Typhoon H Crash Impact Damage - Yuneec did a good job - Impressive!

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Many of you know that I had an unfortunate incident with my Typhoon H on the 2nd day of flying. I'm chalking it up to a battery defect causing a loss of GPS & connection, since it appears now that my battery was defective upon receipt. I'm a very experienced drone pilot, but honestly, I had next to zero control 10 seconds after getting a low battery warning.

Regardless, I'm still highly recommending the Typhoon H as an excellent hex with plenty of potential (the best is yet to come). So anyone who says something such as "OK, now I'm buying a P4", never really intended on buying a Typhoon H in the first place.

In the end my Typhoon's battery gave out and it came down from a height of approx 12 feet while drifting away. The landing gear took the impact, but caused it to bounce & cartwheel.

Yuneec was pretty smart in designing the Typhoon H. They knew it had to be able to take damage. They did not make it unbreakable, but they designed it so that any impact on the arms or legs would cause them to flex and absorb the impact and not damage internal components. My damaged Typhoon H is a fine example.

Oh.... and please note: MY TYPHOON H STILL WORKS!!!! Yup I powered it on to see if there were any errors showing up, and there are none. Of course it can't fly since it needs a couple of arms and a landing leg. But the gimbal & camera connect, the gimbal works even though the plastic is broken. Well done to Yuneec!

Photos are posted below:

 

[seabee]

Photos please.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

PHOTO #1: Yuneec built these breakaway metal pieces which are what the six arms snap onto and are held in the upright position. If the arm takes an impact, it could break the arm/motor/body (well, mine kinda cracked a bit of the upper shell as seen in the photo). Instead these small pieces of metal break away and permit the arm to come unlocked, thus avoiding massive damage. I would guess that replacing these pieces are super inexpensive. So if your arm no longer locks in place you just need to screw in a new connecter (you can see the head of the screw inside the body).

 

[seabee]

PHOTO #1: Yuneec built these breakaway metal pieces which are what the six arms snap onto and are held in the upright position. If the arm takes an impact, it could break the arm/motor/body (well, mine kinda cracked a bit of the upper shell as seen in the photo). Instead these small pieces of metal break away and permit the arm to come unlocked, thus avoiding massive damage. I would guess that replacing these pieces are super inexpensive. So if your arm no longer locks in place you just need to screw in a new connecter (you can see the head of the screw inside the body).

View attachment 657

Thanks. Looks like a good design. Might even be field replaceable.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

PHOTO #2: Because my Typhoon H did the cartwheel thing after bouncing, two of the arms took a big impact. You can see that the carbon fiber is very thin. Again this is a good thing so that there is flexibility. If they did not snap then something else on the Drone would have snapped. The second photo shows that the motor was pulled off the carbon fiber. This can be pushed back on and tightened in place, although there is a hairline crack in the plastic motor mount which requires replacing as that crack will spread with the vibrations. Please note that all six motors sustained ZERO damage! Once again, the carbon fiber tube arms are easily replaceable and I would guess they are rather inexpensive (there's not much to them). Or if you're a crazy fixer dude, you could easily patch such a break back together by placing a sleeve over it.... or duct tape

 

[seabee]

PHOTO #2: Because my Typhoon H did the cartwheel thing after bouncing, two of the arms took a big impact. You can see that the carbon fiber is very thin. Again this is a good thing so that there is flexibility. If they did not snap then something else on the Drone would have snapped. The second photo shows that the motor was pulled off the carbon fiber. This can be pushed back on and tightened in place, although there is a hairline crack in the plastic motor mount which requires replacing as that crack will spread with the vibrations. Please note that all six motors sustained ZERO damage! Once again, the carbon fiber tube arms are easily replaceable and I would guess they are rather inexpensive (there's not much to them). Or if you're a crazy fixer dude, you could easily patch such a break back together by placing a sleeve over it.... or duct tape View attachment 658 View attachment 659

Sure like the cable lacing to prevent chaffing.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

PHOTO #3: If you already have the Typhoon H in your possession, you may have noticed that the upper body piece is a thinner plastic than the lower piece. If you touch the top and apply slight pressure it will bend inward. Due to the thinner plastic the top GPS portion looks like it's been to war and back. The GPS still works though!. The bottom portion of the body has no damage, however the top portion has hairline cracks here and there. So, like all Yuneec products you can replace the body pieces for a rather inexpensive cost.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

PHOTO #4: OK... This was SUPER SMART on Yuneec's part. If you are a DJI Phantom owner you'll know that almost any crash will cause your gimbal to become damaged with a high replacement/repair cost (in the hundreds $$$). The reason for this is because the gimbal/camera on a PHANTOM is held securely in place so it takes all the impact. What Yuneec did was they created the removable camera held in place by a thin breakaway piece of plastic. Have a look at the two photos. In the first photo is the portion of the gimbal that connects to the bottom of the Typhoon H. The other piece it connects to is shown in the second photo (they slide into each other). Both pieces are removable and probably really inexpensive. They seem to be designed to snap apart upon impact thus saving your camera. MY CAMERA and 360 Gimbal STILL WORK!

