First crash(ish)

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Well it finally happened haha, was landing the phantom in a hurry as it was coming back from a decent flight with a headwind. Landed it and it started hopping along the ground, and the CSC wouldn't shut it down for some reason.

Rotor guards did their job and it ended up flipping over, unfortunately the drop pins let go and the gimbal flew off and ripped the connector clear off the receiver board. Gimal is still fine and self tests ok but the board is toast, tried to patch repair but the was just too difficult with all the traces gone except one.

Anyway just wanted to see if anyone else has had their connector tear off like that or was it just really bad luck? Trying to work out a solution so it doesn't happen again as its a $400 board and it seems like DJI designed it to fail at the most expensive spot. Considering cutting the cable in the middle and putting an inline connector in that would hopefully separate instead.
 

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The pins let go just from flipping over??? If so, I'm having a second look at mine to see what I could do to prevent it. Did they snap or just release?
 
Well it finally happened haha, was landing the phantom in a hurry as it was coming back from a decent flight with a headwind. Landed it and it started hopping along the ground, and the CSC wouldn't shut it down for some reason.

Rotor guards did their job and it ended up flipping over, unfortunately the drop pins let go and the gimbal flew off and ripped the connector clear off the receiver board. Gimal is still fine and self tests ok but the board is toast, tried to patch repair but the was just too difficult with all the traces gone except one.

Anyway just wanted to see if anyone else has had their connector tear off like that or was it just really bad luck? Trying to work out a solution so it doesn't happen again as its a $400 board and it seems like DJI designed it to fail at the most expensive spot. Considering cutting the cable in the middle and putting an inline connector in that would hopefully separate instead.


So I put loose zipties bent into a rectangular shape on the other two gimble mounts in hopes to avoid your experience. If you can get a good picture of the side and area of the board where the plug mounts I may be able to give you better advice on repairing the old one. I repair stuff like that for a living. 400 bucks is expensive, I think that would be hammer worthy if you were a whacked out Chinese guy. lol

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The pins let go just from flipping over??? If so, I'm having a second look at mine to see what I could do to prevent it. Did they snap or just release?

It hopped a few times on a 45deg angle trying to level itself then the rotor guards dug into the grass and it flipped over, I found 1 of the pins couldn't find either locking plate or the other pin, looks like they simply let go / snapped off. Honestly it was not bad though which is why I am shocked at the damage, it was already on the ground and basically flipped over.

The cable tie idea is great, I might do that, should have done it at the start to be honest. I tried to repair already but gave up, I have all the gear for SMD soldering / repair but there wasn't much to work with unfortunately with the traces ripped off the board and 2 of them go to sublayer of the PCB. I did manage to resolder 3 pins but in all honestly I don't want to put my faith in the repair as if it failed mid flight I'd loose complete control.
 
Why don't see if you can get a used board off someone who installed an HDMI board? That means they had to throw out their original board.
 
Why don't see if you can get a used board off someone who installed an HDMI board? That means they had to throw out their original board.

Good advice! Wasn't aware of that, will do some more hunting and see if I can find anything, haven't had much luck so far. I already put an order in for the board locally, no idea if its in stock though. I just want to get her back in the air and forget it ever happened hahaha. I guess it could have been worse and taken out the gimbal aswell but like I said it wasn't a big impact.
 
So I put loose zipties bent into a rectangular shape on the other two gimble mounts in hopes to avoid your experience. If you can get a good picture of the side and area of the board where the plug mounts I may be able to give you better advice on repairing the old one. I repair stuff like that for a living. 400 bucks is expensive, I think that would be hammer worthy if you were a whacked out Chinese guy. lol

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Yep follow the P2 Crew! They have a ton of tips and those same well founded and deeply rooted tips are just as much for the P3 too.
Small Zip ties!!! I found this out before I even had the P3.
Mine flipped once User Error not once but twice in a row. Thought CSC was how you shut down when landing big mistake. Left Stick only down.. DUH!

Thanks for the Man up! Sorry to hear...
 
