There hasn't been much time for playing this year so I almost blew a gasket when I opened one of
these . . .
Holy crap these things are fun, and remind me how much I miss flying.
I was practicing hovers in the front room, about a foot high, halfway through the second battery and it bumped the entertainment center. Not even a crash, I had the nerf bars on and it just tipped up at an angle. But the angle of impact caused the stabilizer bar to bounce down and stopped the motors. Didn't break anything, but the three seconds it was under load with stopped motors the 4-in-1 control unit went "poof."
I figger 50/50, the guy at the LHS (where wife bought it) would weasel out of the warranty or give me the I-can-order-it-for-you line, so I have another 4-in-1 on the way, if it gets fixed I'll have a spare. So with nothing to lose, check this out . . . .
The first pic is when I opened the case. The padding is a double-adhesive pad between the case and electronics. But what's this stuck to it? I conjecture it came from point A . . .
second pic - I figger this is an SCR or FET or something being right next to the motor posts, and it's far too weak for the load, and it got so hot it melted the solder joints and just blew.
last pic - at first I thought it was a spare part just dropped in there and it was causing a short (always the optimist) because there's another chip like it on the board, but nay, the numbers are different . . . if you follow the line of the arrow, you can see a crack in the chip from where it blew.
This unit performs all the electronic functions for a heli - 4 channel FM receiver, proportional speed control, and supposedly a gyro (didn't feel like it
) and a short stop-down of the motor shouldn't cause the unit to blow. It will be interesting to see if the LHS or Horizon has any reaction.
Can't wait to get it running again dammit, it was pretty cool.
On the up-side - wife got a new 19" LCD to replace her burnt out CRT.
:snowman: -xmas-
)
