First crash(ish)

aokman · Sep 13, 2015

Oso said:
At least from the picture it doesn't look like its too difficult of a repair. Before you spend on a new board, I would try to reattach the connector or find someone locally who would do it for you for a few bucks. Its worth a shot, right?

I will look into it but keep in mind the camera makes it look bigger than it actually is, the board is tiny and its some of the smallest SMD work I've seen

very little in the way of traces left over to solder on to.

aokman · Sep 14, 2015

envisionabove said:
Mine flipped once User Error not once but twice in a row. Thought CSC was how you shut down when landing big mistake. Left Stick only down.. DUH!

Thanks for the Man up! Sorry to hear...

Unfortunately left stick only wont shut it down unless its happy either, I tried left stick down and CSC and it simply wouldn't shut down as it wasn't settled. If it shut down straight away the worse it would ahve done was tip over onto one of the rotor guards.

Not sure if it has something to do with gyroscope or the ground positioning system but I need to find a better way for landing as I don't trust it now. Catching it could work not sure about using the controller 1 handed though lol.

envisionabove · Sep 14, 2015

Ever since I started manual land, as I used to use Auto land all the time and takes off, I have had no issues .... as of yet

Viral · Sep 14, 2015

Everyone who flies a phantom should be practicing hand catches. There WILL come a day when you simply cannot land your bird safely otherwise. I feel like it's an absolute requirement. Controlling the RC one handed during a landing is absolutely trivial. I can't even imagine how that could be an issue...?

Chuck Young · Sep 14, 2015

aokman said:
I will look into it but keep in mind the camera makes it look bigger than it actually is, the board is tiny and its some of the smallest SMD work I've seen very little in the way of traces left over to solder on to.

I have a 7-70X stereo zoom microscope on my soldering bench just for those tiny connections. After tapping You could possibly use some wrapping wire to land the pads of the SMD connector onto the bus the original trace is on. Then give the new connections a conformal coating of some type to permanently secure the connections.

edonovanl · Sep 14, 2015

Hand catch always,,,,

Chuck Young · Sep 14, 2015

edonovanl said:
Hand catch always,,,,

Not really possible when both hands are required on the sticks. shrug

Foosy · Sep 14, 2015

edonovanl said:
Hand catch always,,,,

Here we go again...
Not always, not even most of the time...
Plan where you take off from and plan where you will land. Plan your flight time. If following your plan, 90% of the time there will not be any issues.

Remember: failing to plan is planning to fail.

Chuck Young · Sep 14, 2015

Foosy said:
Here we go again...
Not always, not even most of the time...
Plan where you take off from and plan where you will land. Plan your flight time. If following your plan, 90% of the time there will not be any issues.

Remember: failing to plan is planning to fail.

Works great if you are in Kansas Dorthy, well or Florida.

Chuck Young · Sep 14, 2015

Chuck Young said:
Works great if you are in Kansas Dorthy, well or Florida.

Most the time my plan starts with "Let's get in the air and see what it looks like from up there"

I need a sky hook

lotusteve · Sep 14, 2015

aokman said:
Well it finally happened haha, was landing the phantom in a hurry as it was coming back from a decent flight with a headwind. Landed it and it started hopping along the ground, and the CSC wouldn't shut it down for some reason.

Rotor guards did their job and it ended up flipping over, unfortunately the drop pins let go and the gimbal flew off and ripped the connector clear off the receiver board. Gimal is still fine and self tests ok but the board is toast, tried to patch repair but the was just too difficult with all the traces gone except one.

Anyway just wanted to see if anyone else has had their connector tear off like that or was it just really bad luck? Trying to work out a solution so it doesn't happen again as its a $400 board and it seems like DJI designed it to fail at the most expensive spot. Considering cutting the cable in the middle and putting an inline connector in that would hopefully separate instead.

Hi. Sorry to hear this, but what's the strap for between the landing feet. And where do you purchase them from.

aokman · Sep 14, 2015

From what I have seen that is to just protect the gimbal from rocks etc. Wouldn't have helped in this case.

New board is on the way will have it tomorrow, will have another go at the other one, at least its a spare in the worst case. I want to be 100% confident in the repair before I'd ever let it up in the air.

I will try a hand catch on it next time, not sure how I will manage the controller 1 handed though, need a neck strap I think

Viral · Sep 14, 2015

Chuck Young said:
Not really possible when both hands are required on the sticks. shrug

What are you talking about? You just pull straight down with your left thumb. It only takes one hand. My 10 year old daughter has landed my phantom and hand caught. Seriously! You're doing something very wrong.

Chuck Young · Sep 14, 2015

Thanks for the advice @Viral.

aokman · Sep 15, 2015

Viral said:
What are you talking about? You just pull straight down with your left thumb. It only takes one hand. My 10 year old daughter has landed my phantom and hand caught. Seriously! You're doing something very wrong.

How do you single hand hold an controller with an iPad hanging off it?

Chuck Young · Sep 15, 2015

aokman said:
How do you single hand hold an controller with an iPad hanging off it?

Agree, I hand catch my P3 about 90%. But...

That day took off from about a 30 foot diameter clearing in 100 foot tall Lodge Pole pine forest, thick forest. Could hear the bird the whole time, FPV was a must. Guided back by the waterline and flight path vector got me to the clearing above me where I took off and LOS. With the wind getting out of control I yank off the FPV goggles just in time to see the wind take the bird out of site. Climb back up and she is about 70 feet away flying at about a 30 degree angle fighting the wind. I finally get it back in the clearing and coming down to land and it is back and fourth back and fourth with the changing cross winds through the trees and full deflection all directions on the right stick. I simply wanted my P3 close enough to the ground it was not going to be smashed to bits. At about 10 feet the thing goes left and I am hard right on the stick, no f-ing way I am sticking my hands up in that buzz saw! And let go of the stick at the same time, yea, right. Welcome to real flying fly-boy, bring in the 10 year old and show me how it is done, Hahaha!

"I am doing something very wrong" ROFLMAO!

I am in this game to fly not play putt-putt golf.

Viral · Sep 16, 2015

I've never flown my p3 in winds faster than about 30 mph and never seen mine move more than a foot laterally. So in your case with clearly 40+ mph winds, I would not hand catch either. But I probably wouldn't have taken off to begin with

Idk, I can hold my RC with one hand even with an iPad on there. But you could literally set the RC on the ground and land it with one thumb. I had NO idea people struggled with this before joining this forum.

Chuck Young · Sep 16, 2015

Viral said:
I've never flown my p3 in winds faster than about 30 mph and never seen mine move more than a foot laterally. So in your case with clearly 40+ mph winds, I would not hand catch either. But I probably wouldn't have taken off to begin with

Idk, I can hold my RC with one hand even with an iPad on there. But you could literally set the RC on the ground and land it with one thumb. I had NO idea people struggled with this before joining this forum.

Flying high in the Rockies tends to be a bit unpredictable. I live at 8000 above sea level, the day I was flying in the woods by Breckenridge I took off at about 10,000. This time of year, as is the case outside right now, the weather can change literally instantly. This morning the sun coming up over the mountains and sparse clouds made for a spectacular sun rise, before I could get the quad in the air a cloud came down the mountain and it was raining and on the verge of snow, no more than 15 minutes. I never fly with sustained winds above 15mph, and that day they were much less than that when I took off. During the 15 minutes I was in the air, the wind picked up with tree top gusts at 100 feet enough to drive the bird down wind, probably close to 40 like you say. Part of my pre-flight up here is to figure out Bingo with a decent recovery. That day I should have done that to include Google aerials, but didn't. I was lucky to have made it back alive. lol