P3 Pro Needs New ESC Center Board (Which One?)

[sagscout]

[NOTE: I posted this in the P3 "Help" section a few days ago and am now trying here.]

I have a P3 Pro which I have flown about 50 times and which worked flawlessly until I crashed it recently. It had never been opened until I cut the decals and dissassembled it today. The crash pushed the flight controller through the center of the board and broke the solder connections. I see no further physical damage.

I realize there are two different center boards available (part #s 33 & 96). I identified my board via multiple photo references and its label (044LA) as the older board (part # 33). Using the same methods I am able to verify the motors are the newer 2312A.

DJI warns that this board/motor combo are not compatible. I'm surprised this is the factory config from DJI since they say it won't work reliably or for long. I'm leaning toward purchasing part #96 since that is specified for the motors I have.

Has anyone else run into this problem?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.

 

[quaddamage]

You haven't seen any answer because noone stumbled upon such drone.

I suspected that Dji's claims that the new motors are not compatible with old boards might be not true; Dji often claims nothing is compatible besides single specific parts.
Motors have only a few parameters, and these are very similar between 2312 and 2312A.

Anyway, I'd go with new ESC Center Board, unless there's a really good deal for the old one. (Actually I would just fix the existing board, but that's beyond @sagscout question)

 

[With The Birds]

You haven't seen any answer because noone stumbled upon such drone.

I suspected that Dji's claims that the new motors are not compatible with old boards might be not true; Dji often claims nothing is compatible besides single specific parts.
Motors have only a few parameters, and these are very similar between 2312 and 2312A.

Anyway, I'd go with new ESC Center Board, unless there's a really good deal for the old one. (Actually I would just fix the existing board, but that's beyond @sagscout question)

The motors are probably different enough to require a reflash of the TI motor driver SOC to get best efficiency. It’s probably not reasonable to assume the OP might not be prepared to fix his existing board or get someone to do it for him. The inverter MOSFETS shouldn’t prove greatly difficult to replace by anyone with a good solder station and skills. Would be a breeze for a mobile phone tech. Have you fixed one? Perhaps you can give some tips....... this is a common problem unfortunately.

 

[quaddamage]

The motors are probably different enough to require a reflash of the TI motor driver SOC to get best efficiency.

That could be the case, that's a good idea.

But we can verify that there are actually no separate TI firmwares for the new ESCs. The wiki mentions only one set of firmwares:
o-gs/dji-firmware-tools

If we compare the binaries for the 4 modules m1200-m1203 (I did it at some point) - they're identical. Also, there are no other modules related to ESCs in any of the new firmwares. So - TI chip programming is identical in both versions of the board, because firmware updates have only one version of the ESC firmware.

Have you fixed one? Perhaps you can give some tips....... this is a common problem unfortunately.

For the specific problem the OP mentioned:

The crash pushed the flight controller through the center of the board and broke the solder connections. I see no further physical damage.

I'd just align the board properly and re-solder all the pads, assuming none of them is ripped with the copper path.

For more generic ESC repairs, I did started making a chart, but it is used far less frequently than the "no video feed" one, so I don't have much will to finish it:

Fix ESC Status Error on Ph3 Pro Ph3 Adv or Ph3 Std

These things do take time to make.

 

[With The Birds]

That could be the case, that's a good idea.

But we can verify that there are actually no separate TI firmwares for the new ESCs. The wiki mentions only one set of firmwares:
o-gs/dji-firmware-tools

If we compare the binaries for the 4 modules m1200-m1203 (I did it at some point) - they're identical. Also, there are no other modules related to ESCs in any of the new firmwares. So - TI chip programming is identical in both versions of the board, because firmware updates have only one version of the ESC firmware.



For the specific problem the OP mentioned:



I'd just align the board properly and re-solder all the pads, assuming none of them is ripped with the copper path.

For more generic ESC repairs, I did started making a chart, but it is used far less frequently than the "no video feed" one, so I don't have much will to finish it:

Fix ESC Status Error on Ph3 Pro Ph3 Adv or Ph3 Std

These things do take time to make.

Does the fact that DJI firmware doesn’t contain a module that writes to the ESC electronics preclude the possibility that the TI SOC is flashed by DJI or a supplier prior to installation? The chips need parameters written to them in production for the motors. It might be (and I suspect probable) the later revision board has different parameters written to it.

 

[sagscout]

You haven't seen any answer because noone stumbled upon such drone.

I suspected that Dji's claims that the new motors are not compatible with old boards might be not true; Dji often claims nothing is compatible besides single specific parts.
Motors have only a few parameters, and these are very similar between 2312 and 2312A.

Anyway, I'd go with new ESC Center Board, unless there's a really good deal for the old one. (Actually I would just fix the existing board, but that's beyond @sagscout question)

Thanks very much for the insight. I guess I have nothing to lose in trying to fix the existing board.

 

[quaddamage]

Does the fact that DJI firmware doesn’t contain a module that writes to the ESC electronics preclude the possibility that the TI SOC is flashed by DJI or a supplier prior to installation? The chips need parameters written to them in production for the motors. It might be (and I suspect probable) the later revision board has different parameters written to it.

Yeah, you're right, that's possible.
Personally I find it unlikely, but that is possible.
These chips do have pre-programmed ROM part; that's why Dji put their own markings on them - TI provides such service for chips with factory-programmed ROM from a client.

 

[sagscout]

Thanks for the tips re. my P3 Pro.
I finally got around to trying to fix the old board. I haven't done any fine soldering in years so I spent $20 on a cheap variable temp soldering iron kit from Amazon.
I removed the ESC and verified no torn copper, aligned it, and soldered the traces. Most needed little to no additional solder. After reassembly and power up everything seemed OK accept the gimbal needed recalibration. It was noisy until I tried that and then I did get a calibration failed error but it seems fine and the noise is gone. After some close proximity testing I took it up and away and it seems to be perfect.
Thanks again for the advice.