What have you been up to?

Don’t you hate that question?  Depending on the person, I always take a moment to reflect on what I have and haven’t been doing.  During this short moment of self-reflection, I have to decide whether or not I should be thinking about what I have done or what I haven’t done.  What is my mood at that particular moment….am I sarcastic? Am I excited?  Depressed?  Is the typical Pacific Northwest mood affecting me?  Is the rain getting me down?  Is my Facebook envy getting the better of me?

Today, I might say:

Well, I haven’t been posting on my blog…

Well, I haven’t been doing as much work on being a passive income (business) like I should….

I haven’t been working on my school photography business like I should…

Or preparing my business documents for my tax accountant like I should….

On the flip side, my positive outlook would make me reply in such a manner that my life is going awesome!

Well, we got our Phantom 3 drone 90% repaired!

I published two blog posts today and I’m on my way to uploading the third.

I finished the novel Doctor Sleep by Stephen King and the other three books I’m reading are holding my interest for the time being.

I’m thinking about writing a science fiction novel or even a romance novel (who cares that I’m not the least bit romantic…I know my book will be a bestseller!)

And today is actually sunny here in the Seattle area so I’m in a delightful mood.

So…what have you been up to my dear readers?

 

 

About a week and a half ago, I crashed our Phantom 3 drone because I was being stupid.  Needless to say, we ordered replacement parts and my son installed them.  Everything was running but we had some issues with the camera (2.7K camera).  It was a bit slated and it seemed to be getting jammed,  My son’s attempts to correct it failed and I made the executive decision to just go ahead and buy a new camera.  A new camera was ordered and should arrive on Monday.

The other part that was broken was the compass.  This part was replaced fairly easily.  Thank goodness for YouTube and other people flying the Phantom 3, and their repair videos.  YouTube makes life a lot easier for us, don’t you agree?

Here’s the video just before I crashed during a flight over Lake Union.

After my drone crash and my son’s lecture to me about proper flying techniques, we assessed the damage and figured out the parts we needed to order.  Prior to my son and I assessing the damage together, I had taken the drone into a local drone shop in Bellevue for some input and assessment.  They seemed pretty knowledgeable and give me a quick assessment.  The motors appear to be OK (I thought so as well).  I wanted my son and I to have the chance to look over the drone together and then make a repair decision.  As you can clearly see from the photos (in my last post), the camera was torn from the gimble (broken yaw arm).  Since the camera is detached from the gimble, the camera cable ribbon is also sheared off and needs replacement.

DJI doesn’t seem to sell just the gimble part to their cameras.  They would like you to replace the camera (ours is the Phantom 3 Advanced model with the 2.7K camera).  Cost of the replacement camera is $409 (not included any taxes or shipping fees).  I found a couple of different suppliers for the yaw arm ($50-$99) on Amazon and Ebay.  I purchased the camera cable ribbon directly from DJI for $35 plus $10 shipping.  I did find that online at other suppliers for cheaper but thought I’d better go with OEM parts for the cable ribbon.

One of the landing gear/skids was cracked but we will glue or use epoxy that together.

The last part I broke (but I think that it may have been broken when my son and this friend were trying to push it back together) was the compass on the Phantom 3.  The compass appears to be in one of the landing skids.  The compass itself wasn’t broken but the small cables were cut in half.  I think they were sliced when my son and his friend tried to push it together.  That cable couldn’t be fixed so I ordered that part as well (roughly $20).