DJI Mini 3 Pro crashed twice in 12 days - DJI CARE Refresh?!

[@t0mwhazzup]

DJI handled my case. How they did that you can see here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqaqp6Kod6pqe5Y

[@DJISupportGlobal]

Hi Tom, we feel sorry to hear about the accident that happened to your drone, we understand your frustration, especially when you just received the replacement. Mini 3 Pro supports flyaway coverage on DJI Care Refresh, you may start a flyaway case on the website. Any assistance is in need on our end, please feel free to ask.

[@DroneViewsMedia]

This is why we buy DJI 👍

[@wangyang592]

Amazing customer service

[@AVION360]

Wow - DJI Support really responded. We may not be so lucky from Singapore. Anyway, sorry for your loss. I am lucky, as I flown the 1st Phantom, Inspire1, Mavic's, and Mini's without any crash. Few really near miss mainly due to sideway flight while engrossed on the screen. Each incident makes us a better drone operator. Cheers. Still cannot believe DJI Support responded in your posting🙂

[@t0mwhazzup]

Thank you very much for your answer. I have opened a flyaway case last week, but for now I am waiting for the response yet. I hope that everything works fine.

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@AVION360 Yes, I also think that is great. And yes, I have learned a lot and hope that that was it with crashes and accidents :)

[@stringsattached67]

Why are you guys giving him such a hard time he's learning and he doesn't have anyone experience standing there with him . We all learn from our mistakes. Keep going Buddy you'll be fine once you get the hang of it..

[@t0mwhazzup]

Thank you! But no worries... when you tell your story online, you're expecting some kind of criticism. And so far, I'm accident-free. Guess it's all part of the learning process. Appreciated!

[@bloodlovebullies8365]

Don’t feel bad man I crashed my mini 2 3 times when I was first learning how to fly. It was with a 4 month period but it still. Once you get decent at flying it becomes even more fun.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Thanks for your words! It's already getting better 😉

[@AndrewMage]

I've the beginner's "luck" too. A week ago I flew mine at dusk with an altitude of 200m (660 feet) across a lake 4km away, without realising I had only 60% battery to begin with. Barely 15 min into the flight the controller signalled low battery - and dang - I lost signal! I hit RTH. The final view in the RC was branches at the dronecam height. Find My Drone brought me to an area about 300m from my base. As it was already night, I could see nothing. After an hour's probing in brambles and clearings, I gave up. The smartphone's torch wasn't bright enough to shine through the foliage. Devastation has a new meaning: no signal, no drone, no hope. I woke up at 4.30am the following day, and made it back to the same spot. When sunrise came, I walked on damp soil and grass. The M3Pro was there on a clearing, like a dead pidgeon. One of the feet was folded in, a propellor had snapped off; it must have hit a branch before it fell 30 feet on its side. Nothing else was broken. Lessons learnt: always go on full battery charge. Maintain line of sight. Bring a torchlight if it's night. Turn on Record Screen (from top pull-down menu in RC) before flying. Use Find My Drone (in RC's Profile menu). Pray.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Sorry, I seem to have missed your comment! What a story... but very lucky that you could retrieve your Mini 3 Pro the next morning and it was not seriously damaged :) I always fly with a full battery. They discharge after a week or so to 60 % for battery longevity, so I kind of made a habit of putting all the batteries in the charger before I leave for a "drone mission" ;)

[@AndrewMage]

Lessons like these are gems for us to keep for a lifetime!

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@AndrewMage True words :)

[@IBRAHIMATHIAM124]

Go to open space fly in c mode until you can manage the other modes. Dont go above water yet as a beginner

[@t0mwhazzup]

Yes, that was my learning after that incident. Luckily since then, no incidents so far even though I have been flying a lot.

[@FlyingoverNature]

Nice story, great to see you had support from the DJI 👍

[@t0mwhazzup]

Yeah, luckily they were very helpful 🙂

[@ericsalidbar1693]

i crashed mine as well and looked around for used ones but they were either out of state/too far or they wanted almost full price. paying almost full price didn't sit well with me when I wont be able to add care refresh to it. so I decided to buy a new one and add care refresh to it and when I get my replacement ill put the new one away and if anything happens again I wont have to lose 3 out of the 3 replacements and also if at the end of the 2 years I don't file a claim on the second drone they extend the 2 years into 3. so its worth having a spare mini 3 pro drone and a spare RC remote.

[@t0mwhazzup]

This is definitely the luxury route, but if you can afford it too, why not! This gives me ease of mind to fly in difficult conditions. After a crash I'll have a second drone right away and get the crashed drone replaced by DJI. Yes it's costly, but to me, worth it. I just don't have a spare RC, just a spare N1, but I don't think that I'd need another remote. I had to pay full price for a used one (two weeks old), here all the other sellers wanted even more than the new price because it was so scarcely available here at that time...

