CRASHED my drone

skg2192 · Mar 25, 2020

Hello all,

I am a fairly new drone owner and only flown a few times.

I stay in India so not able to get it out too much.

I recently sent my drone from my apartment (considering the lockdown) for 2 flights. the first one was fine, no issues.

In the second one, there were a couple issues. First- my screen went blank when I sent the drone away from me. Not more than 300-400M away I might add. The drone was about 150-200 ft high I assume. This scared me, as it was the first time, I could not see it as there were buildings around etc.. It was on its way "home" automatically and then as it came closer the screen came on and I saw it. Then I thought it was fine.

I was trying to get it back into my apartment. I have a balcony (attached an image). I had a huge issue getting the drone through this opening, and tried for several minutes and it wouldn't even come close enough for me to pick it out from the air. Towards the right of this balcony is a flat wall going through the building. The drone eventually touched that and went all the way down. It is now broken.

2 of the arms are broken (along with the props) (The back 2) and the gimbal is also broken.

I have attached images.

Would really appreciate any help or suggestions how I can get this fixed and what would be the lowest figures I would expect to pay for the same?

Thanks,
Krishna

MAvic_South_Oz · Mar 25, 2020

Sorry to hear of your loss, Krishna.
Even more sorry for you seeing the photos, it looks like it had a lot of touches down the building, and of course on meeting the ground.

Flying into the balcony opening was possibly a problem due to sensors and obstacle avoidance.
With the Air, you probably could have tried this sideways . . . maybe.

Why did the first flight go ok, and not the second though ?
Was the balcony landing also a problem the first flight ?

If you want to know some of the issues you had, get the flight log (TXT) file from your device (phone etc) you were using, and post the phantom help link back up here . . .

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Inside that folder is a DAT file folder, and probable that is still in there for the flight, it might be helpful if motor data is needed by one of the flight analysis people on here.

As for repair, not many outside of India will have any idea on cost in your local currency / economic bubble there.
Maybe someone is in India and had experience with this, and replies.

slup · Mar 25, 2020

Not much use to going into the logs for this ... it's enough to read the user manual.

This is a classic one ... no problem to leave the building through the window but on entering again the OD sensors stop you. Had you read the manual properly you had known that the only thing you had to do was either to entering sideways or just turn the OD off.

Furthermore all about this flight was way to risky to start with ... no clear sky = no sats = navHealth 0 = no HP recorded = being high up no use of VPS sensors until GPS lock meant poor position stability & probably ATTI mode. Then surrounded by possible magnetic interference from reinforced concrete in the building made a Yaw error with following flyaway highly likely.

Not knowing about the above I think the disconnect also comes from not knowing better ... probably a lot of WiFi interference there & high buildings interfering with unobstructed line of sight.

hiflyer201 · Mar 25, 2020

Slurp is so right..
It's super tempting to fly your drone from a hotel balcony. Turn off the obstruction sensors and let it sit till it picks up the req. GPS satallites..and off you go...easy...but then you lose the screen for some reason.. return to home is out of the question...you can barely keep line of sight and you're just hoping you don't fly it the wrong direction and lose it completely..but no..it's coming back ..you hear the motors and they are getting louder...why would I ever want to change those props you're thinking..you guide it safely to a spot you can grab it..whew...relax..but then you see the video ...there are at least twenty other people on balcony's watching this drone that some idiot is flying and they all know pretty well where it landed.. Yike's..what would security say...what would the police say..I'm thinking ..I ain't doing this no more..

lee82gx · Apr 20, 2020

Let me try, since I was in a similar situation not too long ago.
Here are your problems from big to small:
1. Gimbal and camera - This is the most difficult part to repair. Please don't dangle the camera and gimbal in the air anymore. The cables connecting it are very very fragile and can snap / break if its not mounted properly. At the very least you need to replace the "gimbal vibration plate" - very cheap part. Other relevant parts - Gimbal and camera itself - ~USD100 and it may well require DJI specialist factory software to re-calibrate. Other relevant parts - Gimbal Cable (cheap), Camera Signal cable (cheap).
2. Arms - Around USD25-35 each. Left Rear for sure busted. Right rear maybe the Rear Arm rotating hinge is broken. Not sure from your pictures. Front arms look ok.
3. Bottom frame (US15), Top frame (USD13) and top shell (USD5).
4. If you power up the drone, what errors do you get? If the camera image appears then you are in great luck. If you support the gimbal plate does the gimbal balance? If yes also good.
5. I'm sure you will have ESC errors, if not it is also good. If yes, replace motors first, followed by ESC (US40) if necessary.
6. Other vision sensors - depends on what errors that come up when you power up.

If your camera and gimbal still ok, my guess is the damage is around USD120+, excluding labour if you are lucky. Where I live, there is no factory support and 3rd party repair will charge labour and 50% top up on parts price. I repaired mine from scratch, due to Covid 19 in China earlier in the year, shipping was delayed by 1 month.

If you are ok with soldering and at least a decent multimeter, you can do this yourself.

JAW · Apr 20, 2020

Earth to Krishna.....

MichaelJ · May 8, 2020

skg2192 said:
Hello all,

I am a fairly new drone owner and only flown a few times.

I stay in India so not able to get it out too much.

I recently sent my drone from my apartment (considering the lockdown) for 2 flights. the first one was fine, no issues.

In the second one, there were a couple issues. First- my screen went blank when I sent the drone away from me. Not more than 300-400M away I might add. The drone was about 150-200 ft high I assume. This scared me, as it was the first time, I could not see it as there were buildings around etc.. It was on its way "home" automatically and then as it came closer the screen came on and I saw it. Then I thought it was fine.

I was trying to get it back into my apartment. I have a balcony (attached an image). I had a huge issue getting the drone through this opening, and tried for several minutes and it wouldn't even come close enough for me to pick it out from the air. Towards the right of this balcony is a flat wall going through the building. The drone eventually touched that and went all the way down. It is now broken.

2 of the arms are broken (along with the props) (The back 2) and the gimbal is also broken.

I have attached images.

Would really appreciate any help or suggestions how I can get this fixed and what would be the lowest figures I would expect to pay for the same?

Thanks,
Krishna