Crashed my new drone. Broken leg, no power... What do I do now?

Roberto Santucci · Dec 30, 2018

Hello everybody,

I'm new to Drones. I have done a couple flights for a feature film, and got to like it. I bought the Anafi for scout location. I felt in love for all its gifts, such as, Cameraman, follow me, flight plan, P-Log, 4K etc. Unfortunately, I crashed it. I bought it from B&H. Should I contact them? Do they do repairs? Can I get a new leg for it, from someone? At least there should be an after market of crashed drones, because one thing is for sure, they must fall all the time and there must be tons of controllers, batteries, spare parts from crashed drones laying around. If I can't get any help, I guess I can sell it on eBay for someone to buy and fix their drone, right? Just don't know what step to take first. Any body can help? Thanks in advance.

The pictures below show the damage. A and B are the connectors that seem to have come loose. C is the part that holds them. After the crash, I tried to turn it on, but no life came from it. The body of the drone was a bit cracked open, so I had to open it to put the parts in place. Took the opportunity to check things out. If, I can't get parts for it, but can get it to come to life again, glue might be my only choice. Or used parts I guess.

Seitenwerk · Dec 30, 2018

Wow that hurts. Looking at your image it looks like basically the whole drone is broken. Not just a single part. Those consumer drones are rarely meant to be repaired so i guess it will be hard to find a good solution.

If that happened to my drone I would guess getting a new one would be the only good option as even if you glue anything together, you don’t know if there a electronic parts that are damaged and safety of the whole thing is also an important factor.

xmavic · Dec 30, 2018

I would second Seitenwerk. Not worth investing on the parts even if you get all the parts. Get a new one, bestbuy has it on sales. Your current anafi can he used as parts for any future needs.

Enjoy and practice a lot before taking a serious project. Don't give up though we all crash but just keep on going.. good luck.

Landbo · Dec 30, 2018

Roberto Santucci said:
Hello everybody,

I'm new to Drones. I have done a couple flights for a feature film, and got to like it. I bought the Anafi for scout location. I felt in love for all its gifts, such as, Cameraman, follow me, flight plan, P-Log, 4K etc. Unfortunately, I crashed it. I bought it from B&H. Should I contact them? Do they do repairs? Can I get a new leg for it, from someone? At least there should be an after market of crashed drones, because one thing is for sure, they must fall all the time and there must be tons of controllers, batteries, spare parts from crashed drones laying around. If I can't get any help, I guess I can sell it on eBay for someone to buy and fix their drone, right? Just don't know what step to take first. Any body can help? Thanks in advance.

The pictures below show the damage. A and B are the connectors that seem to have come loose. C is the part that holds them. After the crash, I tried to turn it on, but no life came from it. The body of the drone was a bit cracked open, so I had to open it to put the parts in place. Took the opportunity to check things out. If, I can't get parts for it, but can get it to come to life again, glue might be my only choice. Or used parts I guess.

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Sorry about the crash, it looks like you've hit something very hard with great speed.

If the damage is caused by a mechanical / electronic fault in Anafi, you have a 1 year warranty at B&H.

If it is a pilot fail, I would buy a new Anafi and keep it old for spare parts and possibly sell some of the parts.

Happy New Year, greeting Leif.

d95gas · Dec 31, 2018

@Roberto Thats some serious crash you had there, and as already stated, looks like high speed was involved.

I agree with the others in that this is too far gone, dont think even Parrot would repair that, but just put it in the spares bin.

If you give some information about the crash and the period leading up to it, you may be able to claim via a technical fault rather than user error.... Unless of course you confirm it was user error.

In which case, as already stated, I would buy a new Anafi and use this one for spares.

Really sorry to see that, and I feel your pain.

Cap_Caos · Dec 31, 2018

The broken leg is not a big problem. I know someone fixed them by gluing them.
But you have to make it's controller working again. If it's dead, legs are the smaller problem

Roberto Santucci · Dec 31, 2018

Hel

d95gas said:
@Roberto Thats some serious crash you had there, and as already stated, looks like high speed was involved.

I agree with the others in that this is too far gone, dont think even Parrot would repair that, but just put it in the spares bin.

If you give some information about the crash and the period leading up to it, you may be able to claim via a technical fault rather than user error.... Unless of course you confirm it was user error.

In which case, as already stated, I would buy a new Anafi and use this one for spares.

Really sorry to see that, and I feel your pain.

Well the way it got broken is as follows:

I was trying to avoid crashing into a wire (land line) of a high electric post. I need it to pass above it not so far away. I set for 25 meters of altitude or made 20. Not less for sure. I went by and felt that maybe was not too far. So I turned the camera down and back the drone to look thru the camera. It was some wind happening. Suddenly I noticed that the drone went to 17 meters of altitude. So I figured that wile it was fighting the wind (i"m guessing) it lost a few meters. When I went for the move to get it higher, it was too late. It hit the wire and came down from 17 feet and crashed on the pavement. Thats how it happen. Could I blame the drone for loosing altitude? I did went by without a problem. When I came back I was over it, and still didn't hit it.

Roberto Santucci · Dec 31, 2018

Cap_Caos said:
The broken leg is not a big problem. I know someone fixed them by gluing them.
But you have to make it's controller working again. If it's dead, legs are the smaller problem

It's dead. I'm studying the how to repair manual to check the wires. When I opened it to check things out, (it was dead anyway) I found 2 flat cables disconnected, motherboard and GPS, plus the power cables were not in the ground reminder connectors. I have tried to put everything back, and it seems that I did. But when I connect the battery and click on the power bouton nothing happens. Not even the green lights come one. The green lights come on if I press the power bouton with the battery disconnected.