DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Drone DOWN!

MavProPlat1968

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2019
Messages
121
Reactions
57
Location
NE TENNESSEE
Well folks, it happened. Pushed my luck too far, and down she went, 8200 feet away from me and 350 feet high. Landed on a wooded cliff about 50 yards from about 350 ft deep water. Me and my girlfriend jumped in the car and drove up to where I last had contact but I told her it was .most likely at the bottom of the lake, but as we got close it reconnected and the ol girl was laying in the grass right beside a downed tree. The camera still zooms but 3 of the 4 rubber things that hold the camera popped out. And the only other physical damage I see is one prop chipped and one of the small "wings" right above the swivel joint of the rear legs cracked. I cant find any other damage at all. So, is there an easy way to push those little rubbers back in place without disassembling the drone? If I do need to disassemble it, what size torx do I need??
20190428_182811.jpg20190428_175200.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20190428_185200.jpg
    20190428_185200.jpg
    851.3 KB · Views: 258
  • Like
Reactions: Madmax229
Always nice to see a safe recovery ThumbswayupThumbswayup

Thunderdrones???
Yeah really surprised me when it reconnected and i had video feed. I was over the water when I lost it...and you can see in the bottom right side where it landed. Thank God for a girlfriend that's in amzingbshape because my outta shape *** made it about 1/4 of the way up. From the camera we knew it was beside a downed tree. She checked every downed tree around and finally heard me activating the props.
 
@Thunderdrones do you agree this cable is damaged and could be why I'm getting the errors. I'd love to be able to send it to you guys to fix, but I'm strapped right now lol. If it's more than the ribbon cable it will be a shelf model for a while. No visible damage at all on the camera...still shoots video and takes stills and focuses.20190428_212317.jpg
 
Last edited:
Glad you were able to recover it! What made it go down? Looks like you may need a new mounting plate or you will have to re-seat those ribber feet. Either way, you will probably have to disassemble to get it down. Gibmal error is probably due to a damaged ribbon cable. LDVS cable is still good I believe since you still have video feed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MavProPlat1968
Disconnected...I ordered the ribbon cable and a new plate last night, will be here tomorrow. Yeah, video cable is good and all camera functions work...zoom, focus, video, and stills.i got the rubbers reseated and got the gimble reattached for now...but one of the rubbers broke so I ordered the plate because it has the 4 rubbers with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: shot_by_SU
Well...I think I know what happened there. I'm almost sure it tried. I launch from an elevated position, set return home height to 300' which clears all trees around me by a lot...but i think when i lost signal, i was way lower than the launch altitude, there for it went 275 from the ground at it's current position maybe...and wasnt high enough to clear those trees. But obstacle avoidance was on...so really I'm just guessing. I may try to figure out how to get and upload the flight data here and get someone with the knowledge to look at it.
 
Last edited:
Ahh ok, well that theory makes sense IF your AC was lower than the set RTH height. More than likely got into some trees if if the altitude was low before RTH was activated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MavProPlat1968
If you look at the picture I took of my iPad mini...you can see how close it was to the water. I got the gimble lock on it so its secure for now, dont want to damage the video cable for sure. Gonna put some props on it this evening and make sure I dont have any other issues.
 
Well folks, it happened. Pushed my luck too far, and down she went, 8200 feet away from me and 350 feet high. Landed on a wooded cliff about 50 yards from about 350 ft deep water. Me and my girlfriend jumped in the car and drove up to where I last had contact but I told her it was .most likely at the bottom of the lake, but as we got close it reconnected and the ol girl was laying in the grass right beside a downed tree. The camera still zooms but 3 of the 4 rubber things that hold the camera popped out. And the only other physical damage I see is one prop chipped and one of the small "wings" right above the swivel joint of the rear legs cracked. I cant find any other damage at all. So, is there an easy way to push those little rubbers back in place without disassembling the drone? If I do need to disassemble it, what size torx do I need??
View attachment 70930View attachment 70932
Today is indeed your lucky day - head to Los Vegas IMMEDIATELY
 
  • Like
Reactions: MavProPlat1968
Well...looking like I may have gotten real lucky. All aspects of flying work like a charm...hovers perfect, up, down, forward, reverse, yaw both directions and all obstacle avoidance sensors work. Hopefully a new gimbal ribbon and she will be ready to go. Gonna get the gimbal out tonight and change the ribbon out tomorrow after ups shows up.20190429_174259.jpg
 
Looks like the ribbon cable is separated at this spot...is that enough to cause my gimbal to be non responsive. Doesnt move at all when I turn it on and doesnt respont to any rc input.20190429_184524.jpg
 
Well...I tackled the gimble ribbon tonight and got it on and got the gimble back on the drone, fired it up...gimble moves to calibrate...and stops facing down. No video feed now, so my heart sunk lol. Took it back off, took the covers off the gimble to make sure everything looked ok, looked like I may have pinched a strand of the video cable, so I carefully put the covers back on, reinstalled, tried it again and works perfect now. I crashed my drone from 350 feet into trees, and it cost me a $13 ribbon cable, I broke one of the rubber pieces the gimble plate is held on by so I bought the whole plate for like $10, and 1 chipped prop. And considering I was over a lake when I lost signal, and the fact that I was able to reconnect when I got to where I last saw it, and the GPS was showing me its exact position....I consider myself extremely lucky to even be attempting any type of fix on this drone. Hers a picture of the old ribbon cable.20190430_204031.jpg
 
Could you upload the video from the drone to YouTube and post the link here so we can see it? It shows that you were recording in the picture.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
131,317
Messages
1,561,987
Members
160,258
Latest member
seaphotos