My first drone failure today.. Help!?!

[dg8882]

Well it happened today.. My worst nightmare as a phantom owner.
It is a nice cool sunny afternoon here so it looked like a great day to take my phantom out for a flight. I charged up my battery and headed out like any other day. I took off and allowed the quadcopter to hover for a bit. No error messages reported and all looked good. I headed out on the same route I always fly, the drone flying as good as it always does. I was up in the air and about to change some camera settings until i saw the live video feed that i always feared, that blurred spinning decent of the phantom. I looked back into the sky, gone.
Being 15, I don't have a car so jumped on my bike holding the controller and my phone tracking down where it landed. I walked through a few peoples' backyard until i heard it up in a tree.
Got my parents and went over to the house in front of the tree where my drone was stuck. Thankfully they were very nice people and very willing to help me get the drone down. With the help of a tree trimmer taped to a light bulb changer and a ladder, we were able to get it down.
That has been my exciting morning, but now it's time to take care of the aftermath and find out what happened here.
So to start, with a quick inspection after bringing the drone home, I can spot 4 cracks on the body of the phantom, none of them are major and i feel like they could be repaired with some plastic cement, what do you think?
I powered up the phantom and thankfully the camera and gimbal still appear to be in working condition.
But when starting the motors, 3 spin up fine but one motor spins only slightly and makes a faint clicking sound. I gave the motor a bit of a push with my hand and you can see it then gets with it but there is a slight vibration in the arm and the painted cap of the prop does not appear balanced. I just tried putting on new props and the motor is still acting the same, what do you suggest?
There are no reported errors in the app and the status of everything is still good.
Here is my healthydrones log: HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
Video of the motors starting: IMG_0810[1_.mp4
Thanks for any help, i'd like to figure out what went wrong here and get back to flying as soon as i can!

 

[msinger]

I can spot 4 cracks on the body of the phantom, none of them are major

I don't see any cracks in your photos. I believe the cracks you're attempting to show are just where the sections of the shell meet up.

one motor spins only slightly and makes a faint clicking sound

Is that motor off balance a bit while it's spinning? I suspect it's damaged and needs to be replaced.

 

[Trackman1]

If it were me, I would replace the one motor and get to work with the glue while you wait for the motor.
I would not start the motors again the way it is.

Search for "pantom 3 kitchen table" there is a video on how to get it apart.

The other poster could be correct. Those might not be cracks.

 

[msinger]

get to work with the glue

What exactly would you glue?

 

[dg8882]

I don't see any cracks in your photos. I believe the cracks you're attempting to show are just where the sections of the shell meet up.


Is that motor off balance a bit while it's spinning? I suspect it's damaged and needs to be replaced.

Looking at the front of the drone, those lines to the left and the right may have always been there and i never notice but the 2 pictures of the arms are very clear cracks i know for sure were not there before.
As for the motor, taking a closer look i can see that the threads themselves spin off balance. probably took a pretty hard hit considering that it is made of metal. Is it possible to wire the motor to another terminal to confirm the motor is the issue and not an esc fail? I am convinced the motor is the problem since it is the only one with problems and has a visual issue.

 

[dg8882]

I don't see any cracks in your photos.

The other poster could be correct. Those might not be cracks.

Here you go.

 

[msinger]

the 2 pictures of the arms are very clear cracks i know for sure were not there before

Here are the same "cracks" in the arms on my Phantom 3 Standard.

 

[dg8882]

Here are the same "cracks" in the arms on my Phantom 3 Standard.

View attachment 47741 View attachment 47742

Wow alright, i feel stupid now. No cracks on my phantom then. That just leaves the motor issue. I will order that as soon as i can. Just hoping that's the only issue with it.
Now that what needs to be fixed is out of the way, what actually happened here to cause it to just plummet 70 meters with absolutely no wind and no errors on the app?

 

[msinger]

what actually happened here to cause it to just plummet 70 meters with absolutely no wind and no errors on the app?

Please upload your flight log here and then post a link back here.

 

[dg8882]

Please upload your flight log here and then post a link back here.

Phantom 3 Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[msinger]

Were all of your props attached when you found your Phantom?

 

[dg8882]

Were all of your props attached when you found your Phantom?

Yes I never take them off so they were on tight, had to use the prop tool to get them off.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[msinger]

My log viewer isn't showing anything odd about your flight -- other than it dropped like a rock from the sky. Since we know the prop did not fly off, it's possible that motor/ESC malfunctioned. That might explain why it does not work now either.

If you upload the internal flight log from your Phantom, perhaps @BudWalker will have some time to review it.

 

[dg8882]

My log viewer isn't showing anything odd about your flight -- other than it dropped like a rock from the sky. Since we know the prop did not fly off, it's possible that motor/ESC malfunctioned. That might explain why it does not work now either.

If you upload the internal flight log from your Phantom, perhaps @BudWalker will have some time to review it.

Well the motor is getting replaced, hopefully that was the cause. But ESC malfunction, can that just happen randomly or could my unit have an issue? I don't have the money for an ESC replacement. I am getting that log up right now.

 

[msinger]

I'm no expert at reviewing internal flight logs, so I'll have to defer to BudWalker. Hopefully he is able to chime in.

 

[BudWalker]

Sure, can you retrieve the .DAT and post it here via DropBox or something equivalent. I or someone else will look at it.

 

[dg8882]

Sure, can you retrieve the .DAT and post it here via DropBox or something equivalent. I or someone else will look at it.

here you go.
FLY071.DAT

 

[Trackman1]

Are you still within warranty period? If you are be careful what you do. Messing with it could violate warranty.
Better to submit a claim first. Sit tight until you get the report back on the dat file.

 

[dg8882]

Are you still within warranty period? If you are be careful what you do. Messing with it could violate warranty.
Better to submit a claim first. Sit tight until you get the report back on the dat file.

The drone could be sent in for warranty but I have modified my controller, is it possible to send in just the drone and no controller?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Trackman1]

I have never done it. But from reading I think they only want the drone. They should give you that information.