 

[DroneClone]

Many of you know that I had an unfortunate incident with my Typhoon H on the 2nd day of flying. I'm chalking it up to a battery defect causing a loss of GPS & connection, since it appears now that my battery was defective upon receipt. I'm a very experienced drone pilot, but honestly, I had next to zero control 10 seconds after getting a low battery warning.

Regardless, I'm still highly recommending the Typhoon H as an excellent hex with plenty of potential (the best is yet to come). So anyone who says something such as "OK, now I'm buying a P4", never really intended on buying a Typhoon H in the first place.

In the end my Typhoon's battery gave out and it came down from a height of approx 12 feet while drifting away. The landing gear took the impact, but caused it to bounce & cartwheel.

Yuneec was pretty smart in designing the Typhoon H. They knew it had to be able to take damage. They did not make it unbreakable, but they designed it so that any impact on the arms or legs would cause them to flex and absorb the impact and not damage internal components. My damaged Typhoon H is a fine example.

Oh.... and please note: MY TYPHOON H STILL WORKS!!!! Yup I powered it on to see if there were any errors showing up, and there are none. Of course it can't fly since it needs a couple of arms and a landing leg. But the gimbal & camera connect, the gimbal works even though the plastic is broken. Well done to Yuneec!

Photos are posted below:

Why haven't you called and told them they are late with the RMA, I'd be in their face after two days of waiting for it! DJI did that and after 48 Hrs I called and they sent me one in 2 minutes to my email! Maybe they lost it? Happens!

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

PHOTO #5: Here is the bottom of my Typhoon H. It is a strong plastic & holds all the brains of the craft... it took no damage. However, one landing gear leg works and the other is limp (flops around). You can't see it in the photo, but if you remove the two hex screws there is a small connector inside which has snapped off. The legs, with their beefy design, did not crack or break. They are designed to snap loose on impact. Again I would guess that the small connecter piece is rather inexpensive to replace.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Why haven't you called and told them they are late with the RMA, I'd be in their face after two days of waiting for it! DJI did that and after 48 Hrs I called and the sent me one in 2 minutes to my email! Maybe they lost it? Happens!

They were quick with the RMA, but slow with the UPS shipping return notification. Oddly, I just received that 15 minutes ago. So tomorrow the H should be on it's way back to Yuneec for analysis/repair or replacement.

 

[NoLimits]

They were quick with the RMA, but slow with the UPS shipping return notification. Oddly, I just received that 15 minutes ago. So tomorrow the H should be on it's way back to Yuneec for analysis/repair or replacement.

Same thing happen to me. The H dropped and those metal pieces in the arm broke. So I sent it back. I got the RMA the same day I called but it took them 5 days to send me the Shipping label. I have a P4 and once i get my H back I am going to film a review of them both and see which one is better.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

One last item that broke... 5 props shattered into pieces. All that remains is what is shown in the photos... the other pieces were two small to retrieve. I would highly suggest to all Typhoon H owners to begin ordering extra props.

 

[DroneClone]

They were quick with the RMA, but slow with the UPS shipping return notification. Oddly, I just received that 15 minutes ago. So tomorrow the H should be on it's way back to Yuneec for analysis/repair or replacement.

Good! That's what I meant, sorry! Shipping Label! Hope you get her back real soon, I bet they just send you a new one! and inspect her like a crash car dummy for even possible internal injury's!.

 

[druiz100]

Thanks for posting the pictures. However knowing that some one who knows how to fly good crashed the H isn't helping us people who don't have the H yet decide to keep our orders.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Good! That's what I meant, sorry! Shipping Label! Hope you get her back real soon, I bet they just send you a new one! and inspect her like a crash car dummy for even possible internal injury's!.

I hope so. I'm starting to miss the old bird already!

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Thanks for posting the pictures. However knowing that some one who knows how to fly good crashed the H isn't helping us people who don't have the H yet decided to keep our orders.

There are so few of us who have reported problems that the odds of you having a problem is highly unlikely. Don't cancel your order. Trust me, this is a great drone that is very easy to fly.

 

[DroneClone]

I hope so. I'm starting to miss the old bird already!

Tell me about it! Mine's been down after 4 flights, for 2 days, cause the mushroom antenna broke in transit. And Yuneec said not to fly as if it is not connecting , it could fry the ST16, should be hear in 2 days!

 

[NoCoOutdoorGuys]

CAPTAINDRONE, thanks for turning your crash into a learning experience for the rest of us. As a hopefully soon new drone owner this stuff is invaluable to me.

 

[Tecneek]

Do not fly if there is a good wind - can top over. The H seems to have issues with landing in windws. I do not recommend doing this, but I put on safety glasses, and lowered my craft around 7 feet and grab the leg while shutting down. I did this with my Q500 4K.