Serpent said:
Does anyone have experience or know if it's possible to disassemble the battery pack and replace just the faulty cells? Given the price of these things i'm looking at options.
I would say the short answer is
YES. . .
However, the long answer would be:
1.) Where are you going to source the replacement cells?
2.) Are you highly skilled / and have the manual dexterity to dissemble / reassemble one of those batteries?
3.) How are your soldering skills?
4.) Are you willing to work in close proximity of potentially volatile compounds (
with a hot iron, sharp knife, etc.)?
5.) How much is your time worth?
6.) Will you have enough confidence in your repair job to fly your Phantom "NORMALLY" (whatever that might be)?
Being a veteran of one flyaway and several unexplained forced landings myself, I definitely feel your pain. My confidence in this platform has definitely been diminished over time. The only way I can bring myself to fly more than 10 feet high or 100 feet away is to pretend that the Phantom + Gimbal + GoPro + FPV Gear, etc. won't cost me well over $1000 to replace, if I never see it again. I likely have well over 200 flights under my belt at this point, in a vast variety of locations and environments. In order to continue to enjoy this hobby, I have adopted the following philosophy: "
It's not a question of IF you will someday crash or experience a flyway or other unexplainable event, it's a question of WHEN". What goes up, must come down. It's a numbers game as far as I'm concerned, and we as humans cannot control 100% of the forces that influence whether these flying machines stay in the air or not. If we could, then no one would have ever lost their life flying on a commercial airliner. . .