The misery of DJI AIR 2S Repair

[Tree Crasher 1943]

Granddaughter opened a photo business, mainly weddings, purchased a DJI AIR 2S and on second flight it took off on its own and crashed into a tree. Broke front right arm, left front arm not broken but in frame of main body damaged, back right arm damage to the drone body, left arm no damage. Camera gimble main metal shaft broken into and wire to the camera broken into and camera itself found on the ground next to the drone body. $1500.00 bucks shot. I have built many desktops in my 78 years, fish finders and depth finders for boats, but I have never thought of repairing a drone. Little did I know what I was getting into! I am not really sure where are who designed this disaster, but it would win a Nobel Award for stupid of the year. Started to take it apart and fairly quick determined that this was a bad idea. I started making a list of questions about screws that were so small that if you dropped one on the carpet you would have to get the metal detector out to find it. Screws have threads but they were made to use with bolts. So much for the complaining!
Purchase all 4 arms without wires. All new plastic main body parts. Set of screws recommended by DJI. New gimble for the camera. Thought I could remove the wires out of the old, damaged arms, which I did, but what looks like a section of the arms on the new arms without wires would pop off and then snap back on. Good luck with that! Finally decided to just order new arms with wires and motors. Installed the new back arms no problem. Soldering was a different story. the BLACK, WHITE, and GRAY dots on the electric board that run the back arm motors are so close together and being myself now 78 years young and being a little shaky the solder wants to run where it should not be going. Finally got back arms back like they were supposed to be.

Here are the questions I have and hopefully a drone expert can answer them.

PROBLEM 1. When I started the install of the new front arms with wiring and motors and new front arm axis connectors and knowing about the little notch for proper installation and two screws all went well. Ready for pushing the arm forward for the arms regular locked flight position. It would not lock and stay in that position. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT CAUSES THIS AND HOW TO FIX IT? I then thought I will try the right side with new arm and axis connector. Same thing, the arm would not lock forward in the flight position. This is crazy! NEED HELP WITH THIS!

PROBLEM 2. When she purchased this drone at BEST BUY the right front motor had an orange top denoting the orange marked propeller was to be placed on that position. Also, the back left arm also has an orange marking and the other orange marked propeller goes on that position. The right back motor is marked black as well as the front left motor is black, and the two black propellers go on these motors. MY QUESTION IS THE NEW ARM MOTOR ON THE FRONT HAS NO ORANGE MARKING AND THE BACK LEFT ARM MOTOR HAS NO ORANGE MARKING. THE TWO SCREWS THAT HOLD THE CAPS WITH THE ORANGE MARKINGS THAT CAME OFF THE OLD MOTORS ARE PLACED ON THE BACK LEFT AND FRONT RIGHT. I AM ASSUMING THAT THESE ARMS AND MOTORS FOLLOW A PATTERN OF PROPELLER ROTATION. AM I CORRECT IN MY ASSUMPATION?

I HAVE PROBLEMS NOW BUT WAIT UNTIL I TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX THE CAMERA? I WILL BE BACK WITH MORE QUESTIONS!

THANKS FOR LISTENING AND ANY INPUT ABOUT QUESTIONS!

 

[oztx]

Since this was a new (?) drone that took off on its own, I absolutely would have gone to DJI and tried to make a warranty / flyaway claim with them. I don't know if that's too late now that you've done some work on it. Also, DJI's repair service is surprisingly inexpensive. I just had an out-of-warranty Mini 2 get completely trashed from a collision and the repair cost was $117 and the turnaround was less than a week.

To your specific questions, on 1, I don't know, but on 2, you're correct. Back Left and Front Right rotate counterclockwise and the other two clockwise.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

With regards to 1) The following is guess work, from having a possibly similar design to the M2P. In the latter there is a lug on inner end of the rear arms' pivot shaft. For fitting this lug fits into a axial groove in the bore of the drone's pivot barrel. Once the arm is home the lug is 'in' a circumferential groove in the inner end of the pivot barrel. With the M2P this lug seems 'breakable' and in my case had broken off and was 'stuck' , by 'grease', in the "circumferential groove", this limited arm travel. The lug also acts as a detent lock for either the arm's flying position or the arm's storage position.
Might there be any debris blocking such grooves?

Regarding 2) I believe the motors are reversible and as such they may be the same motor with just the connections reversed by changing the wire colours. If those connections on the supplied motors are correct then soldering them to the board in accordance with any colour coding on the board should produce the correct direction of rotation in the motor, clockwise vs anticlockwise.
If the caps are loose try them on the props, I suspect they will ONLY fit their correct mates. If so, then fit the caps to the correct motors, fit the props and start the motors using the CSC stick position, DO NOT give it throttle.

If a prop is rotating in the wrong direction it will produce an updraught above it, if it is in the correct postion then it will produce a down draught beneath it.

Your recieving dot-less caps makes me wonder if the arms and motors are pattern parts rather than genuine DJI parts, I suspect the rear arm I used was a pattern part.

All the above said I too would have at least spoken to DJI before venturing inside the drone, I doubt there is now any warranty on the drone, sorry.

 

[Fizzbang]

This is a Mavic Mini but some principles still apply.
Your PROBLEM 1 see the reassembly in this video.
You have to set the pivot pins before insertion into the joint. see the video at about 5:00.

PROBLEM 2 and props see this discussion same principles apply.

 

[peterc4]

DJI Care is your bestest freind ever

 

[Deleted member 162835]

To me it sounds like you are into repairing things on your own which is admirable. Out of curiosity though, why did you go this route vs contacting DJI for warranty repair? If you have the flight logs you can post them here and the expert analyst can tell you if you do have a strong warranty case.

