Ack! I just bought a Typhoon H and got hosed! :(

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

Hello all!

I just bought a Typhoon H. I'm an idiot. I was excited to find a drone at a reasonable price, the seller was a "single mother who needed to feed her baby..." I made a bad decision. It is complete, 1 good battery, 1 puffed out, with ST16 (pro? 3 antennae), Realsense and the Wizard controller, in the backpack. Custom Iron Man paint job that's pretty nifty.

Now, how I got hosed... she said it worked great, we were talking about other things, her neighbor comes over to "make an offer" on it and I got wrapped up in trying to get this thing, arguing with the neighbor about how it's wrong for her to take a higher price after agreeing to the deal with me... anyway, I just made a bad decision and didn't look over the drone properly. Of course it has problems.

I paid $360 for it, and was hoping I could use it as a basis to start a real estate photography business after getting a Part 107. My regular businesses- carpentry and vintage audio restoration- have both pretty much failed with the pandemic. I was on unemployment but that dried up, so I'm trying to get something started up on a shoestring to pay the bills. Hence, trying to buy this drone like an idiot without taking the time to really test it out. Of course, as soon as I left, the seller blocks me on FB where I found the drone on marketplace. I would like to think she didn't know, but it seems the whole thing was a giant set up. Not trying to get sympathy, I was an idiot to trust her plain and simple, just regaling you all with the tale.

Here's my issues-
CGO3+ camera has seen better days. it looks like it fell out of the sky from a low height and something caught the gimbal, rotating it around 360" and snapping the wires that connect to the camera from the gimbal.

ST16 is not working right. K2, K3, and the right joystick are not registering properly or at all when they are moved.

Any ideas? Am I out of luck? It seems the CGO3+ cameras are selling for as much as I paid for the whole drone, so a replacement isn't an option. Am I better off selling it up for parts and trying to find an old DJI or Phantom 3 or something? I was really excited to make this thing work to start out. If you have any ideas for repair, let me know, please. I am ok with taking the gimbal apart and rewiring it if I can get pin outs, etc, if that would work without a factory calibration.

Thanks, everyone!

Steve Carr · Aug 16, 2020

There is a chance you may be able to repair it.
Start with the ST16. Double tap the voltage reading and a popup window should appear that allows you to test the sticks and pots. Tell us what you find. It's possible it may only need a calibration which is pretty easy.

jannislh · Aug 16, 2020

ST16 is not working right. K2, K3, and the right joystick are not registering properly or at all when they are moved.

Don't worry about that aspect. You can calibrate the remote and it is likely to work just fine. There plenty of good videos online explaining how to do it. If the sticks are still causing problems, open the case and spray some contact cleaning spray into the hole on the potentiometers. Thats a common issue on the Yuneec remote.

CGO3+ camera has seen better days. it looks like it fell out of the sky from a low height and something caught the gimbal, rotating it around 360" and snapping the wires that connect to the camera from the gimbal.

That is also not the hardest repair. Please take some photos and we can figure out if you need some parts and which exactly.

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

Thank you for the encouragement! I was just crestfallen when I got home and got a better look at the drone. Here's a few pics of what I'm working with on the camera. I can start pulling screws tomorrow to get the covers off the gimbal arm if it woild give any better indication of condition. I'll also try to calibrate the ST16 and clean the contacts on all the switches and gimbals inside.

jannislh · Aug 16, 2020

Oh that does look way worse than expected. When someone says the cables are ripped, they usually mean the cables on the top. That can happen on very minor crashes and is not a big deal at all. Fixing it does take about 30min to an hour and costs 20$ or less.

From what I can see the camera took a severe hit and is very likely to be even more damaged than what is obvious. It is quiet unusual that this wire rips. I would not wonder if it ripped while they tried to repair it. I cannot explain how this is possible during a crash without seperating the horizontal arm from the vertical arm or bending them.

jj1517 · Aug 16, 2020

Is the gold metallic paint on your Yuneec a factory standard. If not I would worry that the metallic component would shroud the 2 aerials and very seriously impair the control and video signals. Just thinking!

Thunder horse · Aug 16, 2020

Most of the camera parts can be found @ terrestrial imaging .com they also have other parts aswell and they are a yuneec service center!

