Well, my friend crashed my drone

[piee]

Well, I learned a hard lesson. The other day my friend crashed my Phantom 3 Standard into a tree. I asked him to fly it for me to get a specific shot, so I am definitely liable. It sucks for sure. I made a video about it here:

Sending it to DJI and hopefully, the repair cost won't be crazy expensive. The gimbal axis arm snapped, the gimbal anti-vibration plate snapped, and the entire shell needs to be replaced. One of the motors is tweaked but I think it is just the shell and the motor is ok.

What are your crash experiences?

I crashed P4P into branches in fast flying ATT mode, looked up video on youtube of complete P4P dissassembly, bought landing gear, middle shell, and replaced them, took bout 1wk for parts, 3hrs labor, cost $110(including screwdriver kit), all done in 8 days total. You can actually purchase all parts to build brand new yourself, also bought nice soddering kit ($32) because 1 compass no worky, so bought the power interface module ($25) that the 2 compasses plug into, its also where the 4 main power wires go to motors (thus sodder kit) but haven't bothered yet, may in future, but now fine since 2nd is only redundant, fly's perfect. Check video tutorials very informative, knowledge is power.

 

[Travis5049]

I crashed P4P into branches in fast flying ATT mode, looked up video on youtube of complete P4P dissassembly, bought landing gear, middle shell, and replaced them, took bout 1wk for parts, 3hrs labor, cost $110(including screwdriver kit), all done in 8 days total. You can actually purchase all parts to build brand new yourself, also bought nice soddering kit ($32) because 1 compass no worky, so bought the power interface module ($25) that the 2 compasses plug into, its also where the 4 main power wires go to motors (thus sodder kit) but haven't bothered yet, may in future, but now fine since 2nd is only redundant, fly's perfect. Check video tutorials very informative, knowledge is power.

I had to watch a few soldering videos and get a decent soldering Iron/kit, but I'm a lot better at it now. There's a video for almost any repair that's needed. Once you start working on it you'll enjoy having it more, its yours you partially built it.

 

[Roytala]

Well, I learned a hard lesson. The other day my friend crashed my Phantom 3 Standard into a tree. I asked him to fly it for me to get a specific shot, so I am definitely liable. It sucks for sure. I made a video about it here:

Sending it to DJI and hopefully, the repair cost won't be crazy expensive. The gimbal axis arm snapped, the gimbal anti-vibration plate snapped, and the entire shell needs to be replaced. One of the motors is tweaked but I think it is just the shell and the motor is ok.

What are your crash experiences?

Just get a new one. The price of P3S has dropped a lot, you might just save a few bucks getting it repaired.

 

[Dronut2]

Well, I learned a hard lesson. The other day my friend crashed my Phantom 3 Standard into a tree. I asked him to fly it for me to get a specific shot, so I am definitely liable. It sucks for sure. I made a video about it here:

Sending it to DJI and hopefully, the repair cost won't be crazy expensive. The gimbal axis arm snapped, the gimbal anti-vibration plate snapped, and the entire shell needs to be replaced. One of the motors is tweaked but I think it is just the shell and the motor is ok.

What are your crash experiences?

Close encounters of the treed kind. 20 dollars to fix the first time. 60 dollars to fix the 2nd because of the pitch and roll board replacement. No accidents after the learning experiences. Don't hotdog low to the ground in a wooded area.

 

[Melvoid]

Never let friends fly you drone,ride your motorcycle or drive you Hot ROD.

...or date your girlfriend....

 

[Melvoid]

Never let friends fly you drone,ride your motorcycle or drive you Hot ROD.

Seriously, after weeks of begging, I let my then 19-year-old son try my Phantom 1. Within about 10 seconds, it was upside down in a treetop. Luckily, no damage and we were able to retrieve it, but still... Since then, I've moved up to a newer one (P3A) and nobody has touched it but me. I hate saying no, but.... NO!

 

[RodPad]

Update: the bird has been shipped off to DJI. I'm estimating around $250 for the repair cost. If it's more than $300 I'm not doing it. I just hope it's less than $300 and I also hope that they do a good job. I've heard mixed opinions about DJI support..

Where did you send it?

Dang, I thought the video would show the crash.

Yes seen many mixed opinions, mostly communication, a few of getting a unit back still broke or worse then how it was sent in (wasn't even there unit).

Of coarse we tend to complain more than cheer.

I take pictures of the numbers and all pieces that I'm sending in.

Here is a summery of the second time I sent something to DJI.
Phantom 3-Std Weak Remote Signal
Should be post #64

Yes, that post is still confusing.

Rod

 

[drumrocker365]

Where did you send it?

Dang, I thought the video would show the crash.

Yes seen many mixed opinions, mostly communication, a few of getting a unit back still broke or worse then how it was sent in (wasn't even there unit).

Of coarse we tend to complain more the cheer.

I take pictures of the numbers and all pieces that I'm sending in.

Here is a summery of the second time I sent something to DJI.
Phantom 3-Std Weak Remote Signal
Should be post #64

Yes, that post is still confusing.

Rod

I wish I could have shown the crash, but the video file is corrupt on the SD card. I only found one program that could slightly recover it, and they wanted $30, not worth it to me.

 

[drumrocker365]

UPDATE: HERE ARE THE RESULTS:
For $193, DJI replaced it with a brand new drone.

 

[RodPad]

I wish I could have shown the crash, but the video file is corrupt on the SD card. I only found one program that could slightly recover it, and they wanted $30, not worth it to me.

App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

This link should be his current program.
App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

Rod

 

[drumrocker365]

App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

This link should be his current program.
App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

Rod

Wow, you're amazing! Here it is:

 

[RodPad]

Ouch,

I hate it when this happens.

Phantom 3 drone down

Trees are Phantom Magnets. They usually win in a fight.

Rod

 

[Brother Dave]

Don’t you wish you could drop a line on it or something? You’re so close, you could almost reach through the camera and grab it, lol.

 

[drumrocker365]

Ouch,

I hate it when this happens.

Phantom 3 drone down

Trees are Phantom Magnets. They usually win in a fight.

Rod

Ouch, that really sucks. Can't even get it to salvage it for parts.

 

[RodPad]

I was attempting to retrieve it, I had three different ideas.

This was one.

I could start and stop the motors, I could see through the camera, start and stop recordings.
Before I could try, tree dropped it.

When it came down it was in 5 pieces, I didn't need to fix the crash video, because I had stopped the recording when it was in the tree.

Rod

 

[drumrocker365]

I was attempting to retrieve it, I had three different ideas.

This was one.

I could start and stop the motors, I could see through the camera, start and stop recordings.
Before I could try, tree dropped it.

When it came down it was in 5 pieces, I didn't need to fix the crash video, because I had stopped the recording when it was in the tree.

Rod

So sad!

 

[RodPad]

Did you follow my link?

Phantom 3 drone down

Rod