Slammed into a stop sign, camera looks like its jarred loose..

[Glen_S]

I was getting some railroad track footage and made the mistake of looking up to see the aircraft instead of concentrating on my screen, and slammed right into a stop sign. Broke all 4 props and the camera has popped out a bit of the housing. At first I thought it hit the edge of the stop sign dead on, but on watching the footage it appears it hit just to the side making it somewhat a glancing blow. The gimbal was still working but making a slight noise when I picked it up, then I powered the battery off and have not powered it back on.

I have attached some pics showing the camera, and a link to the footage. The footage shows the crash, then a slow mo version. It is exactly as taken off the camera, no editing other than slowing it down was done.

It looks to me like the camera just popped out of its housing, and I'm hoping I can take it off an pop it back in. I don't want to power it back up until the camera is back on properly, then I can see if the camera still works or not..

What do you folks think, any chance my camera is still ok? There is a small dent on the camera right where the M is in Phantom, as you can see in the pics. The rest of the copter seems fine, other than the prop mounts are broken, but I have a spare set of those.

Video is here:

 

[telfish]

Under the grey housing there is a metal plate that floats on rubber attachments the gimbal is attached to that plate, so it moves and absorbs shocks. I am guessing the rubber pieces have broken or come off the metal arms they attach to.

 

[Glen_S]

Under the grey housing there is a metal plate that floats on rubber attachments the gimbal is attached to that plate, so it moves and absorbs shocks. I am guessing the rubber pieces have broken or come off the metal arms they attach to.

Thanks - I hope to pull the camera off tonight and have a look.. Hoping I don't need to buy a new one..

 

[telfish]

Take care with the ribbon cables you will need to unhook when you drop the grey housing., you will also need to remove two PCB's that are over the gimbal attachment, Take care if you need to unhook the flexible gimbal cable.

There is a tear-down guide on YouTube for the camera/ gimbal assembly, well worth a look before you start.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

I sure hope that you haven't severely damaged very much and after having a nice time at the rail road tracts as it looked like a great spot to schoot pics and videos too......i'm so sorry it had to end like that and i sure hope that you can get it fixed and flying again ASAP !

 

[PhantomHero]

Ouch, looks like great footage up until the end. My thoughts are you’re going to be fine and it will push back into place. With some remember not to .... marks. Hoping I’m right. Good luck!!

 

[Alan Russel]

You might be lucky..that rubber stopper protruding just pushes back in.

 

[Glen_S]

Got the camera off, wasn't lucky enough to just pop it back in. This is what it looks like

 

[Glen_S]

update - got it all apart and back together, from what I could see the impact caused the internal floating bracket to dislodge one of the dampening rubbers that holds it in place. I was able to slip it back on but it appears it has a very slight tear on the edge, I think it will be okay for now but I should order some more. I powered it up and all looks okay, but won't be able to tell for sure until I can fly and get some footage. I put new style P4 prop mounts on because all but 1 were broken from the collision, so now I will recalibrate the IMU, compass, gimbal etc. and fly it when I get a chance.

This is the video I followed, it's pretty good for this type of repair.