Some help please, trying to revive a P2 vision + REVIVED!!

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Hi all, some of you know me, I'm asking for honest opinions. Short story, my bro in law gave me a phantom as mentioned in the title, 2 batteries, both are dead, i did manage to force one to work well enough for testing but it has since died. Cont'd
 
I'm a P3P owner which was my first DJI Ac so i know almost nothing about the P2, anyway, history, this AC has been crashed nunerous times and lost for over a week at one point from what I've been told. Here's the issues:
 
RC and AC connect everytime no issues there. I've had intermittent connection with the phantom wifi but even when connected i get no info other than RC battery status. I can do a motor start and take off (altho not successfully, more on that shortly).
 
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Without a working battery its impossible to go any further but i did learn this, on one occasion when i had the AC waiting to take off with the props spinning to work the battery it suddenly just took off, i hand grabbed it shut it down (my very first hand catch lol).
 
After that, once i thought the revived battery was trustworthy enough to try a real take off i learned the AC stays in full throttle for a few seconds after releasing the stick, which crash it into my ceiling and seriously damaged the shell. The gimbal and camera were and still are completely dead inspite of my repair attempts.
 
But I'm happy to learn the innards and play in the eventuality that its my P3 I'm fixing lol
 
So my question is, is it worth rebuilding this? Is a P2 vision + as reliable as a P3? Is it worth reviving?
 
The P2 V+ was a tank of a drone in it’s day, but yours is in bad shape. If you want to rebuild it, that’s a great branch of the drone hobby, one that is quite absent with higher end models, and luckily P2V parts are quite plentiful if you browse ebay for crashed/broken quads and know how to salvage. To answer your question, the P2V is only really worth rebuilding if you enjoy restoration builds. If you have a P3 already, you’ll only get worse performance and less flight time with a p2v. To solve your battery problem, you’ll be best off finding a reliable battery for testing/flight as a first step, or if you are adventurous you could customize a similar hobbyist battery. Bottom line is, you’ll get quite a lot of enjoyment out of restoring downed drones, but you’ll need a budget, knowledge, persistence, and the appreciation of something that may not be the best drone out there, but it’s yours. I personally love both flying and building drones, and soldering is a must learn if you are new. If everything I’ve just said is above you, I’d recommend buying a basic soldering kit and learn that before considering returning to the phantom, but if you are genuinely into restoring it, the P2V was one of the first, and vastly influential camera drones on the market. With a few upgrades and possibly some customization (imo the best part of rebuilds) you will still be able to enjoy that classic, albeit probably not for professional photography.
 
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Hi all, some of you know me, I'm asking for honest opinions. Short story, my bro in law gave me a phantom as mentioned in the title, 2 batteries, both are dead, i did manage to force one to work well enough for testing but it has since died. Cont'd
Maybe it's just me being miserable but couldn't your 7 short posts in this thread have been in one post, maybe with some paragraphs? Sure, it gets your posting totals up nicely, but IMHO is it really necessary to post like that and if everyone started doing it, where would we be then?

Please.... my mouse already does enough scrolling every day without you adding to it! :)

Now as to your question, for what you will eventually achieve with rebuilding it, it will probably never be more than either an interesting learning process or a labour of love...
 
I bought two non-flying Phantom 2s. Paid $50 each for them because they weren't in flying condition and the previous owners had given up on them. I took one apart to check for cables disconnected, visible damage, etc., and found nothing visibly wrong. Put it back together, charged up P2 battery and RC battery, did an IMU Advanced Cal, compass Cal and everything started up. Took it out to a wide open area and it flew beautiful. I have flown it about 5 times (it's cold here) and it has flown each time without problem. For now, I'm not pushing my flight distances or heights.

The second drone was more of a problem. I powered it up and got 4 red LED flashes - no GPS. Bought a GPS module on Ebay and changed it out - still no GPS working. Tried the newly purchased GPS module on my working drone and it worked fine. After consulting with the Forum decided to purchase a replacement main board on Ebay. Bought it, installed it, powered everything up and motors spun up. Did the necessary calibration and took it out today for a brief flight (it's cold here) and it worked great.

So, I paid $100 for two Phantom 2 drones, purchased a used main board for $23 on Ebay, did a little soldering and I now have two functioning Phantom 2 drones. I'm very happy.

