Repair Cost vs Drone Replacement

hatfield · May 6, 2018

I have crashed my drone and it is busted up pretty bad. Way out of warranty plus it was my own fault. It has been a faultless drone, I just made a mistake. What are you guys seeing as average repair costs? I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to just get a replacement from ebay or amazon. I can get everything for less than $1,000. I'm hearing shipping costs are pretty high to send in and back, I need landing gear, arms, camera, props and who know what all else

RiverRunner · May 6, 2018

I just bought a refurbished one from Woot for $389. It was the newer design with the three antennas, ST16+. Looks and works like new. The deal has ended now but they come around every so often.

CraigCam · May 6, 2018

Consider a “color box” purchase or bind and fly only model. I’ve found it’s easier to buy a full replacement and get extra batteries and use your crash as parts. I’ve had luck with “second hand” purchase also from reputable pilots here. I’ve ended up redundant on most of my platforms that I’ve owned due to crashes but don’t regret getting more ships. My wife says I’ve got to thin the herd now as the only bird I don’t have multiple of is my Q500.

AH-1G · May 6, 2018

Yep, it's dead. You can tell by the decapitated head

and lying on its back.

PatR · May 8, 2018

I try to look at a combination of cost and time to determine if repair or replacement will be mos effective. Of course this assumes the warranty period has passed or that damages would not have been covered under warranty. If a repair will equal or exceed about $500.00 it may be better to replace the airframe and camera. This is especially true if you have to send it out for repair and have to pay for round trip shipping and labor charges. Commercial operators have another factor to consider as they have to file incident reports for crashes that exceed specific dollar amounts. For them retiring an aircraft for later use as "parts" even if repair costs are less than the reporting mandate may be an advantageous thing to do.

rdonson · May 8, 2018

Good explanation, Pat.

hatfield · May 16, 2018

I ended up getting a replacement drone package that includes everything with a 1 year warranty. I do have a question. I now have two ST-16 controllers. Can the H be bound to both at the same time to use one as an immediate backup or do I have to terminate binding with one to bind to the other?

rdonson · May 16, 2018

Congrats on the new drone!

The best use I’m aware of for 2 ST-16s is in team mode where one controller is for the pilot and the other for the camera operator.

You can certainly bind both ST16s to one drone but I don’t think it would work well if you tried to control the drone with both at the same time.

Eagle's Eye Video · May 16, 2018

No, it cannot be bound to both in the manner you suggesting, but the second ST-16 can be bound in team mode, rather than using the wizard to perform flight ops... that way both pilot and camera operator have a screen view.