Hate to add another crack thread

Unfortunately it doesn't matter which model you get ALL of them new and old motors with new or old shells all have had reports of cracking . The uav strong arm plates is a good way to protect you against a motor completely breaking off. I'm more than happy to give up 25 seconds of flight time to get this protection .
 
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After sleeping on it, I'm going to give it another shot. Have the aluminum reinforcement plates ordered. Given the Black Friday sale I'm also upgrading from the advanced to pro. Ordered the pro today and will return the advanced tomorrow via RMA.
 
This shouldn't happen and it is clearly an issue. What's the flight time and have you raced it or performed any severe unusual attitudes or max rate turns?
 
[QUOTE="Bret Lucas, post: 579869, What's the flight time and have you raced it or performed any severe unusual attitudes or max rate turns?[/QUOTE]
Never even fired up the motors on the replacement unit. Cracks were there when it came out of the box !!
 
Ok, I am so disappointed. New unit just out of box. Never flown. So all of the people saying this is not a problem are drinking the DJI KoolAid. I'm out. Will be returning for refund, not replacement. I'll wait till the problem is solved for real before I get back into the game. View attachment 36585
I feel ya. I would too except that now I'm hooked on flying so I have no choice.
The problem has been stated and is simple. The plastic is too brittle. I will be doing a pic post soon showing how I fixed my RC.
 
Hopefully back in the game tonight. Returned the 2nd P3A and ordered a P3P based on the Black Friday Deals, should be arriving this afternoon. Crossing fingers on no cracks. First step will be to loosen the screws, then will be adding UAVbits reinforcements until the aluminum Infinity-Hobby plates come in.
 
Upgraded my P3P shell 2 months ago and I just discovered my first hairline crack (purchased bird in April). So now im adding epoxy hoping it will survive a year. Original she'll lasted a month but cracks were much worse. DJI, please recall these things or send us a shell that has support!
 
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Hello all, I am new to this forum. I've been flying six & seven hundred size helicopters for several years.
I just bought my first multirotor from Best Buy last Tuesday, a Phantom 3 Professional. I've not yet flown it but I have updated the firmware. It has the old motors and shell, no cracks yet. I am on the fence on weather to return it for the new version that some have reported cracks as well or just keep what I have and deal with the cracks as they come. I do have the removable type blade guards that act like a reinforcing plate, at least for the four motor screws. It's hard earned money on the table and I want to enjoy my purchase without the thought of having to send it in for repairs and not able to fly it for months on end.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
 
Hello all, I am new to this forum. I've been flying six & seven hundred size helicopters for several years.
I just bought my first multirotor from Best Buy last Tuesday, a Phantom 3 Professional. I've not yet flown it but I have updated the firmware. It has the old motors and shell, no cracks yet. I am on the fence on weather to return it for the new version that some have reported cracks as well or just keep what I have and deal with the cracks as they come. I do have the removable type blade guards that act like a reinforcing plate, at least for the four motor screws. It's hard earned money on the table and I want to enjoy my purchase without the thought of having to send it in for repairs and not able to fly it for months on end.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

There will always be a risk involved. In fact, many different risks when it comes to MRs in general - if you already fly RC you are welll aware. As for the P3 shell it´s impossible to tell if it´s going to crack or not, or when. But if it does you can either go the DJI warranty way, or the fix-it-yourself way. Each have pros and cons when it comes to wait time, cost, etc. But one thing is for sure: if you´re into RC hobby there´s no way fly 100% risk-free. Go ahead and have fun, that´s the point.

My "old-motor" P3P is flying (lots) without cracks or any issues for months, that is to say I´m glad I kept it. But you never know. If I crash then I´d be without my P3 for some time anyway, and it´d probably cost a lot anyway so whatever. Being a hobbyist I decided to go the DIY route with the P3 whenever that is possible (i.e. cheaper, faster and/or easier).
 
