Hi,

I just recently started droning and had a crash where a gust of wind pushed my phantom 3 pro into one of those light poles that you would find at a baseball field. The bird came spiraling down and landed in the snow. All 4 props broke but the gimbal stayed intact with vision still connected. My problem is that everything seems to be (for the most part) OK but the drone is now acting kind of weird. Here are a few things that I've noticed since the crash and when I tried to fly it again tonight.

the status calls for a firmware update although the firmware was updated prior to the crash

the gimbal works on startup about half the time (1/2 the time it won't move at all on start and will have no vision through the remote, the other half of the time it will work perfectly fine with movements, vision and calibration)

The GPS will say that everything is OK but I cannot seem to recalibrate without error -  When recalibrating it will perform OK when horizontal but then only make it half way through a vertical rotation before the gimbal starts twitching out. After launching with auto takeoff the drone won't hover perfectly still like it used to (although it's relatively still and does not switch to ATTI mode)

When I was flying the drone everything would seem to be perfectly fine and then the gimbal would randomly start to twitch out and make it look like the drone was flying on an angle

Besides that everything seems relatively OK. I was able to successfully reset the IMU and everything shows green on the status bar, except for what I've noted above. Here are some pictures of the bird https://postimg.org/gallery/2fg3ffxwg/ . From the height it fell there seems to be very little damage. Is there a chance that some wiring became loose during the fall and that's the reason I'm getting this odd performance?

Also, I'm bringing it to the authorized service repair shop in NYC tomorrow morning. Has anyone had an experience using them for repairs before? Would it be better to buy the DJI care and ship it off for $150?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Also - I'm now noticing that there's a red blinking light with the gimbal, even if the camera is responsive.

fansd9ea013d Posted at 2017-1-12 20:07
Also - I'm now noticing that there's a red blinking light with the gimbal, even if the camera is responsive.

Aloha fansd9,

     There are three plug points where the ribbon from the body connects to the gimbal.  Often in a crash pulling and replugging these gets rid of some or all of the problems.  Each of the problems you describe have seen improvement in other cases with this simple procedure.

     Because a Phantom gets hot, humidity and wetness is also a problem.  I hope you did not test any of the systems before the bird had a chance to dry out.  But if there was no damage from that wet testing, pulling and replugging the contacts and all the water eventually drying, sometimes will return the bird to normal.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Sorry to hear about your crash, it is likely that there was some damage to the main controller. Having the unit sent in for repair would be the best course of action.

I saw no mention of it getting wet ???

One thing you might do just as a curiosity.  Turn everything on and look at the software page where you can read the IMU numbers.  Post a picture of that screen so we can see the numbers while it is running on level ground.  They should all be fairly constant, without major jumping around.

Thanks for all of the quick responses. Although I was flying it after a snowstorm - the bird overall did not get wet/land in any water (besides minimal snow build up). Please see the attached IMU calibration that I just ran indoors for the bird while cold. The only real cosmetic defect that came of the crash (besides the props breaking) is that part of this screw is now jolting out. Everything seems to be OK - the gimbal turns on 100% right every time, there's a green light and everything is up to date. I'm aiming to try and fly it tomorrow to see how it goes. Still while trying to calibrate I will get through the first  rotation OK but then half way through the second rotation (while aiming straight at the sky) the gimbal goes limp to one side and calibration fails. I've been trying to recalibrate on my roof in NYC - which I've successfully calibrated on before and will try to find a grassy area if it fails again. The GPS says that I'm good to go and no calibration is needed but I noticed that during flight it wouldn't hover in one place like it did before, it couldn't seem to fly straight and the camera would turn all sorts of awkward angles randomly while in the air. https://postimg.org/gallery/1ik3neuh6/