Some may be thinking, “I’ve had my drone for so long and haven’t had any issues. Are will something bad happen soon??” Well, to ensure safe flight and keep your aircraft in optimum condition, it is suggested to perform thorough maintenance for your aircraft after 200 flights or flying for more than 50 hours. Below are some maintenance suggestions for the Phantom and Inspire series.

  
  

The Battery (We’ll use the Inspire’s battery as an example, but the same process applies to other models)

  

1. Check if there is damage or any deformities, such as swelling of the outer shell. If so, please stop using it and dispose of the damaged battery. Please do not attempt to disassemble the battery, as improper handling may cause it to explode.

  
  

2. Check the gold plates used to transmit data from the battery to the aircraft (shown on the right in the figure below). If they are stained on the surface, you can use a cue tip dipped in anhydrous alcohol to clean them to ensure good communication.

  
     
  
  

3. Check to see if the metal sheet inside the battery power socket (as shown on the left in the figure above) is damaged. If its surface severely burnt, use a piece of sand paper less than or equal to 1mm thick to polish the surface.

  
  

4. Check the cleanliness of the communication pins inside the battery compartment, and ensure they are clean, straight, and flexible to ensure a good connection. In addition, check the positive and negative power pins to see if they are ablated. If they are, use sandpaper to polish them.

  
  
  

5. Check the firmness of the plastic structure around the battery compartment. Look for cracks and tighten any loose screws to prevent the battery from coming loose during flight.

   
  
  

6. Please store the battery according to the “Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines,” if the battery is not going to be used for long. Check your battery every month to stay safe.

  
  

7. After powering on the aircraft and launching the app, you can check if the voltages of each battery cell are similar. If the voltages are consistent after being fully charged, but deviations between cells exceed 0.2V while above 3.7V, please contact DJI technical support for analysis.

  
  

2. Check the Transformation System (Inspire Series)

  
  

1. Check if the screw rod within the aircraft`s central frame is bent or damaged. The aircraft might not function normally if it is bended or damaged, and it will need to be sent back for repair if it is. In addition, check if the screw rod is rusted. If so, please clean it with rust remover in order to keep the aircraft fuselage from blocking transformation.

  
  

2. Raise the aircraft landing gear and check the cleanliness of the screw rod and the bottom bearing. If there is some dirt, they need to be cleaned and lubricated (WD-40 can be used as both a rust remover and a lubricator).

   
  

3. While the aircraft is entering or exiting the transportation mode, notice if the fuselage vibrates or there is any abnormal sound coming from the central rod within the central frame (like the sound of metal scraping on metal). Please place the aircraft on a horizontal surface while checking the transformation, with good illumination and on a flat surface. If the problems remain please contact with after-sales for help.

  
  

3. Check the Aircraft Fuselage

  
  

Inspire 1 Series Fuselage Check and Maintenance

   

  

1. Check if any fuselage screws are loose. If there are any cracks or damage arms please send your Inspire in for repair.

   

  

2. Check if the vibration absorbers are in good condition. If their exterior has solidified or cracked, please replace to avoid unwanted while filming and taking pictures.

   
  

3. Check if the white dampers of the landing gears are in good condition. The bottoms of the dampers should be fixed in place. If they are loose, apply super glue to stabilize them.

  
  
  

4. Check if there are any objects that will affect the signal attached on the top of GPS (like the sticker containing any sort of conductive material) and that there are no structural problems with the landing gears or anntennas (cracks, etc.).

   
  

Phantom 3 Series Fuselage Check and Maintenance

  
  

1. Check if any fuselage screws are loose. Also make sure there is no damage or cracks on the arms. If so, please have them repaired.

  

  

2. Check if the vibration absorbers are in good condition. If their exterior has solidified or cracked, if so, please replace them.

  

   
  

3. Again, do not attach conductive stickers atop the aircraft. This will affect signal reception of the GPS unit, the landing gear antennas, and compass.

  

                                                            

  

That’s it for now everyone. In the future I’ll make another post about motors, propeller, IMU module and video downlink system maintenance.

  

Share your own maintenance tips and tricks in the thread or on Facebook!

