Had a bad crash. DJI doesn't sell P3S parts?!?

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I'm pretty sure I'm out of luck but figured I'd post here and see if anyone had any suggestions.

I've only had a P3S 2.7l for a few weeks now and man oh man did I screw up. I was paying too much attention to the video and not enough to the tree I ran into. Pulled back just as it went into the branches and leaves and now i wish I let it go in and got stuck in the branches. It tumbled down at least 15 feet and straight onto asphalt.

Per chat with DJI they do not stock ANY replacement parts for the Standard. Sure, they have batteries but this aircraft may well be a total loss. DJI dude said "it may need to be sent in for repairs." Well, no kidding. To be fair to him I only mentioned I had a crash and that I couldn't find them selling a replacement gimbal/camera.

I only paid $350 for it at BJ's Wholsesale Club and I'm pretty sure just replacing the camera would cost almost that much if I sent it in. But there is so much more, lol, and I'm not going to bother sending it in to DJI because I know darned well it will cost more than that to repair.

When i turn it on I get the red/yellow/green flash. Shocking, I know!

Damage report so far:

Broken prop (Only one, lol)
Shell gouged at ends of arms (who cares)
Crack in one of the arms (Doesn't look critical)
Crack in leg of landing skid (pffft)
Edge of camera lens housing gouged up (lens is fine but hmmmm)
Mainboard connector for compass torn right off the board (ouch)
Bent/cracked gimbal (the arm that controls horizontal movement)

The arm on the gimbal was only bent a few degrees so I bent it back. The crack in it doesn't seem critical and I don't see where anything is going to fall off.

I figure I'll solder a new female connector to the mainboard once I figure out what kind it is. Looks pretty standard to me. I may just solder the wires straight in because I've no idea if the crash cracked the board and don't feel like the hassle of finding a connector and buying the inevitable 15 pack of them. We'll see.

The gimbal is a concern because I honestly don't know if it has damage beyond the crack. Stripped gears (does it have gears?) would not surprise me. And since the camera itself took a hit on the lens enclosure God only knows if it is broken.

That's what I know so far - I'll be taking the board out and look for damage on the bottom of it as well as elsewhere on the aircraft.

I'm not about to put a lot of money into this if i can't get parts for it and may buy a P3A. Or just say to he** with it because I don't need another thing to eat up my time. But it sure is fun.

Any thoughts on repairs?
 
I see what tore the compass connector off the main board. The crash made the case pop apart a bit and a bent tab clearly struck the connector from the side.
 
No gears in there my friend, brushless motors, but there are pitch boards attached to them, but most likely ok, anyhow, I have a friend, I'll give you his number, trust me HE HAS EVERYTHING! And is a great guy, so the stuff you cannot fix or HAS TO BE REPLACED, I'd give him a call. Plus all his parts are garanteed to work! That is GREAT, as eBay is hit and miss sometimes.
Can be frustrating.
( mail call )!

J Dot
:cool:
 
Thanks. I didn't think there were gears in there but something isn't happy in the gimbal. Gotta solder on the compass connection before I do anything and I fairly pissed at myself for buying this without checking if parts were easily available.

I'm letting it go for tonight and will tend to something more important - the toilet in my master bath needs a 'guts' overhaul.

Already considering buying a P3A. Are the motors in the Advanced any different from the P3S? I'm wondering what parts from the S will work with an A (I know the batteries are the same)
 
I believe only the battery is useable! bummer, the advanced, and pro use lightbridge tech, mainboards and all are different, Even Tx is different!
But not 100% sure, so you might want to research it a bit, but almost sure I'm right.

J Dot
:cool:
 
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I was thinking motors, lol.

I give this P3S a 100% chance of flying again. 50% it will fly like it should, 50% it will fly because my friend will throw it in the air after i say "PULL" <blam!>
 
I'm pretty sure I'm out of luck but figured I'd post here and see if anyone had any suggestions.

I've only had a P3S 2.7l for a few weeks now and man oh man did I screw up. I was paying too much attention to the video and not enough to the tree I ran into. Pulled back just as it went into the branches and leaves and now i wish I let it go in and got stuck in the branches. It tumbled down at least 15 feet and straight onto asphalt.

