Crashed my P3S. Time to learn how to fix.

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First off, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. After many years happily flying my P3S with DJI Go app, I got antsy and purchased Litchi. My first Waypoint Mission didn't look bad. 7 waypoints, spawning at most .3 miles away from me. It disconnect shortly after beginning the mission, and despite being set to complete mission on a disconnect and then RTH...it just took off into the great wide-open...goodbye. I thought it was gone, but I have my phone number under the drone. 45 minutes later I got a call that my drone was .9 of a mile away from me and in someone's tree! (LOL).

The nice guy helped me get it down, but the 35 foot drop did the damage shown in the posted pics below. Battery is fine and the drone still does light up when I power it on and the familiar beep. But the camera came off and the gimbal took some damage. Also the mounting plate and the Yaw arm (if I called it by the right name).

So, I wanna fix (try to at least) myself. Based on what you see below, do any of you have any thoughts? I am pretty sure I will need these, so I ordered them:


Do you guys have any other suggestions based on what you see below? I tried to label each picture with what I saw damaged. Should I buy one of the YAW kits on amazon? Also, the wire that came out, I wonder if that's hard to get back in the gimbal (I labeled it one of the pics below). Lastly, the ribbon thing...anyone got any experience putting it back in, or do I need to buy a new one?

Perhaps some think it's a ludicrous waste of time to work so hard to get a P3S back in the air, but not to me. This bird is super special to me.

Thank you for reading and any suggestions you might have!!

PS: Never, ever had a "fly away" until this first time using the Litchi app. I've owned 6 different DJI drones over the years. Having said that, it could possibly be 100% my fault. I am not sure as of yet...maybe I should post the logs. I've never done that before.
 

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Watch some YouTube videos. Here’s one and good luck.
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First off, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. After many years happily flying my P3S with DJI Go app, I got antsy and purchased Litchi. My first Waypoint Mission didn't look bad. 7 waypoints, spawning at most .3 miles away from me. It disconnect shortly after beginning the mission, and despite being set to complete mission on a disconnect and then RTH...it just took off into the great wide-open...goodbye. I thought it was gone, but I have my phone number under the drone. 45 minutes later I got a call that my drone was .9 of a mile away from me and in someone's tree! (LOL).

The nice guy helped me get it down, but the 35 foot drop did the damage shown in the posted pics below. Battery is fine and the drone still does light up when I power it on and the familiar beep. But the camera came off and the gimbal took some damage. Also the mounting plate and the Yaw arm (if I called it by the right name).

So, I wanna fix (try to at least) myself. Based on what you see below, do any of you have any thoughts? I am pretty sure I will need these, so I ordered them:


Do you guys have any other suggestions based on what you see below? I tried to label each picture with what I saw damaged. Should I buy one of the YAW kits on amazon? Also, the wire that came out, I wonder if that's hard to get back in the gimbal (I labeled it one of the pics below). Lastly, the ribbon thing...anyone got any experience putting it back in, or do I need to buy a new one?

Perhaps some think it's a ludicrous waste of time to work so hard to get a P3S back in the air, but not to me. This bird is super special to me.

Thank you for reading and any suggestions you might have!!

PS: Never, ever had a "fly away" until this first time using the Litchi app. I've owned 6 different DJI drones over the years. Having said that, it could possibly be 100% my fault. I am not sure as of yet...maybe I should post the logs. I've never done that before.





I have viewed your damage and I recommend sending it to DJI,I had the same problem you have now and I worked on the system(camera) for 1 year with no accomplishment.Dji will fix it and it will work like when it was new.The videos on this repair is not as easy as they make it look. I wish you the best luck in your journey!!
 
Repairing yourself?
I have had mine apart farther than what I see in your pics.
It really depends on the person, the worst of it for me, everything is so small and the 50+ eyesight really sucks and my hands are not small.

