Rotor/Motor stuck, not turning

dronevideosmontana · Aug 25, 2017

Hey there,

I flew my drone into a tree and now one of the motors wont start up like the others.
It is turning just a little bit but never gains enough thrust to take off. The other 3 motors are fine.

Can somebody help me please ?

Tufargon · Aug 25, 2017

I would contact Autel customer support. They are usually extremely fast to respond.

ovrszd · Aug 25, 2017

Yep. Unless you are technically proficient you are gonna have to send your Drone off for repair work.

The motors can be purchased online. So the repair is possible without shipping the drone to Autel. But if you have warranty remaining I'd suggest sending it.

Contact them on their website and start a "repair ticket". Expect to be without your drone for 3 weeks, maybe more depending on your physical location.

dronevideosmontana · Aug 28, 2017

I don't have warranty anymore.

But I think I can replace a motor by myself. As long as it is no programming

Would it work just to replace the motor or does it need some new programming ?

Where can I buy a motor ?

Jagerbomb52 · Aug 28, 2017

Autel motors cannot be bought online. Autel CS will tell you they do not know the size of the motors. If spraying compressed air into the motor from one of those cans of air for computer cleanup does not dislodge something that might be holding it back then your only option is to send it in for repair.
One of the members (Franlac) who lives in France just went through this.

intrepidusa · Aug 28, 2017

I just sent mine off to AR with FedEx this morning for my motor issue...unrelated to a crash though. If you are out of warranty it is going to be a little pricey I assume...the shipping of the case alone is going to cost plus the cost of parts and labor. See what they say...how long out of warranty are you? they need to sell warranty plans from AR if they are not going to offer parts availability. I am going to write them about that.

Jagerbomb52 · Aug 28, 2017

I wonder if a online petition got started to show Autel that it's customers want and need aftermarket parts if that would get them thinking? I'm sure there is a marketing scheme for not supplying parts like MORE MONEY but every other manufacturer has parts so I don't see their reasoning.

intrepidusa · Aug 28, 2017

I think that's a great idea Agustine. I've worked for retail organizations and for them to have parts distributors means more money for them in the long run...suppliers need to buy X amount of stock to be a supplier. My initial thought is that Autel just doesn't have the right people in place and they are staggering along in retail till they gain more market share. Going to do some checking and see if I can come up with the right contact there to send a nice email to and see if I get a response.

intrepidusa · Aug 28, 2017

Well that was a discouraging search...inactive Washington State registration as of March 2017 and layers of shell companies registered in Delaware...another LLC and a Holdings LLC...Yun Zhang is the "owner" of record, but Delaware doesn't give out free results like other states, you have to pay for them. Maybe a disgruntled DJI ex-employee? Who knows. I'm still looking for an email address...one record online shows 200 employees, this one shows 16 which was probably the original 16 and never updated since they probably did not submit their yearly standings report and went inactive (at least that's how it works here in Florida).

intrepidusa · Aug 29, 2017

Here's an update...I got to a VP at Autel and had a good exchange of messages. They are holding onto maintenance since it's their first consumer product but say that they will be looking at channel parts suppliers in the future. They are trying, in my reading of his message, to gauge what breaks and get some mean time between failure statistics to help them with parts inventory. They also stated in the conversation about "next generation" platforms which I was pleased to hear...means they are not dead and still looking for market share. $0 to $10M a year on one product isn't so bad...I think they just over did the manpower a little like a lot of startups do. If I hear more interesting things I will pass them along...I hope I made a new friend at Autel in the right place.

dronevideosmontana · Aug 30, 2017

intrepidusa said:
Here's an update...I got to a VP at Autel and had a good exchange of messages. They are holding onto maintenance since it's their first consumer product but say that they will be looking at channel parts suppliers in the future. They are trying, in my reading of his message, to gauge what breaks and get some mean time between failure statistics to help them with parts inventory. They also stated in the conversation about "next generation" platforms which I was pleased to hear...means they are not dead and still looking for market share. $0 to $10M a year on one product isn't so bad...I think they just over did the manpower a little like a lot of startups do. If I hear more interesting things I will pass them along...I hope I made a new friend at Autel in the right place.

Thank you for all your information !

It does somehow make sense for them to hold onto maintenance but obviously there is enough people out there that want to repair their drone themselves.

For me, I will try contacting customer service and have them fix it.

intrepidusa · Aug 30, 2017

@dronevideosmontana - Autel customer service is A+ in my book. I have been an executive leader in IT for many years and have seen both the worst and best examples of customer service departments...they obviously pride themselves on their customer skills and communicate with you as a true customer of value.

intrepidusa · Aug 30, 2017

This is going to be a long 3 weeks...it's been 2 days and I'm already jonseing to fly...beautiful weather tonight...this is going to cost me I'm sure.