"no signal" after crash and ribbon cable replacement

[Reiser4]

hello, I have crashed my phantom 3 professional. I had to replace the yaw arm and the ribbon cable; now when I turn the phantom on it does the gimbal dance and it aligns, but after 10 secs it dies.
On the app I have full signals bars but I see "no signal" in the middle top of the screen.
behiavour is exactly like in this video:

any hints on how to fix this?

thanks.

 

[FlyOrFry]

Assuming you did everything right... It's the ribbon cable. I bought two cables from two different vendors, had same results as you thinking firmware, maybe I broke the board. I tried everything until nothing worked so I tried the second ribbon cable and it worked. I did firmware updates and everything seems to work. I put the first cable back on and was back to the same results as you, so I put the first cable back on and again everything works. So it has to be the cable.

 

[RodPad]

You never see the camera on the phone? Did you do a firmware update, since the crash? Maybe you need to re-link the remote and the phantom.

 

[TidewaterGibson]

Assuming you did everything right... It's the ribbon cable.

I had the same issue last week. The new cable seemed to scramble the gimbal electronics. After hours of tinkering I put the original ribbon cable (the one that was on the bird when I crashed) back on the gimbal and all problems went away. Might be a bad batch of ribbon cables out there...

 

[hunch]

people DO NOT use 3rd party cables, they are hit and miss...more miss than hit.
you will waste a lot of time and couple dollars when you can buy the original DJI cable, which retails fro $35-42
but it WILL work.
trust me i've done over 500 gimbals so far and tested A LOTof 3rd party cables and it's not worth the time.

my 2c


Reiser, if you used cheaper 3rd party cable it's your cable then. get the original and replace and you'll back in the game

 

[TidewaterGibson]

people DO NOT use 3rd party cables, they are hit and miss...

3rd party cable was my issue... got swayed by the $9.99 price tag... fortunately for me, my original ribbon was undamaged and was able to be reused... Thanks for your insight hunch! It proves my own findings...

 

[hunch]

3rd party cable was my issue... got swayed by the $9.99 price tag... fortunately for me, my original ribbon was undamaged and was able to be reused... Thanks for your insight hunch! It proves my own findings...

yup,
i wasted so many hours on all different kind of 3rd party cables, from cheap $8 from China to more expensive ones
but all of them were not original.
i have NEVER had an issue with original part 49 for P3 cable so i'm sticking with those.

 

[shorttimer]

yup,
i wasted so many hours on all different kind of 3rd party cables, from cheap $8 from China to more expensive ones
but all of them were not original.
i have NEVER had an issue with original part 49 for P3 cable so i'm sticking with those.

Thanks for the advice Hunch. It is advice like this, from established repair folks, that is so valuable.

 

[normr]

That brings up a funny story, I had a Chinese customer buying an iPhone and she didn't want one made in China, she wanted one made in the US, she said, "us Chinese people no like products made in China", I had to break her heart and bring out multiple iPhones so she could read on the box that they were all made in China


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[FlyOrFry]

I haven't looked yet to see if this has already been done, but it would be nice if some how we could compile a list of vendors with quality ribbon cables. I'm thinking the $10 cables people are buying are factory QC rejects being sold. Otherwise who has the $ to make them? Primarily the ones with OEM specs. The fab machines alone would be a fortune. I know some of the cables I've seen are not even close to spec.

 

[hunch]

I buy them at **correction: SureRC Hobby in California for $42 a pop
I know little expensive but guess what? I know it will work.

 

[Mako79]

Assuming you did everything right... It's the ribbon cable. I bought two cables from two different vendors, had same results as you thinking firmware, maybe I broke the board. I tried everything until nothing worked so I tried the second ribbon cable and it worked. I did firmware updates and everything seems to work. I put the first cable back on and was back to the same results as you, so I put the first cable back on and again everything works. So it has to be the cable.

Where did you get the working cable from??

 

[TidewaterGibson]

You can buy it direct from DJI. They charge $35 US for the adv/pro and $25 US for the std... Buy Phantom 3 Spare Parts | DJI Store

 

[hunch]

do you know how fast is shipping if purchased directly from DJI?
have to be honest, all the gimbals and Phantoms fixed and never purchased a part from DJI

 

[TidewaterGibson]

I haven't purchased direct from them yet either but I do know they have a parts and service center in Los Angeles, CA so I would think the shipping speed to any state in the US would be reasonable... not sure about international.