|
|
South Georgia | I bought a DJI Phantom Pro 3 last November and have flown it a lil, about 53 minutes worth of flight time only. Well was flying it today and flew one battery. It was flying good, making good video. As the battery was getting low, and the Ipad was beeping at me about that, stopped the tractor to land the phantom and get it. I guess the battery got low enough that it decided it was going to go back to home position. As it started its track back, I tried to stop it, but nothing would change the route. It flew about 20 feet away and started loosing altitude and coming down. At this point I figured the battery gave out, but it recovered and went back up, as it did it fell again crashing into the dirt. When I got to it 3 motors were gone up in smoke, the frame was melting, and the drone was still trying to go. Could not get it shut down, had to pull the battery to stop it, I talked to a tech, and he said they burn up when they bind in tall grass or on ground. 2 Motors that were in the air burned up, one motor that was on dirt burned up, other motor on dirt is fine as it appears. Motors are bad enough that the coils are burnt looking, smells burned, had smoke pouring out of 3 motors, and melted the frame where motors bolt on.
Has anyone else had anything like this happen? and if so what did you do to get it fixed? Lil dissappointed that it did this.
Sorry for the long post,
GAFarmer55
I will add pictures it made before crashing later on.
Edited by GAFarmer55 5/25/2016 13:02
|
|
| |
|
Chappell, NE | Wow this does not sound like fun. To be safe I would suggest sending it back to DJI to get repaired rather than trying to do it yourself or taking it to a hobby shop/local dealer. I personally have never had to deal with them, knock on wood, but I have seen many other posts where people receive their craft back rather quickly.
The stock motors are about $20 a piece and a new shell is $60. I'm guessing DJI could repair and fully test it for under $300 and you could be back flying in about a month. |
|
| |
|
South Georgia | Thanks for the reply tkepler. I was hoping that this would somehow fall under a warranty since it has barely been flown, and appears to me that the motors started letting go in flight. I bought it from Atlanta Hobby, which is where my Phantom 1 came from and was repaired at when I flew it thru the RTK antenna on the sprayer, was funny to see that happen, and I take the blame. Trying to get that close up shot of it. If I am going to pay for the repairs, may as well send it to them with about a week turn around on the repairs, get it back in flying quick.
Not sure what I am going to do yet, going to get in touch with DJI and see what they say about it. |
|
| |
|
Eastern Shore of MD | Wow, so it actually CRASHED to the ground? Not a forced, controlled landing?
I like the fact that our P3's have that safety feature but it makes me uneasy too at the same time. I like to have control so that way if something like this happens, at least I can blame myself. |
|
| |
|
South Georgia | BacNBlak - 5/25/2016 20:55
Wow, so it actually CRASHED to the ground? Not a forced, controlled landing?
I like the fact that our P3's have that safety feature but it makes me uneasy too at the same time. I like to have control so that way if something like this happens, at least I can blame myself.
Yep, it crashed. I was just about to land it when it decided to take over and go home. Went up to its hover, sat there a sec and started its forward move towards the take off point. I would say it went 20 ft and dropped suddenly but recovered, then it started falling fast. Hit the dirt hard, with three motors locked down and smoking. Bad part is, it would not shut off.
The first two pictures are two different motors screws that hold them in, they melted out. 3 of the motors sit crooked now cause the plastic melted.
Pics 3 and 4 are the coils in the motors. Suppose to be shiney copper coloring, now 3 are black , burnt looking. I still say it is odd that the motor that didn't burn up was one of the ones against the dirt after it crashed.
Edited by GAFarmer55 5/25/2016 22:20
 (image.jpeg)
 (image.jpeg)
 (image.jpeg)
 (image.jpeg)
Attachments
----------------
 image.jpeg (59KB - 489 downloads)
image.jpeg (69KB - 528 downloads)
image.jpeg (75KB - 484 downloads)
image.jpeg (91KB - 482 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
North Central Kansas | That totally sucks but I guess it's a lot less expensive than crashing a piece of farm machinery. |
|
| |
|
Yorkshire UK | It's worth asking DJI but I think this is beyond economic repair considering the new price has dropped a fair bit.
You still have good controller and battery(s) and the easily damaged camera/gimbal I guess.
I'd look at buying a drone only replacement.
Direct from DJI the Advanced is about $550
http://store.dji.com/category/phantom-spare-parts?from=menu_products
You might look for a lightly used one on ebay as a lot are being sold to get a Phantom 4. |
|
| |
|
Northern Indiana | Agreed, no way I'd fix that. Especially if the camera is still good, I'd sell on eBay what's left of it too
All you would have had to do is flip the function mode lever to any other position and you would have had control again during the go home event
ringo - 5/26/2016 03:15
It's worth asking DJI but I think this is beyond economic repair considering the new price has dropped a fair bit.
You still have good controller and battery(s) and the easily damaged camera/gimbal I guess.
I'd look at buying a drone only replacement.
Direct from DJI the Advanced is about $550
http://store.dji.com/category/phantom-spare-parts?from=menu_products
You might look for a lightly used one on ebay as a lot are being sold to get a Phantom 4. |
|
| |
|
South Georgia | 4wdaaron - 5/26/2016 10:10
Agreed, no way I'd fix that. Especially if the camera is still good, I'd sell on eBay what's left of it too
All you would have had to do is flip the function mode lever to any other position and you would have had control again during the go home event
I don't think the crash would have been avoided by me taking control. Just how it looked to me, the motors started giving up in flight. That is how it looked to me, anyways. I'm no pro with these things.
I do think if I have to come up with the cash to fix it or replace it, I may try sometime different this time. I know it's not on the same level, but kinda is, but if it were a tractor with 53 hours on it they would have to fix it no questions asked. Waiting on an answer from DJI now on what they think of it.
Edited by GAFarmer55 5/30/2016 23:23
|
|
| |
|
Seaforth, Ontario | I have an Advanced but the copter will be the same. Landed it on the lawn and it fell over and did the same thing as you talked about, smoking and squeeling. I pulled the battery and let it cool down and away it went. Guess I got lucky. Also the other nite I was flying it while I was cultivating. The video was constantly tilting from side to side. Could the electronics in the tractor cause this? I used the Go Home feature and it worked fine. |
|
| |
|
South Georgia | I have not had any trouble with interference from a tractor with mine. Just this crash it had to have.
kenswont, which motors were smoking and squeeling on yours when it tipped over? Only the ones on the ground? Mine smoked two of the ones that were in the air, and one that was against the dirt. I still haven't figured out how one that was down is not burned like the other ones are, makes no sense to me. Right now it is just a shelf model, taking up space.
Edited by GAFarmer55 5/27/2016 12:46
|
|
| |
DJI Phantom 3 Pro Problem