 

[rjwmorrell]

Granddaughter opened a photo business, mainly weddings, purchased a DJI AIR 2S and on second flight it took off on its own and crashed into a tree. Broke front right arm, left front arm not broken but in frame of main body damaged, back right arm damage to the drone body, left arm no damage. Camera gimble main metal shaft broken into and wire to the camera broken into and camera itself found on the ground next to the drone body. $1500.00 bucks shot. I have built many desktops in my 78 years, fish finders and depth finders for boats, but I have never thought of repairing a drone. Little did I know what I was getting into! I am not really sure where are who designed this disaster, but it would win a Nobel Award for stupid of the year. Started to take it apart and fairly quick determined that this was a bad idea. I started making a list of questions about screws that were so small that if you dropped one on the carpet you would have to get the metal detector out to find it. Screws have threads but they were made to use with bolts. So much for the complaining!
Purchase all 4 arms without wires. All new plastic main body parts. Set of screws recommended by DJI. New gimble for the camera. Thought I could remove the wires out of the old, damaged arms, which I did, but what looks like a section of the arms on the new arms without wires would pop off and then snap back on. Good luck with that! Finally decided to just order new arms with wires and motors. Installed the new back arms no problem. Soldering was a different story. the BLACK, WHITE, and GRAY dots on the electric board that run the back arm motors are so close together and being myself now 78 years young and being a little shaky the solder wants to run where it should not be going. Finally got back arms back like they were supposed to be.

Here are the questions I have and hopefully a drone expert can answer them.

PROBLEM 1. When I started the install of the new front arms with wiring and motors and new front arm axis connectors and knowing about the little notch for proper installation and two screws all went well. Ready for pushing the arm forward for the arms regular locked flight position. It would not lock and stay in that position. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT CAUSES THIS AND HOW TO FIX IT? I then thought I will try the right side with new arm and axis connector. Same thing, the arm would not lock forward in the flight position. This is crazy! NEED HELP WITH THIS!

PROBLEM 2. When she purchased this drone at BEST BUY the right front motor had an orange top denoting the orange marked propeller was to be placed on that position. Also, the back left arm also has an orange marking and the other orange marked propeller goes on that position. The right back motor is marked black as well as the front left motor is black, and the two black propellers go on these motors. MY QUESTION IS THE NEW ARM MOTOR ON THE FRONT HAS NO ORANGE MARKING AND THE BACK LEFT ARM MOTOR HAS NO ORANGE MARKING. THE TWO SCREWS THAT HOLD THE CAPS WITH THE ORANGE MARKINGS THAT CAME OFF THE OLD MOTORS ARE PLACED ON THE BACK LEFT AND FRONT RIGHT. I AM ASSUMING THAT THESE ARMS AND MOTORS FOLLOW A PATTERN OF PROPELLER ROTATION. AM I CORRECT IN MY ASSUMPATION?

I HAVE PROBLEMS NOW BUT WAIT UNTIL I TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX THE CAMERA? I WILL BE BACK WITH MORE QUESTIONS!

THANKS FOR LISTENING AND ANY INPUT ABOUT QUESTIONS!

The fact that you're asking this forum whether the Air 2S motors rotate in a specific pattern or not tells me you're in over your head on this project.

The soldering likewise is not your standard hobby soldering. The components are small and probably need microsoldering equipment.

And what's worse is it sounds like even if you repair this drone, the granddaughter will likely crash it again .... I'm doubtful they spent much time learning to fly it in the first place.

 

[Fizzbang]

The fact that you're asking this forum whether the Air 2S motors rotate in a specific pattern or not tells me you're in over your head on this project.

The soldering likewise is not your standard hobby soldering. The components are small and probably need microsoldering equipment.

And what's worse is it sounds like even if you repair this drone, the granddaughter will likely crash it again .... I'm doubtful they spent much time learning to fly it in the first place.

☢☣⚠

You do not berate someone who is asking for help.

I know very little about the mini series of drones but have discovered a great deal in simply trying to help,
from looking into topics that I would not have any reason to delve into otherwise.
Stick with it Tree Crasher. I think that most of the rest of the forum members are with you in your endeavour.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

BTW having dismantled a rebuilt an Mini 2 (bought crashed) and a M2Z, the soldering required to disconnect and reconnect the motors is NOT micro soldering. It requires a relatively small tip on the iron but well inside the capabilities of an iron designed for NON SMD work, i.e. discrete devices.
My iron is, I think, a 60W Antex. It's at least 20 years old.



Oh having re read the thread I see I drew the wrong conclusion concerning problem 1).
The use of the word "notch' drew my attention and not "front". Duhhhh
The description I gave relates to the possible layout of the pivot assembly for the rear arms. There is most definitely a "notch"/groove in the bore of the M2P/Z 's female portions of the rear arms' pivots.

As noted by Fizzbang in post 3, the front arm pivots are best set to the position that corresponds to the 'tipping point' between the arms' desire to spring open (flight position) and spring shut (storage position ).
When so set the pivot is quite easy to remove and refit.
Probably a little late, but watch out for any thrust washers between the upper surface of the front arm and the underside of the corresponding bit of the drone's shell. It was a 'spare part left over' at my first front arm refit with the M2Z.
I wouldn't leave the pivot in that 'tipping point' position whilst the drone is being repaired, it compresses a spring that might 'take a set', rather, I would twist it, to either the open or shut position, to relieve the compression of the spring.
It is quite easy to reset the pivot to the tipping point, drop the pin into the old arm and grip the pivots base plate, black, with a pair of pliers then rotate the arm relative to the pliers.