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It is a bummer that we even have to worry about a $1300 quadcopter cracking. Reports are just all over the map with this, and we can only sum it up by saying it's random and probably rare in the grand scheme of things. If it were me and and newer model was sitting next to an older model, I'd get the newer one. No great proof they have solved the cracking problem as there are reports with the newer shells, too, but still makes sense to get a newer shell if it's readily available to you. It may be tougher, who knows. If it means waiting weeks or the hassle of searching multiple sources to get one, I would just get the old shell model and go have fun. That is precisely what I did as none of the Best Buy stores within 200 miles had the more recent edition. Mine flies fantastically and no hint of any cracks.
 
Call me an optimist but I see it another way: I find it amazing I have so little to worry about on this $1300 quad. Cracking or not. I guess it all depends on perspective, coming from much more expensive, complex, maintenance and repair-intensive RC models it all seems minor. I´m yet to come across a similar-performing MR, and one that gives me so little trouble and so much fun at that.

Please don´t get me wrong here, I´m not making little of these issues and I don´t want to antagonize or anything. I´m just expressing my satisfaction with this AC. I´m well aware and sympathize with pilots suffering setbacks with cracks, batteries, gimbals and all, and I agree DJI should get it right for good. But to me that kind of thing is just part of flying RC.
 
Well I've had my share of drilling my helis into the earth and made the expensive repairs necessary to make it flight worthy again. And I know I can rebuild the phantom it's just disappointing to spend the cash layout and have the worry about whether my airframe is going crack apart while hovering or tooling around or even worse before I even get to crash it.
 
I agree, what I meant is that even though the Phantom feels like a modern "appliance" it can and do behave like a RC model in some ways and situations. It´s an integrated "plug´n´play" device with a rather good and stable performance and very little maintenance compared to a RC copter or plane. Anyway I wouldn´t bother too much about it, because it seems that only a small part of P3s are cracking and there´s a lot of fun to be had here!
 
Has anyone tried returning/exchanging their old motor style P3P at Best Buy before it cracked for the newer style?
 
Has anyone tried returning/exchanging their old motor style P3P at Best Buy before it cracked for the newer style?
Yes i did with no issue they barely checked anything inside the box i could of got away with forgetting the battery lol.
 
Yes, I have been thinking about it myself. I don't know if it's worth the hassle, there's several reports of the new shell/motor cracking. I figured if my brand new old motor and old shell model cracks which I'm sure it will, I'll either send it back to DJI or reshell it myself. I do however have until January 15 to return it to Best Buy.
 
Don't be paranoid. I have the old shell and motors (5/15) and 113 flights. Shell looks pristine.
 
my buddy went to the drone show in the UK a week or so back I asked him to ask about the Phantom arms cracking, this is what he replied.
=====================================================

Had quite a long chat with a female from Dji. I asked about the business of the end of the arms cracking under the motors.

She reckoned that it isn’t a problem. (But she would say that, I hear you say) but if you spoke to her and listened to her knowledge of it, you’d be convinced she’s right. She was talking about the European repair centre, and how the vast majority of repairs they receive are all pilot error, the quad having hit something. The business of braking hard in the air apparently has no way of exerting enough pressure on the frame to make it crack. They sell 100’s X 1000’s of Phantoms and there is no known issue.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
what say you?
 
"... The business of braking hard in the air apparently has no way of exerting enough pressure on the frame to make it crack...".

That part I believe. I´ve been repeating that myself, makes no sense to me that the active braking would cause that, at least not any more than other P3 moves.

Overtorqueing the screws? Yes that can crack not only the P3 shell but ANY plastic part. I myself doubt that one too though, I´d say it´s pretty hard to achieve that much torque needed to crack it with such small and fine-threaded screws, even the torx type. As with most other P3 parts the shell is quite well engineered, so I´ve narrowed it down to the manufacturing, possibly plastic mix / injecting issue. That´s my opinion anyway.
 
But these look different than what others are reporting. They don't look fatal, but...

This is a 2 week old unit with 1.5 hours of flight time, no crashes, not even a hard landing.

It is a new unit with the new shell and new motors.

View attachment 36339

My brand new Phantom 3 with the new motors has cracking after just two flights with nothing but feather soft landings. It looks like my vendor is going to put a new shell on the thing they issued a return label immediately. And by the way I am not even an aggressive pilot, no erratic moves. I can only hope the replacement shell does a better job.
 

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