Screw inspection = very bad day

[TonG]

I have checked mine. No cracks while iI have had some minicrashes.
If you are worried about structural integrity a tyrewrap will in my opinion do the best job. Esthetically not pleasing but mechanical better than superglue.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Post pics of your unsightly beast please!! ;-)

What exactly Are tyre wraps? Unfamiliar.

I've already tired, of guessing... Hahaha


RedHotPoker

 

[Alex Kiritsis]

Inspected mine just now. No visible cracks on mine. I have over 50 flights, no crashes.

 

[RedHotPoker]

I have read about accidents, and seen a few Phantoms that have taken hard crashes, and it literally crushed and folded the plastic shell. No hairline cracks were seen though.
Those pictured above are manufacturing defects, or accidental slips of the electric screw gun drivers, the factory assemblers are using. Those were not done by an accidental rough landing, or any meeting of tree bark.
The pictures supplied in this thread are obviously not, owner at fault cause.

You know, in a small way, I wish that I hadn't read this thread, as it brings more concern and caution.
But if it helps get things on a right track...
As Tim Allen said best, More Power!!! Aahha hhhaa...

RedHotPoker

 

[silverstoned83]

I think I'll probably be posting this thread over on the DJI forum.. Hopefully, it'll be taken seriously.

I've spoken to several other dealers that sell the Phantom 3 just to see how they would be handing this situation if I had bought it from them.. After all, I need to buy another now so I don't miss an important opportunity. After speaking to AMainHobbies.com, an excellent RC hobby shop, they explained to me that they would be forced to direct me to DJI's warranty repair department. This is the process that has been set forth by DJI and they have their hands tied. They even mentioned that they once got in trouble with DJI by 'helping a customer.' On top of that, they even admitted to having to 'eat the cost' of DJI products several times because they would not approve a refund.

Then I call a local dealer, Copter Shop, that's 20 miles away and find out that they have a 30 day return policy. I even explained all the details and my confusion between each dealer's return policy for DJI products and they still had no problems telling me that I have 30 days. WTF? I will probably end up buying it from them just so for the peace of mind and so I will be able to inspect it with the seller before committing to purchasing the **** thing, even though I'll have to pay over $100 in tax! This is by far the most ridiculous buying experience I have ever had with any product. If DJI wants to reflect the same reputation that other successful tech companies have built, as they say they do, they need to make several changes so these situations are resolved in a way that doesn't hold the customer responsible when it's clearly not related to anything the customer did wrong.

 

[bighi]

I'm one of those that never had a firmware issue or any issue at all from hardware or software. I've had loss of signal issues but that comes with the territory when one is doing the high and fat thing. But every single one of my phantoms has had stress cracks. All either coming from a motor screw spreading to the outside from the last outer screw to the seam. With the P3 it's different. Usually one or two of the main screw holes that sit just before the four motor mount screws has a circular separation that basically renders that screw location useless. If one of those two fail, it's partner on the other side will too because all the lifting and twisting forces from that motor will transfer all the stress on that arm to the next screw. The good news is that the new recessed end screw locations are stronger now. But the other two are weaker. That's is a significant reduction in thickness when comparing the arms to the center of a phantom. If the issues begin at assembly, that thinness lends itself all too well to being too susceptible to cracking either at assembly or flying. Change the shell and it's 50/50 chance again and all it takes is about twenty flights. Maybe 50. It does not take long and its unacceptable. Considering the non modular nature of P3 internals, and maybe a high price for a board replacement, I figured screw it, let the entire seam of the arm work as one unit for strength instead of three screws for arms. I played around plenty with my cracks on two arms before gluing and realized it is twisting forces that bringing out the ghosts. Increased thickness in that area would solve it. DJI would take care of this issue if all those with cracks would look to see the cracks and complain. Trouble is many of those don't even realize they have them. Even after many cracked phantoms, it wasn't until I put some sideways pressure on my motors that the cracks became visible on mine. And unlike P2 cracks, on the P3 they are more structural in nature since the arms can twist much more once the cracks are present. And no, zip ties are unacceptable on a quad at this price. Neither is super glue but at least it is less visible.

 

[bighi]

Inspected mine just now. No visible cracks on mine. I have over 50 flights, no crashes.

