Took apart my Phantom 3 for repair VIDEO

[Ari]

I posted earlier in the forum regarding my crash and the very minor damage that occurred to the unit.

I decided enough was enough and I needed to take the thing apart. 10 millions screws later here is the results:

The problem is still not solved as I can't find anywhere the 8-pin gimbal to gcu connecting cable that needs to be replaced. The one from the phantom 2 is too short. I may try an authorized DJI dealer tomorrow and see what they have.

Thanks all for your help and support

 

[Matt Gray]

I had exactly the same damage following a crash (attacked by a crow!) at the weekend. Rather than take the craft apart, I followed advice from others on this forum to simply push the pins back in to the connector. P3A is now working fine.

 

[caffeinated]

Hang on.... you took out the motor screws as well?

 

[Ari]

I had exactly the same damage following a crash (attacked by a crow!) at the weekend. Rather than take the craft apart, I followed advice from others on this forum to simply push the pins back in to the connector. P3A is now working fine.

My cable partially melted from the heat and that was not an option.

Someone posted a link with the name of the DJI parts and it looks like I need DJI-P3P42 cable set

 

[Ari]

Hang on.... you took out the motor screws as well?

It is quite obvious that I did. I am so curious to know that out of all the things going on here you chose something so irrelevant to comment about.

 

[RyanK]

Ari, I don't have the P3 in front of me now, but just wondering . . . does that cable connect to the bottom of the shell or does it go up inside the P3 and connect to the MOBO directly?

 

[Ari]

The one I broke goes straight to the motherboard directly. There is a second one that comes out of the sonar or indoor flying guidance thingy

 

[RyanK]

I may or may not have the cable. I'll let you know.

 

[Ari]

You would be a life saver. I cant find this dam cable anywhere. I can fly mine but without the camera. I might as well my my syma then.

 

[Matt Gray]

Did you manage to find where the other end of the cable attaches to the motherboard. If it's accessible I may open mine up again to fit a new cable.

 

[Ari]

Ya, you can clearly see it in the video I made. Right at the 32 second mark it connects right to the mother board

 

[dirkclod]

It is quite obvious that I did. I am so curious to know that out of all the things going on here you chose something so irrelevant to comment about.

Is not so irrelevant Ari He just wondered why you did .
Good luck finding that cable !!

 

[caffeinated]

Is not so irrelevant Ari He just wondered why you did .
Good luck finding that cable !!

Exactly. There was comment in both the post and the video about the millions of screws. Given that exactly half the screws are for the motors which aren't needed to open the lid it seemed a relevant point for others who follow.
Just got through doing the same opening up to repair two damaged screw sockets on the arms. Didn't mind the screws so much but those **** clips....

 

[Ari]

Those clip!!!!!!! Dam things are strong! I didnt realize the motor mount had four screws each. I did attach the T8 or wtvr bit to a drill so I had no problem with the screws. I need this cable though. I cant get it anywhere. All the stores say maybe a month. This toy is useless!

 

[droneeye.co.za]

Hi, I crashed my phantom 3 pro and the gimbal arm broke. Also the ribbon cable on the gimbal. I miraculously managed to receive a new replacement ribbon cable in a few days (I am in Cape Town!). I did a rough repair on the gimbal arm with some putty cement. I had to take the gimbal apart in a number of places to install the new ribbon cable. Very fiddly! I managed to thread the cable through and reassemble the gimbal finally.... Connected it back to the phantom, switched everything on, gimbal tilt was going haywire. I took gimbal apart again and found that the motor could be 180 degrees out on mount, reassembled, connected to phantom. powered everything up, this time the gimbal worked !
But only for about a min before it shuts down. Also I cant get any picture from the camera. I opened up the lid of the Phantom (really fiddly!) to see if there were any loose connections. I did notice that one of the motherboard plugs that possibly the camera cable was coming off was not flat on the board, but still seemed to be electrically connected...
the reason I write all this is because maybe there aren't many people who have stripped down the gimbal before... Greg

 

[aerialviewsunlimited]

Hi, I crashed my phantom 3 pro and the gimbal arm broke. Also the ribbon cable on the gimbal. I miraculously managed to receive a new replacement ribbon cable in a few days (I am in Cape Town!). I did a rough repair on the gimbal arm with some putty cement. I had to take the gimbal apart in a number of places to install the new ribbon cable. Very fiddly! I managed to thread the cable through and reassemble the gimbal finally.... Connected it back to the phantom, switched everything on, gimbal tilt was going haywire. I took gimbal apart again and found that the motor could be 180 degrees out on mount, reassembled, connected to phantom. powered everything up, this time the gimbal worked !
But only for about a min before it shuts down. Also I cant get any picture from the camera. I opened up the lid of the Phantom (really fiddly!) to see if there were any loose connections. I did notice that one of the motherboard plugs that possibly the camera cable was coming off was not flat on the board, but still seemed to be electrically connected...
the reason I write all this is because maybe there aren't many people who have stripped down the gimbal before... Greg

