DJI A2 PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU BUY (New firmware may change my opinion)
- Thread starter Droider
- Start date
- Status
I don't usually make posts, but I think I need to write this one. I have had a Droidworx SkyJib 8 for about 2 years, with a Wookong-M controller. I have never had any issues with it. Recently, I decided to build a Gryphon hexa and bought the new DJI A2 controller. HUGE MISTAKE!!!! I do aerial video and photography and I have a lot of experience with RC - planes, helicopters, multirotors, etc. After carefully building my new hexa and installing the new A2, which I thought would be superior to my trustworthy WKM, I made a few test flights, tested RTH, and all the other functions I had set up, including the channel mapping for the gimbal, lights, etc. Yesterday, I had to shoot a video at a public event. On the 5th flight, the A2 decided to throttle up to full throttle, and climbed like a rocket. I had aileron and elevator control, but absolutely no throttle control. My first reaction was to switch to Atti mode, which didn't do anything. Then, I decided to switch to RTH, which didn't do anything either. At that point, the hexa was over 100 meters high, and my only thought was to turn off the radio to force a FS, and therefore, a RTH. Well, the A2 decided it would just cut the throttle and come straight down. On the way down, I turned my radio on again to see if I could get control again. Nothing happened. The hexa kept coming down with the motors at an idle speed. The A2 kept the hexa leveled but kept coming down really fast, until of course, it hit the ground. My brand need Gryphon hexa was totally destroyed, as well as my camera mount. Fortunatelly, it didn't hit anyone or anything (like a car). The event was on a wide open area. In summary, what I'm trying to do with this post is to warn anyone who is considering to buy a DJI A2, to NOT do it. Tonight, I decided to search the web to see if something similar had happened to someone else. To my surprise, other people have had very similar incidents. This means that DJI and its distributors keep selling the new A2 KNOWING that there is a problem with it. I must add that all my A2 modules had the lastest firmware. My recommendation is NOT to buy the DJI A2. I have the iOSD log of the flight with which I'll see if it's possible to find any information that may show a possible cause of the incident. However, I'm never using the A2 again...
hexacop
HexaCop
@Javier,
sorry to hear this bad news.
Can you post some details on your configuration? There must be some components or incompatibilities between components which are causing this type of issues...
For example in the German FPV forum there is a big discussion on the compatibility of DJI stuff with PPM receivers, especially in combination with Jeti.
DJI support made some statements that if you fly with PPM receivers you are not fully supported and recommending to use only Futaba or Spektrum.
sorry to hear this bad news.
Can you post some details on your configuration? There must be some components or incompatibilities between components which are causing this type of issues...
For example in the German FPV forum there is a big discussion on the compatibility of DJI stuff with PPM receivers, especially in combination with Jeti.
DJI support made some statements that if you fly with PPM receivers you are not fully supported and recommending to use only Futaba or Spektrum.
Sent back my A2 because at that point it did not have waypoints. Was flying my Octo with a Naza2 very successfully until.....the thing went nuts and did not respond destroying my beautiful octo and gimbal and camera. The most irritating part is how DJI is handling it; basically avoidance. They reply and then ignore me for weeks at a time. Good luck Javier as DJI doesn't seem to give a hoot about pro users. Anything can malfunction but what separates top companies from buffoons with ShamWow hawkers as reps is service and clearly at this point DJI is sinking fast.
What FC are you using now?
The octo is out of commission and not sure if I should try the other nib Naza2 for my Tarot 680. Have a job this week and I am very nervous about trusting a DJI FC. Have hundreds of perfect flights on my $60 Crius boards with MegaPirateNG firmware. What to do, what to do???
I have $1.000,000 liability, so the two cars that were damaged are covered. I am very serious but equipment insurance is expensive with high deductibles. Anyhoo, when there is clearly an issue with a product, and mine is not the only case, a company should make a good faith gesture as it's simply good business.
