If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 READ!

[ymangitu]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

This afternoon I opened the body and tried to see if the ESCs or the ESCs wiring show some problems. Here are the photos of all four ESCs. Note that one of these ESCs has been replaced after the crash. I confirm that all of the ESCs are Version 2.1. Do you see any problem apart from the small wires? I can provide higher resolution photos if needed. Thanks!

 

[ymangitu]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

This is how it's like after the crash

 

[RhythMick]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

All went well until the 3rd test flight, when she fell out of the air and landed the other side of the woods.

I can report that "Find My Phantom" works very well.

Cuppa tea and calm down, then I'll dig in and see if my soldering is to blame.

External damage. One prop is missing, another has only half. I searched for 20 minutes but couldn't find either the full prop or the half. The motor which was missing a prop shows no damage.

It landed on one arm, the one which had half a prop on. The motor has some soil on it and needs a clean out if it's usable at all. The arm itself has bent just behind the motor, I'd say about 5 to 10 degrees. The top has buckled closer in along the same arm. I suspect this is going to need a rebuild with a new frame and top.

The GOOD news is that I'd fitted both the aluminium gimbal clamp and the plastic tray underneath the back of the camera.The camera and gimbal APPEAR to be intact, though I won't know until I can power up (which won't be until after thorough checks).

EDIT: Rather than clog up this thread I've started a new to seek guidance on testing comonents after the crash.
I'll post more once I get the top off along with photos.

 

[jonstatt]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

Hi Jeremy, I came across this post after I had my P2 V3 fell to the ground like a rock. It was a nice flight on a fair sunny day when out of nowhere it fell. I've had around 15 nice flights since I bought the phantom so I didn't expect this to happen at all. After it fell, I tried turning it on again and it flew and hovered without any problem, but I shut it down before something worse happens. So I took it to the service center and they said the ESC was damaged, most likely from the crash. But after I read your post, I suspect that the ESC got malfunctioned mid-air, that's right before it fell. By the way, I damaged a Gopro Hero4 from the crash, bent mainboard and disconnected USB ports, unusable.

I'm no engineer or electrician and this has been a long post so I haven't finished reading the whole thing. I assume we have to replace the 3 wires to the motor to stranded wires instead of solid wire? Will that be all? Please advise. Thank you!

Your failure was not a wire fault. If it was a wire fault, when it fails, it stays failed! When an ESC starts to fail, it can become erratic for a short period of time before it fails completely. This can be seen by observing the rotation of the props when in CNC start mode (not take off)....a failing ESC prop will not move smoothly at low revs. The sad thing about this, is that it means you had an ESC 2.1 failure. To date I don't think there have been many of those......By all means upgrade the wires if you want to, but that wasn't what caused your failure.

 

[justin00]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

All the wires in the pics you posted up seem to be fine and still connected.

I reckon your crash might possibly be due to the tip overs.
The annoying and odd thing is.. a gentle tip over when the motors are still running can sometimes do more damage than crashing into a tree and falling to the ground (from not to high up lol)

Sometimes if an ESC is damaged you might not relies it but the problem can get worse. There are diff degree's of damage of course...
A friend had a tip over and that caused the motor to run extremely hot. We replaced the motor and the same thing happened to the new motor.

It would be hard to diagnose the cause of the crash. for example, If you did see a loose wire you don't know if it was there before or due to the crash..

Hi Jeremy, I came across this post after I had my P2 V3 fell to the ground like a rock. It was a nice flight on a fair sunny day when out of nowhere it fell. I've had around 15 nice flights since I bought the phantom so I didn't expect this to happen at all. After it fell, I tried turning it on again and it flew and hovered without any problem, but I shut it down before something worse happens. So I took it to the service center and they said the ESC was damaged, most likely from the crash. But after I read your post, I suspect that the ESC got malfunctioned mid-air, that's right before it fell. By the way, I damaged a Gopro Hero4 from the crash, bent mainboard and disconnected USB ports, unusable.
I'm no engineer or electrician and this has been a long post so I haven't finished reading the whole thing. I assume we have to replace the 3 wires to the motor to stranded wires instead of solid wire? Will that be all? Please advise. Thank you!

Jeremy and myself have been doing extensive research and solution
For months on these birdies with much success.
Also where are you located? Jeremy is in CA and I am in MN.
We both can replace the wires and troubleshoot these.


