sand in motors Phantom3

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Aug 31, 2015
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does anyone knows how to open a motor for cleaning, i have an accident in the sand and the motors are blocked.
please i need to know how you can open them for cleaning.
 
umm this is interesting. i'm not expert, but this i would do. some liquid that does not result corrosion, i'll wash them quite quickly. full wash. but do not turn it on for some time, leave them at least day or so to dry. also would be good to lubricate some critical parts. google bit mechanic oil or something like that.

inspiration: i did not believed this until i tried. my keyboard stopped working. tried everything. at las did this. Clean your Keyboard in the Dishwasher left one day to dry, and you guess. worked perfectly.

looks like you will not destroy some electronics if wash and properly dry it.
 
I used an air blaster that is generally used to clean keyboards and the like.

Mine worked fine after a good blasting.
 
Don't turn on phantom if you have sand in your motors.
The motors may not start and freak out the ESC. If they do, you will hear it squeal.
The squealing is from the polarities changing incorrectly. If you look closely, there is black foreign minuscule rocks (ferrite) in beach sand. This causes the outer bell housing magnets to "short" and alter its polarity. You will see between the gaps that the ferrite tries to bridge the magnets.
Unfortunately, the motors are pressed in and cannot be separated without damaging the bearings. Your best bet is to replace motors.

And if you cant...
In my scenario, it was holidays and I was 1000km from home and no hobby stores were open.
I took the motor off the arm and used an airhose from a mechanic. Use the air to move the particles down the bell housing. Then use tweezers and budge them out of the bell housing and then use tape to lift them off the magnets. Painstaking...
 
there you go

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there you go

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The problem is separating the bell housing.
I tried removing the circlip and washer and I can guarantee you that the shaft is not held by magnetic force. The shaft is pressed into the bearing housing. You'll end up destroying the bearing housing in order to get the bell housing off. It feels like DJI has made these motors disposable or the tried to make it as a complete unit to reduce end users from modifying.
 
This happened to me last summer and I opened the shell and then carefully cleaned the motors using an air blower and a keyboard putty cleaner product. It worked perfectly and flew for many many flights over 4 months after that. By far the hardest part was opening up the shell. Maybe I could've done it without but I really also wanted to see inside to compare with previous P2, P2V and P2V+.
 

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