Anyone else not happy about the camera mount flimsiness?

SkyEye · Jul 24, 2016

While trying to work up some confidence after yuneec returning my repaired rig after a drop from the sky, I suffered another mishap. My rig drifted on me into a bush nearby at a very low altitude and needless to say crashed. While the propellers suffered no apparent damage, the camera mount broke. The part where the base of the camera slides onto the H is broken on one side. The channels on these are so thin and narrow you have to wonder what they were thinking.

It looks like a fairly straightforward repair, but this should not have sustained this kind of damage from such a minor mishap.

Comandante · Jul 24, 2016

Agreed. You'd think since the legs go up, they'd have either designed the mount to be much more sturdy, or easier to pop off / release because of impact to prevent breaking anything during an unplanned "landing".

SkyEye · Jul 24, 2016

I'm hoping that someone from Yuneec will comment on this...

stanman63 · Jul 24, 2016

Well would you rather replace a 400+ camera or a 5$ mount

BobW55 · Jul 24, 2016

You have to remember that the camera mount was most likely designed as a weak point.
What it the rails were beefier? The mount may have stayed intact, but all the impact force would have gone into the camera. I would rather bust up a $5 mount than the $400+ camera.

SkyEye · Jul 24, 2016

stanman63 said:
Well would you rather replace a 400+ camera or a 5$ mount

neither. there was no reason for it to fail under the circumstances

stanman63 · Jul 24, 2016

You said it was minor !!buy two this time!things happen just be glad it wasn't a total loss

Comandante · Jul 24, 2016

BobW55 said:
You have to remember that the camera mount was most likely designed as a weak point.
What it the rails were beefier? The mount may have stayed intact, but all the impact force would have gone into the camera. I would rather bust up a $5 mount than the $400+ camera.

Unfortunately though, when the gimbal breaks off, the wire seems usually to break/rip too. So, it's not always a quick fix in the field, even with an extra mount.

snerd · Jul 24, 2016

SkyEye said:
I'm hoping that someone from Yuneec will comment on this...

No one from Yuneec monitors this forum from what I can tell.

Markinter · Jul 24, 2016

snerd said:
No one from Yuneec monitors this forum from what I can tell.

I spoke to a rep who stated he reads it for laughs! They aren't allowed to post to the forums for some reason. He also stated that yuneecusa member was told not to post.

snerd · Jul 24, 2016

Markinter said:
I spoke to a rep who stated he reads it for laughs! They aren't allowed to post to the forums for some reason. He also stated that yuneecusa member was told not to post.

Yeah, I figured he was an "unofficial" poster for them after a few weeks.

Markinter · Jul 24, 2016

snerd said:
Yeah, I figured he was an "unofficial" poster for them after a few weeks.

It'd be nice if there was an official rep here though. I guess there's so much liability with what a rep might say it's not worth it for them. Someone to say hey guys there's a fix coming for rth hight etc just be patient would go a long way.

SkyEye · Jul 25, 2016

It may not be as easy a fix as one might think. The connections are soldered, and the contact points are integrated on the mounting plate, so it appears.

While the mounting connection is I still feel overly weak, there is something I neglected to mention which may have contributed to the problem. I noticed when I got my rig back from repair there were a few problems. One of which was that the gimbal mount did not look right, as in not evenly secured all the way around. Taking a closer look after this mishap, I noticed that two of the pins that go through the rubber mounts were missing.

I had also noticed that a couple of rotor arms weren't staying clicked into place - it doesn't take a lot of force to move them out of position without pressing the release button. I discovered that when doing a compass calibration. My guess is that these may be the ones which were replaced because of the drop from the sky. They also probably repaired the old gimbal and left out a couple of pins.

Fortunately I made mention of these things to Yuneec. I expect they should take care of warranty again.

In the meantime, does anyone know where I can get a schematic of the CGO3 +? I have looked around without any luck. Has anyone ever replaced that mounting plate without doing any soldering? It looks like it may be possible.

Comandante · Jul 25, 2016

SkyEye said:
I noticed when I got my rig back from repair there were a few problems. One of which was that the gimbal mount did not look right, as in not evenly secured all the way around. Taking a closer look after this mishap, I noticed that two of the pins that go through the rubber mounts were missing.

I had also noticed that a couple of rotor arms weren't staying clicked into place - it doesn't take a lot of force to move them out of position without pressing the release button. I discovered that when doing a compass calibration. My guess is that these may be the ones which were replaced because of the drop from the sky. They also probably repaired the old gimbal and left out a couple of pins.

Fortunately I made mention of these things to Yuneec. I expect they should take care of warranty again.

Wow. That's crazy. The lack of QC for repairs really makes sense considering the occasionally questioned QC in regards to new units.

I would not expect you to be able to find a schematic online, although I don't see it too unreasonable for them to send you a dwg, considering any threat of competition getting ahold of it is rather null as they could just buy a typhoon and have engineers take a look themselves.