[@Intotheoutdoors69]

Mate that is gutted sorry to hear this you have definitely made my mind up on getting the care fresh😁👍

[@t0mwhazzup]

Yes, it simply gives you peace of mind when flying 🙂

[@AZGeek520]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sucks but I really appreciate your sharing the experience so we can all learn.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Thanks for your comment! I just needed to get that off my soul when it happened ;) But I'm happy to hear that it's of use to someone!

[@mjklein]

I bought mine 4 weeks ago. This is my first drone. I found that I preferred to make my own custom mode and it made a big difference. Your humility gets a sub from me.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Thank you very much for your comment and your sub. Can you explain what you mean by making your own custom mode? I am not sure what you mean by that.

[@mjklein]

@@t0mwhazzup Instead of flying in Mode 2, I selected Custom Mode and made the sticks control the drone how I wanted to instead of the stock Mode 2.

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@mjklein Okay, now I see. When I started flying drones, it would have been more natural to me to switch the left and the right stick (i.e. descending and turning with the right stick and flying forwards/backwards/sidewards with the left stick). But I decided to go with Mode 2 to be able to fly drones from others too. Took some time but now it's good. And it was not causal to my loss of the drone. May I ask how you set up your stick controls?

[@mjklein]

@@t0mwhazzup Left: Up/Down + Sideways. Right: Forward/Backwards + Turns. Now I can fly naturally with 1 stick and not vary the altitude by mistake. A famous drone pilot crashed his drone in the ocean and when reviewing the flight logs, he was surprised to see that he had descended without realizing it. I was doing that also just by turning the drone with the left stick. It made more sense to be to be more airplane like. I can fly around and maintain exact altitude and only change it purposefully. I can still accidently fly sideways but I can see that happening a lot easier than a slow altitude change.

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@mjklein Sorry for late answer, pretty busy times right now. This configuration wouldn't have come to my mind, but great to hear if it works for you! Luckily I have never descended or ascended the drone by accident, but if I had, your config would definitely be worth considering!

[@TrueFisp112]

You're not alone... I crashed mine twice in 10 days. The first was really stupid, trying to hand catch after an Active track flight with some heavy foliage/tree branches above the drone which of course made the Mini 3 ascend and smash right into these. The gimbal rubber membranes ripped from its mount and dislocated totally. Fortunately I had DJI Care Refresh and after just 7 calendar days I had a new M3P in my hands! Cudos to the Care Refresh site in the Netherlands and UPS (Sweden-The Netherlands (Rotterdam)-Sweden in one week!). Then I happily (stupidly) tried out Active track once again in a narrow path and forgot to disable lateral movement and of course I heard the poor little frog eat vegetation once again in a ditch beside the path... This time I was more lucky, just had to change a couple of propellers, but anyhow that made me feel like the worst drone pilot ever... Cheers/Johan And btw, sorry for the fly away, it's a hell much more expensive than the damage replacement...

[@t0mwhazzup]

Hi Johan, thanks for your comment! Sorry to hear that you also happened to crash your drone twice already, but it's good that everything is fine now. I have flown my Mini 3 now for three days in a row and everything is fine now. I hope the flyaway replacement works well, and yes, it's far more expensive, but it was my own fault. So... ;) Have a good one!

[@DJISupportGlobal]

Hi, Johan. Sorry to know about the incident. We appreciate your feedback on our service using your DJI Care Refresh. Feel free to reach out at any time for other DJI-related inquiries, or concerns. Thank you for choosing DJI.

[@Instant_Nerf]

I bought my mini 3 a month ago. And I had to send it back two times already. The first time the drone 5 feet off the ground, the left propeller stops spinning and the drone comes crashing down.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Uuuh, definitely a technical failure. And what happened the second time?

[@Instant_Nerf]

@@t0mwhazzup so I sent in that drone for a replacement. The drone arrives. I turn it on. Setup it up and then the fuck and camera can’t achieve focus. Keeps going in and out in and out of focus then it just stops .. not focus. Can’t see shit .. it’s a blurry mess. Can’t fly it .. that’s how blurry it was.. I might upload the videos so people can see the utter bull shit. I gave up on dji entirely. Anyways .. I calibrate the camera, the gimbal .. no luck .. I try and fix it till 5 am. And I’m exhausted by then. I just got my drone back ughhh. Well that’s why I have up on dji. How the fuck do you send out products like this to you’re customers that just sent in a drone for replacement. I spent longer time sending the drone back and waiting then actually having and fun with my drone. What a let down. I’m either going to save up for a mavic 3 or just fuck them for good and il give AUTEL. My money. To me it seems that ever since they added all these pro features to under 250g drones .. it’s a shit show. Shit is too complicated for something smaller .. they have to make everything smaller and weigh less. And it becomes complex.