Per chat with DJI they do not stock ANY replacement parts for the Standard. Sure, they have batteries but this aircraft may well be a total loss. DJI dude said "it may need to be sent in for repairs." Well, no kidding. To be fair to him I only mentioned I had a crash and that I couldn't find them selling a replacement gimbal/camera.

I only paid $350 for it at BJ's Wholsesale Club and I'm pretty sure just replacing the camera would cost almost that much if I sent it in. But there is so much more, lol, and I'm not going to bother sending it in to DJI because I know darned well it will cost more than that to repair.

When i turn it on I get the red/yellow/green flash. Shocking, I know!

Damage report so far:

Broken prop (Only one, lol)
Shell gouged at ends of arms (who cares)
Crack in one of the arms (Doesn't look critical)
Crack in leg of landing skid (pffft)
Edge of camera lens housing gouged up (lens is fine but hmmmm)
Mainboard connector for compass torn right off the board (ouch)
Bent/cracked gimbal (the arm that controls horizontal movement)

The arm on the gimbal was only bent a few degrees so I bent it back. The crack in it doesn't seem critical and I don't see where anything is going to fall off.

I figure I'll solder a new female connector to the mainboard once I figure out what kind it is. Looks pretty standard to me. I may just solder the wires straight in because I've no idea if the crash cracked the board and don't feel like the hassle of finding a connector and buying the inevitable 15 pack of them. We'll see.

The gimbal is a concern because I honestly don't know if it has damage beyond the crack. Stripped gears (does it have gears?) would not surprise me. And since the camera itself took a hit on the lens enclosure God only knows if it is broken.

That's what I know so far - I'll be taking the board out and look for damage on the bottom of it as well as elsewhere on the aircraft.

I'm not about to put a lot of money into this if i can't get parts for it and may buy a P3A. Or just say to he** with it because I don't need another thing to eat up my time. But it sure is fun.

Any thoughts on repairs?

@msinger has a list on his web-sight.
DJI Phantom Accessories & Tips - Phantom Help

Rod
 
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Good luck dude. Sounds like a rough crash. I think this is gonna cost you more than it's worth. Time for the Advanced. Also, to my understanding, the only parts in common between a Standard and the rest of the fleet are the motors, ESCs, and body.
 
I'm pretty sure I'm out of luck but figured I'd post here and see if anyone had any suggestions.

I've only had a P3S 2.7l for a few weeks now and man oh man did I screw up. I was paying too much attention to the video and not enough to the tree I ran into. Pulled back just as it went into the branches and leaves and now i wish I let it go in and got stuck in the branches. It tumbled down at least 15 feet and straight onto asphalt.

Per chat with DJI they do not stock ANY replacement parts for the Standard. Sure, they have batteries but this aircraft may well be a total loss. DJI dude said "it may need to be sent in for repairs." Well, no kidding. To be fair to him I only mentioned I had a crash and that I couldn't find them selling a replacement gimbal/camera.

I only paid $350 for it at BJ's Wholsesale Club and I'm pretty sure just replacing the camera would cost almost that much if I sent it in. But there is so much more, lol, and I'm not going to bother sending it in to DJI because I know darned well it will cost more than that to repair.

When i turn it on I get the red/yellow/green flash. Shocking, I know!

Damage report so far:

Broken prop (Only one, lol)
Shell gouged at ends of arms (who cares)
Crack in one of the arms (Doesn't look critical)
Crack in leg of landing skid (pffft)
Edge of camera lens housing gouged up (lens is fine but hmmmm)
Mainboard connector for compass torn right off the board (ouch)
Bent/cracked gimbal (the arm that controls horizontal movement)

The arm on the gimbal was only bent a few degrees so I bent it back. The crack in it doesn't seem critical and I don't see where anything is going to fall off.

I figure I'll solder a new female connector to the mainboard once I figure out what kind it is. Looks pretty standard to me. I may just solder the wires straight in because I've no idea if the crash cracked the board and don't feel like the hassle of finding a connector and buying the inevitable 15 pack of them. We'll see.

