Capt of Enterpr
lvl.2
Flight distance : 621755 ft
Australia
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Well I thought I was going along ok with my Mavic flying skills until one day I too (like many others) stacked my beloved drone - big time in a rocky ravine in the mountains. It took me two weeks to get the assistance of a skilled rock climber to rescue the stranded wreckage.
Fortunately it sustained minimal damage despite its impact on to rocks. A rear foot missing, a rear motor plastic cover missing, front left leg almost snapped off, one prop gone, the front casing slightly ajar. The major issue was that the camera gimbal would not function. It still videoed just fine, just no control over the gimbal. Fortunately the drone itself still flew ok.
I took it into the local camera shop where I purchased it and they sent it away for a repair quote. The quote came back at $1009 (AUD). I initially thought at this price, I would rather spend a few extra hundred dollars and buy a new drone body for $1300 (without all the extras) - so I got my damaged drone back.
I then saw a couple of Youtube tutorials (fixacrash.com) on how to disassemble the gimbal and camera. Watching these, I deduced that the problem with my gimbal was a snapped flat black ribbon cable that controls the gimbal movement. I thought I didn't have anything to lose, as the drone was unusable the way it was with a shaky camera image. So I ordered a new gimbal cable from ebay for $25 and a set of precision screwdrivers for $20 and set to work.
I freely admit it was a stressful experience dismantling and re-assembling the drone and it took me nearly 3 hours to do so. However, by following these excellent tutuorials I successfully replaced the ribbon cable, recalibrated everything and it worked beautifully! I was so thrilled!!! Saved a lot of money.
After some test flights, I found that there still seemed to be the occasional very slight vibration in the video footage, which I put down to one of the tiny rubber dampening bands that hold the gimbal steady, was snapped and others perhaps a bit stretched. I couldn't find anywhere to get replacement bands, so just ordered a whole gimbal mounting plate which comes complete with the bands for $20. I have now installed this - which meant disassembling the gimbal from the drone body again!..but all went ok.
I also ordered and installed a new front left leg replacing the damaged one.
The moral of this long winded story, is don't just automatically accept some of these rather high repair quotes for your damaged drones. Look into what is actually required to fix it and if you feel comfortable, give it a go yourself. It is not as hard as you think (depending on what is required)...and you could potentially save yourself a lot of money! The repair workshop that provided my quote were going to just replace the whole gimbal & camera ($600) instead of just replacing the severed cable. What a waste! We have certainly become a throw away society.
Good luck if you decide to do your own self repairs! |
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