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- Jan 9, 2019
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Hello all,
I'm asking for some help here because I'm losing my mind with frustration at what has happened to my drone. Let me explain.
I'm a Phantom 3 Standard owner. I'm also a full time student, so this was a fairly large purchase and something I put a lot of time and research into. I really enjoy flying it and have made the best of my purchase so far. With that in mind, I don't have the money to spend on lots of repairs in the event that something goes wrong, and I certainly can't afford to have DJI do those repairs. Unfortunately, what led me to this point was a cracked shell, which I replaced myself - almost. To be clear, the cracked shell is unrelated other than the fact that it's the reason why I was servicing the drone. This is where things went wrong.
During reassembly, I decided to do a test power-on. I had everything back together except for the top shell (I had the GPS plugged in) and of course, no propellers. I know this probably isn't a recommended way to do a power-on test, but I made sure everything was visually safe before testing. When I turned on the drone, one of the SMD capacitors on the 'M4' corner sparked, leaving small burn marks on the motherboard and shell. I've attached photos for reference. I immediately unplugged everything before just about losing my mind in frustration.
Okay, so I know that most people's response would be "Oh, it's dead. Time to buy another board." But I don't necessarily have the money for that. I'd like to get feedback, if possible, on fixing this board first, before attempting a replacement. If a main Logic chip had blown, I would have scrapped the board by now, but let me explain why I haven't given up on this one just yet.
Here is what I observed relating to the incident:
Anyways, thanks so much for any advice or potential solutions!
- Benji
I'm asking for some help here because I'm losing my mind with frustration at what has happened to my drone. Let me explain.
I'm a Phantom 3 Standard owner. I'm also a full time student, so this was a fairly large purchase and something I put a lot of time and research into. I really enjoy flying it and have made the best of my purchase so far. With that in mind, I don't have the money to spend on lots of repairs in the event that something goes wrong, and I certainly can't afford to have DJI do those repairs. Unfortunately, what led me to this point was a cracked shell, which I replaced myself - almost. To be clear, the cracked shell is unrelated other than the fact that it's the reason why I was servicing the drone. This is where things went wrong.
During reassembly, I decided to do a test power-on. I had everything back together except for the top shell (I had the GPS plugged in) and of course, no propellers. I know this probably isn't a recommended way to do a power-on test, but I made sure everything was visually safe before testing. When I turned on the drone, one of the SMD capacitors on the 'M4' corner sparked, leaving small burn marks on the motherboard and shell. I've attached photos for reference. I immediately unplugged everything before just about losing my mind in frustration.
Okay, so I know that most people's response would be "Oh, it's dead. Time to buy another board." But I don't necessarily have the money for that. I'd like to get feedback, if possible, on fixing this board first, before attempting a replacement. If a main Logic chip had blown, I would have scrapped the board by now, but let me explain why I haven't given up on this one just yet.
Here is what I observed relating to the incident:
- Timing. I think most owners know the startup sequence quite well. (Press then hold power button > wait a second > motors initialize > beeping noise > etc.) The spark occurred as the motors initialized, and before I could unplug the battery, the drone did it's beep. This gives me hope that the whole board isn't fried. The fact that the end of the SMD capacitor is completely gone, it's location on the board, and the fact that it happened as the motors were moving makes me quite sure that's it's an ESC related failure/short.
- While the SMD capacitor blew apart and made a bit of a mess, It doesn't seem to have physically compromised any surrounding components.
- Nothing was visually shorting out the capacitor, or the motherboard in general.
- I still don't have any ideas on what might have caused the short. I may have hit the capacitor while prying the top shell off.
- If the repair came down to simply replacing the SMD capacitor (which it may not), I have the experience and equipment required to replace it. That assumes i can identify the specs of the capacitor to get another one.
- Assuming the damage is solely ESC related (which it may not be), If I de-soldered the burned up capacitor and removed any conductors, in theory, I could fire up the drone and check what works or not (of course without working motors). If worst comes to worst, what do I have to lose - an already damaged board? Potentially damaging other sensors...maybe? That may be a bad idea all together.
- Obviously sparks are nothing to shrug off, but If all it was was a short that caused the damage, might there be a chance that the rest of my board could be okay, since the capacitor blew and disconnected power?
- If I could get my hands on a schematic for the board, that would really help in determining what else is damaged and what parts I might need.
- I looked into replacement boards. Like I said, I don't have tons of money to spend and the cheapest board I saw was $90 used. I know that's not a lot, but for a ~$300 drone (with a brand new shell I just bought), I'd like to at least attempt a fix.
- Going forward, I will probably attempt to remove the blown capacitor and clean the area using proper methods. This would allow me to further identify damage.
- Does anyone have the schematics for this board? Are they even publicly available or attainable? I'm guessing no, but I might as well ask.
- Can anyone with experience on circuit layout and this type of stuff give me their thoughts on a potential fix?
- Is there a verified place to get replacement boards that don't cost outrageous amounts, if all else fails? Fine with buying used if it's the cheapest option.
- Any theories on the potential problem? The drone worked flawlessly before I opened it up.
Anyways, thanks so much for any advice or potential solutions!
- Benji
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