Ron sinclair · Aug 16, 2020

Phoenix02 said:
Hello all!

I just bought a Typhoon H. I'm an idiot. I was excited to find a drone at a reasonable price, the seller was a "single mother who needed to feed her baby..." I made a bad decision. It is complete, 1 good battery, 1 puffed out, with ST16 (pro? 3 antennae), Realsense and the Wizard controller, in the backpack. Custom Iron Man paint job that's pretty nifty.

Now, how I got hosed... she said it worked great, we were talking about other things, her neighbor comes over to "make an offer" on it and I got wrapped up in trying to get this thing, arguing with the neighbor about how it's wrong for her to take a higher price after agreeing to the deal with me... anyway, I just made a bad decision and didn't look over the drone properly. Of course it has problems. I paid $360 for it, and was hoping I could use it as a basis to start a real estate photography business after getting a Part 107. My regular businesses- carpentry and vintage audio restoration- have both pretty much failed with the pandemic. I was on unemployment but that dried up, so I'm trying to get something started up on a shoestring to pay the bills. Hence, trying to buy this drone like an idiot without taking the time to really test it out. Of course, as soon as I left, the seller blocks me on FB where I found the drone on marketplace. I would like to think she didn't know, but it seems the whole thing was a giant set up. Not trying to get sympathy, I was an idiot to trust her plain and simple, just regaling you all with the tale.

Here's my issues-
CGO3+ camera has seen better days. it looks like it fell out of the sky from a low height and something caught the gimbal, rotating it around 360" and snapping the wires that connect to the camera from the gimbal.
ST16 is not working right. K2, K3, and the right joystick are not registering properly or at all when they are moved.

Any ideas? Am I out of luck? It seems the CGO3+ cameras are selling for as much as I paid for the whole drone, so a replacement isn't an option. Am I better off selling it up for parts and trying to find an old DJI or Phantom 3 or something? I was really excited to make this thing work to start out. If you have any ideas for repair, let me know, please. I am ok with taking the gimbal apart and rewiring it if I can get pin outs, etc, if that would work without a factory calibration.

Thanks, everyone!

Ok firstly in the UK paying approximately £275 for a typhoon H would be classed as just for spares, second hand drones go for between £600 and £800, anyway I'm sorry you got duped but we do have a saying in the UK "buyer beware" you are in the right place for help getting this back in the skies and there are plenty of spares out there at good prices so I'm sure all will turn out well in the end and just put it down to lesson learnt,, good luck

johnnyb57 · Aug 16, 2020

Thunder horse said:
Most of the camera parts can be found @ terrestrial imaging .com they also have other parts aswell and they are a yuneec service center!

Better off contacting john@ yuneec skins, and while your at it buy a skin to cover up that ugly thing

Aaron k · Aug 16, 2020

When I had a crash. I went to: @Yuneec Skins .com, they were very helpful. They Can service your drone or camera. And sell individual parts for the camera,or the drone. I will deffenatly use them again.

WTFDproject · Aug 16, 2020

For the ST16, two points that need to be clarified:
1.) It is crucial that you do NOT calibrate the ST16 until you get the sticks working properly. Using the calibrations program in an attempt to avoid standard repairs will end badly. The worst case is that it will appear to work normally, then fail in the other direction when in flight. There are many threads and videos that talk about 'stirring the sticks" , then using contact cleaner, and then actual replacement if those do not work. You can use either "Hardware Monitor" on the ST16, or the final output display as described by @Steve Carr above to judge your progress with cleaning the sticks. It is extrememly unlikely calibration will be needed if the sticks are restored to original conditions.
2.) IF calibration is required, be aware there are many, many videos on that subject. And almost all of them are WRONG on at least one point. Following the bad videos may leave you with an uncontrollable drone at worst, or limited control as the most common result.
These are the only two videos that are known to be correct on all essential points:
" "
" "

For the camera:
Yeah, that's a mess.
1.) Even if the damage is limited to the bundle at the joint, things can get difficult. Most of the sets are three wire sets. You will have to trace each set back to both source and destination, and then get each of the three in each set matched to the correct one from the other direction. The main problem is the Pitch motor. If the pitch motor has more than one wire broken, it is impossible to match the wires other than trial and error, with possibly bad results. I'll link a document below that can help with some of the pinouts.
2.) It appears the camera arm got rotated past the Gimbal board cover. If I were to take a guess, I would mention it is possible the Gimbal cover got knocked off, possibly damaging the connectors that would be exposed. The damage would be very easy to hide from view by just snapping the cover back in place. I recommend you check that area before spending much time on other camera repairs.
3.) Frame alignment may be off. It appears to have had some sideways component to the impact. The rear arm may be bent out of alignment.
4.) Slip ring damage: Very common in any CGo3+ crash. Instructions for replacement are also in the CG03+ section of the document attached to the thread linked below.