Part of the fun to me in this hobby is learning how to fly, learning how to take it apart and repair when something breaks. You will crash, you will have damage to your drone - fixing is part of the hobby. This Forum is a wealth of information. I agree with Forgotten_Fox post, set a budget.

I would take the P3 apart and make an attempt at repairing it.
 
Thanks for replies everyone, and sorry for the lengthy intro but i wanted to include as much info as possible. I'm still on the fence, it will definitely need a complete shell replacement, i think the motors have been replaced once cuz there are 4 more in the original phantom box, one of which still attached to PCB. This poor P2 really has seen some tough action. It does (did while i had a working battery) powerup, motors start, and i get green flashing lights on the rear arms so Im assuming the mainboard, esc's and GPS are all functional. The gimbal does nothing, its completely dead, but fully intact with the camera and moves freely with my hands. I get no info at all in the Dji vision app other than wifi connected with the RC (and even thats intermittent). When i did have a working battery, as mentioned previously, it would try and take off on its own and when starting the motors with no props and left stick full up, they would rev up and stay at max speed for 3 to 4 seconds with the left stick released, maybe it needs an IMU calibration but I have no idea how to do that since the app gives me nothing. Of course this is all moot without a working AC battery, so I guess ill search for one in Canada for cheap and start there.
 
I received this from a Forum member when I needed help with IMU Cal. Follow this and it's not that hard.

1547851101577.png
 
Update: well I did manage to revive one battery enough for a short test flight. She is very scary to fly in GPS mode (has a mind of her own). I've calibrated the IMU, snugged up the shell as best I could, threw on some P3 props and managed to get this much flight time. She's alive (barely lol). Knew it could autoland or fall at any moment so I kept over soft snow. Enabled Naza flight mode so I could select Atti mode which she flies most stable in.
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I realize the P2 is a dinosaur compared to whats out there now, and hardly anyone in here cares about it anymore, but I have to say, from someone who joined the DJI family with a P3P last September, when the P4 was already released making the P3 obsolete as well (in some people's opinion lol), it's been an enjoyable learning experience with this P2. It's so similar to the P3 and yet miles apart in so many ways. It's been an eye opening experience seeing how DJI has progressed thru the phantom series. Clearly the P3 was a HUGE improvement over the P2, active braking namely being the biggest change. The P4 went even further. All models have their quirks and issues but the Phantoms are solid AC's that just refuse to die. I am proud that I've gotten this old, tired, neglected bird to fly once more. And it has only given me even more confidence in the Phantom :)
 
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Gotta luv Manual Mode.

That's real (MR) flying.
 
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Gotta luv Manual Mode.

That's real (MR) flying.
No kidding!!! When I enabled NAZA mode to get ATTI mode I set S1 position 3 to Manual (not knowing what it was). When I tried it I was like HOLY CRAP SERIOUSLY???!!!! The P3 can't do that!!! Rofl!!!
Now that I think about it I can see why the P2 RC can lock the left stick down. Definitely needed when entering manual mode lol. Do not enter Manual mode with sticks at rest centered!
 
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Well after much love and attention. This bird is back in the air!!! Been a fun and educational project!!! Fly be free!!!! Special thanks to @solentlife for his time and advice ;)
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No kidding!!! When I enabled NAZA mode to get ATTI mode I set S1 position 3 to Manual (not knowing what it was). When I tried it I was like HOLY CRAP SERIOUSLY???!!!! The P3 can't do that!!! Rofl!!!
Now that I think about it I can see why the P2 RC can lock the left stick down. Definitely needed when entering manual mode lol. Do not enter Manual mode with sticks at rest centered!
Left stick Lock was for long descents.
I never saw any benefit for it in Manual mode.

How it help you?
 
Left stick Lock was for long descents.
I never saw any benefit for it in Manual mode.

How it help you?
Well I never flew in manual mode but i switched the RC to manual while the AC was idling with props running and RC sticks released and the props immediately sped up. So I assumed manual mode was like the toy drones where you start with the left stick full down. Since the left stick was neutral (half way from bottom) it seemed to me locking it down would be the correct way to start off in Manual mode.
 

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