[@angelc.1548]

@@Instant_Nerf agree.. they hear three pros so much n make the product harder to use for hobbyist. I had the Spark. No focus, everything was clear close n far. No prob or auto. Etc. Now like you said. They packed too much into it. I just wanna fly n record. I don't really care for D-cine I think that's how it's spelt n color grading after. The drone still recorded good color n footage in automatic.

[@Instant_Nerf]

Well here is a small clip from that utter mess: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qV6qmI1_pcihlZo

[@Raankar]

ahahahaah Tom Whazzup you are drones test crash, relax, just wait for the nest one !!! You will be fine buddy, thank you for the video, kind regards.

[@theoutsider6191]

I have been looking into buying my first drone the last week or so, while searching I have found rather a lot of examples of people crashing the DJI Mini 3 Pro for such a new unit relatively speaking, and the loss of signal bit is a bit of a concern for something that will set you back around 1K (UK) with the assorted accoutrements to make it long term usable. In particular people around water having problems seems common among crashes. Something to do with the sensors not being as effective over water. Plus if they're switched off for total manual control, then... or if there's a wave or large amount of spray this can down them also even if you're "above" the water.

[@t0mwhazzup]

I can tell you, the loss of signal issue was really overhyped. There might have been a few units out there that really had problems, but in general, everything is good, even with CE (like me in Austria or you in the UK). In the mountains, I could take the Mini 3 Pro as far as 2,4 km before I lose signal, and each time, the return to home function works perfectly (if set up). But you are not allowed to go that far anyway ;) In normal and legal operation (i.e. around 400-500 m - further away you cannot spot the small drone) it works perfectly. And when it comes to water.. DJI itself says that the sensors don't work over water. And this is not limited to the Mini 3 Pro, but to all drones (DJI ones at least). And when I think about my drone sinking in the lake. That was completely pilot's error. I crashed three Mini 3 Pro's (two of the crashes where flyaways, i.e. I lost the drone completely). One at home (completely my fault and flying indoors is not the best idea anyways), the one I talk about in this video where I crashed into the lake and another time where I flew sideways into a narrow branch over a waterfall. So, no problems there on DJI's side, it was all my fault. I could really recommend the Mini 3 Pro. I am right now adding a Air 3 to my drone collection, but I will nevertheless keep the Mini 3 Pro because it's fun, small and reliable. And there are some areas where you can only fly with sub 250 g drones. Especially in the UK, where the CAA completely ignores the EU C0-C4 classifications. In the EU, the DJI Air 3, for example, with its C1 classification can be flown near and over people (OPEN category A1) even though it's 720 grams. So, same legal operation scenarios as with the Mini 3 Pro. In the UK, that's unfortunately not the case, they go by weight and this is where the Mini 3 Pro plays out its weight advantage. If you consider going with the Mini 3 Pro, I'd appreciate if you considered buying it through my affiliate link which gives me a small commission to run the channel and comes at no extra cost for you: amzn.to/3q8y03h So you won't have any problems as long as you keep a reasonable altitude (3-4 meters minimum at least). The drone might do slight variations in altitude over water, but with 3-4 meters you should be completely safe :) I hope that helps!

[@clutchyist]

Similar experience, before it happened I noticed wavering in elevation and incorrect readings.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Sounds like yours was faulty. I didn't notice anything like that, it was most probably 100 % my fault.

[@PeterBuban]

How much was it for the replacement? I crashed but it wasn’t too bad lol

[@t0mwhazzup]

With Care refresh it was 75.- for the first crash. Without, I cannot really say. A broken gimbal is around 50 Euros, I've heard, but it depends. What is broken?

[@Nam3Iess]

I am just before the activation of my Mini 4 Pro and currently thinking whether to get DJI Care or not. I guess I will after watching this LOL.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Haha yes, you never know beforehand if it pays off, but for me, it did! 🙂

[@-robster-robster-]

Nearly lost mine in a river. Battery percentage after 30 percent plummetted .... It forced a landing on way back to take off point heading for the river ... Thankfully i had to force it up and on to shore but had to drive round to a harbour security that let me onto harbour to look for my drone. Lucky i got it back . Find my drone function was crap as battery was depleted with no connection to rc by the time i found it

[@t0mwhazzup]

Yeah, that sucks. But luckily nothing worse happened! For the last few weeks I haven't really been using up the last percentages of my battery because of that. I try to plan in advance what I want to capture and then I can accomplish that usually within 15 minutes no problem and that leaves enough room for returning to the homepoint without any time pressure. I think we learn new things with each flight.

