Snapped a gimbal casting .. Ratz!

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A nasty wind gust took my P3P into a tree and a hard fall snapping the arm casting that rotates the gimbal left to right. Find attached a pic. #1 was apart of the #2 casting and snapped from the top of #2 leaving a hole in the #2 housing. The snapped surface of #4 fits into the visible vertical flange #3. You can't see where it snapped because of the ribbon cable. Hard holding the copter, camera and snapped gimbal so it would be in focus. Took 9-pics before I got a good pic. There are 2-red arrows involved with #3/#4 showing the snapped casting areas. #5 points at the edge of the ribbon cable. That edge is normally sealed. There is a split and I can see some copper wires although unbroken. I will assume the cable must be replaced.
It appears as thought the ribbon cable unplugs .. but I'm not sure. This is a touchy area and castings are usually difficult to impossible to weld at this size. Have an awesome welder as my neighbor and will be showing him what happened. Camera/lens appear good. In my world this is major. Opinions/thoughts.
Snapped Casting.jpg
 
I think you may have meant solderer rather than welder. Welding is for wrought iron, gates, planks and more. This is precision equipment. By the same token, a ribbon cable is socketed. You never solder a ribbon cable. You plug it into the appropriate slot and lock the socket down. I would recommend you watch this guy and how he goes about fixing his gimbal/camera. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/printthread.php?t=2460080&pp=15&page=3

Sorry for your crash and Good luck.
 
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I think you may have meant solderer rather than welder. Welding is for wrought iron, gates, planks and more. This is precision equipment. By the same token, a ribbon cable is socketed. You never solder a ribbon cable. You plug it into the appropriate slot and lock the socket down. I would recommend you watch this guy and how he goes about fixing his gimbal/camera. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/printthread.php?t=2460080&pp=15&page=3

Sorry for your crash and Good luck.
Didn't realize I suggested one would or could weld or solder a ribbon cable. I did mean "solder" in the sense of using a propane torch. My landlord/friend is a welder and I believe capable of such tasks. I have successfully removed the gimbal from the mount plate attached to the bottom of the bird and unplugged the 2-cables. The ribbon cable will have to be replaced and they are available through DJI for $35. If my friend isn't confident or his labor will be as much as a new 'yaw" arm I'll probably get the arm. I'm still in a research mode. The entire gimbal assembly w/camera from DJI goes for $539. I just love YouTube. This gentleman, in real time, takes just over 25 minutes to replace the gimbal motor cabling and also exposes the yaw arm assembly.
DJI Phantom 3 broken gimbal repair - YouTube
 
Actually the same happened to me. But in my repairs which were many. I ended up spending at least $200 before getting a new camera. BTW, there is a guy where I got my new camera DJI P3A HD for $379.99 at slicktron, I think on ebay. Anyway back to my repairs. I spent money good after bad on ribbon cables that were defective or only partially worked. I thought I had it fixed and it was up and running and then found it had a shimmy on the camera. That's when I got my new camera, saved money and I'm up and running again, like brand new. Good luck to you and happy flying.
 
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Have you fixed your problem? Is the gimbal (top part) for sale?

Kind regards


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