- Joined
- Mar 27, 2014
- Messages
- 514
- Reaction score
- 170
2 weeks ago I took my bird up in a wind I shouldn't have been flying in. I was flying in a large field that goes to forest preserves. Lost LOS and started to go to RTH. Screen started to be goofy and kept losing connection. This went on for 15 minutes. Could not get it back and not sure where it was. Short story I ran out of power and came down and touched a treetop and then fell about 60 feet. Used "Find my Phantom" and went into the forest and found it right where it said it was! Alas, bent arm and worse, bent gimbal arm.
Got it home and knew right away I needed a new body. When I opened the shell a piece of the ESC board fell out. It was bent and broken. Got online to Helihobby and ordered a new body shell ($60) and new ESC board ($20). While waiting for the parts to come I started taking all the guts out of the shell. There a Youtube videos to help you a little bit. Big tip I got on this forum. Take a picture of the opened body. Print it. Then when you pull screws out you can place them where they came from. Took the gimbal off, not feeling good about the bent arm. A big tip from me. Use your cellphone to take pictures of every part before you unplug a plug or take out a screw. Then print out all the pictures 8x 11. Parts arrived and today I went at it. I never could have reassembled it into the new shell without the pictures. There are so many jacks. I wish I could load all the pictures up on the forum for other people to use. Anyhow after about 3 hours I had meticulously reassembled the Phantom into its new shell. Put the battery in and it started and the blades all spun.
Now the gimbal. There are just 4 screws to remove and the cover comes off. You are not going to be able to remove the gimbal arm from the post it twists on. So carefully I put an adjustable wrench on the bottom of the arm (it's shaped like an L) and then another bigger wrench around the body of the arm and twisted it back to perfect shape (it's aluminum not steel). Reassebled the gimbal and then mounted it back on and plugged the jacks back in. Turned it all back on. Gimbal snapped to attention. Pushed on the arrow on the monitor and the camera went up and down. Connected it to the computer and brought it up to spec.
Took it outside for a flight, kinda of nervous. Camera on and up it went. Been testing all afternoon and it is in perfect condition.
I am really proud of myself accomplishing this!
So you can come back from a fatal crash. It just take a lot of patience.
Got it home and knew right away I needed a new body. When I opened the shell a piece of the ESC board fell out. It was bent and broken. Got online to Helihobby and ordered a new body shell ($60) and new ESC board ($20). While waiting for the parts to come I started taking all the guts out of the shell. There a Youtube videos to help you a little bit. Big tip I got on this forum. Take a picture of the opened body. Print it. Then when you pull screws out you can place them where they came from. Took the gimbal off, not feeling good about the bent arm. A big tip from me. Use your cellphone to take pictures of every part before you unplug a plug or take out a screw. Then print out all the pictures 8x 11. Parts arrived and today I went at it. I never could have reassembled it into the new shell without the pictures. There are so many jacks. I wish I could load all the pictures up on the forum for other people to use. Anyhow after about 3 hours I had meticulously reassembled the Phantom into its new shell. Put the battery in and it started and the blades all spun.
Now the gimbal. There are just 4 screws to remove and the cover comes off. You are not going to be able to remove the gimbal arm from the post it twists on. So carefully I put an adjustable wrench on the bottom of the arm (it's shaped like an L) and then another bigger wrench around the body of the arm and twisted it back to perfect shape (it's aluminum not steel). Reassebled the gimbal and then mounted it back on and plugged the jacks back in. Turned it all back on. Gimbal snapped to attention. Pushed on the arrow on the monitor and the camera went up and down. Connected it to the computer and brought it up to spec.
Took it outside for a flight, kinda of nervous. Camera on and up it went. Been testing all afternoon and it is in perfect condition.
I am really proud of myself accomplishing this!
So you can come back from a fatal crash. It just take a lot of patience.