Hani

Thanks guys, I'm afraid we're too far away. I'm located in Jakarta, Indonesia, South East Asia.

Also I forgot to mention, my phantom once in a while tip over, JUST WHEN I TURN ON THE MOTORS. I always thought it was normal but when the phantom came back from service (ESC replacement after the crash), I turned on the motors and suddenly the RPM of some of the motors increases and caused the phantom to tip over. Is this even normal?

 

[justin00]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

 

[UKFlyer]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Still not sure. I have the new 18awg wires, heatshrink and hot glue here but i may just secure the solder joints with the glue now and not change the wires.

 

[Apparition]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Still not sure. I have the new 18awg wires, heatshrink and hot glue here but i may just secure the solder joints with the glue now and not change the wires.

3 successful flights so far on my new all stock V3. Figure if it drops from the sky now I'll claim warranty. Flys great and holds position amazingly.

 

[RhythMick]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

All went well until the 3rd test flight, when she fell out of the air and landed the other side of the woods.

I can report that "Find My Phantom" works very well.

Cuppa tea and calm down, then I'll dig in and see if my soldering is to blame.

External damage. One prop is missing, another has only half. I searched for 20 minutes but couldn't find either the full prop or the half. The motor which was missing a prop shows no damage.

It landed on one arm, the one which had half a prop on. The motor has some soil on it and needs a clean out if it's usable at all. The arm itself has bent just behind the motor, I'd say about 5 to 10 degrees. The top has buckled closer in along the same arm. I suspect this is going to need a rebuild with a new frame and top.

The GOOD news is that I'd fitted both the aluminium gimbal clamp and the plastic tray underneath the back of the camera.The camera and gimbal APPEAR to be intact, though I won't know until I can power up (which won't be until after thorough checks).

EDIT: Rather than clog up this thread I've started a new to seek guidance on testing comonents after the crash.
I'll post more once I get the top off along with photos.

New thread here: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=36797&p=340306#p340306

Grateful for advice on testing components and rebuilding after crash.

 

[Fpsphil]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Did u just hotglue at the soder points? Im thinking of doing this. Or i might be sending it up to jeremy to have him redo the wires as theres no way ima mess with trying to soder it myself

 

[StevenQX]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

All went well until the 3rd test flight, when she fell out of the air and landed the other side of the woods.

I can report that "Find My Phantom" works very well.

Cuppa tea and calm down, then I'll dig in and see if my soldering is to blame.

External damage. One prop is missing, another has only half. I searched for 20 minutes but couldn't find either the full prop or the half. The motor which was missing a prop shows no damage.

It landed on one arm, the one which had half a prop on. The motor has some soil on it and needs a clean out if it's usable at all. The arm itself has bent just behind the motor, I'd say about 5 to 10 degrees. The top has buckled closer in along the same arm. I suspect this is going to need a rebuild with a new frame and top.

The GOOD news is that I'd fitted both the aluminium gimbal clamp and the plastic tray underneath the back of the camera.The camera and gimbal APPEAR to be intact, though I won't know until I can power up (which won't be until after thorough checks).

EDIT: Rather than clog up this thread I've started a new to seek guidance on testing comonents after the crash.
I'll post more once I get the top off along with photos.

New thread here: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=36797&p=340306#p340306

Grateful for advice on testing components and rebuilding after crash.

Sorry for what happened to you...have you understood the cause of that crash?

 

[clayton4115]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

All the wires in the pics you posted up seem to be fine and still connected.

I reckon your crash might possibly be due to the tip overs.
The annoying and odd thing is.. a gentle tip over when the motors are still running can sometimes do more damage than crashing into a tree and falling to the ground (from not to high up lol)

Sometimes if an ESC is damaged you might not relies it but the problem can get worse. There are diff degree's of damage of course...
A friend had a tip over and that caused the motor to run extremely hot. We replaced the motor and the same thing happened to the new motor.

It would be hard to diagnose the cause of the crash. for example, If you did see a loose wire you don't know if it was there before or due to the crash..

So it may be a good idea to have prop guards on especially for newbies to avoid these tipovers?

 

[RhythMick]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

Grateful for advice on testing components and rebuilding after crash.

Sorry for what happened to you...have you understood the cause of that crash?