@hexacop, I'm using the A2 with 2 DSM2 satellites and the Somenzini 18 channel Spektrum radio. Besides the A2, I have the DJI iOSD and at the moment was using the Zenmuse H3-2D. Nothing that should have any incompatibilities.
@jazzboy, Yes, DJI doesn't give a sh*** and they don't even respond to customers. I have written to them before and they never respond. I wrote Robert at UAVPRODUCTS (where I bought the A2) and also told me to write DJI. At the end, nobody assumes responsibility.
@rilot, I just crashed yesterday. I don't know what FC I'm going to put now on my Gryphon. Definitely NOT the A2!!!!!!!!!!
The real shame is that DJI does have a lot of good things about them as well. When the octo was in operation it was ridiculously good. I did a shoot for CBS 60 Minutes Sports up in Smithers, BC and a high profile set of panos for Epic Marketing that was handling a major condo build in Richmond, BC. The problem is the run and hide approach DJI has adopted which simply irritates customers even more after an incident. DJI, man up and deal with this stuff as it's going to kill all your credibility if you don't.
While flight testing my A2 controller I came across a bug in the POI function.
I was testing the POI function for the first time. I took off and flew about 100 feet away. I toggled the IOC control and recorded a point of interest. I then moved the craft off my POI hover point and then did three circles around my poi and varying distances. Everything so far worked exactly as expected and the same as the Wookong.
Next I turned off the IOC and continued to fly to a different spot on the field. I then wanted to verify that I could switch back to POI and have the craft turn to the previous recorded POI. When I clicked IOC switch to the POS position (middle position on the toggle for me) The S800 instantly started turning toward the POI and started rocking back and forth violently. It looked like it was to flip in the air.
As soon as I could, I turned IOC switch back to off and the S800 went back to a normal hover. After the IOC was turned off the hex flew as normal. I flew it back closer to me and tried hit the POI function again. Again the hex went full forward and then full backward, then full forward again. These were very aggressive movements.
In the video the violent movement of the hex is not well seen as the H3-2D gimbal does a great job of removing most of the frame movement. The second time it happens you can see one arm coming down into frame for just a second.
I am disabling the POI function until this gets resolved.
S800 EVO with A2 Controller (version 2.00 Beta software), IOSD II, H3-2D gimbal. All gains set at 100.
Here is video from the flight...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvWQtWJmh3Y&feature=c4-overview&list=UUtsQBn8sezLXKHA2xYswdWQ
I was testing the POI function for the first time. I took off and flew about 100 feet away. I toggled the IOC control and recorded a point of interest. I then moved the craft off my POI hover point and then did three circles around my poi and varying distances. Everything so far worked exactly as expected and the same as the Wookong.
Next I turned off the IOC and continued to fly to a different spot on the field. I then wanted to verify that I could switch back to POI and have the craft turn to the previous recorded POI. When I clicked IOC switch to the POS position (middle position on the toggle for me) The S800 instantly started turning toward the POI and started rocking back and forth violently. It looked like it was to flip in the air.
As soon as I could, I turned IOC switch back to off and the S800 went back to a normal hover. After the IOC was turned off the hex flew as normal. I flew it back closer to me and tried hit the POI function again. Again the hex went full forward and then full backward, then full forward again. These were very aggressive movements.
In the video the violent movement of the hex is not well seen as the H3-2D gimbal does a great job of removing most of the frame movement. The second time it happens you can see one arm coming down into frame for just a second.
I am disabling the POI function until this gets resolved.
S800 EVO with A2 Controller (version 2.00 Beta software), IOSD II, H3-2D gimbal. All gains set at 100.
Here is video from the flight...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvWQtWJmh3Y&feature=c4-overview&list=UUtsQBn8sezLXKHA2xYswdWQ
@CG Photo, I have the POI disabled because I rather do all the flying myself. I only have the basic functions enabled. I even have the battery monitoring disabled because I know many people have had problems with those features too, like you have. I keep an eye on my voltage through the iOSD. At the time of my crash, the battery was at 23+ Volts. I'm now looking into using either Hoverfly GPS or ZeroNav YS-X6. Has anyone used any of these with GOOD results?
