Phantom 3 Crash In Creek

[dchild]

Hi -

I am new here and just crashed my phantom 3 standard into a creek after hitting some telephone wires. If you want to see my stupid crash it's here (only cell phone downlink video available since I didn't have the presence of mind to stop the recording to save on drone camera) -

When it crashed, only one arm was partially submerged since the creek was fairly shallow and partially frozen. The camera and gimbal had some moisture from melting snow. I have so far disassembled the clam shell, blew it out with compressed air and put it in a container with a desiccant that is typically used for an entire basement (see attached picture).

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this kind of thing? How long should I leave it in with the desiccant before trying it out? Anything else I should do?

Thanks!

 

[chadrob30]

Well good luck to you. It looks as if you may have cleared the wires if not for the altitude adjustment just before impact.

 

[dchild]

Well good luck to you. It looks as if you may have cleared the wires if not for the altitude adjustment just before impact.

Quite right. Stupid panicked response on my part!

 

[jsposito]

Happens to so many of us. Sounds like you may have saved it. BTW, I pay 35 a year for insurance on my Drone - Statefarm. Up to 1000 dollars no deductible. This in NE P.A. Other states with SF do 35, 40 and 60 a year. Only an agent can tell you. This gives a little bit more comfort at least to me if I should crash.and burn. . I see you have snow, it's just too windy and have 2ft of snow here and I'm confined for in the house flying. Good luck!

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Hi -

I am new here and just crashed my phantom 3 standard into a creek after hitting some telephone wires. If you want to see my stupid crash it's here (only cell phone downlink video available since I didn't have the presence of mind to stop the recording to save on drone camera) -

When it crashed, only one arm was partially submerged since the creek was fairly shallow and partially frozen. The camera and gimbal had some moisture from melting snow. I have so far disassembled the clam shell, blew it out with compressed air and put it in a container with a desiccant that is typically used for an entire basement (see attached picture).

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this kind of thing? How long should I leave it in with the desiccant before trying it out? Anything else I should do?

Thanks!

Had to watch clip,,was good bit filming till powerline came along,,hope you get it dryed and sorted out

 

[dchild]

Happens to so many of us. Sounds like you may have saved it. BTW, I pay 35 a year for insurance on my Drone - Statefarm. Up to 1000 dollars no deductible. This in NE P.A. Other states with SF do 35, 40 and 60 a year. Only an agent can tell you. This gives a little bit more comfort at least to me if I should crash.and burn. . I see you have snow, it's just too windy and have 2ft of snow here and I'm confined for in the house flying. Good luck!

That does sound like a good idea.

 

[dchild]

OK took a look at drone today. Everything seems to power up ok except the gimbal and camera. There is no image on the camera and the gimbal will keep spinning around occasionally. It finally did set itself. I took the gimbal and camera apart and made sure there is no moisture and its pretty dry. Any way to know if I totally destroyed the gimbal or if I just need to rebuild?

 

[dchild]

OK got gimbal working after disassembling. Now it does its little dance properly when you turn it on and all looks good with that. However, camera is still not displaying an image. I checked the ribbon cables and they all look in tact. Anything else I can try?

 

[2112Phantom]

OK got gimbal working after disassembling. Now it does its little dance properly when you turn it on and all looks good with that. However, camera is still not displaying an image. I checked the ribbon cables and they all look in tact. Anything else I can try?

I had a similar incident, but my camera works, bird flies and gimbal is unresponsive.

 

[dchild]

I had a similar incident, but my camera works, bird flies and gimbal is unresponsive.

I noticed the ribbon cable looks a little screwy after the crash. Couldn't tell if its from the crash or from me disassembling. Anyway, I'm replacing it tomorrow. Its only $20 so sure beats buying a new gimbal assembly.

 

[dchild]

Guys - Hoping someone is still looking at this thread. I replaced the ribbon cable and now the camera and gimbal work. Took me a while. However, the gimbal now points off center to the left by about 10 degrees. I checked the screw on the yaw shaft for correct alignment with the flat side of the shaft. I also did a bunch of compass and IMU calibrations. The gimbal seems to respond fine when I move the drone around but it just points off center. Very frustrating! I did a bunch of searches but everyone seems to talk about the things I already covered.

The ribbon cable was after market. Could that be why? I would think its strange that everything works fine except for it being off center.

 

[DanMan32]

Grub screw usually does it. Perhaps yaw motor alignment in relation to the position sensor similar to what's been posted about the roll motor?

I hit a telephone wire late afternoon day after Christmas. Thought I was far enough out to clear it before ascending. Broke gimbal in 3 pieces, damaged shell and props. Cost $178 fit DJI to fix and $15 for new set of props from BestBuy.

 

[jsposito]

Guys - Hoping someone is still looking at this thread. I replaced the ribbon cable and now the camera and gimbal work. Took me a while. However, the gimbal now points off center to the left by about 10 degrees. I checked the screw on the yaw shaft for correct alignment with the flat side of the shaft. I also did a bunch of compass and IMU calibrations. The gimbal seems to respond fine when I move the drone around but it just points off center. Very frustrating! I did a bunch of searches but everyone seems to talk about the things I already covered.

The ribbon cable was after market. Could that be why? I would think its strange that everything works fine except for it being off center.

Perhaps you could do a search on "gimbal tilting horizontally" I read not too long ago that this was fixed by a user ( but not after a crash).

 

[mdowney58]

@jsposito, the OP says his points to the left, not tilting.

@dchild I have read other threads where aftermarket ribbon cables cause probkems, and the common concensus around here is to only use genuine DJI cables.

 

[dchild]

Guys - thanks for all the help here. I managed to fix the gimbal. Took it out for a test flight and blew the ESC! I used the same battery that I used from the crash. The battery never got wet and seemed to be working fine. I actually used it to test the drone with the propellers off. All seemed good. So I tried to use it for the flight and then a motor stopped working. The battery then refused to turn off the drone. LEDS would go down like normal but drone would stay on. Oh well. Was worth a shot! I bought a refurbished replacement one on ebay for $329. Figured it was a better deal than buying a new ESC. I'll use my old drone as a parts one.

Again thanks for the help. I definitely learned a lot about the guts of the phantom. Hopefully I never have to post something like this again.