How-to Body Replacement ?

[alung]

I ordered a new body. Mine is pretty messed up from a rotor falling off.

Has anybody created any kind of a body replacement for dummies?

I removed the screws today to see if I could bend the arms back in place, it looks like the replacement can be done, but it might give me some grief, any suggestions?

 

[Gizmo3000]

it's relatively straightforward in swapping everything from one shell to a new one.
just remove the landing gear, unscrew the motors and screws holding the phantom together.
remove the top, unplug the GPS, unscrew the ESCs, then the motherboard and Rx .. and everything comes out.
then do the reverse to put things back into the new shell.

 

[freelanceshots]

From just having mine open before I don't see how the four nav lights & attached electrical boards in the arms come out. No screws holding them in where I put a little pressure to pop them loose and out and it was a no go. Definitely don't want to break these pieces and have to buy more parts. Inside my 4 LED arm lights I have little grass pieces from my first few tip-overs that I'd like to get out so hopefully their lenses come off as well. Also didn't see a way to get the forward facing, blinking LED out of the bottom half of the shell. Is this done by forcing the exterior lens off which seem to be held in by 2 internal prongs?

 

[Audaciter]

From just having mine open before I don't see how the four nav lights & attached electrical boards in the arms come out. No screws holding them in where I put a little pressure to pop them loose and out and it was a no go. Definitely don't want to break these pieces and have to buy more parts. Inside my 4 LED arm lights I have little grass pieces from my first few tip-overs that I'd like to get out so hopefully their lenses come off as well. Also didn't see a way to get the forward facing, blinking LED out of the bottom half of the shell. Is this done by forcing the exterior lens off which seem to be held in by 2 internal prongs?

There are 2 screws holding the esc's to the plastic lens's. (the led's are attached permanently to the esc's)

Also, the blinking LED plastic lens is attached to the LED module inside with 2 screws as well. ( You can see it if you open the battery compartment door, and look back.) It may have cushioned tape covering it from view.
The blinking LED actually faces rearward, towards you while you fly, so you can see what is going on.

 

[freelanceshots]

My new shell is coming so I'll be doing the switch soon.

 

[auck]

1 - remove propellers

2 - remove all screws holding top half of shell to bottom half, as indicated in section A8 of the Advance Manual found here http://download.dji-innovations.com/dow ... ual_en.pdf

3. remove the four (4) screws holding the motors to the shell. you should have sixteen (16) screws from undoing your motors.

4 - remove top half of shell from bottom half. you will need to unplug the GPS unit (attached to the top half) from the IMU. you will also need to unplug the grey cable from the GPS unit from the compass on the landing gear.

5 - remove the four (4) screws holding the central (big) PCB with IMU attached. they are located one at each corner of the board. http://api.ning.com/files/G90MFBDURm0W8 ... inside.JPG

6 - remove the two (2) screws holding the controller RX. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRUDKZGhwuU

7 - remove the two (2) screws holding the ESC. this will also undo the LED diffuser for the ESC. if you hare having a difficult time locating the screws, look at the diffuser and you should see two "tube" like constructs, those correlates to the two screws on the ESC. http://i48.tinypic.com/14l3ux2.jpg

8 - remove the foam padding attached to the USB and LED indicator. remove the two (2) screws holding the status LED to its diffuser. http://i48.tinypic.com/11szbis.jpg

9 - remove the foam padding covering the GPS unit from the top half of the shell. do NOT discard, as this foam piece does have a layer of copper meshed in between to help reduce EMF from the phantom itself. remove the four (4) screws holding the GPS unit from the top half. http://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attac ... 1357577319

10 - transplant "gut" and reattach screws and foam into new shell.

11 - detach the landing skids from the old shell and attach to the new shell.

hope this helps.

 

[FPVwannabe]

I ordered a new body. Mine is pretty messed up from a rotor falling off.

Has anybody created any kind of a body replacement for dummies?

I removed the screws today to see if I could bend the arms back in place, it looks like the replacement can be done, but it might give me some grief, any suggestions?