Thanks. I plan to test the motors in situ after a clean up, if they spin up then I can be confident it's not the wiring (more importantly, not my work). Theories:

1) a prop was missing and the motor it was attached to showed no sign of damage, making me wonder if it spun off in midair
2) the battery was around 2 feet from the bird and still on, bno sign of damage - it COULD have fallen out in midair ?
3) I'm pretty sure I was too high to have clipped a branch (bird strike maybe ?), the video may help if I can recover it - think I'll need to power it up and let it finalise the recording

The replacement body is £45 and my dealer has them in stock so Monday evening will be a rebuild. I'm also going to replace the motor that got dinged, but will clean the soil out and test it anyway - perhaps a useful spare. That's £14 and also in stock.

The wifi unit took a ding and may or may not need replacing, haven't checked the cost yet.

To be honest, if the camera and gimbal survived the fall I'll count myself very lucky and THANKS to this forum for the recommendations to fit the gimbal protector and guard.

 

[clayton4115]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

So it may be a good idea to have prop guards on especially for newbies to avoid these tipovers?

 

[justin00]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

yip just at the solder joints on the ESC... covered it nicely..
I also put heatshrink on the wires.. I was thinking if they burnt up hopefully the heatshrink helps it... that was for the original issue of the wires burning, but the fix for that was using esc 2.1.

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Did u just hotglue at the soder points? Im thinking of doing this. Or i might be sending it up to jeremy to have him redo the wires as theres no way ima mess with trying to soder it myself

 

[Reoscorpio]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

yip just at the solder joints on the ESC... covered it nicely..
I also put heatshrink on the wires.. I was thinking if they burnt up hopefully the heatshrink helps it... that was for the original issue of the wires burning, but the fix for that was using esc 2.1.

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Did u just hotglue at the soder points? Im thinking of doing this. Or i might be sending it up to jeremy to have him redo the wires as theres no way ima mess with trying to soder it myself

Do you have a pic of this for curiosity's sake?

 

[Reoscorpio]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

yip just at the solder joints on the ESC... covered it nicely..
I also put heatshrink on the wires.. I was thinking if they burnt up hopefully the heatshrink helps it... that was for the original issue of the wires burning, but the fix for that was using esc 2.1.

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Did u just hotglue at the soder points? Im thinking of doing this. Or i might be sending it up to jeremy to have him redo the wires as theres no way ima mess with trying to soder it myself

Do you have a pic of this for curiosity's sake?

 

[ymangitu]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

yip just at the solder joints on the ESC... covered it nicely..
I also put heatshrink on the wires.. I was thinking if they burnt up hopefully the heatshrink helps it... that was for the original issue of the wires burning, but the fix for that was using esc 2.1.

btw... anyone else on team "leave the wires alone.. and err see how she goes" ???

All thought I did use a glue gun to the secure the wires... Had around 30 flights, glue has not been heated/deformed and everything still looks perfect. ...

Did u just hotglue at the soder points? Im thinking of doing this. Or i might be sending it up to jeremy to have him redo the wires as theres no way ima mess with trying to soder it myself

Hey Justin, so you're saying that ESC version 2.1 should have fixed the wire burning issue? My ESCs are all 2.1

 

[burlbark]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

Hey Justin, so you're saying that ESC version 2.1 should have fixed the wire burning issue? My ESCs are all 2.1

2.1 appears to have fixed the burned mosfet and melting shrink wrap, along with the immediate burn up turning prop strike we had been seeing.

It did not however fix the breaking motor leads. DJI's fix to this was to cover the wires and esc's with a silicone product. This does appear to have worked. However now the esc's mosfets are insulated and this is the last thing we needed. Time will tell how many hours and cycles it takes for the esc's to fail at the now elevated temperatures, there is just no way of knowing till we get some failures.

Jeremy

 

[ymangitu]

Re: If you just purchased a brand new Phantom 2 Vision+ V3 R

Hey Justin, so you're saying that ESC version 2.1 should have fixed the wire burning issue? My ESCs are all 2.1

2.1 appears to have fixed the burned mosfet and melting shrink wrap, along with the immediate burn up turning prop strike we had been seeing.

It did not however fix the breaking motor leads. DJI's fix to this was to cover the wires and esc's with a silicone product. This does appear to have worked. However now the esc's mosfets are insulated and this is the last thing we needed. Time will tell how many hours and cycles it takes for the esc's to fail at the now elevated temperatures, there is just no way of knowing till we get some failures.

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

What is motor leads? I saw that the mosfets have a thin layer of shinny substance on top of them, are those the silicone insulation? Do I still have to change the ESC cables?