I’ve said previously that the biggest growth market of the next five years will be drone repair…

Today while at a golf course doing some video/photos with my DJI Phantom (my small bird), I got careless and will now pay the price for not paying close attention to what I was doing.  On my 3rd flight of the day I had taken off on the 18th tee box and wanted to get the dramatic video of flying over the tee with the tall pines lining each side.  I took my eye off the Phantom for a second and realized I was headed for a tall pine tree.  The front of the bird was pointing the opposite direction than I thought so my move to get away from the tree sent me right into it.

Yard Sale…

The Phantom hit the tree, then dropped about 30 feet right onto a cart path.  A bit unlucky, because three feet in either direction was grass and perhaps a little less damage.

It landed on the corner of the back left landing gear where the compass is.  It broke three of the four 3D printed landing feet I bought for $40, and broke my $400 gimbal.  Other casualties include the landing gear, compass, and one prop.

Broken DJI Phantom compass

I’m not that mad because the body of the craft seems to be fine.  The 3D landing gear and landing legs (and gimbal I guess) took the brunt of the collision and may have actually prevented total destruction.

Broken Arris CM3000 Gimbal

I need to order a new Phantom compass (see photo above).  I already have an extra pair of landing gear though they are for a Phantom 2 or Vision.  The broken parts on the gimbal appear to only be plastic spacers which the front and back panel of the control board attach to.  Just a few cents there.  The GoPro lens has some road rash on the rubber side, but the lens itself seems fine.

The lesson?  Pay close attention to what you are doing around trees.

While construction slowly (very slowly) goes on with my big hexacopter, I’m still working on my little bird for aerial photos and video.  The little bird being a DJI Phantom 1.2 with an Arris CM3000 3-axis gimbal.

I did two test flights yesterday, both with the heavier MadDog 2700mAh battery.  That battery is bigger and more heavy than the stock battery, and seems to make a big enough difference in weight that the Phantom drifts vertically and horizontally.  I also have heavy wobbling and shaking, making video unusable.  That’s the exact description of yesterday’s first flight.  Also as part of the test in the first flight were four hard rubber isolation grommets, as opposed to the very soft ones I’ve had decent results with lately.  Once again, bad vibes.

I’ve finally gotten my hands on a decent blade balancing rod for the capped Phantom 2 propellers I put on the bird.  I switched to these props because the craft has more lift and efficiency with them, as well as double the flight time per battery or more.

I did a rough propeller balance after yesterday’s first flight, and also changed two of the four hard grommets back to soft.  This flight was massively better with only a small fraction of the flight producing vibrations or wobbles.  The problem, and the lesson, is that I changed TWO different things on the bird.  So I don’t know if the change in grommets or the blade balancing was the source of the improvement.  It is also possible that both combined made the difference.

Today’s first test flight (if there is one) will have to be blades balanced with four hard grommets and the heavier battery, since I don’t want to unbalance the props.  Then based on those results I may modify the grommets for the next test.

Following, perhaps a test with the lighter, original DJI batteries.

I had good results with the soft grommets, but they’re so soft I’m afraid the whole gimbal may fall off during flight.  It has come loose during transport in its case.

Phantom 1 (top) and Phantom 2 (bottom) Propellors

I’ve just received some new props for my Phantom 1.  The new props are designed for the Phantom 2.  I’ve done quite a bit of reading which says that these props are more efficient and provide more lift and longer flight times.

I’m happy to report that these props have made quite a difference.  Where my full rig with the original props logged flight times around 3:30 to 4:00, the same setup with the new props was in the air before having to land itself at 5:45!  That’s huge.

Another benefit to the props is that the unit is flying better with this heavy load.  These propers are bigger and more capable of handling that load.  That’s what they’re designed for.  I’d liken it to using the cheapest and smallest Costco tires on your Porsche versus some great Pirellis or something designed for that kind of handling.

New post will be about prop balancing, a whole new and other world I’ve entered into.