Hi, I crashed my phantom 3 pro and the gimbal arm broke. Also the ribbon cable on the gimbal. I miraculously managed to receive a new replacement ribbon cable in a few days (I am in Cape Town!). I did a rough repair on the gimbal arm with some putty cement. I had to take the gimbal apart in a number of places to install the new ribbon cable. Very fiddly! I managed to thread the cable through and reassemble the gimbal finally.... Connected it back to the phantom, switched everything on, gimbal tilt was going haywire. I took gimbal apart again and found that the motor could be 180 degrees out on mount, reassembled, connected to phantom. powered everything up, this time the gimbal worked !
But only for about a min before it shuts down. Also I cant get any picture from the camera. I opened up the lid of the Phantom (really fiddly!) to see if there were any loose connections. I did notice that one of the motherboard plugs that possibly the camera cable was coming off was not flat on the board, but still seemed to be electrically connected...
the reason I write all this is because maybe there aren't many people who have stripped down the gimbal before... Greg

Hi, I crashed my phantom 3 pro and the gimbal arm broke. Also the ribbon cable on the gimbal. I miraculously managed to receive a new replacement ribbon cable in a few days (I am in Cape Town!). I did a rough repair on the gimbal arm with some putty cement. I had to take the gimbal apart in a number of places to install the new ribbon cable. Very fiddly! I managed to thread the cable through and reassemble the gimbal finally.... Connected it back to the phantom, switched everything on, gimbal tilt was going haywire. I took gimbal apart again and found that the motor could be 180 degrees out on mount, reassembled, connected to phantom. powered everything up, this time the gimbal worked !
But only for about a min before it shuts down. Also I cant get any picture from the camera. I opened up the lid of the Phantom (really fiddly!) to see if there were any loose connections. I did notice that one of the motherboard plugs that possibly the camera cable was coming off was not flat on the board, but still seemed to be electrically connected...
the reason I write all this is because maybe there aren't many people who have stripped down the gimbal before... Greg

 

[aerialviewsunlimited]

YES I TOOK MY GIMBAL APART AND REPLACED THE GIMBAL MOTOR AND MAGNET CUP PRESSEED OUT THE CUP BECAUSE THE MOTOR CHAFT WAS DIFFERENT SIZE SO THE CAP FROM VISION PLUS AND MOTOR I GOT FROM A OLD P 2 VISION PLUS HAS THE SAME MOTOR AS P 3 PRO GIMBAL AND THE MAGNET CUP OD SIZE IS THE SAME BUT THECENTER HOLE IS SMALLER IS A SAID THE MOTOR AND MAGNET CUP ARE FROM P2 VISION PLUS ITS OLDER SO GETTING PARTS FOR IT WAS EASY SO IM THE ONLY ONE I EVER HEARD OF DOING THIS THE REASON I CHANGED THE MOTOR WAS THE SHAFT HOLE WAS WORN OUT AND THE TIMEING WAS F#$%#$% UP

 

[droneeye.co.za]

does it now work? was it a successful repair then...

 

[FSH167]

I had a pretty spectacular crash into a tree yesterday. Good times.

It broke the plastic gimbal plate and tore the wires out of the 8-pin connector. Before I could get the battery out, the exposed wires shorted together and were burning (crash & burn). Luckily I was able to temporarily repair the gimbal plate with epoxy, and carefully repair the harness enough to get the pins back into the plug. Miraculously, everything still works!

Of course, I want to replace the damaged parts with shiny new ones. I found this website, which allegedly has most of the P3 parts in stock - for reasonable prices.

http://www.helipal.com/djip3-042-cable-set.html

I ordered the harnesses, gimbal plate and spare props from them yesterday. They sent me shipping confirmation this morning advising all the parts will arrive next Wednesday. If that happens, my first crash will have a happy ending.

Hopefully others will have good luck ordering from them. My only concern is they are in China. The customer service has been very good so far - fingers crossed!

Cheers

 

[John Locke]

Hey, great tip about helipal.com, that's the best parts website I've seen yet for Phantoms.
Compare these hardshell backpack prices at Helipal. Looks like identical products, except labeling.

DJI hard shell case

Storm hard shell case:

This hardshell case is the only thing I've found that offers reasonable protection to a P3P while still fitting into the airline guidlines for size of 22X14X9". These are slightly over the 9" limit, but I'm sure it would be acceptable when taking onto a plane. Other backpacks are soft nylon, not as protective if someone fell on the bag, I dropped the bag, or something unexpected like that.

Awesome Thx!