P4P crash repairs

[Craig Carter]

HI team,

My P4P was in a crash 6 weeks ago - lost power at 50 meters and fell hard.

DJI wont even look at the flight log as the activation date is 4 weeks outside warranty!

I would like to either

send back to DJI and have repaired or
source parts and repair myself

Ive priced parts at some ebay shops and need
the full shell
4 new motors (only 1 is busted up but how can I trust the others now)
all of the gimbal arms
1 gimbal motor (I think pitch) and cables

the dilemma is even after the spend will the camera work?

thoughts and advice please and appreciated - I'm in Australia

Regards

 

[Timinator]

Big question is are you comfortable doing the work? If not, ship it off to DJI for an estimate.

 

[Jayfdee]

OK, I would definitely replace all motors, and me personally would dive straight in and attempt the repair, but not everyone feels confident enough, or has the skills needed.
You do not know the full extent of the damage, yes you can see a smashed up shell and gimbal, but the electronics may be damaged as well.
Again, I like the challenge of a repair, and the satisfaction of firing it up and watching it fly again, for me, this is part of the hobby, you may not be like minded. If in doubt send it in for repair.

 

[Timinator]

Craig, have you actually opened it up yet to check for hidden damage or did you just price things based on the external damage you could see? That might make a difference as Jayfdee mentioned in the post above. Not sure what part of Oz you're in but have you checked to see if there are any local shops that might do the repair? Could be a faster turnaround time than if you had to send it off to Hong Kong or wherever the nearest service center is located.

 

[Alan Russel]

Hi Craig I am in Australia too, recently I purchased a cheap crashed drone(with similar damage to yours) because I like the challenge of a repair.I repaired mine but a repair can test your patience. My advice if you go ahead with it is to watch various repair videos so you get familiar with the internal workings of the drone, have the necessary tools to do the job and just go at your own pace.

 

[Craig Carter]

Hi Craig I am in Australia too, recently I purchased a cheap crashed drone(with similar damage to yours) because I like the challenge of a repair.I repaired mine but a repair can test your patience. My advice if you go ahead with it is to watch various repair videos so you get familiar with the internal workings of the drone, have the necessary tools to do the job and just go at your own pace.

happy to do the job myself and am quite comfortable with the aspect - I like a challenge as well

its the purchase of the parts online (so many - questions of genuine and quality ) so id like to know if anyone has a parts supplier recommendation?

if it was to be shipped to hong kong - whats the cost of this plus an estimate?be great to hear from someone about there experience

 

[Droneted]

I have repaired several like yours. The camera is the hard part. It will need a new yaw motor for sure. Do not throw away the old motor. You will need the casing.
Also get a good soldering station. You have to solder the motor leads to the boards. Do not splice. I have a YouTube video on how the yaw motor must be repaired. I will be glad to assist in any way I can.

 

[The Famous]

Had a battery fail (#1 cell) and my 2 year old P4 dropped out of the sky! Looked like yours. Someone on this forum said to send it to DJI for an estimate. Got online and filled out the form and 5 days later got an estimate. $258.00! Can't be, I thought! Sent $258.00 and 4 days later a "NEW" P4 showed up!

 

[Droneted]

I am sometimes amazed by DJI. I sent them a second hand drone and they replaced it under warranty. It is worth a try.

 

[Craig Carter]

mat

Had a battery fail (#1 cell) and my 2 year old P4 dropped out of the sky! Looked like yours. Someone on this forum said to send it to DJI for an estimate. Got online and filled out the form and 5 days later got an estimate. $258.00! Can't be, I thought! Sent $258.00 and 4 days later a "NEW" P4 showed up!

mate , are you in Australia?


That would of course be ideal.

my camera has broken off and everything though but just to get an estimate Id be happy.

ill get on line right now.

Tx

CC

 

[The Famous]

mat



mate , are you in Australia?


That would of course be ideal.

my camera has broken off and everything though but just to get an estimate Id be happy.

ill get on line right now.

Tx

CC

Craig Carter, I'm in Watkins Glen, NY. My camera was broken off also. Go to DJI Support, then click repairs. I put everything in a box and sent it in. Let me know how it goes!

 

[Droneted]

Craig Carter, I'm in Watkins Glen, NY. My camera was broken off also. Go to DJI Support, then click repairs. I put everything in a box and sent it in. Let me know how it goes!

