Looking for advice/confirmation

[skyzalimit]

Ok, I crashed my P3Pro last year, got it tangled in powerlines while trying to maneuver into position to get a specific camera shot, while watching busy traffic on the hiway to keep from getting myself killed. When I retrieved the a/c it was beeping very loudly, about the same rate as the flashing LED on the battery when it's turned on. The gimbal was broken, camera completely severed from the a/c. (It was at an alt of about 43' before the crash, and landed hard on its feet--but from where I was, it looked like it fell in slo-mo, or maybe that's just how I perceived it as my heart was stopped!)
Other than the camera/gimbal damage (and of course the flat flex cable) there didn't seem to be other damage. So, I bought a new camera - gimbal assembly and cable, and replaced them. But whenever I start it up, it continues to beep, and the Go app will not connect to the a/c (I was hoping to see error messages).
I was thinking that the beeping was indicating an ESC damaged, and possibly also one or more motors, because 1) I thought possibly one or more motors were snagged by the wires, and 2) also after it reached the ground it was leaning on 2 props. (Not being very experienced with crashes like that, I forgot to do the emergency shutdown to turn it off, so I didn't turn it off until I walked over to retrieve it. Also, I was still in a state of horror because of my stupidity. I just wasn't thinking right anymore!)
Next, I tried replaying the flight that's recorded in the app (that's a real handy feature!). While watching the a/c move along the flight path, there is a very brief error message "motor obstructed" right before it quickly loses altitude. (The record continues after that, until I walked over and turned the a/c off.)
So, at this point, I have bought the main board and 4 new motors, which I intend to replace. Since I was concerned that, in the future they will be harder to find (I had the old motors and the Part 33 main board, I'm replacing them with the new motors and the Part 96 main board.)
Before I perform that work... does anybody see anything that I'm missing? Anything else I should be doing? I don't want to try to replace components on the board, I'll just replace the whole board. (Maybe in a future repair, if there is one, I might venture to try component level SMD soldering, etc on that dense PCB.)
Also, any tips would be appreciated. (After replacing the parts, I'll do an IMU and compass calibrations, update Firmware, etc.)
Thanks in advance!

 

[solentlife]

I had similar when my P3P went into a tree .. I shut down the motors as it fell ... but she sustained significant damage ... gimbal arm severed ... along with shell etc.

Because of the complexity of the P3 and so many horror stories of people buying all the parts and STILL not getting to work - I sent mine into DJI.

For ~300 Euros - they sent back a fully working, warrantied repaired P3P ...

When I saw the list of parts they replaced - I understood that the savings of my buying and fitting was actually small .. AND the risk of not successful.

My P3P is still flying and I believe I made a wise decision.

 

[quaddamage]

Not much caveats in replacing the ESC Center Board. To open it, it is useful to have a thin tool - I'm usually using cement spatula - one of the most often used tool for me, even though I'm not a dentist (and quie cheap from Chinese sellers). After releasing the plastic clamps, everything goes smoothly.

Watch a movie on YouTube on how people open the cover.
If you have prop protectors, the screws are probably replaced by longer ones. Do not use long screws without prop guard, or you will damage motor wiring.

No other hints come to my mind.

 

[skyzalimit]

Thanks, fellas. Solentlife, I debated that quite a bit, and I was close to sending it off to a DJI certified place I found only 2 states away, but I've worked on complex electronics a bit over the years, so I decided to do it myself. I wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself, but I'm just not sure if I had the time nowadays, and I've heard some horror stories. Also, I wasn't sure how much it might've totalled up to, and didn't want to spend that much $$$ right now. Though I actually like the P3Pro better in some ways, I have a P4Pro now as my main machine.
Quaddamage, I had it open once already to replace the camera & gimbal system. So I do have some tools to help. Also, I use small pieces of stiff cardboard (as shims) to help keep the parts open that I've already pried apart, while I work my way along through the neighboring "snaps." But when I had it open, I was impressed by how small & delicate some of the flat printed cables and connectors are! It would be easy to damage them if I, say, tried to pull the cable out without unclamping the connector completely first. I watched YouTube videos beforehand to make sure I got it right!
Again, thanks for your comments!
I have one more question: Since I haven't updated any P3 Firmware for a while, now that DJI has quit supporting the series, do they still come "over the air" like the P4 updates did (I don't remember if the P3 ones did), or do I need to find them on my computer from when I downloaded them the first time? What I mean is, will I get the "There's a firmware update available" message in Go? Or do I need to figure out if I've gotten the last version available? For that matter. does anyone have any comments on whether I need to do them all in order, or simply update with the last one? (I think I know that answer, but I don't like to make assumptions.)

 

[SouthTexas&RioGrandeFlyer]

Recently did repairs on a P3P with the old style motors. Customer said it had gone blind 3 years ago and efforts to do a firmware update in hopes of restoring video had failed, so he put it in a closet. He recently stumbled across it and asked me to see if I could update the firmware and get the camera working.

Turned out the gimbal upper control board had been bricked - possibly why it couldn’t be updated. I installed a DJI refurbished 4K gimbal assembly, installed the FW updated SD card in the gimbal and lit it up - the FW update was successful. Shut down the drown and removed the SD card, started the controller with the Go app, then started the drone. Don’t recall the exact message, but the Go app recognized there was a different gimbal assembly and I let it do whatever it does to assimilate it. (Maybe it’s one of those DJI activation thingys). Everything played nice and the drone flew beautifully.

P3P FW update (refresh) was downloaded from DJI website to SD card using a PC.