About 6 weeks ago, when taking off at night, my P3P just went backwards into the plants... close to a wall (i've flown in this area before and it never behaved that way)

I didn't even have the time to start recording... I did manage to steer it away from the wall, despite the inverted control thing (the phantom being behind me and poiting towards me)... but as I nudged it away from the wall, it kept going to the other side... it didn't stop after I released the controls... and another nudge in the opposite direction brought it back to the wall again... So I nudge it away again and went full forward and up to get it out of that tight spot... but it hit a twig from above and fell some 2.6m on some hard surface.

Roll arm circle was broken along with the flex cable... (I did have a gimbal protector on - it didn't help)

But I'm in Mauritius, small dot in the southern indian ocean... and the flex cable took a long time to arrive... I didn't get any official dealers willing to ship here, so i got cables from ATKdrones... And I had also purchased a set of 3D printed arms from Tony Bock.

As I got the flex this monday, i attempted repairs... Now, the startup routine with the gimbal rotation happens normally, but I have no visuals on the screen... - it doesn't say "no signal", but I have a black feed... I can control the camera up and down, but I got no live feed at all... and after 29secs from boot, the gimbal shuts down. (front green light blinks continuously green then red, till it shuts down)

So I went to a local dealer and the guy agreed to swap the camera (camera module only not the whole gimbal) from his advanced display model onto my gimbal to check if the issue was with my camera or the cable.

And sadly, everything worked fine with his advanced camera... so the issue must be with my 4k camera module.

So my question is... what could be wrong with it?  It only has a few scratches from rolling over the tarmac surface... but no evidence of hard impact... and my phantom only fell through 2.6m..

Are there moveable parts inside that camera?
Is there a mechanical shutter in there that could be blocked?
Is it possible that the zif connector where the flex comes in is damaged?

Is there any place where i can send just the camera module for repairs? Diagnosis? You see, third world country here, shipping costs are ridiculously high, and shipping just the small camera module would save me a lot of money... it's also the reason why i chose to repair it myself than send it over to DJI for a warranty repair...  

I've flown the drone again (without the gimbal) after the crash and it never again behaved like it did that night... And it did have GPS when the crash happened... cause it logged the gps track properly... except that the forward arrow of the drone was pointing in the opposite direction... (I remember I had to calibrate the compass twice that night for it to lock properly)... So i'm guessing something went wrong with the drone for it to go backwards right after takeoff...

Any thoughts anyone?

Sorry about your crash.

Rule #1. Never take off in an area less than 10 square meters of clear space.

You probably did what I did once, set the copter down for take off backwards with the camera pointing towards you.  Then the controls are reversed.  I did that once and couldn't figure out why the thing went back when I pushed forward on the stick, pushed right it went left, then I saw what I had done!  Lucky I always stick to rule #1 and had room to breathe.  The gimbal is as fragile as egg shells.  It won't take much to break those delicate little components and you must also keep in mind where it is made.  Not the best place in the world for high quality reliable products.

Just for future reference always use a pre flight checklist for EVERY flight and never deviate from it.  It will save you, I promise.

My pre-flight list...

Check battery charge/voltage
Calibrate gimbal
Calibrate compass (every new location)
Check channel signal
Check number of satellites connected
Make sure Safe To Fly GPS is green
Check all camera settings
BE SURE CAMERA IS POINTING FORWARD AND AWAY FROM YOU ON TAKE OFF,  (this is a major cause of crashes)
Look up and all around for any obstacles
Make sure you have 10 sq. meters clear space
Take off

You'll most likely need to send it to DJI if you have no local service center there.

duey101 Posted at 2015-10-8 11:31
Sorry about your crash.

Rule #1. Never take off in an area less than 10 square meters of clear spac ...

Nah... It was pointing forward... no doubt there... besides when I pushed forward with the stick, it did go forward... (that's when it hit the branch...)

But when I took off... I had not yet touched the controls when it went backwards into the plants...

In any case, lesson learned... the 10sq m space is a good idea...
I'm not sure about the gimbal calibration though... you do it everytime? Never did that...

Any idea what i can do to get the camera repaired?

reuben Posted at 2015-10-8 15:36
Nah... It was pointing forward... no doubt there... besides when I pushed forward with the stick,  ...

The pre-flight routine is a must, develop the habit.  It will save you a lot of problems.  Being where you are you will probably have to buy a replacement cam if you were able to determine that is the problem.  You'll have to buy it from DJI and either install it yourself or get the guy there to do it for you.

Try contacting DJI support (good luck with that).  I sent two tech support requests more than two weeks ago, never even got one reply from anyone in that time.  Not a great company as far as customer service goes.