Your tablet has a data log until you lost signal, might have something important. The file that has all the data, is on the Phantom, your going to need your Phantom operational to retrieve that, or remove the BlackBox SD card from the main board, it is glued on.

I would look to see your Litchi mission. Share it on the hub like this.

Mission Hub - Litchi

Rod
 
dirk- thanks! I watched that one and about 15 others all the way thru (at least twice), taking notes, etc. My head began hurting...

Thunderhorse- yep, I found that out the hard way. I got the replacement parts in this afternoon. The gimbal mounting plate was easy. The black and gray wires with the gold connector at the bottom was brutal! I could not get them on...and when I do, they pop right off. And, they are TINY! My 50+ year old eyes are straining. I've been at it for 6+ hours now. Maybe I need to step away. I have a torque screw set , tweazers, etc....so, I think I've got what is needed to pull this off...except patience.

Rod- yep. Everything is so tiny. I am not a handy man, but it would be a small victory if I could pull this off myself. lol. My mission is on the online mission hub, if you or anyone would like to look at it. Try this: Mission Hub - Litchi

Thanks!

I'll see if I can get the flight log off the drone.
 
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Quick look at the mission, it didn't record anything?
Unless you manual started it.

I was also going to ask if you had any video on the SD card?
Don't tell anybody where you found it yet, I shocked it wasn't in the water!!

Rod
 
Did you start the mission at wp# 10?
Because WP#1 is 17' below that.

Wp#1 through Wp#6 is set at 98'
98'-17' is 81' anything it could it hit a 81' ?

I'm still looking for more.

Rod
 
Oh No,
WP#9 is 52' - 17' = 35' above Location of WP#10
If you insert a WP 1/2 between it is 88'

shuggins.jpg

I'm still looking.

Rod
 
dirk- thanks! I watched that one and about 15 others all the way thru (at least twice), taking notes, etc. My head began hurting...
Walk away when you get frustrated and just take your time.
I keep my iPad by me with the video I like and just do a little
at a time. You got this.
1579565559264.gif
 
@shuggins sorry to hear about your crash. Hope you get it all sorted and are back flying it again.

I crashed my P3S last February running an AutoPilot Follow mission. Didn’t account for an elevation change and it hit a tree.I was lucky it landed in about 40cm of snow. No external damage other than a stuck IMU. Had to take the cover off and hit the IMU to get it unstuck. Has flown flawlessly since. Couldn't have fixed it without Utube.

Good luck,

Chris
 
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Wow, you guys are awesome. Thanks for the replies!

Rod- thanks for looking at the Mission. I went and looked. Darnit! I swore I put an action on WP #2 to start recording...but it's not shown on the Waypoint window for for some reason. I corrected it. Yea, lowering the height by that much was just newbie mistake...but two great finds (lowering altitude and not turning the camera on as part of Waypoint #2). Also at 81 feet, I am 95% sure it cannot hit anything. The tallest tree appears to be around 50ft high. So the SD card was blank (LOL). I thought it was LItchi's fault (lol), but it was me forgetting to turn on camera.

Chris- cool that you fixed the stuck IMU. Never heard of that before. Yet another cool thing about this forum, I learn something new everyday.

Dirk, thanks! Man, I *hope* I can do it. I am attached to this quad.

I put the new gimbal mounting plate on reconnected the black and gray wire like shown in utube video, tried to put the ribbon back on the connected, but there's some ribbon coming out of the gimbal motor (if that's what it is???) and I couldn't find anything to attach it to. None of the videos mention what this is? I attached a pic... do any of you guys know what this is for and where it goes to? I still tried to turn it on and Go 4 app says "Gimbal disconnected". So, I think this brown thing needs to connect somewhere (lol, I'm clueless).

I created a second mission (with video - lol), and I used my Mavic Air and it performed perfect....even lost signal have way thru mission, but it kept on and completed the mission. Then it returned home. Perfect and the footage was so smooth. The P3S crash was not Litchi's fault... (my fault, but I pretty much knew that already).
 