[@pdtech4524]

That must be somekind of record! 😲😳⚠️ Did you check in the DJI Fly app on the 'Find my Drone' tool, it shows you where your drones last known position was, hopefully still there if it was landing! Albeit under water.... You should have some usable footage or at least a flight log of where the drone flew! Just for future reference, remember the drones altitide is ALWAYS from it's launch point NOT where it currently is! Good luck with your next Mini 3. I've added your channel, hopefully you'll connect with another drone pilot?👍

[@t0mwhazzup]

Not sure if it's a record, but pretty bad anyways ;) Yes, I know the last position, but there was no way to get to it... and yes, there was some pretty cool footage on the SD card, but not from this particular flight... So far, everything good with the new one! Subscribed as well ;) Thanks!

[@DroneViewsMedia]

You learned a costly lesson, you really have to be careful about flying low over reflective water, it can mess up the sensors. I hope DJI look after you

[@shsechas]

I don't own a DJI, but after my cousins mini1 was flying to low over his lake. His drone started descending. He was lucky to bring the stick forward in time to land on solid ground. So I looked up why this might have happened. It said just what is in the message above. Do not fly low over still waters. It will mess up the sensors. So hope DJI takes care of you, unless they don't consider this a Fly-away and call it a pilot error. Good luck and hope you get another replacement.

[@t0mwhazzup]

Definitely! I was not planning to go that low - it happened by mistake. Have you experienced something similar?

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@shsechas Seems like he was really lucky! :) As far as I understand, flyaway just means that you cannot send the drone to DJI for replacement, regardless of cause. But I will report back as soon as this case is finished.

[@shsechas]

@@t0mwhazzup Not me..A cousin did!

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@shsechas Sorry, I overlooked that you don't own one

[@flyzone7441]

Do You know why birds dont fly low? Because they are smart.

[@eliyamil117]

I've never crashed a drone until I crashed my mini 3 in less than 20 minutes. Took it out for a test flight and my app turned off( new rc controller) and the drone came back and hit a wall. Returned it for a refund right away.... I will stay with my mini 2 and mavic 3

[@t0mwhazzup]

Ouch, doesn't sound too good. Do you know which firmware it was?

[@eliyamil117]

It was the latest firmware. I don't know the number but it was the latest.

[@lukasmayer1021]

Ohhhhh no! :(

[@wangyang592]

You will be a better pilot

[@t0mwhazzup]

Hopefully! :) Thanks!

[@thomashardy9994]

Drones are easy to crash. Leaves are not my friend.

[@t0mwhazzup]

I believe that! No leave encounters here so far ;)

[@stefantrojer6135]

Very good

[@grahamniven]

Pity that you didn't spend time reading the manual while you waited for the replacement drone. Might be worth reading it now.....

[@t0mwhazzup]

I actually read it before I flew the first drone for the first time. What are you referring to? Downwards sensors not working reliably over water? I was aware of that, but failed to observe the altitude display on the controller and realised to late that the drone was already too low. Definitely my mistake! Thanks for your comment!

[@marvinparrenoquinto231]

I lost/drowned my mini 3 pro in just two days 😭😭🤪

[@t0mwhazzup]

Welcome to the club 😅

[@travellingthilo6952]

Sorry but i guess there is a reason you are supposed to fly line of sight or have a spotter…or practice more first over land…and not people or water 😉 Good luck with your next drone😁

[@t0mwhazzup]

True that ;)

[@florian8529]

😂😂

[@martinstreasurehunting]

😆😆😆😆😆😆

[@t0mwhazzup]

Bad luck... or stupid? 😉

[@jaco_oosthuizen]

Line of sight...

[@t0mwhazzup]

True that. The peninsula was only in the way of line of sight below approx. 10 m, above it was fine. It wouldn't have made any difference though in that case, because I was looking at the controller at that time. Definitely learned from it. Thanks for your comment!

[@jaco_oosthuizen]

@@t0mwhazzup I hope you get your drone replaced. I am also still new to flying drones, but I never let my Air 2S out of sight. I start to panic as soon as I cannot see or hear it anymore.

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@jaco_oosthuizen Thanks! I will keep you updated. Yes, it's a strange feeling not seeing the drone, so I also try to keep it in VLOS whenever possible.

[@t0mwhazzup]

@@jaco_oosthuizen I have made a followup video to my flyaway. If you are interested in the case, you can watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqaqp6Kod6pqe5Y

[@wiwatboonpamorn7937]

What ta fuck