See:
"Way To Fix Drones project"

These are some of the attachments you may need.:

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

I got the covers off the arm and there are 4 signal bundles that are broken. There is one that is intact into past the roll joint, and the roll motor and encoder wires are intact.

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

I don't have a thin enough screwdriver to get the ball housing off the camera head right now, but so far here is the carnage. One of the wire bundles into the camera head is intact, 3 are broken and the pitch encoder bundle is broken. Looks like the easiest option would be to get a whole new "ball" to mount, but if I can get pin outs I'll do what I can to rewire these and see if I can get it working again.

WTFDproject · Aug 16, 2020

When you disconnected the plugs from the gimbal board, did you find any connectors that were pulled loose from the board?

This would also be a good time to disconnect the slip ring connector from the side of the gimbal board and use a multimeter to ensure all six have good connection with the top plate. See Attachment 54 (Typhoon H / CG03+ Continuity). Note the top plate also has six contacts, but two are not used. A couple pairs of the six wires are soldered together at the top plate, leaving two empty contacts. The attachment explains it better in pictures better than I can do with words.

Rewiring the motor is going to be an issue. I will try to do some experimenting late this evening to see what happens when you get it cross wired. Right now, I have to leave the Forum again for a few hours.

AH-64 D · Aug 16, 2020

If it is any consolation, the metallic spray paint may not pose a signal problem. I once tried to shield the GPS of Blade 350 QX from the EMF of a Mobius camera by painting the bottom shell of the 350 with metallic copper paint....It did not work. I bought some 3M conductive copper tape, put the camera in a plastic bag with its lens sticking out and wrapped the bag in copper tape and that worked. I was able to get GPS lock again when the camera was mounted to the belly of the 350. Good luck with your repairs.

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

Well, I put up a post on FB warning others about this seller and she saw it, said some bad things then said she would refund my money, so we'll see how it goes. I'm concerned this is more a project than I can afford right now, if I need a new camera and contact cleaner doesn't work on the controller, so I think I'm better off getting out of it, trying to save some money and find something in better shape.

If the return falls through and she lies again, I'll be back to figure out how to fix this if I can...

Phoenix02 · Aug 16, 2020

Aaaaaaaaand, I'm back. That was fast. I get almost all the way over to her house and she messages, "oh, btw, I already spent $160, so I'm only going to give you $200 back."

So.... yeah, I'm back trying to fix this thing.

Yuneec Skins · Aug 16, 2020

Makes me Angry someone sold it to you like this.
email me and I will help you with the Parts, I have some encoder wires you can solder on to your existing encoders, if you don't feel confident about soldering them send them to me and I will do it for free...

WTFDproject · Aug 17, 2020

I did some experimenting with the pitch (tilt) motor wires on a healthy CGo3+ to ensure it is safe to try various combinations to find the one combination that will work. There are six possible combinations. One combination went nuts, slamming tilt full up and down. Four combinations basically didn't do anything. And, of course, one combination worked perfectly. ALL combinations allowed the camera to initialize. NONE of the combinations caused any immediate harm, but note I did not leave any of the failed combinations powered up longer than needed to determine if it would work.
The picture below has a general description of how to label the wires and test the combinations, and a chart to define the six possible combinations and keep track of which combinations you have already tried. I struggled a little with how to explain it. When you start actually doing it, it might make more sense. Let me know if you need some clarification.

Steve Carr · Aug 17, 2020

Phoenix02 said:
Aaaaaaaaand, I'm back. That was fast. I get almost all the way over to her house and she messages, "oh, btw, I already spent $160, so I'm only going to give you $200 back."

So.... yeah, I'm back trying to fix this thing.

Ask her for $80 back and you keep the kit. That would be a fair price.