DJI phantom design flaw

[fear345]

Last night I was flying my FC40 in calm weather, after around 3 mins and about 70ft high the lights went out all motors stopped and it crashed on a hard surface in a neighbours yard.

After retrieving it and assessing the damage, it had landed top down with the battery compartment open and camera 15ft away but not much damage else where I thought.

Took it home plugged another battery in and no power, so I stripped it down to find the ground power wire had come off the board, what is worrying is that the ground and positive are not anchored to the main body of the body, so pulling the battery wire out time and time again could loosen the solder, this is probably what happened here.

After further assessing the damage six out of the eight wires connecting the motors to the boards had also come off, this could have happened when the rotors hit the ground flexing the four arms.

After soldering all the wires back to the relevant places I plugged a battery in and did a quick test flight, it handled well but only in attitude mode, stripped it down again to find that the GPS antenna had shattered

The price of a GPS module here in the UK is £112, I have looked online and found the GPS ceramic antenna to the same spec in USA for $4.75 plus postage which I hope is the only part damaged on the module, well it's worth a try for the price difference.

So this is just a word of warning to be extra careful when removing the battery.

 

[Ozzyguy]

thanks for the heads up.

 

[Ohary]

Appreciate the heads up, and next time I remove the cover, I'll be sure to fasten the battery cable (zip tie?) to prevent this from happening to me.

 

[fear345]

Well GPS cermaic antenna fitted and still no GPS so I take it the GPS module is damaged else were

 

[deltamike]

Thanks for the warning Fear.

The battery is a tight fit on the FC40. The design looks improved on the 2 vision - maybe because of the fault you had.

Guess what I am doing today.

 

[J.James]

YA thanks for the heads up. I had to have mine opened up yesterday to install a flytrx and one of the first things I did was to make sure the power wire is secured so it dont come off like yours did. THo on mine it seemed to be secured a tad better the way it was a tight fit between the edge of the board and the body. And I also made sure all my solder joints were all done right with no cold oints. But still put some epoxy on the wire and secured it in place..

But while I was in there and when trying to close every thing up I noticed the top cover of the naza control was lose and when I played around and tried to push it back on I noticed it was busted and it came right off. All the screw posts were busted right off and I had to hot glue it back in place. It must of busted during one of any of the crashes I have had.

So I'm thinking if it busted just fro shock that maybe yours could of broken some place inside or a crack in the board some place. could be whats preventing the gps from working. Being The is not much of a path from the gps and the phantom other then the wire from the gps unit and in the the naza controller and thats it. As it all gets processed and handled in the naza controller.

BUt when you say its not working is it not working at all as if its not even hooked up? or is it just not working correctly?

 

[fear345]

I am just getting a flashing orange led so it's just in attitude mode, so I hope it's just the GPS broken and not the naza also.

 

[J.James]

flashing orange if its a rapid orange flash it could be in safe mode. Id hook up to the naza assistant and try to see if it see all the controlls from the controller and the switches. If its not It could be the receiver board. Thats the tiny board thats just above and to the right of the battery compartment and under the main board with the 2 antenna wires plugged in to it.

 

[fear345]

It's slow flat slow flashing, it flys fine but only in gps mode

Sent from my Xperia Z1 using Tapatalk

 

[J.James]

It's slow flat slow flashing, it flys fine but only in gps mode

now that seems very odd cause If its only flying good in gps mode makes me thing the gps mode must be working.

and its it just orange no others like red or green? in any kind of sequence?

 

[fear345]

Sorry my mistake I meant to say only fly's in attitude mode.

 

[J.James]

now this replacement gps that you added is it it the same as the original or some thing that is still meant to be used with the naza controller? and tho this many seem like a stupid ? but is it hooked the right spot and the right way?

 

[fear345]

Swapped the gps unit with one out of another fc40 and it works perfectly in mine, so my gps unit is broken.

A new gps unit it must be then.

 

[J.James]

Swapped the gps unit with one out of another fc40 and it works perfectly in mine, so my gps unit is broken.

A new gps unit it must be then.

ohhhhhh I had thought you had replaced it already and it still was not working.

So I guess thats good that you only had to replace that and not some thing else to. and were able to diagnose it by putting one in from another fc40

 

[fear345]

It's was just the actual ceramic antenna I replaced as it was smashed after the crash.

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