Had a bad crash. DJI doesn't sell P3S parts?!?

[royster]

Jdot: The soldering station you mention- is it the Zenya 853d the one you mean? Found on Amazon for around 75 bucks, you think its worth the investrment?
My sons are into RC cars , so between their needs & me flying/auto electronics needs, probably a good investment. Just making sure this is the one you recommending?

 

[Scooter Post 127]

Oh crap, you should have asked me, I have all those numbers for all those connectors, lol, but correct JST GH style plugs. Yes and get cheaper the more you buy! Lol
You'll need a TINY tip soldering gun and some flux, will make your life much better, trust me, I have to use a huge *** magnifying glass to solder my stuff, that stuff is TINY, I do some wifi module com repairs ( where GH connector ( 4 pin ) breaks off wifi unit, gotten pretty good, but still a bear! If you bridge across the joints by mistake, use a X-acto knife to cut solder away, or a solder sucker, but X-acto works great.

Good luck my friend,
If you want a GREAT, inexpensive soldering station, look up 853d soldering station $69 us, and comes with EVERYTHING! I used mine for over a year now ( a LOT OF USE ) trust me. So far not even 1 issue. I love it, and it has tiny tips all the way up to some pretty large ones. Also has built In heat gun, circuit meter, and power station.

J Dot

I'm set for soldering. Been soldering things since I was about 10. I'll probably grind the tip on my pencil iron down to a tiny size.

 

[Scooter Post 127]

Sent from my Power using PhantomPilots mobile app

Wait, I'm not stuck using DJI's gimbal?!!??

 

[J Dot]

Not sure the make?
Here is a link and a picture

Link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/131500630737

Picture:

Hope this helps.
It is a perfect unit for hobby, and other, small enough to keep on your workstation, plus heats up in like 20 seconds of that, comes with iron stand with sponge and basin, desoldering braid, several iron tips, several heat gun tips, flux, some kind of component tool ( I threw mine away ) test leads/power supply leads, cord, and almost positive a small tube of solder? But not 100% on the solder ( I have SO much I cannot remember where it all came from )
I use
1) for small stuff ( like you need )
Small angle tip w/ electrical solder, very thin ( silver ball bearing rosin core solder ) about 1/16" round.

2) your sons stuff ( or larger wires )
Larger angle tip w/electrical solder ( silver or other ) about 1/8" round ( about as round as the lead of a number two pencil. )

I also use

1) solder sucker ( I use ORYX ) older German one, built like a tank, and you can completely disassemble for cleaning, it is aluminum one, but any will do, just don't buy a cheap plastic one ( the button breaks after about 20 uses, won't stay locked open any longer, and manual can be a *****. )
So buy a $15-20 one, you won't be sorry.

Lastly

Sandpaper. ( 80-100 grit )
To clean your tips if needed ( clean shinny tip, nice solder joint ) crappy tip, well, you know!
( gently sand tip until it is shinny again, regrind the angle if it is gone from use. )

&

Flux:
I use ( Oatey #95 ) lead free tinning flux.
( to use flux )
I dip wire in it BEFORE tinning ( tinning, is where you pre solder everything, before soldering together, that way both surfaces have been tinned and ready to solder, this displaces heat more evenly, which in turn makes a great bond ) so with wire dipped in flux, dip soldering tip in as well, ( depending on what you are soldering ) place some fresh solder on tip of iron, then melt that solder into the wire end, do the same on opposite end if wire as well, if board or pad you are soldering to, I use a q-tip to apply flux to pad then tin it, lastly, with a tiny bit more solder on tip of iron, solder 2 together. When done slowly pull soldering tip away, if you go to fast it will pull solder with it, or leave you with a pointy pyramid looking solder joint, with a very sharp point at top, you want it to kids BLOB, down, not spike up. Pretty round bead, smooth and nice looking, lastly check your joint, pull on wire, and inspect joint closely for contact ( you want a good contact point, not wire up in air held by a bridge of solder ) you want wire touching pad, and solder holding it there. Just find some old vcr, or radio, DVDs player, whatever to practice on.
350-475 temp is all I use first being small stuff, later being larger gauge stuff, like RC cars. But you'll find your own settings. But these are good starting points to get you going.
Clean the tip on a wet sponge ( supplied ) between each joint, this will keep tips good and new, and will provide a nice clean joint every time.
NEVER LEAVE IRON ON FOR A LONG TIME WITH SOLDER ON TIP,
This will deteriorate tips pretty rapidly ( as the metals will fuse and melt away tips ) , again clean tip, happy life.

J Dot

 

[J Dot]

Wait, I'm not stuck using DJI's gimbal?!!??

Of coarse not, use whatever you want, they just need power, and pitch input for a 2 axis. ( f2 bottom pin on naza-M for pitch, and you can make a power wire, or solder to mainboard, or use external 3s battery for power. As long as gimbal will mount to phantom, you are good to go.

J Dot

 

[Scooter Post 127]

Of coarse not, use whatever you want, they just need power, and pitch input for a 2 axis. ( f2 bottom pin on naza-M for pitch, and you can make a power wire, or solder to mainboard, or use external 3s battery for power. As long as gimbal will mount to phantom, you are good to go.