The gimbal is a concern because I honestly don't know if it has damage beyond the crack. Stripped gears (does it have gears?) would not surprise me. And since the camera itself took a hit on the lens enclosure God only knows if it is broken.

That's what I know so far - I'll be taking the board out and look for damage on the bottom of it as well as elsewhere on the aircraft.

I'm not about to put a lot of money into this if i can't get parts for it and may buy a P3A. Or just say to he** with it because I don't need another thing to eat up my time. But it sure is fun.

Any thoughts on repairs?

$350.00 is pretty good price now, Here was a repair from a crash of mine, I don't think I got the patience to work on these things.

gimbal base plate cracked
This is #4, details on #6

Rod
 
Good luck dude. Sounds like a rough crash. I think this is gonna cost you more than it's worth. Time for the Advanced. Also, to my understanding, the only parts in common between a Standard and the rest of the fleet are the motors, ESCs, and body.

Yeah, probably won't be worth fixing. I noticed the motors are all out out of alignment because the arms are twisted a few degrees from the wreck. I certainly have the money to buy an Advanced but I am having a hard time justifying the cost. I can get one from amazon for $695 but that's a pile of money I should throw at my house and not a hobby.
 
Yeah, probably won't be worth fixing. I noticed the motors are all out out of alignment because the arms are twisted a few degrees from the wreck. I certainly have the money to buy an Advanced but I am having a hard time justifying the cost. I can get one from amazon for $695 but that's a pile of money I should throw at my house and not a hobby.
Uh, yeah. If you say so. New kitchen counters or P4. Guess what I did?

NoCo Drones
 
Yeah, probably won't be worth fixing. I noticed the motors are all out out of alignment because the arms are twisted a few degrees from the wreck. I certainly have the money to buy an Advanced but I am having a hard time justifying the cost. I can get one from amazon for $695 but that's a pile of money I should throw at my house and not a hobby.
That tilt in the motors is by design, probably not due to the crash. Welcome to the forum.
 
Yeah, probably won't be worth fixing. I noticed the motors are all out out of alignment because the arms are twisted a few degrees from the wreck. I certainly have the money to buy an Advanced but I am having a hard time justifying the cost. I can get one from amazon for $695 but that's a pile of money I should throw at my house and not a hobby.
Yes, the motors are tilted, is this what you got?
DJI P3 4K Tilted Motors
New P3A, motors on a tilt -normal?
Just realized the motors are canted

Rod
 
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After a few hours of Googling to find who makes the compass connector on the board (and learning it's called a header) I figured out it was made by JST. Lots of searching of images without finding the right one and it dawned on me to search this forum for JST. Of course the info is here, lol. It is a JST GH-series header, part number BM05B-GHS-TBT(LF)(SN)(N). DigiKey sells them cheap (46 cents each) so I ordered 5 of them. Look like USPS 1st class shipping will be $4 something.

I was prepared to solder the wires right into the board but I don't like doing things 'half-fast'
 
Oh crap, you should have asked me, I have all those numbers for all those connectors, lol, but correct JST GH style plugs. Yes and get cheaper the more you buy! Lol
You'll need a TINY tip soldering gun and some flux, will make your life much better, trust me, I have to use a huge *** magnifying glass to solder my stuff, that stuff is TINY, I do some wifi module com repairs ( where GH connector ( 4 pin ) breaks off wifi unit, gotten pretty good, but still a bear! If you bridge across the joints by mistake, use a X-acto knife to cut solder away, or a solder sucker, but X-acto works great.

Good luck my friend,
If you want a GREAT, inexpensive soldering station, look up 853d soldering station $69 us, and comes with EVERYTHING! I used mine for over a year now ( a LOT OF USE ) trust me. So far not even 1 issue. I love it, and it has tiny tips all the way up to some pretty large ones. Also has built In heat gun, circuit meter, and power station.

J Dot
:cool:
 
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All is not lost for spare parts.... Banggood.com has them... Even a gimble for around £90. I have been buying there for years and no problems.. including phones and clothes. Also try AliExpress and ever buying. You will never be short of spare parts again [emoji6]

Sent from my Power using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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