Drone Maintenance And Repair Tips

As a drone pilot, you are aware of one eternal reality. You’re going to wreck your drone eventually. Sometimes it’s your fault, and other times it’s due to circumstances beyond your control. It is advantageous for pilots to have some drone repair knowledge so that they know what to do and can save time and money in the process of getting the drone back in the air. However, if the damage is severe enough, you will need to contact the drone manufacturer for assistance with drone repair.

Drone Maintenance And Repair Tips

Why Do Drones Collide?

As a drone pilot, it’s critical that you understand what scenarios can cause a drone to crash so you can avoid them. failure. We’ve compiled a list of typical causes why drones crash to help you understand what can lead you to crash, break, or lose your drone. It should be noted that the following does not take into consideration mechanical failure. The following are the things that you, as the pilot, are in charge of.

Indoor Drones 

 While some smaller drones are promoted as indoor drones, most drones are not designed to be flown indoors. Because of the little flying area, crashes are all too common. Flying your drone indoors also puts your friends, family, and belongings in danger, therefore it’s preferable to fly it outside.

When flying in first person view, it’s easy to lose track of where your drone is because your attention is drawn to the video screen rather than the surrounding area. This problem is made worse if you are wearing FPV goggles. It’s preferable if you bring along a companion who can keep an eye on the drone and ensure that you’re flying safely.

Lose Orientation – It’s easy to lose track of your drone’s orientation while you’re initially starting to fly. You think you’re flying one way, but when you try to fly left, your drone takes off in the opposite direction, crashing into a tree. It is preferable that you fly.

Flying Too Far Away 

It can be tempting to test how far or high your drone can fly. This is a bad idea from a safety standpoint as well as in terms of FAA flying restrictions. Flying within line of sight is required at all times, and you must never fly higher than 400 feet. Fines may be imposed if you are detected breaking these rules. You may also put aircraft flying over this altitude in danger. Outside of your line of sight flying might result in crashes and the loss of your drone.

Get Your Drone Back

If you’re following correct drone flying protocol, you should be able to estimate where the drone went down based on your most recent visual sighting. You can use the drone app on a more modern drone with GPS tracking to see where your drone has crashed. The GPS navigation on more modern drones, such as the DJI Phantom series, may still be functioning, allowing you to acquire a real-time fix on where your drone went down.

Inspect your drone for damage when you retrieve it. You might wish to take a couple images using your smartphone to document any damage. This is especially critical if your drone is covered by a guarantee.

Examine the Drone’s Structure

When you locate your drone, you may notice that it has some grime on its body. Cleaning the drone makes it easy to locate any damage that would otherwise go undetected. Examine the animal’s entire body for any fractures or breaks.

Examine the Propellers

To move air and provide lift, the propellers spin at a high rate, causing your drone to fly. Propellers are meticulously balanced to eliminate any additional vibration that could make your drone difficult or unsuited to fly at high speeds.

Any type of damage, such as chips or cracks, no matter how minor, may cause your propellers to fail.

Examine the Fittings

The drone motors generate a lot of noise and vibration. The vibration will be greatly exacerbated if any of the motor mounts are loose. Any loose parts, including motors and propellers, might cause your drone to shake, rattle, and roll, making it aerodynamically unstable. Make sure all of the fittings are secure so nothing falls out on your next flight. Check the fittings if you observe an increase in flying instability after a flight.

Examine the landing gear

The landing gear on most drones is fixed, although more advanced versions incorporate retractable landing gear. If your landing gear is retractable, make sure the extension and retraction mechanisms are in good working order. A rough landing might do the same amount of damage as crashing your drone. Make that the landing gear is in good shape and free of cracks or breakage.

Drone Repair

 Replacing the Propeller

If any of the propellers are bent or broken, they should be replaced. Smaller drones have propellers that are attached to the drive shaft with a friction fit or a single screw.

Microdrones feature friction propellers that can be removed and replaced with just your fingers. Because little drone propellers use a small Phillips head screw, you’ll need a small screwdriver kit to change them.

