DJI phantom design flaw

**Fear345** · 15th May 2014

Last night I was flying my FC40 in calm weather, after around 3 mins and about 70ft high the lights went out all motors stopped and it crashed on a hard surface in a neighbours yard.

After retrieving it and assessing the damage, it had landed top down with the battery compartment open and camera 15ft away but not much damage else where I thought.

Took it home plugged another battery in and no power, so I stripped it down to find the ground power wire had come off the board, what is worrying is that the ground and positive are not anchored to the main body of the body, so pulling the battery wire out time and time again could loosen the solder, this is probably what happened here.

After further assessing the damage six out of the eight wires connecting the motors to the boards had also come off, this could have happened when the rotors hit the ground flexing the four arms.

After soldering all the wires back to the relevant places I plugged a battery in and did a quick test flight, it handled well but only in attitude mode, stripped it down again to find that the GPS antenna had shattered

The price of a GPS module here in the UK is �112, I have looked online and found the GPS ceramic antenna to the same spec in USA for $4.75 plus postage which I hope is the only part damaged on the module, well it's worth a try for the price difference.

So this is just a word of warning to be extra careful when removing the battery.

**Zoots** · 15th May 2014

Fucking hell mate

Thanks for the heads up though. That battery compartment is toss at the best of times, and getting the battery in/out seems to be a bit of a muddle and not very well designed.
Hope the GPS module from the US works or it could be a very expensive accident.

**Soulassassin** · 15th May 2014

Its actually more common than you think across the range. Here's a link from the phantom pilots website.

http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtop...110d0ae8136186

**Mobileman** · 15th May 2014

sounds like a job for Watchdog, wonder if they have admitted its an issue(will read link above) if so good case for getting a new unit id say

**_Belial** · 16th May 2014

There are so many horror stories about multi-rotors out there (not just phantoms) but the % of units it happens too must be pretty low, yes forums are always full of people who complain but as a fraciton of total owners out there I'm sure it's a tiny amount. The phantom isn't without it flaws though, there are issues with compas in certain parts of the world I keep reading. Touch wood, my P2 is working a treat (previously had a P1) and currently building my APM based hex.