PeterLester
Member
This negative feedback about the new A2 is all very distressing to me as I have recently purchased one for my new Octo and am losing confidence in DJI.
If this were a western European or North American manufactured product, it is possible that a class action suit would already be initiated ....
Free enterprise and capitalism thrives when there is a full circle feedback mechanism such that manufacturers listen to the customer's concerns and responds so that they can maintain their position in the market.
But except for some HongKong businesses this concept has not been fully embraced by Chinese manufacturers.
The FAA, TC and others can be expected to impose signficant constraints to hamper such businesses where there is evidence that the manufacturer releases dangerous products to the marketplace.
If this were a western European or North American manufactured product, it is possible that a class action suit would already be initiated ....
Free enterprise and capitalism thrives when there is a full circle feedback mechanism such that manufacturers listen to the customer's concerns and responds so that they can maintain their position in the market.
But except for some HongKong businesses this concept has not been fully embraced by Chinese manufacturers.
The FAA, TC and others can be expected to impose signficant constraints to hamper such businesses where there is evidence that the manufacturer releases dangerous products to the marketplace.
Peter,
Unfortunately, there's absolutely no responsibility from the manufacturers around the world, and when something goes wrong they either ignore the users or automatically blame us saying we did something wrong. I know sometimes that is the case, but when experienced users have these types of problems we can't do anything about it. I'm extremely careful when building and flying because I worry about this kind of accidents. Fortunately, my crash didn't cause any more damage than to the machine itself, but it could have turned out very bad. It cost me thousands of dollars, but I'm glad I didn't hurt anyone. If you're planning on using DJI on an octo, I suggest you really test it thoroughly in an area where you can't cause any damage. I know many people use the A2 without any problems, but that's precisely the main problem... you don't know if yours is going to go bad or when and where. My setup was all DJI (except for video transmitter), no weird connections or add-ons, everything set up according to DJI instructions, no guess work, and it flew fine for over 10 flights, RTH tested fine, etc.
I totally agree with you that if it was a US or Western European product this situation would be different. Since there seems to be no way we can legally make this manufacturers responsible for their products, and we get no response from them, I think that we, as customers, should stop buying their products. For those who are already using them, just BE CAREFUL! I guess that the competition is such that they just keep putting out products without really testing them thoroughly. I have found out that the fly away and other problems have been happening with other DJI products, not just the A2. Unfortunately, I still can't see a configuration or user pattern that we can attribute to problems to. They still seem like randomly caused incidents.
CG Photo,
I don't have here the exact version information, but what I can tell you is that all the modules' firmwares were up to date as to about a week ago. With respect to the gimbal output, I was using the tilt control for the H3-2D which is found in the channel assignment screen. I was using a slider on my radio mapped to that channel. I may be wrong, but the only explanation I can think of at this point is that the software controlling the radio inputs from my Spektrum 18 channel radio with the 2 DSM2 satellites on the A2 has a bug, since I lost throttle control but had aileron, elevator and rudder when it went "crazy". Also, the mode switch didn't work. It wasn't until I turned off the radio to force FS that the A2 decided to cut power to the motors. At that point, the hexa should have performed a RTH as it was programmed and had been tested previously.
There are two versions of the firmware, V1.00 and v2.00. Both are labeled as beta. It sounds like yours was setup very similar to mine. The only difference I see is I have the DJI video transmitter and Futaba 8FG radio. I picked the 8FG radio because I saw early on that DJI seemed to prefer those radios. I will wait will the a stable release of the software come out before I test the RTH feature!
I'm pretty sure it's V2.00. Since you're using a Futaba radio, I think you probably won't have any problems. However, the problem is not "testing" the RTH feature. As I mentioned before, I had tested it and it had worked fine. Also, you can always get out of it if you see anything strange with the octo. If you fly yours, please post your results once you have flown it enough. Hopefully, you won't have any problems.
- Status