DJI is going to release its DropSafe parachute system

flitelab

flitelab

Member
Benjamin Kenobi said:
Do you mean a failure like Apple is a failure? They are the biggest selling MR company at the moment. I have used their stuff without incident for a few years and it has paid off big time.
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Agreed, DJI make some great products and very innovative. However they fail when it comes to QA/QC and support. My fear is they are pushing a lot of new products to market lately and it seems like some are getting left in the dust. I think they need to stabilize what they have and not spread themselves thinner. Lightbridge is a good example of a product pushed to market before it was close things. I see their VP of Marketing is active in the Red camera forums, something you don't see in most multirotor forums beyond their usual new product post. Let's hope they slow down and make things work as expected and not just focus on what is new and shiny.
 

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Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Flightlab I am sure Willis will appreciate the promotion. He is the Marketing Manager for DJI Technologies, LLC in LA. I don't think he has a corporate title. I think that most users discount the level of support that they receive by DJI on the forums. I have two great volunteers that help me. I have access to DJI HQ on the questions that we cannot answer. I report to DJI HQ in my position of NA Forum Support. I am not trying to toot my own horn here. We recognize that we have a long way to go. The LA Support and Service Center is moving to a larger facility after just 6 months to be able to accommodate more employees and inventory. The initiatives here in the US are being duplicated in Germany and China. In our sport if you ever stop innovating you will have severely hampered the company. Plus what would the cloners do for a living? I have always been available and will continue to be so. I can't promise that I will solve all the problems but where I can, I will. Just a note. I am not the Service Center nor do I repair damaged equipment. I don't do Marketing or Product Development. I do Forum Support and that is it.
 

flitelab

flitelab

Member
Ed- I appreciate the forum support you and Blade Strike do, but 2 people trying to cover multiple forums is still a bit thin support wise. Contacting the LA support for North America is almost a lost cause, most times there is no response or if there is its late and often of not much help.

Things "look" like they are improving with DJI support, I hope they do, but there seems to be a mad rush to get products out the door first and support them later. Lightbridge is a good example, shipped with cables missing, dead chargers, firmware issues. On the plus side they are working to improve it but I feel it was pushed out too early. Then you have customers waiting on firmware fixes for the Zenmuse 5D for months with nothing new.

I use DJI, I sell DJI but it is far from perfect. Innovation is great if you can release reliable products with proper support and customer service.

Don't take everything people say about DJI as a personal attack to you or Blade Strike. You need to realize people have invested a lot of money into products and some are having issues. It's easy to not feel bad when you get products for free to use. When you lay out thousands out of pocket for something that arrives and has issues then people get frustrated.
 

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Tahoe Ed

Active Member
flightlab, I don't take this personally. I have been in sales, customer service and management too long for that. If you don't think that we have skin in the game you are very wrong. Believe me we do. At times many thousands of dollars of our own money. We do understand when things go wrong but we also accept responsibility for when we mess up and sometimes there is no one to blame. Stuff happens. I am sure that you have had that, wires come loose, motors fail, any number of things can happen. Unfortunately some newer users have an attitude that nothing should ever go wrong because I paid a lot of money for this. True but did you learn to fly first? I love this job because I enjoy helping people and solving problems. I continue to add my input in making the user experience better. Thank you for your insights.
 

SoCal Blur

SoCal Blur

Member
*** Warning - the following is one observer's opinion, and nothing more ***

Perhaps DJI should take a lesson from General Motors and their failure to address known issues when they knew about it.

I'm not a DJI user for the simple reason that there are just too many reports of issues with their FC's and the blatant lack of support when issues are reported...especially on new products. It is my opinion that if DJI were an American company they would be dealing with class action lawsuits. People can try to justify the apparent large number of issues by saying that it is related to DJI's market share. And maybe, to some extent, that is true. But the lack of support and solutions to the issues is, I believe, what frustrates the DJI user that has spent probably a considerable sum on a product and then can't get it to work correctly or worse yet, failed in the air and destroyed their investment completely. Even something as simple as the red locking tabs on the 1000 that failed without a sufficient supply of spares available for replacement, grounding the craft that may represent someone's livelyhood, is an example of why I personally will not invest in a DJI product - until such time as they have a proven track record of supporting their customers.

Is DJI invovative? Yes. Can they support that inovation in the field - in real world situations? Not satisfactorily. It almost feals like the DropSafe parachute system is an attempt to mitigate some of the losses resulting from poor QC and lack of full testing before a product is released. DJI may have been better served by applying the time spent on developing the DropSafe to resolving existing issues with products, quality control.

This is in no way a condemnation of the work that Tahoe Ed and his team have done to help out with issues in the forums. They do great work, but they can only do so much. DJI needs to step up and refocus on what is important. I truly hope that they finally realize this and work out all of the issues. I would like to see DJI raise the bar and become a company that consumer and professionals alike can come to trust, not only in inovation, but in quality and support.
 






Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
I am DEAD AGAINST this. Its just another something to go wrong and for operators to mitigate failings in other areas of their safety case. PROOVEN operational safety experience is what operators should be judged by NOT what gizmos they have.

IF this system is tested by an independent authority and is proven to work (not in conjunction with a the flight controller) then I may be swayed.
 


Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Benjamin Kenobi said:
Showing your age there Dave. It's just Apple now. :nevreness:
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So Apple is a failure? Like in Apple computers, iPhones, iPads, etc?

Please enlighten.. Ahh but please not in this thread as its moving off topic and irrelevant but it would be interring to hear what part of Apple is a failure. And yes I may be showing my age at but have been on Apple since the SE130.
 


MombasaFlash

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
Benjamin Kenobi said:
Alas the last CAA release makes a direct reference to these systems. I see France are considering these systems also ....
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Oh my bloody God. By the time these bureacratic twats have finished they will have to adjust all the weight categories to accommodate all the redundancy with two Flight Controls, four batteries, sixteen motors, two parachutes, tethering winch...

Jesus H. Christ it gets more stupid every sodding day.
 

Benjamin Kenobi

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
I know, right? Alot of this is just speculation by the sounds of it and may not come to pass. At least let's hope not!
 


MombasaFlash

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
You know what is so ironic? I was doing this when there were just helicopters and hardly anyone else was. Then the multi-rotor appeared. To be honest I couldn't take the stupid ugly little insects seriously but then their aerial camera platform qualities could not be denied and so Hey! Great! it all just got easier and simpler.

Easier and Simpler my foot! Phantoms and tits have ultimately made it all more complicated than ever.
 

RobBurn

RobBurn

Member
Droider said:
IF this system is tested by an independent authority and is proven to work (not in conjunction with a the flight controller) then I may be swayed.
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+1 . Yes if this is strictly seperate from any FC and triggered via transmitter i would be interested. I trust my futaba completely in its operation, the FC, not near as much.
 

Buzz_Roavr

Buzz_Roavr

Member
+2 I not be rushing anywhere near this. Think of the size the platform will have to be just to have this installed. Sub 7kg will disappear if parachutes become mandated.

Watch this space (again) I guess!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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