Hey I am from that area too. My grandfather was born there. I grew up in Gorham NY which is between Geneva and Canandaigua. Actually we are in the process of moving from Florida back to your area.

 

[MarkG_007]

if it was to be shipped to hong kong - whats the cost of this plus an estimate?be great to hear from someone about there experience

DJI have a repair facility in Melbourne now. Recently I had a gimbal repair done under warranty with a 3 week turnaround including a few public holidays. Good luck!

 

[ETC]

I did the same thing to my P4 except the gimbal arm was snapped in 3 places and the yaw motor ribbon cut. I got on eBay and purchased a new P4 without the gimbal for $300 and then bought the parts to fix the gimbal. You can replace the shell and most likely the motors are good but for $300 you save a lot of work. The gimbal repair was about $100 so I ended up with just over $400 when done. Sometimes you just have to bite bullet and figure out how much time you wish to spend and put a value on that. Also don't crash again, that seems to be working so far.

 

[tcaggie24]

I flew my P4 in windy conditions that caused me to lose control and land very hard. At first I didn't think it was serious, however, it was. I sent it in for an estimate. The first estimate was around $300 so I told them to proceed. A couple days later they called and found that there was an internal part that was bad. It had something to do with stabilization. A priced board. Not it got real expensive. I told them to send it back which they did. I ended up buying a "refurbished" P4 from DJI for about $750. Great choice. It arrived looking like a new unit in same original packaging. It works great. Just as good as my first new one and now I have extra items (battery, controller, propellers, etc).

Point is, if the cost of repairs get to be rather expensive, consider a refurbished unit from DJI. In fact, I now recommend that for anybody wanting one for the first time.

 

[Trev23]

I had a very similar issue losing power & dropping from 50m smashing both landing gear & the camera gimble arm. Nothing showed up in the logs it just stopped logging & recording at the point it dropped. I returned mine to JB HiFi who returned it to DJI Australia. They quoted $280 to repair which was way less than I expected but then JB pushed for warranty repair & apparently they advised they detected some sort of error so fixed it for free. 6 weeks later I got it back to find it’s now showing a “battery signal error” on both batteries every time I fly it. Doesn’t seem to affect operation but I didn’t think it wasn’t worth the risk so it’s been sent off again. Pretty much impossible to get any info from DJI Australia about what they did or what they found.

 

[JamesT1950]

I would send it in to DJI for an estimate. Even if you did feel confident about repairing it yourself, You don't know what obviously needs repaired or replaced, it still may not work when you get finished. And if it's like the P3A, the flat cable going from the camera to inside the quad, has to fit through a small opening so the connector for inside has to be put on after the cable is fed through the hole. When you get it back from DJI, you know it will work. Just my opinion.

 

[GVDD scout]

HI team,

My P4P was in a crash 6 weeks ago - lost power at 50 meters and fell hard.

DJI wont even look at the flight log as the activation date is 4 weeks outside warranty!

I would like to either

send back to DJI and have repaired or
source parts and repair myself
View attachment 97154 View attachment 97155 View attachment 97156 View attachment 97157 View attachment 97158 View attachment 97159
Ive priced parts at some ebay shops and need
the full shell
4 new motors (only 1 is busted up but how can I trust the others now)
all of the gimbal arms
1 gimbal motor (I think pitch) and cables

the dilemma is even after the spend will the camera work?

thoughts and advice please and appreciated - I'm in Australia

Regards

Similar damage to my P4P cost $395 US from usadronerepair.com. Assume ~$275 in parts. They may have a referral down under.

 

[Wayne1949]

My Phantom 4 Pro fell out of the sky from 73 feet. The upper and lower body parts were both cracked. The gimbal was broken. I sent it off to dji for repair. It cost $204.00 and took two weeks from shipment to receipt again.

 

[PunaPhantom]

My experience with DJI Repair has been exceptional... 2 years ago I had to send in a 3... but 2 weeks ago my spotter failed to advise me of a palm tree that jumped out to bite my *** during an orbit and my P4P crashed to the concrete driveway below... camera, legs, shell FUBAR... estimate $220 [was expecting up to $600] and back to me tomorrow... will see how she flies, but fully expect her to be "as like new" - as my P3 was previously and that only cost $185... Nothing but kudos from me... And a mighty Mahalo... (Funnily, both my repair return and my new Obsidian will arrive tomorrow) happy days... back to work, been covering assignments with my little Mavic Air.