It's worse than I thought…

[Chris Catalano]

I was flying my P3A the other day, just a simple loop around a running track at a school. Then when it was about 600 feet away from me it just accelerated towards the ground on an angle and then shot back up and hit a fence post. When I found it, it was upside down and the camera gimbal had torn away from the 2 cables but was still attached by one of the plastic retention clips. One side of the upper shell was lifted out and over the bottom half of the shell and one of the landing legs had pulled the newel post out of the plastic. So I had to open it up to try to reset the newel post and to realign the shell. Unfortunately when I opened it up I noticed that a ribbon cable connector had been knocked right off of the circuit board. You can see the problem in the photo.

This was literally my 5th time flying it and I wasn't doing anything crazy. I was just flying slowly around the running track practicing using the controller. There wasn't any warning, the battery level was more than half way, there wasn't anything between me and the P3A, but it just suddenly lost complete control.

Any suggestions on what to do? Do I try to get DJI to investigate why it crashed and get them to repair it? I have heard all kinds of service related problems here on the forums, so not sure what to do.

Thanks,
CJ

 

[LuvMyTJ]

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Phantom Pilots forum. I hope that you will take advantage of the benefits that come with membership and that you will be able to use the forum for the exchange of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in Phantom quadcopter’s. Sorry it is under these circumstances.

Looks like it may need a vacation a Spa DJI for month or two.

It appears as if the socket might slide back on the pins. Looks to be soldered/glued on the outside tabs. Not sure if it would work properly after that. Even if it goes back together, it may not be correct, besides, it did go nuts on you. Hopefully DJI will cover it under warranty.

 

[Chris Catalano]

Thanks for the followup. I think I'm going to have to call them and try to get them to fix it. I hate that I would be without it for that long, but if the impact was hard enough to loosen that connector who knows what else happened.

In the meantime I can continue to read the forums here to see how folks are using their Phantoms.

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Phantom Pilots forum. I hope that you will take advantage of the benefits that come with membership and that you will be able to use the forum for the exchange of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in Phantom quadcopter’s. Sorry it is under these circumstances.

Looks like it may need a vacation a Spa DJI for month or two.

It appears as if the socket might slide back on the pins. Looks to be soldered/glued on the outside tabs. Not sure if it would work properly after that. Even if it goes back together, it may not be correct, besides, it did go nuts on you. Hopefully DJI will cover it under warranty.

 

[Bryce]

Always have two birds in hand... then you can be without them for awhile.

I'd definitely send that in unless you are REALLY good at repairing stuff. I wouldn't risk flying anything like that.. I wouldn't know the proper battery of tests to throw against it to make sure it didn't dive bomb somebody unexpectedly later on. 2 months... sad... but you are correct that you'll have plenty of time to read it off!

 

[Chris Catalano]

Got through to support on Friday. Going to pack it up and send it in on an RMA.

 

[dirkclod]

Got through to support on Friday. Going to pack it up and send it in on an RMA.

Hope ya the best with the results Chris .

 

[hunch]

That is fixable. Re-flow of the connectors.