Count yourself extremely lucky.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Well You both have amazing command of the English language, not that I am a scholar, Ah, but I wish you would consider to carefully compose a letter, email or telegraph to DJI. Explaining in detail, the concern, problematic cracks and overtightened screws, and see if a better quality check could be implemented at headquarters. Perhaps a 'personnel sticker' identifying who the guilty, screw gun culprits, are. Most basic electronics today, have a "passed sticker". Where are the manufacturer identifiers, on the Phantom models? We need to know who is not paying attention to detail. Someone needs a lesson in screw gun mechanics.

RedHotPoker

 

[ricky1981]

No cracks on mine (P3A) but if I had ones like the OP I would return it, for hairline ones I'd not bother but a hole is a bit different.

 

[bighi]

You know, why isn't Blade Strike in here. Do a back search of my posts and you will come across me complaining about this about two months ago on a one week old P2V+. At the time I retired my fifty flight, two month old P2V+ and took a brand new onenout of the shelf and said to myself "alright, lets see how long it takes before it cracks." About a week. Lucky at the time the said stress cracks were easy ones. Two, same arm, one the usual on the tiny Phillips at the end of the arm to the seam. The other, like an old friend that comes around every so often to drink all my booze, from a motor mount and spreading to the seam. Classics. Easy since you split the shell and pour on the crazy glue and blowing some moisture to get the CA to set. It held up OK but then I lost it to a flyaway from GPS loss. But at the time I was already on the P3 forums asking the guys who got them early to see if they fixed this ******* of an incessant problem once and for all. They didn't even know what to look for. I flew mine for about two weeks and figured, hey man, they solved it. Then I come in here and see this picture of a circular crack surrounding one of the two side by side screw holes. God **** it I thought. Here we go again. I put down my tablet, look at my P3 and boom, there they are on mine. So I thought, enough. I'm gluing the entire end of each arm. I tell you, the arms are a lot stiffer now. But still, this is ********. I find it uncanny how the folks in contact with DJI are all there in the unintended CSC threads but not in the stress crack ones.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Send @Tahoe Ed or @blade strike, an explanatory PM. Share your true thoughts, feelings, emotions and complaints. Include the pics from this thread, and any others you still have access to. It's not likely to go unchecked if enough attention is brought to the concern. The thread will just end up on page three, and no one will pay any more attention to it.
If I knew who to call, and share this unfortunate happening to, I certainly wouldn't hesitate. It needs to have a bright light shed upon it. If not, it could escalate and become a common feature. Let's nip it in the bud... Fix it.
Somewhat surprised I have been, so far, unscathed...

RedHotPoker

 

[bighi]

No cracks on mine (P3A) but if I had ones like the OP I would return it, for hairline ones I'd not bother but a hole is a bit different.

I had just a circular hairline one on one hole. If I put pressure on that motor, that hairline would spread a couple of millimeters whereas on a non crack arm the flex on the entire arm end would be substantially less. I don't take anything up in the air with this much of a flaw. This isn't a piece of **** hubsan we are talking about here. This is something with an advertised and marketed 2km range and sold for a grand. Not to mention extremely easy to adress at the time of P3 development. That's if DJI had given crap. Just a couple of more mils for Christ's sake. I don't want to fly anything else other than a phantom. But man, improve the shells. Too late now since the molds are already made. Maybe with the P4. Regardless, I have a spare P3 on the shelf. On that one I'm going to loosen the last three screws on each arm, put glue on there, the screw it all in in order to exchange the stress on the three screws and spread the stress more widely.

 

[J.James]

You can't superglue a hole.

well not easy but it can be done with some baking soda and super glue but it is a pain in the but. but it can fill gaps if they are not to big. Tho what suchs about super glue is it not very vibration resistant
and vibrations will cause it to lose its bond.

Tho its always vexed me how the phantom shells can with stand crashes from 100s of meters in the air with out even getting much more then a scratch a lot of times yet get stress cracks so easy with out ever having a crash or hard handing. One of my p2 visions I eventually had so many and seemed like I had to of used an entire tube of super glue on that sucker chasing down cracks. Then I reshelled it and have a few already. Havent seen any pop up on my p3 yet. But seems like some thing to keep an eye out for.

