Hell and Back -- Melting Props! :(

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Charleston, WV
I am going to share my hell over the past week. I purchased some black carbon fiber props. Flew them a couple times with no issues. Last weekend I flew up around 1500' to get a shot of a city (my landing site was a empty football field). after the shots, I brought the P3P back down and swapped out batteries.

I went to take back off and I was hoovering around 10 feet off the ground. I gave up command and forward command at the same time, that I have done 100's of times and when it spun up, one of the black CCW carbon fiber blades came off and flipped over and crashed on some concrete.

Upon inspection (see pictures attached) it got so hot it melted to the motor stem and even the plastic melted in to the threads. Needless to say a new motor was needed at the least. Due to not having OEM blades on the P3P, I had a feeling they would not cover the P3P under warranty.

So here is where I have been to hell and back. Upon inspection of my P3P, I needed to do and replaced the following:

1) New Shell (other one was pulled away and not usable. I would have replaced it anyways, too much scuff's)
2) Yaw are was bent (Camera came off on impact -- Replaced with Aircraft Grade Aluminum)
3) Anti-Vibration Mounting Plate (replaced with Carbon Fiber)
4) New Engine

I have got 12+ plus hours in taking the P3P COMPLETELY apart and putting it back together. I took every screw out, every wire, etc. I then went ahead and did the RC Antenna Mod to the RC since I was on a roll.

My advice:

1) Make your wife and children leave the house (I was repairing on the kitchen table) due to profanity coming from the dining room (honestly, I was not too bad).
2) Make a picture of each part and screw size goes where (lots of **** screws)
3) IF you have hair, when you are done you will need to join hair club for men.
4) Have the right tools, buy a $6 RC tool kit, you will need it (Amazon).
5) Wife's tweeters sure came in handy
6) Seen several spots on the wall where I through the P3P would look good thrown against (kept thinking you have 2K in this).
7) I think I need glasses
8) You get it back together and then realize you didn't have enough slack to plug cable back in to the main board (I walked around the house on that one a few times)
9) Do not drink while putting the P3P back together
10) It is a wonder I am still married [edited]

At the end of the day it was very tedious task moving everything to a new shell. I feel confident I can completely take a P3P apart and put it back together (technically with my errors, I got lots of practice). To those who show you how to take apart and put it back together on Youtube in a 5 minute video, FU..... LOL

Thanks for listening to my experience. My suggestion, do not use Carbon Fiber props.

www.wvdroneflyers.com -- My website (Thinking about starting a business, went ahead and started building the site). If anyone local (Charleston WV area) would like to fly or need help, just give me a shout.

[email protected] -- If I can be of any assistance!


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It may have been 1200 ft? I was high! Regardless, props melted.
 
Regardless 1200ft is too high... Keep to 500ft or below in the US.

Maybe it was very windy up there causing the motors to work harder than normal to keep it stationary, causing one to heat up more than ushal.

Always worth just carefully touching motors when you land to make sure one or more is not excessively hot. It should be just warm to the touch.
 
I do not think wind was a factor, and I do not usually operate at that flight level, but I it was well within the P3P operating limits. I had already called the FAA (CRW tower) and was just grabbing a shot, and then coming back down. You can for sure tell that the prop melted to the screw. Just sharing and being funny about my experience.
 
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Fair enough then! Thats okay then :p Kinda glad I havent had an experience like that yet! 50+ flights by now and 0 crashes! *knock on wood*
 
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Same here, I am chalking this one up to 3 party product failure! As you can see in the pics, those things melted to the shaft! It is smooth and no threads, the plastic has melted in to them, So for sure something got hot. End of the day ($100-120 repair) and my time, I can take one apart and put it back together (in less time).
 
Are you not able to get some pliers onto the plastic and try to remove that from the metal thread? I wouldn't have thought it would be immovably bonded in...
 
I tried, it is hard is a rock! I could cut it off, but it is pointless, no threads. New motor installed now. Soldering the new engine was the easy part of the process.
 
Yea fair enough. Better piece of mind! Im moving towards a new motor on my phantom. bearing is getting a little worse for wear :(
 
Getting the **** shell open is the rough part, they have that thing Ft. Knox locked. Have to slide a card on all 4 arms or you risk breaking it. Then it is just a matter of heating the solder, move the old, and solder new leads. There is glue on each end, you will need a hot glue gun so you can glue the wire leads back down on the end.
 
Sounds like there was a fault with the one motor and it got too hot. That motor was probably failing to begin with. Usually as a motors bearings get worn it starts to vibrate more. Could also have been some of the windings protruding. It takes a good bit of heat to make the shafts hot enough to melt the prop hub. It's likely the bottom of the arms where the motor bolts go through was also melted some. Replacing the shell took care of it all tho.
ALWAYS a good idea to check the temp of the motors (as was said before) before a 2nd flight. If you're re-using any of the other motors you should keep an eye on them. My Phantom has 50 flights (or less) and two of the motors are shot and need replacing. And I take VERY good care how and where I fly mine.
Also...not sue why, but I'm getting a TON of white space after your post text? Just me?
 
A 1K+ aircraft and you put unbranded/cheap props on it? That's like replacing your Ferrari's wheels with some rubber castors.

I'm sorry to hear about your crash, but really it's your own fault for trusting anyone other than DJI with a component as crucial as the props.

Can I ask, what on earth compelled you to use props other than the stock ones? And, are you sure they're actually carbon fibre because the melting point of CF should be much higher!
 
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Wow, 1500 feet and it melted... You should change your name to Icarus :) hehe
 
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Well they were advertised as Carbon Fiber. I have learned my lesson from using non-OEM parts. I am back up and running. I strengthened the YAW arm, and anti-shock camera mount to help absorb any future accidents (I hope not). Lesson learned, and will only use OEM parts on more critical parts of the aircraft.
 
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Wow, 1500 feet and it melted... You should change your name to Icarus :) hehe

I was @ around 1500 feet, it did not crash @ 1500 feet, it crashed at 10-15 feet. I landed, changed out batteries and upon takeoff and power is when we had the mishap.
 
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I was @ around 1500 feet, it did not crash @ 1500 feet, it crashed at 10-15 feet. I landed, changed out batteries and upon takeoff and power is when we had the mishap.
Hey! Now don't spoil our fun Icarus :)
 
I am going to share my hell over the past week. I purchased some black carbon fiber props. Flew them a couple times with no issues. Last weekend I flew up around 1500' to get a shot of a city (m


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Doesn't look like it melted. It looks like the props cracked and fell off from centrifugal force.
Get a pair of pliers and the prop removal tool.. If you look carefully, it looks like the metal hub is still on the motor. Just make sure turn in the correct direction to remove.
 

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