Pieces of plastic falling out of my phantom

[bighi]

Over the last couple of months I've had an occasional rattle out of my phantom 3. Every single time what came out were pieces of the clips that hold the two halves together. But today I got a new one after a 15 minute flight. Which one do you guys think this one is? Main board screw? GPS maybe? But that one has the tape over the whole thing. Anyway, I'm used to this from phantoms but this one I can't figure out. Hopefully someone who has taken a phantom 3 apart can figure it out.

 

[PanBzoch]

If it is still under warranty, return it. It is not safe to fly with this..whatewer the part is.

 

[CCDD]

Are you kidding me? You have pieces falling off your Phantom and you're still flying it?

 

[GaryDZ]

Has it taken any "hits"? If so, how hard and how many?

 

[Trackman1]

Probably just the motor mounts.

 

[bighi]

The pieces started falling off at the end of the first week of flying. All the pieces that fell out were the clips that join the bottom to the top of the shell. The screws were still good so I kept flying. Then when this fell out I also noticed a crack on the screw area for the battery plugs. That was it. Done. Out of commission. I had two brand new drone minus camera and radio on the shelf on the expectation of cracking. No, no bumps. I've been hand catching phantoms since phantom 1. Crashes, never. I only fly at 120 meters high. Which, consequently, brings new stresses to the phantom I believe. Turbulence from 37 mph and wind. The plastic used is still not up to the job. But this is what I'm doing now. Fly it, crack it, send it in, fly the new one. Keep them rolling.

 

[Phantom751874]

Over the last couple of months I've had an occasional rattle out of my phantom 3. Every single time what came out were pieces of the clips that hold the two halves together. But today I got a new one after a 15 minute flight. Which one do you guys think this one is? Main board screw? GPS maybe? But that one has the tape over the whole thing. Anyway, I'm used to this from phantoms but this one I can't figure out. Hopefully someone who has taken a phantom 3 apart can figure it out.

View attachment 42046

That screw looks like it has been stripped. You sure you're not taken stuff apart? That screw looks like it's been messed with.

 

[yankee65]

Dude I think that drone not the only thing with a screw loose. I can't believe you still fly that knowing that it's broken to begin with


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[bighi]

Nah I didn't take anything apart. Had I done so I would not have even posted this in here because I would have full knowledge of the inside of a phantom 3 and hence, i woukd know exactly where it came from. The clips when they started falling out, every other week or so, took me a bit to figure out. But after googling pictures of the inside of a phantom 3 I realized that what was rattling and falling out were center shell area top to bottom clips. And since some folks reported breaking those when opening the shell, I then realized what I was finding were those. In fact, I really avoided opening the shell at all costs in order to not disturb the remaining clips. I've had bad luck with shells. After all, that's why I always keep a fresh unflown phantom on the shelf. My flying is always the same. 120 meters, never lower, never in high wind, always slow accelerations. I leave the crazy flying to my T Rex 600 and immersion vortex 250 pro.

 

[bighi]

Dude I think that drone not the only thing with a screw loose. I can't believe you still fly that knowing that it's broken to begin with


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I fly over water. Adriatic sea. It falls over ocean oh well. Besides, I checked the thing out completely after that thing fell out. What it seemed to be was the cylinder that retains one of the four screws holding the main board in place. There was zero movement from the board. Or anything else for that matter. Only three flights later is when I noticed a crack on the plastic that holds the battery contact pins. That one I said, no way. Finished. I went to my closet and opened a box with a brand new phantom 3 minus radio and camera. Came without the badge on the front so I had to carefully remove it from the two month old cracked bird. I can't seem to find those badges for sale. Anyway, let's see what the new one spits out. Personally I would rather have these clips falling out than having cracks on the motor mount. Not that I like any of it.

 

[Phantom751874]

Is the screw head stripped?

 

[bighi]

Nah. It's totally intact. This reminds me of the situation with rattles starting in people's controllers and then they find broken screw standoffs inside. Just look it up right here in the forum. It's just bad plastic.

 

[CCDD]

Dude I think that drone not the only thing with a screw loose. I can't believe you still fly that knowing that it's broken to begin with


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