After about 10 great flights with my new P3Adv I crashed into a tree late last week. It "appeared" as though the only issue was a cracked rotor arm, which I have now fixed.

However, I'm now getting an ESC error (sometimes) but it's intermittent and has some strange characteristics. Here is what I've observed:
1) 1 motor seems to be the issue, but it's NOT the motor on the arm that was damaged.
2) Sometimes it will rotate when turned on, sometimes it won't. It usually does not.
3) I cannot tell any difference between any of the motors and how hard they are to turn manually. There are NO physical signs of damage to any of the motors.
4) When I power on the P3, it now beeps like it's updating ... and occasionally when I try to start the motors I'll get a message on my screen that says it's updating ... but not all of the time.
5) I can LITERALLY "feel" the beeps through the "bad" motor, and the motor warms up (the others do not). If I turn the motor by hand it changes the pitch of the beeps. The beeps are a consistent B - B - B - B.
6) When everything is powered up and and I get the signal on my screen that it's safe to fly (GPS) - I start the P3, the 3 other motors start up, and then they immediately shut down. No errors indicated on the screen but the P3 is still doing the constant beep.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this? Unfortunately, I'm in a remote 3rd world country in Africa and won't have access to parts until Christmas. But I'd really like to diagnose the problem before then so that I can get the right parts. I'm a mechanical engineer and am comfortable taking it apart and putting it back together but I'm not sure where to start. I am thinking of swapping out two of the motors to see what happens - which "might" tell me if it's really an ESC problem (needing a new motherboard) OR if it's just a motor problem. I'm leaning towards a motor problem simply b/c the motor actually will start occasionally. If the ESC was burned up I don't think this would happen - would it?

Any suggestions, comments, things to try would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hi,Kleeprop
This is really weird . Could you please upload a video about the alarm of "ESC Status Error" and the APP showing updating when you turn the motors on ?

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-11-11 11:10
Hi,Kleeprop
This is really weird . Could you please upload a video about the alarm of "ESC Status Er ...

Couldn't find how to upload the video but I loaded in onto Google Drive ... Here are two links to the two videos.  The first shows me turning the motor and changing the sound of the beep, and the second is the error message that comes up on my screen.   I'd be really interested in your opinion on the problems.

I just found a dealer in Johannesburg, SA and happen to be going there tomorrow.  Plan to pick up two motors and a new shell.  If you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,
Mark

https://drive.google.com/file/d/ ... Ws/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/ ... 3M/view?usp=sharing

Your electrical symptoms seem to point to a bad ESC or something in that chain.  RC motors operate (as I understand them) on 3-phase electrical power.  That's how they are made controllable.  Each ESC converts the battery's DC (by way of the controller) to a 3-phase power source that is controlled by the controller brains (commanded by you, the operator).  It sounds like one of the ESC's three outputs has failed or has an intermittent for that motor.  Take this as a theory, certainly not expert, idea.

You might check with DroneRepair.  He has lots of youtube videos on repairs and has test equipment to look at the motor signals.  He's in Fort Bragg, CA.  And, DroneNerds in Florida.

Kleeprop Posted at 2015-11-12 02:56
Couldn't find how to upload the video but I loaded in onto Google Drive ... Here are two links to  ...

Sorry , the links you posted are not accessible . Since you've send it for a repair , I assume the problem will be well solved .

Sorry, maybe didn't describe the situation correctly.  I have not sent out for repairs since I live in a 3rd world country and won't be back to the States until Christmas.  However, I happened to be in Johannesburg, SA at the end of last week and was able to pick up some parts to try and now have some additional information:

1)  I swapped out what I thought was my "bad" motor ... let's call it position 1 with the motor that was working in position 3
2)  Now the "bad" motor is working in position 3 and the "good" motor is not working in position 1.

Thus, it's the position of the motor and not the motor itself.  Unfortunately, I bought 3 new motors believing it was a bad motor and I wanted some spares.

However, it's still beeping as previously ... only through a different motor but in the same position ... position 1.

I have since made another video, uploaded it to youtube, and here it is - any thoughts?

Kleeprop Posted at 2015-11-16 21:22
Sorry, maybe didn't describe the situation correctly.  I have not sent out for repairs since I live  ...

esc failure i suspect that motor got jammed when you crashes and one of the FET's popped.

new main board unless your your good with surface mount repairs.