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Fine cracks on top shell….Yuneec Excellent Customer Service??? mmm…

New Typhoon H user concern. I have been a DJI user for the last five years and saw the Typhoon and love the look and the 360 axis camera, so thought why not try it out. I received the drone March 27 2018 and have flown it twice and the experience was great as well as the picture quality. While looking over my drone today I noticed a fine crack on top the left center arm housing and am not sure if it was sent that way from the factory or not. Note I did not crash the done or even fly aggressively normal flight total hours in the air 1 1/2 hr.
view

20180403_130037.jpg
 
That indeed is the first time I've ever seen a crack on the H. Perhaps it was shipping damage. Where did you buy it?

If it was mine I guess I would just change the top shell. The part is only $9 and fairly easy to change. However, I completely understand if you didn't want to mess with it. It's simply a matter of how much time it would take to send it in and get it returned.
 
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Looks like a pressure fracture. Having two of these since May 2016 I have yet to see anything like this on mine.

Yea, love the drone so far just worried how it happened and if it means the drone could fail.
 
That indeed is the first time I've ever seen a crack on the H. Perhaps it was shipping damage. Where did you buy it?

If it was mine I guess I would just change the top shell. The part is only $9 and fairly easy to change. However, I completely understand if you didn't want to mess with it. It's simply a matter of how much time it would take to send it in and get it returned.

Was thinking of replacing the top shell to, as I have rebuilt my DJI phantom from the ground up. I only wonder why the crack appeared and if it just cosmetic or structurally impacting.
 
Never seen (nor heard of any) shell failure with the H.
Well... apart from heavy collisions (aka tree and concrete kissing) and/or hopeless landings (aka crashes).

:)
 
The only time I've seen or heard of cracks on the top shell has been in posts/videos where they said they did it removing or replacing the shell.
 
Kdriscoll76,

Would you mind uploading a picture of the seam between the top and bottom shells at the area of the crack? Might you also tell where you bought your H?

The reasons for that might be important. Looking at Juanito777’s pictures the seam between the top and bottom shells is separated, which is not as it should be. The shells are usually a tight fit with no separation. It has the appearance of being pried apart with could generate the type and location of the cracks on his. So could bending the upper shell too much to reassemble it.

If a purchase was made from an unauthorized E-Bay or other re-seller it’s possible to have been sold a repaired unit that was poorly assembled. It’s also possible a factory repair could have been incorrectly done. A bad factory repair would qualify for warranty repair but many of the E-Bay sellers are not authorized Yuneec dealers. If not an authorized dealer there is no warranty coverage.

Either way there’s not much in the way of sensitive electronics where your crack is located.
 
I agree, these cracks must come from poor assembly/handling; it most likely arrived like that and you didn't notice until later.

In my experience, after 2 years and 2 major crashes with my H there isn't a single crack on the top cover, if anything there's just a single dent above the power button after crashing and landing upside down over concrete.

I also tend to fly very aggresively and there are no "stress cracks" on the H, and I honestly doubt those would ever appear spontaneously, since neither the top or bottom covers carry any stress while flying. The H is designed so that all the stress from the arms is held by the internal frame; other than holding the GPS module the top/bottom covers serve no structural purpose.

Hopefully you can get it replaced if under warranty, but if you really want to save a lot of your time the top cover is inexpensive ($8.99) and very easy to replace (remove 10 screws and pry open)
Yuneec Typhoon H Upper Cover

Greetings!

My 2 year old top cover:
Top_Cover.jpg
 
Was thinking of replacing the top shell to, as I have rebuilt my DJI phantom from the ground up. I only wonder why the crack appeared and if it just cosmetic or structurally impacting.
It is not structural by any means. The top shell holds the GPS module as marked on the top but you could fly it even if it had lots of cracks. There are just 10 screws holding it in place which are removed with a 1.5 mm hex driver. Since you are handy with working on drones you can order the part:
Yuneec Typhoon H Upper Cover
 
I'm sure you aren't flying this now, the cracks will get longer over time
There is a way to relieve the cracks and in some cases keep them from expanding.
It's an inconvenience for now, sorry to see this happen to you.:(
I'm sure Yuneec will replace this.
On Cobra Helicopters every once in a while the plexiglass would develop cracks, there was / is a simple method to resolve it. Some of you may know the answer?
 
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Drill stop. But you have to remove the top to do it safely. If you do that you might as well change it for $10.
 
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That usually ends up a temporary fix as the crack will often propagate again later in one direction or another.

If Yuneec agrees to the repair and you don’t mind waiting over a month for it to come back, send it in. If you want to use it before summer, spring for the top shell and do it yourself.
 
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For ten bucks fix it! Unless you want to wait for infinity? I don't see this caused by mold extrusion during manufacturing, it must have been during assembly or some body took it apart and hurried it back together.
 
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It is not structural by any means. The top shell holds the GPS module as marked on the top but you could fly it even if it had lots of cracks. There are just 10 screws holding it in place which are removed with a 1.5 mm hex driver. Since you are handy with working on drones you can order the part:
Yuneec Typhoon H Upper Cover
Is there a place to order replacement screws in case some are stripped?
 
BTW, if you prefer orange for your shells order them for the TH520. They are identical but come in a hi-viz orange.
 
Is there a place to order replacement screws in case some are stripped?
The screws won't be stripped. The plastic that they screw into may be broken off but the screw will still be there. Just hold the plastic with a pair of needlenose pliers and remove the screw.
 
You have not crashed it?
Rayray... I have never crashed despite I have been in the air for about 100hrs in 2 years. I always keep GPS calibrated and always stay idling on the ground for 15 minutes when haven't been in the air for more than 3-4 days. ;) or move east/west/east more than 100km.
 
This is a rather old thread and the instances of this seem to be rather rare. I looked at the few photos attached to this thread and after purposely pushing and prodding on my own TH top cover I think this is a defect in the plastic that was present in the molding process. Most plastic injection molding uses a mixture of fresh and regrind (sprues and flashing removed from molded parts that are ground up and returned to the molding process). If too much regrind is added the parts can get a little too brittle and cracks can occur. Since we rarely see it, it must not be a big problem with their molding process. Hopefully Yuneec will just send replacements to the few that are affected by this when it occurs.
 

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