J Dot

Don't you mean 3 axis? This camera moves in all 3 to keep the camera level.

Luckily when I turn it on the gimbal does it's startup thing so it's not completely hosed.

 

[J Dot]

Yeah,
You might get it to work with minimal tweaking or repairs? That would be your best bet, and yes 2 or 3 axis, but the banggood screenshot was 2-axis, why I quoted that, lol.
I've been building a lot of plus gimbals lately, they pretty simple, once you do it a time or 2. Parts are not hard to replace, but hopefully you get lucky, and she is just fine! Keeping fingers crossed!
Keep us updated, and best of luck to you as well.

J Dot

 

[gosports1]

If you only have ( 1 ) tree ,you can get a chain saw for around $150.00, So far I've had a few flights that went behind some tree lines, I cannot see a I-Pad screen that well., I was lucky I hit the RTH and it came back from where ever. Now I fly the opposite away from the tree's . Now have too watch for parking lots and buildings

 

[brianc]

Hi, had the camera ripped off my p2 vision (make sure to fit cf camera protector and aluminum gimbal protector on whichever drone you end up with).
My drone was not damaged but I was able to easily change the wiring so you can still get telemetry and fitted a gopro mount.
Used extensively for high risk flights, have P3S as well
Good luck!

 

[FLPhantompilot]

I was wondering if anybody has replaced the power wire for the gimbal without running it down the middle of the body and running it on the outside of the frame to avoid taking apart the whole thing?

P3 standard 4k

 

[Tom McLehaney]

I have had very good luck with ATK Drones in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jim is very honest and reliable and importantly is really reasonable with the cost. He fixed the gimbal on my P3P for about half the cost of a new one and did a great job.

 

[Scooter Post 127]

Life got a little busy - hard to believe it was only a month ago when I crashed, seems like forever. Then again I quit smoking a week before the crash and my memory of the past month is pretty foggy lol.

I said the hell with it and bought another P3S. I thought about upgrading but this drone does everything I want a drone to do and buying a new one meant I'd have 2 extra batteries and an extra controller. And I paid the $129 for the DJI 'flight insurance' in case I crash again (and I prolly will).

Of course the new one came with a bad battery (one cell is dead) and DJI wants me to return it to the store, which means another couple hours of calibrating and updating. Bastards.

 

[Jimmy1952]

I feel for you . I just purchased a brand new P3 Standard due to crash and the guy just decided to start over. I bought the whole thing in the box for 100 bucks because I have a P3 4K and for sure know the battery I got in the deal is worth 100 bucks. Felt bad for the guy , but he indicated he was going to get a new better model. I am having trouble finding a gimbal cable for my 4K , due to an argument with a tree. They are a little hard to find and know you are getting a good cable. Got one off Amazon which was a joke. Only 13 bucks no big deal , just frustrating. Got a guy down in Texas looking for an OEM for me.

 

[J Dot]

I feel for you . I just purchased a brand new P3 Standard due to crash and the guy just decided to start over. I bought the whole thing in the box for 100 bucks because I have a P3 4K and for sure know the battery I got in the deal is worth 100 bucks. Felt bad for the guy , but he indicated he was going to get a new better model. I am having trouble finding a gimbal cable for my 4K , due to an argument with a tree. They are a little hard to find and know you are getting a good cable. Got one off Amazon which was a joke. Only 13 bucks no big deal , just frustrating. Got a guy down in Texas looking for an OEM for me.

Call Mike!
He will have OEM equipment!
Or pull from a craft for you!
In California, but will send next day!
Prices are very good, and he is a great guy!
( if he asks, Jerry from Florida sent you )

Mike Holtz
530-277-5366

Hope this helps
J Dot

 

[Scooter Post 127]

Checking back in for anyone following this.

So, I got a new replacement and you can bet your azimuth I paid the $129 for DJI Care.

As I mentioned, the new aircraft came with a bad battery and DJI told me to return it to the store I bought it from. Mind you, I have two batteries from aircraft #1 so I would have rather just shipped the battery back to DJI but NOOOoOoooO I had to return the aircraft, controller...everything in the box. I got it home and was about to do the new aircraft registration, firmware updates,etc when I realized my DJI Care was linked to the returned aircraft's serial number.

So I got with online support and they said to e-mail DJICare. So I did, asking what I should do to get DJI Care transferred from my 24 hour old aircraft to my 1 hour old aircraft. And 8 days later still had not heard back. I got with online support again and got the same answer so I sent another e-mail with more info (DJI Care agreement number, serial numbers, blah blah) and also wen online to the official DJI forums and whined about it. Next thing you know I got replies to both of my e-maiols. But here's the part that's both annoying and really funny - they said to send certain info (like copy of return receipt) BUT it would take a week for anyone to help me because they were all about to have a week off due to a Chinese National Holiday that lasts for a week (they really have one!).

This evening I noticed an email from then saying DJICare was transferred to the new bird so I finally powered it up, registered it, and got the firmware updated and the IMU calibrated. I'll wait until I get to flying it to calibrate the compass.

Other than DJICare not replying to my original e-mail about this I'm pretty satisfied with the support. They sure seem to fall over themselves trying to be respectful and polite and once I got their attention someone jumped right on it.