Crashed DJI Phantom Professional 3 - brushless engine replacement advice

[DoctorPI]

Hello everyone,

Recently, I’ve crashed my DJI Phantom 3 Professional into the tree. As a result, all of its brushless engines do not work at all. It is more likely that they are burned. I think so because when the drone was crashed it had a propellers protectors, purchased from eBay. As we may know, due to lack of any stops inside threading of DJI Phantom drone’s engines it could cause their damage. Moreover, the drone flipped over a few seconds before it reached the ground, despite that engines still were running. On top of it, a weight of drone was pushing down the UAV towards the ground. After these engines were spinning in full speed. I was not able to turn them off by using a controller. During the careful examination, everything works, excepts engines, at the end of the day, I am not able to take off.

Now I am going to buy 4 new engines, but I am not sure what model I have to buy ( I do not mean CW CCW). I heard that we have two different types of the drone engine for this generation, more ‘squared; and ‘rounded’. Mine’s are very similar to this



Part 94 CCW 95 CW Motor 2312A Repair Accessories For DJI Phantom 3 RC Drone | eBay



, but I am not sure if we have any farther subtypes of this engines too. I am looking forward to hearing from you in this manner.

Kind regards,

Peter

 

[Scrubby]

Sorry about your crash Peter. I would be surprised if all 4 motors burned out at the same time. I would suspect maybe the ribbon connector got damaged? Just a thought but I don’t know. I would try to put d.c. power to them individually before ordering new motors.

 

[N017RW]

No Errors during start-up?

These motors are 3-phase and require an ESC to operate. Simply applying d.c. will not be conclusive.

As far as at-home static testing--- You could 'Ohm" the motor coils to see how they compare to each other.

 

[jason]

More than likely the ESCs were wasted which means a new motherboard. Those brushless motors are tough and only have three moving parts (two bears and a stator).

 

[DoctorPI]

Hello everyone,

First of all, I would like to apologise for my absence. After analysing all posts the best solution will be to unsoldered all 4 motors and 'ohm' the coils of the motors as
N017RW suggested. Moreover, I've looked 'under the phantom hood' to check visually if I have any damage to the motherboard. Gladly, nothing unnormal has been founded. Also, I've stated it up, and I didn't find any error connected with the motherboard, only overloaded gimbal motor due to a flex wire which also I 've had to change. All camera function works (tilting on sides, record and button, vision etc). I assume that camera motherboard it's fine, but I am not able to 'force' brushless engines to start by using a dc controller. Another solution, which I am considering, is to buy another drone without a camera, which has good engines and motherboard, so then I will be available to just swamp my 4k camera from the old drone.
What do you think about it guys? Is it a good idea?

 

[NM_Quad]

I doubt all 4 motors failed at once - if any. The ESC driver chips would fail before any of the motor windings burned up. Your ESC driver chips on your photos look decent. Often an IC failure will cause a burned spot or bulge on the top of the plastic housing. On your 3rd photo, the IC in the center left (right of the paper label) does not look good. Is that a burned bulge on the IC? That would not be a good sign. That may be the motor controller IC that controls the ESC chips that failed. Also, since your drone landed in the dirt upside down, clean the motors out well with compressed air and/or alcohol. It takes a surprisingly small amount of dirt or a couple grains of sand to seize the motors. Good luck returning it to service and stay away from those trees. They've claimed more drones than we can count.

 

[DoctorPI]

Hello everyone,
It doesn't sound good at all ;(. Nevertheless, I am determined to fix it. I found on eBay used motherboards with brushless engines. It comes from the same model (Phantom 3 Pro), but before I will purchase, I would like to know what do you think about this idea?

Is it worth it to buy a used motherboard and just swamp it with a current one?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

PS. eBay offer: DJI Phantom 3 Professional Drone Main Board Motherboard ESC Fligh | eBay

Kind Regards
Peter

 

[dronesky]

Hello everyone,
It doesn't sound good at all ;(. Nevertheless, I am determined to fix it. I found on eBay used motherboards with brushless engines. It comes from the same model (Phantom 3 Pro), but before I will purchase, I would like to know what do you think about this idea?

Is it worth it to buy a used motherboard and just swamp it with a current one?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

PS. eBay offer: DJI Phantom 3 Professional Drone Main Board Motherboard ESC Fligh | eBay

Kind Regards
Peter

You dont say where youre located at but I would say no not worth it. Is your shell cracked or messed up that can run upwards $80.00 also on ebay you can get working P3P for around $200.00

 

[DoctorPI]

Hello guys,
currently, I am living in the UK. Unfortunately, the prices of whole Phantom 3 Advance or Pro are still high: phantom 3 professional | eBay
and fluctuate between 350-600 GBP.

 

[DoctorPI]

So do you think guys that it is not worth to buy a motherboard and swamp it with a current one? Also, a shell is in a good condition (without any cracks, scratches or damaged connections).
Have a good day. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Peter