Catastrophic design flaw of Phantom 3
- Thread starter Chris Vedeler
- Start date
Yep, call DJI and if you didn't crash it they most likely will repair/replace it for you. Or you can zip tie it for now and keep flying it until flying season is over. But you must call DJI now.
Cool thank you I turned my down to 90 and its a lot smoother stopping I may go a little bit lower even. Thank for the info
I posted this in another thread, I am just thinking out loud, but if these are truly aircraft like the FAA claims. I wonder if filing a complaint with the FAA would do anything. If these cracks are as wide spread as reported it is just a mater of time until one comes down on someone or something. The FAA is in theory supposed to help regulate all aspects of civil aviation. I would think that DJI would be more concerned with an FAA investigation over design flaws than a few rouge owners making complaints. Please don't crucify me for thoughts of bring in "The Man".
Sorry about your bird Chris.
Sorry about your bird Chris.
For all of you buying and installing the UAV BITS Strong Arms (which I highly recommend), be sure that you keep an eye on the screws. Mine were backing out until I bought and applied some threadlocker blue. I know I have said this in another thread, but I was lucky to have dodged a bullet, and I hope to help you do the same.
I'm going one step beyond this. I plan on using JB Weld to permanently attach the Strong Arms to my new P3. Now that I know how utterly useless the DJI warranty is I can be free to do what I need.
Be careful with the type of loctite, the regular blue stuff does not play well with some types of plastic. Clear nail polish is safe on plastic and can be used to secure the screw.
Exactly. I skipped the loctite. Every 10 flights or so I check the screws on my strongarm kit.
About two weeks ago I took the prop guards off my bird. I had them on during the learning curve and was fortunate to never have an incident. Now I'm comfortable flying and can work the controls intuitively for backward and forward flight. Bottom line -I have a spare set of guards. I'm going to cut the guard portion from the base portion and then epoxy and screw them to the ends of the arms. In theory this should work well as a reinforcement...
I'll also post some pics.
DJI is all but useless. I finally contacted them and they gave me a RMA. I asked if they could tell me up front if they will cover this under warranty and that I could provide them with anything they needed to make that determination. They said the repair people will make that determination and it will take 6 weeks.
I have ordered a new shell from China and will get a new ribbon cable, motor and the Bock gimbal repair kit and just do it myself. $250 and It will be a fun project and I won't have to wait. Based on everyone's experience I have read about with this they will not cover it and will charge for a full repair. No thanks.
The DJI warranty is useless unless you get a defective unit day one and never actually fly it.
You are screwing metal into metal. What are you talking about ? You put it on, give a few to setup, wipe off the tip and apply. I've had no problems.
Actually even UAV bits suggests staying away from loctite because you have to pass plastic to get to the metal.... it's a legit concern.
Meta4
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To be fair, you didn't give DJI the chance to assess your Phantom.
It's hard to see haw they could have rejected this case.
On the other hand, you'll be flying again a lot sooner.
Probably worth the $$ to avoid being without your Phantom for as long as it would take with DJI.
someone posted pictures of your motor failure on RC Group - The DJI support guys there are saying this failure is likely the result of a crash resulting in continued motor spinning generating enough hit to burn through the plastic rather than weak plastic failure such as those with small cracks. I think they would love to access your logs to find out one way or another.
Though, understandably, I would be hesitant to give up my quad for 6+ weeks. Though, if I'm sure it wasn't my fault (ie, no crash), I would definitely have them look at it and pay for the repair rather than spending $300+ and time/labor on something caused by their defect. In the meantime, I'd ordered another P3 to use and return it to them when they return my warranty p3.... again, that's what I would do if I was positive it wasn't my fault.
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They are going to allow you to return the "loaner" you purchased? It's going to take more than 30 days for them to check it in the system, lol.
no... i would keep buying and returning multiple p3 from various easy to return to sources if I were pissed enough at DJI's turn around time... they can deal with the multiple returned products. =)
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