Last night I watched a vid about tightening\checking the rotors before every flight.
Today I checked them before flying and one was finger tight. Close call.
Somebody else here suggested using nylocks (nuts with a nylon insert) and I think that's the best idea.
How high were you when the rotor fell off?

 

[alung]

I ordered a new body. Mine is pretty messed up from a rotor falling off.

Has anybody created any kind of a body replacement for dummies?

I removed the screws today to see if I could bend the arms back in place, it looks like the replacement can be done, but it might give me some grief, any suggestions?

Last night I watched a vid about tightening\checking the rotors before every flight.
Today I checked them before flying and one was finger tight. Close call.
Somebody else here suggested using nylocks (nuts with a nylon insert) and I think that's the best idea.
How high were you when the rotor fell off?

I wasn't very high. I think I've had worse crashes, or at least ones that looked worse. When the prop fell of, the plane fell like a rock, hitting the ground very violently.

 

[alung]

1 - remove propellers

2 - remove all screws holding top half of shell to bottom half, as indicated in section A8 of the Advance Manual found here http://download.dji-innovations.com/dow ... ual_en.pdf

3. remove the four (4) screws holding the motors to the shell. you should have sixteen (16) screws from undoing your motors.

4 - remove top half of shell from bottom half. you will need to unplug the GPS unit (attached to the top half) from the IMU. you will also need to unplug the grey cable from the GPS unit from the compass on the landing gear.

5 - remove the four (4) screws holding the central (big) PCB with IMU attached. they are located one at each corner of the board. http://api.ning.com/files/G90MFBDURm0W8 ... inside.JPG

6 - remove the two (2) screws holding the controller RX. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRUDKZGhwuU

7 - remove the two (2) screws holding the ESC. this will also undo the LED diffuser for the ESC. if you hare having a difficult time locating the screws, look at the diffuser and you should see two "tube" like constructs, those correlates to the two screws on the ESC. http://i48.tinypic.com/14l3ux2.jpg

8 - remove the foam padding attached to the USB and LED indicator. remove the two (2) screws holding the status LED to its diffuser. http://i48.tinypic.com/11szbis.jpg

9 - remove the foam padding covering the GPS unit from the top half of the shell. do NOT discard, as this foam piece does have a layer of copper meshed in between to help reduce EMF from the phantom itself. remove the four (4) screws holding the GPS unit from the top half. http://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attac ... 1357577319

10 - transplant "gut" and reattach screws and foam into new shell.

11 - detach the landing skids from the old shell and attach to the new shell.

hope this helps.

this looks great. I'll use this when I get my parts. Did you put this together off the top of your head, or do you have a list? Very nice work, thank you.

 

[auck]

thank you, i put this down from personal experience.

 

[ebox30]

I learned the loose propeller screw lesson the hard way too:
http://youtu.be/FlOyV7seZVI

Thus the new body.

Thanks for the step by step on it.

 

[martcerv]

I just changed mine over after getting a bit too close to the ground on a low pass, so a near miss as I just clipped the ground and a few somersaults 2 broken props and a cracked frame. Also 2 motors weren't too great I replaced the bearings on both one is perfect again the other not quite so I will change this over and get it back to perfect again. I tend to push the little things quite hard so dont really want to take any risk.

I saw a small fracture in one of the arms so I decided best to just get a new shell. Fairly straightforward process just a few screws to take out and its amazing how little there is to it when you get all the electronics out.

Nylock nuts are the way to go I cant see these ever spinning themselves off but I also double check them before each flight session or if a prop ever touches the ground on a crappy landing just in case.

 

[AStare64]

Auck!

Hey...the info on swapping out a Phantom Body is great. I am currently waiting on delivery of a new shell for my Phantom 2. I was wondering if you, or anyone, knew how much of a difference there might be between the Phantom and Phantom 2 when it comes to to the body swapping procedure.

Thanks!

 

[gen3benz]

Auck!

Hey...the info on swapping out a Phantom Body is great. I am currently waiting on delivery of a new shell for my Phantom 2. I was wondering if you, or anyone, knew how much of a difference there might be between the Phantom and Phantom 2 when it comes to to the body swapping procedure.

Thanks!

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P1.5 conversion
A few people doing it right now, including myself. Room for duall batts or a P2 batt.