Let's say you crashes and your camera fell off...

izzydrone · Jul 6, 2015

Hypothetically if you miscalculated how far a tree was and hit it 30 feet up and the camera broke off... Drone still flies but camera looks like photo... Now what...

Repair ? Replace ? Anyone have estimate on what it should cost ?

I'm in Beverly Hills

ImageUploadedByPhantomPilots1436238579.842527.jpg

bobmyers · Jul 6, 2015

Buy a new one and sell or keep the one you have now for parts.

NickCopter · Jul 6, 2015

bobmyers said:
Buy a new one and sell or keep the one you have now for parts.

Pretty much this.

DJI won't cover a crash that was operator error, and I believe the camera is the most expensive part of the machine to repair.

Try selling the battery, controller, body, and camera and see what happens.

@hunch, is someone you might want to talk to about options. I know he repairs and sells Phantoms like crazy. And his customer service is great

dirkclod · Jul 6, 2015

Hypothetically

That don't look hypothetical to me

ctp · Jul 7, 2015

New camera is $500. I believe Advexure has said they are coming in stock soon. You can choose whether you want an advanced camera or a pro.

izzydrone · Jul 7, 2015

Yea thanks I saw that ... Says coming. Soon I think... I had 2 gigs I'm canceling this week

unfortunate. Someone told me Rc depot in I believe Orange County might be able to fix it... Going to try and stop by tomorrow.

ScottyT · Jul 7, 2015

Ouch. Is the ribbon cable the only thing seemingly broken?

izzydrone · Jul 7, 2015

Ribbon and one other part

izzydrone · Jul 7, 2015

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Camera looks ok, ribbon broken, and one other part broken.

izzydrone · Jul 7, 2015

Anyone ever fix this and have an idea of what it costs ?

BenDronePilot · Jul 7, 2015

izzydrone said:
Hypothetically if you miscalculated how far a tree was and hit it 30 feet up and the camera broke off... Drone still flies but camera looks like photo... Now what...

Repair ? Replace ? Anyone have estimate on what it should cost ?

I'm in Beverly Hills View attachment 24098

It's not worth buying the camera separately. You would do best to buy a whole new Phantom and sell your original Phantom or keep it to use for spare parts if something should happen with your new replacement.

Ezookiel · Jul 7, 2015

For a hypothetical situation, those are remarkably realistic looking photos. You must be very good at doing mock-ups in photoshop

The sad thing with almost every model of the phantom I've seen so far, if you total the camera and gimbal, the repair is stupidly expensive. I'm making do with a damaged gimbal on my P2 now because I can't justify the cost a second time to repair it (slow learner, I crashed it twice with the camera on it, the first time I replaced with a new one. Not going to do that this time, I'll squirrel away the money towards the Inspire 2 when they release it..

izzydrone · Jul 7, 2015

anyone know what its worth as is ? it flys fine.

ctp · Jul 7, 2015

izzydrone said:
anyone know what its worth as is ? it flys fine.

Start here: http://store.dji.com/phantom-accessories/for-phantom-3 and discount for used and crashed.

Personally I wouldn't pay more than $500 if I was in the market for crashed P3 no camera. Anything over $500 and it just makes more sense to buy a new one.

Rider82 · Jul 7, 2015

Just do this...

I've got myself some plastic epoxy, primer, sand paper and plastidip today... let the customizing fun begin! I hope the hotel don't mind me using the bathroom as a spray booth... lol

MattyDread · Jul 7, 2015

As you're from Beverley Hills, money should be no object... or so I'm led to believe from those tv shows - just go out & grab another

AYA74 · Jul 7, 2015

I crashed my P3 and broke the gimbal too. Without shipping costs, it costed me less than 150 USD to have it repaired by DJI with a turnaround time of about 4 weeks (I live in Singapore). If your camera is fine, they can just fix the gimbal arm. They will anyway ask you to approve the costs before starting the repair.

ampro · Jul 7, 2015

Protect your gimbal next time with a protecter from KillerRC.com

msITguy · Jul 7, 2015

+1 for buying a new P3. Keep the old one as a trainer. I have an old P2V+ with a bent/inoperative gimbal that I occasionally let someone else fly. Maybe a good friend, or to make a kids day (having my hands on the controls as well, sometimes tethered).

AYA74 · Jul 7, 2015

ampro said:
Protect your gimbal next time with a protecter from KillerRC.com

I did install both a gimbal guard and gimbal saver for now but actually I found that the weak point of the gimbal is actually the thiner part of the arm, not the articulated sections.