Alright, this time I'll try to whine and complain a little less, but I think this is it. After replacing gimbal after gimbal, broken arm after broken arm (are they always the blue ones that break?), watching my Iris drop dead from the sky time after time, I'm just ready to get out of this abusive expensive relationship.
I will give it just 1 more chance though.... and it hinges on how 3DR support will reply to my email I sent today. Will they blame the pilot, again? Or will they say "hey, you know what, you just might have a bad piece of hardware"
I took my Iris out to the park, wanting to practice some Follow Me paths while riding my bike. Well, I didn't even get to hop on my bike before the Iris crashed twice, both times killing power in the air.
The first crash was luckily only 3 feet off the ground, so it landed on all 4 legs. I flew it again, hovering around 4 - 5 feet for a minute or so just to see if it would kill again, nope, I landed it.
Maybe I'm arrogant, but this time I tried launching with the Tower app. Launched fine, and as it climbs to about 20 feet I realize if it falls from that height, it might do some damage, so I pressed "Land" on my phone, and the Land button must be 3DR for "kill power and dive" because that's what happened.
I wasn't so lucky this time, it took a nose dive breaking an arm and the gimbal. Fortunately THIS time my GoPro was not harmed.
If anybody wants to waste some time trying to investigate a problem I expect 3DR Support will blame on pilot error, here are my logs from today. But please, if you do find out what happened (other than it looks like you lost power here...), I would appreciate some feedback. It would be interesting to see if 3DR support has a different answer too.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/63m1xapf0gawg4n/AADrnUObnQXgrZT2y63jTtYYa?dl=0
Here is also the entire video, uncut from today, for your laughter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG9649RKpAg
Like I said, 3DR has 1 last chance to impress me. I've just received a bonus check from work for a couple thousand dollars, and I'm buying a new drone. 3DR Solo? DJI Phantom 4? Let's see how this support call turns out. Last time they offered me a 15% discount on an overpriced Tarot gimbal. No help with my crushed GoPro. Not even a constellation prize set of propellers.
Replies
1st suggestion learn to fly and land without the autopilot. get a 50.00 hubsan x4 and fly the crap out of it. I learned to fly and can fly with the aircraft facing in any directions while instinctively making flight corrections. I also practice landing it on a five gallon bucket.
2nd suggestion I went from the y6 to the Phantom 3 pro. my y6 burnt up an esc and i bent a motor shaft, unfortunately I cannot get the motors from 3DR and have to find one that's close or upgrade all six. I love the Phantom3 and the way it flys.
It's too bad 3DR customer support is so lacking, with no spare parts availability and the fact they dropped the ball on the Solo I'm glad I got the phantom over the Solo this fall.
I use the P3 primarily for mapping with the map pilot software.
I predict OP will have the dji experience
http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/for-those-that-read-my-post-ba...
Justin,
I'm unsure reading through the thread if you have decided on a new multi-rotor yet.
Here's my take;
I'm a UAV instructor, and the company I'm currently working for uses Phantoms for students on the flight line..
I, personally, after working with them for quite a while have grown to hate them.
They're a jack of all trades, and try to accomplish everything a drone operator would want.
But in this, they are marginal at what they are capable of doing.
Read up about how limited amounts of customization there is.
Read up about the fly-aways.
Read up about how they're mass-produced in China, with limited quality control.
I'm sure you saw the pictures of the junk frames a few pages back on this thread; There's many reasons that the DJIs are returned.
Sure they have a huge portion of the market share, but that doesn't mean they're the best.
I would suggest you build your own multi-rotor setup. It may take some time, but it's well worth it.
You know your electronics inside and out.
It's cheap.
You won't encounter issue after issue that you do with DJI.
Thank you for the feedback.
I want to be clear that I am not interested in customizations at all. I do not want to tinker with parameters, mess with the geo fence, disable or extend the 400m ceiling, fly in restricted areas, perform special unique flight paths....
I just want to fly in approved areas, using approved methods, and film some outdoor recreation and scenery according to the manufacturer suggestions.
I want no customization at all, I just want a drone that comes ready to fly, and I don't want to fine tune any part of it to make it do anything special.
I believe that perhaps this customization field is an area where 3DR may be better, but that is not my interest at all. I just want to fly as is, and fly as it was intended to.
It seems that most of the Phantom issues are when pilots want to edit the settings and do something special, which is not recommended.
I'll be buying the Phantom 4 likely next week, and I'll start a thread with my 3DR Iris+ for sale with a heartbreaking amount of extras, at a huge discount.
Thanks
the fameous "Just want to". Was that the reason why you crashed. P4 will not meet your "just want to" spec. Its optical flow avoidance system will give the user false security and the "just want to" users will steer the P4 right into trouble. P4 was only out couple months, there were several incidents caused by "just want to" flyers.
Good Luck With That.
Ha ha, you guys are still arguing about this. I keep getting alerts of new replies, and sure enough, Yun Tak is fighting like a champion to promote how my Iris is in excellent condition.
Hey, I've got an Iris+ for sale, everybody says it's in perfect condition, who would like to buy? Maybe I'll start another thread and post pictures of everything included in the package. We all know it includes an Iris+ in mint condition.
Thanks to certain people in this thread, they've made it VERY easy for me to move on from 3DR and purchase my next drone elsewhere. Thanks all!
How much? I'd love a fixer-upper.
Hmmm, good question. I'll probably be selling it all with a backpack carrier, live view kit including the 7" screen, gimbal, 6 extra motors, 3 batteries... I'll have to see what a good price is. I'd like to get rid of it soon, maybe half of retail price? Everything is 1 year old or newer. I'll have to see what everybody else is selling theirs for.
Of course I'll fix the arm, I've got a spare, and I've just replaced the gimbal mount too.
I think I'll take a photo of everything I'm selling and I'll post in a new thread.
Thanks
Just found this survey about DJI, not everything is gold what glitters...I think both sides do have their pro and cons.
Here are the results:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1R4MaX8iZWRoyzKJ6rKr0U-p3x-6j0ZVm5a...
Or if you would like to take part on this survey AND you have a google account:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1R4MaX8iZWRoyzKJ6rKr0U-p3x-6j0ZVm5a...
Cheers, Robert
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