Sharper Image DX-2 goes to the Repair Shop

A little solder fixes the problem

     While flying my Sharper Image DX-2, it crashed into a pylon on the race course in the flight room.  I will talk about the race course in an up-coming post.  Usually, hitting a pylon is not dangerous since they are made of crepe paper streamers.  Whenever I hit one, I immediately shut down the throttle to avoid having the props cut the paper or getting the paper wound tightly around the prop and its shaft.  Most often the quad gets tangled in the streamers and stays suspended until I retrieve it, or, it falls harmlessly to the carpet.  

The race course pylons

     This time the DX-2 fell to the floor.  When I put it back on the launch pad everything appeared fine.  But, when I increased the throttle it immediately rolled over, not once, but a couple of times.  I inspected the propellers while slowly increasing throttle and discovered that one motor was not turning.  So, after removing 12 tiny screws, popping off the props and prop guards and separating the upper and lower sections of the quad, the problem was immediately apparent: a motor wire had a broken solder connection.  The only previous time that I had damage to a motor was with the Blade Nano when the motor cap pulled off and I had to replace the whole motor; but it just plugged in.

The DX-2 disassembled

     I got my soldering tools out and in a matter of minutes had the wire reattached.  I plugged the battery in, turned on the quad and the controller and carefully gave it a little throttle.  The motor spun perfectly.  But, another one of the motors would not spin.  I soon found that I had accidentally broken another connection.  A bit more soldering and that one was also fixed.  Reassembly and then back to the flight room to finish the flight and try to avoid the pylons.

     While I had the quad apart, I discovered that the battery could easily be replaced by soldering if and when the battery ever died.