet about the size of a cigarette packet slides on the side of the camera.
range outdoors is about 400-500m in city enviroment.
It is what outside broadcast news cameras use to link to the sat truck.
Place it in something in the air and you would have range in miles.
Certainly no new wonderful technology that is unique, adapted yes.
Old school, stuff, but obviously the other drone makers don't employ old school experts, WIFI was never invented for long range communications, hence why it is pants at it.

Will the others think to look back and see what works ?
Who knows, but to hoist it as some new unique technology, might work with drone nerds, but with people involved with real media equipment, they will just say, oh look, a broadcast RF system.

 

[keeganxt]

URL?

 

[bkushner]

That's where they happen on the backside. Now send it in and get yourself a refurb for your new purchase.

 

[BarryW]

This can sometime happen when you forget which way to put the props on and you hold the leg or the jutt while pressing down and turning the wrong way. Some people place the props on when its still in the box with no support. This same thing happens to the legs , its just to much pressure placed on direct parts of the drone.

This is one of the reason why we leave the props on to avoid that type of stress repeatedly.
We have also had over a hundred hand catches and no stress cracks thus far.

We have also tested the hard breaking on the Phantom Wet Suits to see if in fact that we be a problem.
After months of hard breaking we saw no stress cracks and we were under the microscope at that time.

We did not see any wear and tear on the drone when we tore it apart either.

I would say that poor handling and placing of the props are a big part of both the legs and the juts cracking.

We also noticed that some people packed there Gray Phantom Cases and would add that little extra push to get them into the box.


We also have a buddy here in Ohio that runs a plastic mold company and he says it very rare that a plastic would just all of a sudden
just crack unless frozen and than heated quickly causing expansion to take place.

So as far as we can tell from are testing , hand catching is good, hard breaking is good, placing props on can be risky business.
You should always no which way to turn the props so you get right the very first time.

Here is a just 1 test of a 100 we did with a wet drone in heavy winds using the new firmware you can watch it.

We have been watching for these stress cracks very closely and nothing so far.

Coal
Phantomrain.org
Approved Vendor.



View attachment 90921

Strange I never remove my props and never place in a case.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

That's where they happen on the backside. Now send it in and get yourself a refurb for your new purchase.

WOW , that is sad, I am being led to believe that the Case is the problem . I think that these units are being placed into the Case by hand and not a robot, and I wonder if it is possible that the pressure from the case for prolong period of time is causing the stress cracks as I have 1 case that is so tight I was afraid to put the drone back in.

The second drone that we got came directly from DGI without a controller and did not come in a case but just a cardboard box and some packing.
If they are done by hand than its possible that it could the issue for some not all.

Even pulling it out of the case can be difficult and cause stress on the those arms as they can be placed in those cases tight.

What we do now is we get the Drones from BEST BUY somewhere close and than we to are own pressure test , grabbing each arm and sneezing with applied pressure , we do the same to the legs by grabbing with one hand a shaking just a bit to see if the clips will pop off .

If it does not hold up , we take it straight back to exchange for another one and of course we test the Horizon , camera , gimbal and battery looseness as well..

This includes the upgrade and flight behavior , and sometimes if we do not like the behavior of the drone as we have others to compare to we take them back as a dudd.

Another thing we test right away is the ability to capture satellite in the house very important.

If we get a drone that does not have a good horizon level right off the bat, it goes back for exchange.

One last note: Most of the replacements come in a box and not the case , that because I think they know whats up.

Hope that helps.

Coal
Phantomrain.org

 

[Stan1915]

This looks like the Phantom 4 Black Edition that was sold by Best Buy about a year ago. I hope that it is not the Obsidian that has cracked already. The vents are designed a little different on the P4PO

 

[keeganxt]

This looks like the Phantom 4 Black Edition that was sold by Best Buy about a year ago. I hope that it is not the Obsidian that has cracked already. The vents are designed a little different on the P4PO

Ah... good call, I didn't even think to cross reference the video date or the fact that he says Phantom 4 SE. Please disregard the video.