 

[silverstoned83]

Well You both have amazing command of the English language, not that I am a scholar, Ah, but I wish you would consider to carefully compose a letter, email or telegraph to DJI. Explaining in detail, the concern, problematic cracks and overtightened screws, and see if a better quality check could be implemented at headquarters. Perhaps a 'personnel sticker' identifying who the guilty, screw gun culprits, are. Most basic electronics today, have a "passed sticker". Where are the manufacturer identifiers, on the Phantom models? We need to know who is not paying attention to detail. Someone needs a lesson in screw gun mechanics.

RedHotPoker

I will definitely be reposting this topic on DJI's forum along with sending an email to DJI themselves regarding thier foul up. After having such bad luck, I can't help but be worried that my next replacement will have similar issues after a few amount of flights. This risk is not what one should be thinking about when deciding whether or not they want to splurge on an expensive toy. If DJI does nothing about this, it speaks volumes about their interest in making a quality product. I am trying so very hard right now to give them the benefit of the doubt, trying to put myself in their shoes.

 

[silverstoned83]

In regards to DJI staff on this forum, I believe that if they were interested in acknowledging the existence of this issue, they will reply. They are on here regularly and read probably every thread posted. My initial feeling is that they only contribute when the issue is pilot error, not when its related to something DJI is clearly responsible for.

 

[bighi]

In regards to DJI staff on this forum, I believe that if they were interested in acknowledging the existence of this issue, they will reply. They are on here regularly and read probably every thread posted. My initial feeling is that they only contribute when the issue is pilot error, not when its related to something DJI is clearly responsible for.

Key word here being "interested." Believe me that they KNEW of the issue which is why the top to bottom clips are present in the P3. But the twisting forces on the arms are still too much for the two screw holes in the arms to handle at the current thinness of the plastic in that area. Yes, the end screw hole cracking issue (P2) is maybe gone along with the classic outgoing cracking from motor mount screw holes (hopefully), but now the two holes before the motor mount is reading its ugly head. Let's see if one of the DJI folks can take their time away from a moron hit a tree/mid air CSC thread.

On a side note, I started a stress crack thread on the DJI P3 forum. So go ahead and feel free to chime in folks.

As for my gluing the top to bottom from screw hole area to the corresponding other side, lets see how it works. As of this moment it does feel a lot stiffer.

 

[burlbark]

From what I have seen of the cracks this is being caused by loctite cooking off the screws making the plastic brittle.

Jeremy

 

[bighi]

Very well could be. But I'll tell you something, when I was gluing it all today and playing around with it, I realized that there are some serious twisting forces at play on those two screw holes. And when you zoom in on those pictures, mine and the other with the missing broken pieces, have a look at that plastic thickness. Then go and look at the plastic thickness near the battery by comparison. You never see cracks in that area. Not that it needs to be that thick on the arms, but a little bit would go a very long way. Too late now for us since those molds are done. But hey, maybe they will throw in some super glue along with the usual extras that come with new P3s.

 

[Volkhard]

Modifying the existing molds or even make new ones is pocket change compared to the revenue and profits probably made by DJI. The underlying question would be, how good is the engineering going into the design of these molds repective the parts made with these molds. Todays professional design software has stress analysis build in and it would have been fairly easy, to design these parts properly. Sorry, as a German engineer my standards and expectations are fairly high.China could produce good quality parts if they wanted to. It might be rather a question of mindset and focus on other areas that leads to these obvious lack in engineering excellence, proper specification and quality control.
I am sceptical whether this issue will be acknowledged or addressed.

 

[bighi]

Modifying the existing molds or even make new ones is pocket change compared to the revenue and profits probably made by DJI. The underlying question would be, how good is the engineering going into the design of these molds repective the parts made with these molds. Todays professional design software has stress analysis build in and it would have been fairly easy, to design these parts properly. Sorry, as a German engineer my standards and expectations are fairly high.China could produce good quality parts if they wanted to. It might be rather a question of mindset and focus on other areas that leads to these obvious lack in engineering excellence, proper specification and quality control.
I am sceptical whether this issue will be acknowledged or addressed.

As am American living in Austria and northern Italy, married to a German, I can say one thing. If DJI were a German company we would have none of these problems. Maybe back in phantom 1 times. By now the thing would have been perfect with TÜV testing information available for download at the website. It would cost more but boy would we all be far more satisfied.