Phantom 4 Durability and Preventative Maintenance

baker745 · Feb 18, 2017

Hey Everyone-
I have a Phantom 4 and have logged 260 flights, 54 hours of flight time, and 1.5 million feet (284 miles). This doesn't include numerous flights with GSPro. Knocking on wood as I say this, I haven't had a single issue. I still have the original props on it. Is there anything I need to be concerned with or anything I should do for preventative maintenance?

Rich M · Feb 18, 2017

I have read in these forums about checking all the screws for tightness

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wa5tef · Feb 18, 2017

WoW Baker 745, that is amazing! Keep on flying. That is a lot of "miles". And to have had no problems is awesome. I hope you read all the forums before you submit anything for repair to DJI. Their customer service is about as bad as it can get. I have had nothing but lies and broken promises from them, all of them! Thanks for your posting of good reliability. That is indeed good news.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

Quamera · Feb 18, 2017

baker745 said:
Hey Everyone-
I have a Phantom 4 and have logged 260 flights, 54 hours of flight time, and 1.5 million feet (284 miles). This doesn't include numerous flights with GSPro. Knocking on wood as I say this, I haven't had a single issue. I still have the original props on it. Is there anything I need to be concerned with or anything I should do for preventative maintenance?

I suspect there are a few posters here who are bit jealous of your record however I am sure there will be plenty of others with a similar experience. Unfortunately for DJI most of the latter will never post so the forums will always be skewed towards the unhappy, unfortunate and just plain silly.

How are your batteries performing, are their individual cell voltages under load still the same, how many cycles are on them and what is DJIs "life" reading. Do you "baby" your batteries or just leave them charged at 100% and run them right down to 10% on most flights.

baker745 · Feb 18, 2017

I will have to check the individual battery life statuses. I work for a law enforcement agency, so we keep everything mission ready at 100%. We have six batteries, so everything gets rotated pretty good.

I am careful not to hot charge unless I have to. I have a bracket in front of my AC vent in my car to cool them off before charging. Also, we try to swap at 20% in training, but will push it to 10% if necessary on a mission.

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Bckmstr · Feb 18, 2017

i find myself crossing that same threshold with my P4 here it is:

ussvertigo · Feb 18, 2017

I had this same thinking. The motors are what I would love to know what their service life is and replace within a generous safety margin, it's the only moving parts, and keeping good batteries. It helps hearing others times getting on these motors, mine have about half of yours

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Bckmstr · Feb 18, 2017

i just put a new set of props and kept others for back up as notice slight slop/play in old compared to new after install..very a nal about looking over every square " of my bird before and after every flight...tweaking retainer springs every time as needed and have spares in case club waiting ..always have spare props, prop mounts w/ spring kit..etc... better to have it along and not need it than to see the perfect shot and need it and don't have it along ....ouch:-(

volace · Feb 19, 2017

My phantom 4 has more mileage , but I started to see few stress fractures , the props are still good did not change them yet

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Bckmstr · Feb 19, 2017

volace said:
My phantom 4 has more mileage , but I started to see few stress fractures , the props are still good did not change them yet

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could you post up some pics of the stress fractures for us to see locations and check our birds out? thanks in advance

Quamera · Feb 19, 2017

baker745 said:
I will have to check the individual battery life statuses. I work for a law enforcement agency, so we keep everything mission ready at 100%. We have six batteries, so everything gets rotated pretty good.

I am careful not to hot charge unless I have to. I have a bracket in front of my AC vent in my car to cool them off before charging. Also, we try to swap at 20% in training, but will push it to 10% if necessary on a mission.

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If you have 6 batteries and keep them at 100% then you will probably be using the DJI Auto Discharge function on a regular basis so you will be a useful yardstick to compare with those who don't. DJI Go also keeps a log of Battery error history that would be useful for you to have a look at however with 6 batteries it could be a little tricky to work out which is which. Some operators with multiple batts have a couple they keep 100% charged and ready for anything and others kept in reserve at 50 to 60% and only charged just before a planned mission.

I suspect you will be doing more hovering and monitoring than flat out aerobatics so the stress fractures that some report probably won't happen for you. Unlike earlier Phantoms the P4 has a magnesium alloy chassis so I suspect stress fractures in the plastic top shell (usually in the "neck" before the motors) will be more cosmetic than life threatening anyway.

Quamera · Feb 19, 2017

Quamera said:
If you have 6 batteries and keep them at 100% then you will probably be using the DJI Auto Discharge function on a regular basis so you will be a useful yardstick to compare with those who don't. DJI Go also keeps a log of Battery error history that would be useful for you to have a look at however with 6 batteries it could be a little tricky to work out which is which. Some operators with multiple batts have a couple they keep 100% charged and ready for anything and others kept in reserve at 50 to 60% and only charged just before a planned mission.

I suspect you will be doing more hovering and monitoring than flat out aerobatics so the stress fractures that some report probably won't happen for you. Unlike earlier Phantoms the P4 has a magnesium alloy chassis so I suspect stress fractures in the plastic top shell (usually in the "neck" before the motors) will be more cosmetic than life threatening anyway.

Since you rotate your batteries they won't have 50 cycles on each so there should be plenty of life for them yet. If you are concerned about motor life/failure you could try a stethoscope on them while running to check the bearings, mechanics often do that to check bigger equipment but I am not sure how it would work out for a Phantom. Someone would have to hold the AC up to check it from underneath because everywhere else is spinning. At least there is 4 motors so they should all sound the same.

BobWare · Feb 20, 2017

Bckmstr said:
i find myself crossing that same threshold with my P4 here it is:
View attachment 76585

This is probably a really dumb question... where did you get the display of Total Flight Time, Total Distance, etc.?

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Erised · Feb 20, 2017

BobWare said:
This is probably a really dumb question... where did you get the display of Total Flight Time, Total Distance, etc.?

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Just open GO by it's self, tap the icon upper left hand corner and your flight records are all there.

BobWare · Feb 20, 2017

Erised said:
Just open GO by it's self, tap the icon upper left hand corner and your flight records are all there.

Thanks... I mostly use Litchi so I'm not that familiar with DJI GO. Appreciate the quick response. Thanks again.

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Erised · Feb 20, 2017

BobWare said:
Thanks... I mostly use Litchi so I'm not that familiar with DJI GO. Appreciate the quick response. Thanks again.

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Probably only flights with GO will be shown, there is probably something similar in litchi.

DanMan32 · Feb 20, 2017

Sorry for busting in on this awesome thread but I have a P3A and my flight record shows a top altitude of 0 after 105 flights, most run using Tab E, some with HTC 10. It shows my top altitude was on Christmas when I officially got it though I got to fly it day after thanksgiving. Individual flight sessions show correct max altitude. Anyone ever encounter this?

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Cowboy1 · Feb 21, 2017

Rich M said:
I have read in these forums about checking all the screws for tightness

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Good tip - I've had mine for one month and they were backed out slightly, snugged them

Jshank · Feb 21, 2017

Does anyone know how the lv rate is gauged and what it means? Here's a screen shot of my info. Thanks for posting. It's interesting to see everyone's stats.

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