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Wow, I impressed that you reran another mission so soon. It would have taken me a couple of weeks!
I would have had to put it back together also. ;)

The mission that you posted has an action at WP#2 to start recording. But all your waypoints but WP#8 are curved, any actions will not take place.
The AC never makes it to the WP.

So did the Phantom hit the tree between WP#9 - 10?

Your Picture?
I think your going to have to take it part a little farther.
I'm pretty sure that cable is suppose to be inside the gimbal, I have been in there also. ;)

Rod
 
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WOW. I think you nailed it. My newbie approach, I swung WAY too wide (away from that boat dock) on WP #9 and on it's way to #10, it hit that tree. Also the curved thing on waypoints: I thought it was just so the turns are smoother and cinematic. I thought if you didn't do curve, the turns would be "jerky" looking. Also didn't know with "curved" waypoints it cancels out any actions on the waypoint.

Well, I did take it apart further. I attached two pics. I think based on what I see in the pics, I'm getting the "Gimbal disconnected" because I need to buy a new ribbon for it....the black ribbon snapped in two (agree?).

I think something like this? I saw examples in the videos on utube that show how to put it on (lol, I'm in for a real treat with that!!!!).

This is a knock off flex ribbon for $11.99

Here's a real DJI flex ribbon part for it for $53.90 (!)

I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess...but it'll be something if I can pull this off.
 

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Yeah, I bought one of those, I think I used it but I don't recall if it was on a P3S or P3A.
I don't remember if they are the same. :rolleyes:

Your pictures are kinda blurry, or does that look normal to you. :)

The second picture looked like there was copper showing and I didn't think it was broke. Then I realized it is the same color as the table. ;)


Rod
 
Ha! Yea, I do see things blurry these days. So was it hard to put on the flex ribbon replacement? The videos make it look pretty involved. I'm going to try at least!

Based on the bad reviews of copy-cat flex ribbon cables, I paid the high price for DJI OEM. It should be here by Friday.
 
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Ha! Yea, I do see things blurry these days. So was it hard to put on the flex ribbon replacement? The videos make it look pretty involved. I'm going to try at least!

Based on the bad reviews of copy-cat flex ribbon cables, I paid the high price for DJI OEM. It should be here by Friday.
If I remember, tonight I will look at my stuff for a refresher, maybe I didn't use it yet, but I think I did.
Or I reused one that was still good, because I remember it wasn't sticking very good at one section.

If you got everything far enough a part now, shouldn't be a problem!

Rod
 
Well, bad news is...after buying all the parts and getting camera / gimbal repaired all by myself....it didn't work out too well. I punted and sent it in to DJI.

The good news... They diagnosed the problem(s) and sent me a quote to get them repaired.

I agreed to the repair quote....but my drone was back home in 3 days from the last email b/t them and myself. LOL! The reason I got it back is because they sent me a brand new P3S! No repairs, just a new drone. It's perfect, of course, but I was surprised they did that after all the diagnosis they did on the quad. They sent me detailed pictures of what they would be replacing.... but decided (I guess) to just send me a brand new one.

They were quick to answer my inquires and were fast to ship it back.

I know MANY people have reported bad experiences with DJI Support...but it was top knotch to me.

At the end of the day, I got a new P3S (lol)...so I feel like I won.
 
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Well glad that worked out ok for you and look at the knowledge you learned. Makes you a better flyer imo
knowing how these things are put together. They might
have sent you a refurb back as they bad about that but
without seeing it can’t say. As long as your happy all’s good .?
 
Thanks for the update!
And I update is very rare!
I agree, I would think it is a refurb.
Yes or no your happy, with a new bird!

Anyways, I would be happy to proof some of your missions, before you run them.
I'm very good at finding Phantom Magnets. ;)

Thanks again for the update.


Rod
 
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