Great, thanks for the information! Looking forward to your next post on the maintenance for the rest of the system!

Thanks Ranen and please keep the maintenance tips coming.

Hi Ranen, Thank you very much for your kind advises..really triggered my mind to double check always..good one..thanks..

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Very nice job and very informative. Thank you for posting this information.

Can you provide the torque value on the screws used on the motors and arms. Does DJI provide a drawing that would have all of the maintenance shown such as screw size and proper settings that need to be checked??

Rich

Nice info.  Looking forward to info on the motor maint.  You might want to make a correction to the wording in one place.  You say "3. Again, do not attach conductive stickers atop the aircraft. This will affect signal transmission from the GPS unit,".  Just to clarify, the GPS antenna does NOT transmit anything.  It is a receiver only, and the antenna receives only.

Good tutorial

what does this mean for the inspire? "check that the landing gear antennas are positioned properly."  how do we do this?

Thanks for the info Ranen

RichJ53 Posted at 2016-1-29 12:29
Very nice job and very informative. Thank you for posting this information.

Can you provide the tor ...

Thanks Rich, an internal document and/or diagram with this information might exist, I will look into it.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-1-29 13:07
Nice info.  Looking forward to info on the motor maint.  You might want to make a correction to the  ...

Good point Gary, the wording has been changed.

mattd Posted at 2016-1-29 13:39
what does this mean for the inspire? "check that the landing gear antennas are positioned properly." ...

That was worded poorly, I've changed it to "check that there are no structural problems." Just make sure there are no cracks, misalignment, etc.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... %3D&nothumb=yes

I broke one of these, can i replace it my self?

thanks , i hope you upload the maintenance  for the motors props gimbal  soon

Good one and thanks. Same as Rich, I'd like to know the torque pressure to tighten?

DJI-Ranen Posted at 2016-1-29 01:36
Thanks Rich, an internal document and/or diagram with this information might exist, I will look in ...

Ranen

Thanks man, this would be so awesome to have ...

I hope this would have the torqueing information too..  

Rich

Yes, thanks! Now I know what I can do and what I can't to my Inspire! Thanks.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-1-29 00:07
Nice info.  Looking forward to info on the motor maint.  You might want to make a correction to the  ...

yes! That is true.

Thanks for the information. One question I have is that in the Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines under "Battery Charging, It tells you to discharge the battery until there is 0% of power or unit can no longer be turned on.... Then at the end under Battery Maintenance 1) is says to never over-discharge, as this may lead to battery cell damage. Could you clarify these contradictory statements?

Thanks for this, looking forward to next ones!

homedad Posted at 2016-1-31 22:19
Thanks for the information. One question I have is that in the Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Gui ...

There's a difference between running the battery until the machine shuts off and over-discharging. The batteries have over discharge protection, so running the battery down won't generally cause over-discharging.

Usually, over discharging is caused by prolonged battery storage for more than 6 months. It's recommended to check the battery level every three months and to keep the charge between 50% and  65%.

kvamens Posted at 2016-1-29 21:24
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=attachment&aid=MTcyODd8NDIwMTMyMDh8MTQ1NDA3MzY0Nnw0OTAzNnw0MTA5OQ ...

If you have the pieces, try to glue it back together like the post suggests.

Thanks for that clarification.

Yeah,  this is great information.

DJI-Ranen Posted at 2016-1-29 04:36
Thanks Rich, an internal document and/or diagram with this information might exist, I will look in ...

Thank you Ranen really glad to have more maintenance info. I'm adding to my maintenance manual. Like Rich asked , man it would great to have screw torque specs.

I use WD-40 Specialist dry lube to clean off the grease on the lead screw and under the rubber boot. I then regrease the lead screw under the rubber boot. WD 40 dry lube safe on plastic and rubber? It's a PTFE spray. So I would assume it's safe on plastic and rubber.

Greetings,

It's been a while since your initial post of the subject matter and was curious if you have had an opportunity to further post suggestions regarding aircraft motors, propeller, IMU module and video down-link system maintenance as indicated.

Best Regards,

Great write up! Thanks for doing this. I will be adding some of these steps to my routine.

Thanks for share !!!!