Crash it on first flight... Where to find parts...

Ari

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Hi everyone,

First post here... I got a hold of a phantom 3 off craigslist yesterday. Its a very nice upgrade to my Syma X5C

Anyways my first flight I flew it around in the park up the block from me. Rather than carrying it home I decided to fly it home and then for a little spin over my deck to see if I could see the manhattan skyline from my house. All was going well, had the phantom 3 hovering around 447 feet in the air when the battery hit 30%. I began to descend the craft. Dam thing takes forever to decent. I believe it is limited somewhere around 6 meters/sec. As the battery is dropping percent by percent it is still quite a bit high up in the sky. Finally its down somewhere about two feet above my deck with around 17% left the **** thing takes off and shoots up in the air like a missle and I guess tries to fly back to the park where I started the flight to land safely. It didn't fly high enough because on the way to the park it hit a tree and came crashing down.
I freaked out at not knowing the controls how to do a manual override and land the thing. It was literally two feet above the ground and it decided on its own to land off. Very stupid feature if you ask me.

Anyways the consequences of the crash left me with broken props, detached gimbal, front lens element crack, and the wire that attaches the camera partially melted.

Does anyone know where to get the wire (it is grey with 8 little wires) that attaches the phantom motherboard to the camera? How about a new front lens element.

I am hoping I didn't break anything else. I dont want to open up the toy yet as there is like 40 something screws to open it
 
There are no spare parts available from resellers. Maybe you can find another person that's crashed and see what you can salvage.

PS, RTFM.
 
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A few spare parts are showing up on ebay, but unfortunately prices are at a premium right now. You might be better off waiting a few weeks. More and more people will crash and sell off their quads for parts, and DJI will have some parts for purchase hopefully in the near future.
 
Ari, since RTFM is not going to fix this problem, here are some things you could do:
  • Check around with shops that repair Phantoms to see if they have spare parts. You're surely not the only one who has crashed, so parts from other crashes are probably available somewhere.
  • Check eBay for spare parts. Some people are parting out Phantoms there.
  • Send your Phantom to DJI and let them fix it. Prepare to wait a month+ to get it back.
  • Buy a new Phantom and sell yours to a repair shop or part it out and see it on eBay.
 
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Here are some pictures of the damage 20150527_105957.jpg 20150527_110012.jpg 20150527_110112.jpg

I wish I knew about canceling RTH 12 hours ago lol
Live and learn
 
Ari, I bought a P3A that had been crashed, but only sustained minor damage. Unfortunately, the damage was to the gimbal primarily. I will be dismantling the P3 and posting those parts on eBay very soon (already sold the battery and controller before people start asking). The good news for you though, is that I believe the cable you are looking for is still intact on mine, but I'd have to double check tonight to be sure.
 
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Sorry for your loss but i think you will earn more if you buy a new phantom and sell working parts of this
 
That switch is not the easiest to toggle with your fingertip. I prefer to tap the big button!

To each his own LOL. Almost like Windows, more than one way to do a lot of things.
 
Sorry for your loss but i think you will earn more if you buy a new phantom and sell working parts of this
Ari, I bought a P3A that had been crashed, but only sustained minor damage. Unfortunately, the damage was to the gimbal primarily. I will be dismantling the P3 and posting those parts on eBay very soon (already sold the battery and controller before people start asking). The good news for you though, is that I believe the cable you are looking for is still intact on mine, but I'd have to double check tonight to be sure.
Ryan, sent me a PM with what you got, Ill make you an offer on everything
 
Ryan, sent me a PM with what you got, Ill make you an offer on everything
Sorry for your loss Ari. If Ryan doesn't work out for you, I'd be interested in buying the gimbal off yours! Send me a PM if interested :)
 
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Sorry for your loss Ari. If Ryan doesn't work out for you, I'd be interested in buying the gimbal off yours! Send me a PM if interested :)
The drone seems to be flying perfectly now. What I did was cut the damaged "8-pin gimbal to gcu connecting cable" (picture number three above) so the wires loose wires dont touch. Because of the damaged wires I cant test to see if the camera was effected by the crash. (Dont feel safe selling it because I dont know if it works) I am going to bring it into a authorized repair place in manhattan and see what they have to say.
 
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It was literally two feet above the ground and it decided on its own to land off. Very stupid feature if you ask me.
Perhaps you could email DJI's design engineers and tell them how it should work??

It's no help to you now but for other new flyers, this shows the importance of doing your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.

Read up on RTH procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can control things.
 
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No help to you now but for other new flyers, this shows the importance of doing your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.

Read up on RTH procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can control things.

Should be a sticky.
 
if your handy, you can fix all that yourself. Those pins can be plugged back into the plastic. the broken gimbal can be mended with pieces of aluminum as struts drilled and riveted or replace the whole thing with plexi glass. The lens is just a cover lens and it will still function pretty well until replacement parts come along. Or you can unscrew it and take it off. There's a guy that sells neutral density filters he cuts out of wratten gel. So if he can get you one of those to protect the inner camera lens and just remove the glass and put the wratten back in it's place. Should be fine to keep dust and bugs off the main lens. It's fixable as is.

Yeah, it went into return home mode and your home wasn't the deck. I've had mine set home mode after I started flying because I didn't wait to set it. I came back and landed and set it and took off again. Gotta watch that.
 
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