Crashed drone and now looking for a couple gimbal parts.

[THE_ROCKll]

So my drone had a recent run in with a tree and smashed the gimbal up pretty good.

The shock absorber plate that holds the gimbal onto the frame is broken and needs to be replaced and the main housing of the camera is broken aswell.

I don’t think there is any more damage then that so if anybody knows where I’d be able to pick that up it would be greatly appreciated.

On the electrical side of things, the main motherboard had a couple capacitors that were half way off and I believe a couple are missing. I attached the bigger one in the picture and the small one back onto the board but I think their are some missing. I will include images of everything and a couple close ups and if anybody could give me any info if they are actually missing or what capacitor they are… that would greatly appreciated.

I will also include a couple pictures of the shock absorber and the housing just to be sure that ya’ll know what I’m talking about.

Thanks

 

[Lasidora]

You would be better off sending it into DJI for a full repair quote, my Mavic 3 was damaged back in December after clipping a branch in the low light, the gimbal was badly damaged with some other superficial damage after a 20ft fall onto shed roof after the motors shut off, I expected a massive bill, but was quoted £79 UK GBP inc return postage, got a brand new Mavic 3 back in the post.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I too would suggest you'd do better to send it in for repair, if the impact has severe enough to displace soldered on SMD's I would not be surprised if there was damage you have yet to find.
Just in case you are tempted to use the shock absorber plate, the repair, as shown, is incomplete and there maybe problems at the other set of damper rubbers.
I had a similar 'eye' break on a Mavic 2 shock absorber plate, which is why I spotted yours.

 

[THE_ROCKll]

You would be better off sending it into DJI for a full repair quote, my Mavic 3 was damaged back in December after clipping a branch in the low light, the gimbal was badly damaged with some other superficial damage after a 20ft fall onto shed roof after the motors shut off, I expected a massive bill, but was quoted £79 UK GBP inc return postage, got a brand new Mavic 3 back in the post.

Did you have warranty by any chance?

Because I’m pretty sure my bill would be around 800USD cause they would replace the whole camera gimbal setup.

 

[THE_ROCKll]

I too would suggest you'd do better to send it in for repair, if the impact has severe enough to displace soldered on SMD's I would not be surprised if there was damage you have yet to find.
Just in case you are tempted to use the shock absorber plate, the repair, as shown, is incomplete and there maybe probllems at the other set of damper rubbers.

I thoroughly inspected the board and that was the only damage. The rest of the camera is completely fine. Not sure how that even happen to just that one small area.

But the plan is to just assemble everything back together to check to see if the camera will work and the internals are all fine and then just replace the shock plate and camera housing.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

It is not only that one board that concerns me.
I have rebuilt a crashed mavic 2 and the only obvious damage was a crumpled nose cone.
Subsequent test flights revealed a problem with a front arm, caused by a bent pin on the pivot, which caused the arm to droop, and then, after the next test flight, a broken stop on a rear arm that allowed the rear arm to oscillate up and down at certain power setting. Finding each problem meant another shell splitting etc.. There was other internal damage too but that was spotted and fixed at the first strip down. A year later I noticed a displaced ventillation grill, I have yet to fix the latter as it means yet another substantial strip down.


Oh and if you find you need to swap any camera or gimbal bits with built in circuit boards you may run into 'pairing' problems that may or may not be possible for you to overcome. You'll have to investigate that yourself but it is not possible to swap electronic components in the gimbals/cameras of some, or perhaps all, of the more recent Mavics, from personal experience I know that the Mavic Mini is one of these drones.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Welcome to the forum.
I too recommend at least getting a quote from DJI.
(I'd worry a bit now though, it's obviously been opened, DJI might refuse service, not sure.

You obviously have some skills in 'tinkering', and aren't afraid to DIY with electronics.
Parts ?
Haven't looked but expect with such a new-ish drone, they wouldn't be as in plentiful supply as earlier models.

Besides, these machines are so sensitive, and you don't want to spend good $ on parts, to find it still nor right (in possibly numerous ways, and have to start the process of more parts, fit, test, find still something wrong, repeat, repeat.
Troubleshooting this tech is very time consuming and expensive (like automobiles !).

DJI will most likely send you a new M3, and keep yours for later refurbs . . . but perhaps by now they will have those on the shelf and you'd get one of those.
Nothing wrong with refurbs, basically fixed as good as new and warrantied.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[Lasidora]

I thoroughly inspected the board and that was the only damage. The rest of the camera is completely fine. Not sure how that even happen to just that one small area.

But the plan is to just assemble everything back together to check to see if the camera will work and the internals are all fine and then just replace the shock plate and camera housing.

Did you have warranty by any chance?

Because I’m pretty sure my bill would be around 800USD cause they would replace the whole camera gimbal setup.

No warranty whatsoever, I too expected a massive bill, but £79 was all I had to pay, I know DJI has some pretty bad press lately but **** I was super happy with the whole repair process, just go to the main DJI website & start a repair request, but if you have stripped the drone down to base level for self repair the bill may be higher, also as others have stated, if surface mount components have become dislodged, I would be very wary of ever flying that Mavic 3 again due to more internal damage & possibly cracked solder joints etc.

 

[THE_ROCKll]

Thanks for the replies.
Maybe I shouldn’t have opened it up that quickly.

The hit was directly on the gimbal and looking at the rest of the drone, there is hardly a scratch on the thing. But I only took apart the gimbal so idk, maybe I’ll try and see if they will do something with it.

 

[chong67]

Did you have warranty by any chance?

Because I’m pretty sure my bill would be around 800USD cause they would replace the whole camera gimbal setup.

Sent it to DJI and they will tell you how much to fix. If you dont like it, just pay the diagnostic fee. You will be surprised at the repair price. Basically, they swap you for another new M3. I have no insurance too. Thats what they did to me few months ago and it was a 2 day ship back and I buy the 2 year DJI care refresh. Let us know how it goes.

 

[THE_ROCKll]

Just an update on the situation. Sent the drone back and dji kept the old one and sent a brand new one in return. Cost me around 350CAD to fix up. They replaced a couple boards on the gimbal and various other small gimbal parts and also one ESC.

Honestly I was expecting to pay more. Also they mentioned nothing about the fact that I took the gimbal apart and tried JB welding it back together.