Replacement of a motor

After a lot of flying and use, your motors might need to be replaced. If you’ve never worked on a drone before, you might want to watch a few YouTube videos to learn more about the process. Some motors are simply plugged into the electronics board, while others may require soldering the motor leads to the main circuit board. It’s usually possible to solder the new motor gives rise to the old ones’ cutoffs. To get to the motors, you may need to dismantle the drone booms.

Drone Repair Troubleshooting

If you are lucky and do not see any external damage to your drone, unless you are probably a broken propeller, you need to do some tests to make sure your drone is fully working.

Remove all propeller, use a separate battery, tighten your drone and try flight sequence. Obviously, without propellers, the drone will not fly. However, you can check to see if all the engines are responding. Through the drone boot sequence, internal testing will check the firmware, sensors, and camera.

The next step is to attach the propeller and check the simple flight. Do not fly very high, and do not try to steer too fast. If your drone responds correctly, you can continue flying.

If this flight test fails, then something went wrong during the crash, and there is an internal problem with your drone.

Hire a Professional

If you are not comfortable with your ability to repair your own drone, it may be time to hire a drone specialist. If you purchased your drone from a major drone manufacturer like DJI or Parrot, you should check that the repair is included under your drone warranty. Check your instruction manual or go online to the manufacturer’s website. If it turns out that the repair is not covered by the warrant, you may have to pay for the parts and work on it yourself.

Make sure you do not throw away your manufacturer’s warranty by accident. To ensure you remain compliant, check the manufacturer’s website. It is usually a good idea not to crash your plane, fly in the rain or crash into the water, alter your drone with unauthorized parts, or lose your proof of purchase.

Depending on the number of drones the technician is working on, it may take some time to repair your drone. This means a long time you will not be able to fly. Before sending your drone, see if you can get local help by looking online to see if the builder has a list of local sales partners, or authorized repair centers. You can contact these local locations to see if they can fix your drone quickly.

Drone Repair Troubleshooting

If you are lucky and do not see any external damage to your drone, unless you are probably a broken propeller, you need to do some tests to make sure your drone is fully working.

Remove all propeller, use a separate battery, tighten your drone and try flight sequence. Obviously, without propellers, the drone will not fly. However, you can look around to see if all the engines are responding. In drone boot sequence, internal testing will check firmware, sensors, and camera.

The next step is to attach the propeller and test the simple aircraft. Do not fly very high, and do not try to control the speed. If your drone responds correctly, you can continue flying.

If this flight test fails, then something went wrong during the crash, and there is an internal problem with your drone.

Hire a Professional

If you are not comfortable with your ability to repair your drone, it may be time to hire a drone specialist. If you purchased your drone from a major drone manufacturer such as DJI or Parrot, you should check that the repair is included under your drone warranty. Check your instruction manual or go online to the manufacturer’s website. If it turns out that the repair is not covered by a warrant, you may have to pay for the parts and work on it yourself.

Make sure you do not mistakenly reject your manufacturer’s warranty. To ensure you remain compliant, check the manufacturer’s website. It is usually a good idea not to crash your plane, not to fly in the rain or to crash into the water, change your aircraft without authorized parts and parts, or lose your proof of purchase.

Depending on the number of drones the technician is working on, it may take some time to repair your drone. This means that for a long time you will not be able to fly. Before shipping your drone, see if you can get local help by looking online to see if the manufacturer has a list of local sales partners, or authorized repair centers. You can contact these local locations to see if they can fix your drone quickly.

Conclusion – Drone Repair And Maintenance Tips

If your drone crashes, hopefully all you’ll need to do is repair a propeller or two and you’ll be able to resume flying. If your drone is still under warranty, you can get it repaired by contacting the manufacturer.

Otherwise, you can fix your drone on your own. Repairing your drone yourself is usually less expensive, and most components are available online. This assumes you’re confident in your ability to fix drones. There are a plethora of YouTube videos that can walk you through the process of repairing your drone.