Crash and burn

[AdoSA]

Hey all,

the day I dreaded since I took to the skies has finally come... I've had my first crash.

While flying between two buildings in WP mode (20m gap) drone suddenly went right, broadsided a building, lost connection and crashed. Since I was flying in WP mode and since I had two builiding relatively close on both sides, I've disabled collision avoidance (It doesn't work for side sensors in WP mode anyway), I didn't want it to avoid anything (sun was very low on the sky and there is always danger of a bird flying suddenly in front of the drone) while moving slowly forward. I was in LOS at the moment and I didn't see any reason why it would do something like that.

After running like I had hounds of **** after my heels I've found that I've had some luck in all of this. The crashing drone somehow found small patch of mud in all asphalt area and crashed into it from some 20 - 30m height. After some 15 minutes of cleaning with wet wipes I've been able to notice few things:

- 3 props were damaged
- One downward sensor had cracked glass
- Antenas landing gears are tilted
- ND Filter glass has broken
- Camera looks like some mud and humidity got inside lens
- Camera joint is out of allignment
- There was c*apload of mud in gimbal area

What should I do next? I have some ideas but I'm not sure. Should I try and download flight data and try to contact DJI about this? Can I even try to boot it since the camera and gimbal are in this condition?

I pride myself of being fixit/diy guy and I do have some experience fixing different kinds of electronic equipment and I'm wondering does this looks like fixable by re-alignment and purchasing replacement for broken parts online in case DJI does not acknowledge warranty on this issue? Or should I definitely contact repair shop?

 

[Deleted member 93449]

In my opinion it doesn't look like something I'd try to fix. Given the external damage I'm guessing some things got screwed up on the internals.

If there is a way to extract the flight data without having to power up the drone (I'm sure one of the more experienced members can tell you) I'd go that route as prep for trying to submit a warranty claim. A forum member may also be able to tell you what additional damage could be done by attempting to power up the drone given the visible damage done during the crash.

Ideally you'd like to have the flight data in hand to know what happened and whether or not a warranty claim has a shot but worse case (you're unable to retrieve flight data) I'd be sending it to DJI to get as much information as possible on why the drone took a dive even if having it repaired under warranty isn't going to happen. Maybe they can tell you something that will prevent a "next time".

 

[PhantomFandom]

Hey all,

the day I dreaded since I took to the skies has finally come... I've had my first crash.

While flying between two buildings in WP mode (20m gap) drone suddenly went right, broadsided a building, lost connection and crashed. Since I was flying in WP mode and since I had two builiding relatively close on both sides, I've disabled collision avoidance (It doesn't work for side sensors in WP mode anyway), I didn't want it to avoid anything (sun was very low on the sky and there is always danger of a bird flying suddenly in front of the drone) while moving slowly forward. I was in LOS at the moment and I didn't see any reason why it would do something like that.

After running like I had hounds of **** after my heels I've found that I've had some luck in all of this. The crashing drone somehow found small patch of mud in all asphalt area and crashed into it from some 20 - 30m height. After some 15 minutes of cleaning with wet wipes I've been able to notice few things:

- 3 props were damaged
- One downward sensor had cracked glass
- Antenas landing gears are tilted
- ND Filter glass has broken
- Camera looks like some mud and humidity got inside lens
- Camera joint is out of allignment
- There was c*apload of mud in gimbal area

What should I do next? I have some ideas but I'm not sure. Should I try and download flight data and try to contact DJI about this? Can I even try to boot it since the camera and gimbal are in this condition?

I pride myself of being fixit/diy guy and I do have some experience fixing different kinds of electronic equipment and I'm wondering does this looks like fixable by re-alignment and purchasing replacement for broken parts online in case DJI does not acknowledge warranty on this issue? Or should I definitely contact repair shop?

Any response without the flight logs is just speculation, but from your description I don't think this will be a defect issue with the drone. If you were flying between two buildings then there is a very good chance that you lost GPS lock and went into ATTI mode. Furthermore, if there was any magnetic interference in that area, you would also lose you compass bearings. Even with a functioning compass, once it switched to ATTI mode it would be completely under your control and at the mercy of the winds between those buildings.

With all that damage to multiple components, I don't know if it will be worth repairing. Really comes down to how damaged the camera and gimbal are.

I don't know if you can do any worse damage by powering it up at this point.

 

[CyrusBlack]

I spent the extra $90 to get the DJI Refresh Care package and just returned my first crash into a river. No questions asked. They sent me a return label, charged me $69 on my credit card and a brand new one is already on its way back. Always take the insurance policy plan when you're dealing with expensive stuff . . .

 

[DanMan32]

At first I totally read "just returned my first crash into a river" wrong, thinking either the crashed drone was still in the river, which had me ask how you got a replacement no questions asked, or your replacement was in the river.
Then I realized you crashed in the river, retrieved the crashed drone, and swapped it with refresh.

 

[Meta4]

While flying between two buildings in WP mode (20m gap) drone suddenly went right, broadsided a building, lost connection and crashed.

... Should I try and download flight data and try to contact DJI about this?

You'll never know for sure what happened without looking at the recorded flight data.

But the most likely explanation from your description is that your drone lost GPS by flying between buildings and losing most of its skyview.
That would leave the drone unable to continue the waypoint mission, losing horizontal position holding and subject to drifting on the wind.

To find out what really happened, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[CyrusBlack]

At first I totally read "just returned my first crash into a river" wrong, thinking either the crashed drone was still in the river, which had me ask how you got a replacement no questions asked, or your replacement was in the river.
Then I realized you crashed in the river, retrieved the crashed drone, and swapped it with refresh.

Correct ☺

 

[AdoSA]

ehm... I would love to have purchased DJI Care but, unfortunately, it isn't available for my country. Also after analyzing flight logs I confirmed that a second before the crash, drone went from 14 GPS satellites to 8...


So, I rolled up my sleeves and did thorough disassembly and cleaning of the drone, it's internal systems and gimbal assembly.
I managed to clean out every component of mud, and managed to fix forward antennas/landing gears, broken glass from bottom obstacle sensor and I had several spare propellers on standby

As far as gimbal goes I also disassembled it, removed the camera from the case, cleaned the mud that got between lenses. Aside from obvious dislocation of joint that doesn't contain the camera pitch motor I didn't notice any broken bits or tears.

I executed several controlled power ups in witch I tested every drone system and I did first successful flight mission today. Platform itself performs flawlessly and every tested system works.
Camera performs very good. I didn't notice any blurs, or anomalies in image quality and sharpness, focusing also works like a charm.

I do, however, have gimbal stabilization issues. During power up gimbal goes through calibration and reports that gimbal motor is overloaded and stabilization doesn't work.

I will dismantle gimbal again and try to realign every component carefully. If that doesn't work I will need to purchase new gimbal or to contact some professional repair shop to send them the gimbal for refurbishing...