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Good advice! Wasn't aware of that, will do some more hunting and see if I can find anything, haven't had much luck so far. I already put an order in for the board locally, no idea if its in stock though. I just want to get her back in the air and forget it ever happened hahaha. I guess it could have been worse and taken out the gimbal aswell but like I said it wasn't a big impact.
Unless I am missing something, I think we are talking about a gimble board and a controller board.
I did the HDMI upgrade, swapped a board out of my controller where the display device plugs in.
 
Yep follow the P2 Crew! They have a ton of tips and those same well founded and deeply rooted tips are just as much for the P3 too.
Small Zip ties!!! I found this out before I even had the P3.
Mine flipped once User Error not once but twice in a row. Thought CSC was how you shut down when landing bid mistake. Left Stick only down.. DUH!

Thanks for the Man up! Sorry to hear...

I just crashed my bird doing exactly the same thing. I was up in the mountains on about a 25% rocky grade, Battery warning hollering away, thing says it is heading home and it takes off the other direction, cancel auto home and get it coming back between 100 foot Ponderosa pines. As I get close the wind picks up and it is tilted left about 20 degrees, ground sloping away at 25 degrees and landing on rocks, come down hard bouncing twice, still holding left stick down 6 seconds takes for-f-ing-ever! Rolles over on the left set of prop guards and the thing skids down the hill and up under one of those stupid Forest Service pole fences busting one prop to s#it befor. the 6 second countdown. Dust on everything but I think all but the prop is fine.
 


Chuck, your zip ties would serve the gimbal slightly better if snugged up. Also the carbon fiber setup will not help either. This comes from experience.

The leg's will bend, fold over, and allow everything under the aircraft to become destroyed.
 
Chuck, your zip ties would serve the gimbal slightly better if snugged up. Also the carbon fiber setup will not help either. This comes from experience.

The leg's will bend, fold over, and allow everything under the aircraft to become destroyed.

I will look into tightning the zipties, I had just replaced them Friday before the flight, the other set were to square and the corners were vibrating into the silicone bushing. Tried to make these so they can't spin around.

Main purpose for the center brace is to keep from landing on a rock and tagging the camera/gimble. I would rather see it just roll over onto the prop guards when I am landing on the Rocky Mountain's rocky sloping ground, which is almost every flight. It was something I threw together when I first got the bird. I think I am going to mix up some resin and see if I can't come up with template better than the simple cross piece. Humm, Suggestions?
 
Gimal is still fine and self tests ok but the board is toast, tried to patch repair but the was just too difficult with all the traces gone except one.
At least from the picture it doesn't look like its too difficult of a repair. Before you spend on a new board, I would try one more time to reattach the connector or find someone locally who would do it for you for a few bucks. Its worth a shot, right?
 
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I will look into tightning the zipties, I had just replaced them Friday before the flight, the other set were to square and the corners were vibrating into the silicone bushing. Tried to make these so they can't spin around.

Main purpose for the center brace is to keep from landing on a rock and tagging the camera/gimble. I would rather see it just roll over onto the prop guards when I am landing on the Rocky Mountain's rocky sloping ground, which is almost every flight. It was something I threw together when I first got the bird. I think I am going to mix up some resin and see if I can't come up with template better than the simple cross piece. Humm, Suggestions?

That should work good in that case on the carbon fiber.

The tie straps.... Actually what we need to do is replace all 4 locations with plastic bolts and plastic lock-nuts. And yes it is obvious that dji designed it the way they did for the reason of replacement.
 
Wow sorry to hear that. I worry about landings so much I that I don't do ground landings. I hand catch every single time. P3 just doesn't have the "wide stance" required ... for my comfort level, at least.
 
That should work good in that case on the carbon fiber.

The tie straps.... Actually what we need to do is replace all 4 locations with plastic bolts and plastic lock-nuts. And yes it is obvious that dji designed it the way they did for the reason of replacement.

Interesting. How tight should the plastic locknuts bolts be tightened? Should the white absorbers have the stock spring to them or are you snugging up the camera plate tighter to the bird?
 
That should work good in that case on the carbon fiber.

The tie straps.... Actually what we need to do is replace all 4 locations with plastic bolts and plastic lock-nuts. And yes it is obvious that dji designed it the way they did for the reason of replacement.
Nice idea! I have nylon 1/4-20s just never thought about using them. They get switched out tomorrow. Thanks Frank
 

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