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Should I Void My Warranty On My Controller

I was able to remove the battery. I don't think it's stuck to the tray anymore though. I have not tested the new antennas yet let us know how it goes. My stock antennas were replaced by autel a few weeks ago and already one of the replacements started to crack that's why I decided to replace them myself.
Well I can tell you something. I think I **** my pants today.

I went out to test the antennas. I am not sure if one of the cables inside the controller got damaged and is not receiving or if it's the external antenna that simply do not work. I mean, with or without the antennas attached, I lose connection at the same place.

I decided to do a mission of a house at 100'. Once it reached 70' I got disconnected and it did not connect until it started to land. I had 0 control over my Evo. It was the most intensive 12 minutes of my life. Once it landed I decided to take it out for a spin to see if it was a fluke. Since I am in a neighborhood, I wanted to achieve 250' but after 70' it disconnected and kept gaining altitude without input. Luckily I was going up slowly, so it didn't reach above 150' before RTH kicked in and landed.

When I get home tonight, I'm sticking the OEM ones back and hope they didn't get damaged in the process. If not, Autel will get $300 for a new controller. ?????

Update: It seems I forgot to set the camera settings to take photos while doing the mission. So I have nothing to show for all this effort. heh.
 
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I'm sure you guys know or at least I hope you know that any time you turn on a transmitter\receiver with out the antennas you could damage it? The RF needs a way out and if it does not have a way out you will burn up the transmitter over time. As a kid I found this out very fast with broken antennas on my wakie talkie set.
 
Has anyone tried populating the empty 900mhz area in the controller with connectors and antennas?

Someone in one of the EVO facebook groups said they moved the connectors over from the 2.4ghz antennas to the 900mhz area and it worked. I have a hard time believing this but I'm going to do some experimenting myself when I upgrade the 2.4ghz antennas.

That leads me to another question. Has anyone removed the bottom of the bird? Curious if the bird itself has the 900mhz antennas installed. From the FCC document photos the antenna connectors are all visible when the bottom is removed.
 
I'm sure you guys know or at least I hope you know that any time you turn on a transmitter\receiver with out the antennas you could damage it? The RF needs a way out and if it does not have a way out you will burn up the transmitter over time. As a kid I found this out very fast with broken antennas on my wakie talkie set.
I wasn't awared of that. Thanks for the info. When I went ahead with it, I knew there was a possibility of breaking my controller and having to buy a new one. I will finf out tonight if it's so.

Has anyone tried populating the empty 900mhz area in the controller with connectors and antennas?

Someone in one of the EVO facebook groups said they moved the connectors over from the 2.4ghz antennas to the 900mhz area and it worked. I have a hard time believing this but I'm going to do some experimenting myself when I upgrade the 2.4ghz antennas.

That leads me to another question. Has anyone removed the bottom of the bird? Curious if the bird itself has the 900mhz antennas installed. From the FCC document photos the antenna connectors are all visible when the bottom is removed.
This would require soldering and understanding the know how of how transmitters work. That is assuming the software is programmed to understand the 900mhz frequency. In other words, I'm sjeptical and would take it with a grain of salt.
 
After trying to fix the broken antennas myself (dim eyes and old clumsy fingers) broke the post on the mother board. I sent my control in to get fixed on May 31 I got the estimate from Autel on June 3 It arrived at my door June 14. I don't see any problems with that friendly and excellent service. I had a problem once before with battery's on my Xstar same service.
How much was the repair for the antennas? In case I may have damaged my radio, I want to have an idea if it's worth repairing or simply getting a new one.
 
Order summary
Labor × 1
0.5 hour
$30.00​
EVO-RC Mainboard PCB × 1
$100.00​
EVO-RC Antenna Left Short × 1
$10.78​
EVO-RC Antenna Right Long × 1
$10.82​
Subtotal
$151.60
Shipping
$0.00
Total
$151.60 USD
Kind of an expensive lesson for this old coot. Trying to save a few bucks. I do wish they would redesign those things The range is more than adequate with the stock antennas. If I had to screw the antennas in each flight so be it as long as there strong.
 
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Order summary

Labor × 1
0.5 hour
$30.00​
EVO-RC Mainboard PCB × 1
$100.00​
EVO-RC Antenna Left Short × 1
$10.78​
EVO-RC Antenna Right Long × 1
$10.82​
Subtotal
$151.60
Shipping
$0.00
Total
$151.60 USD
Kind of an expensive lesson for this old coot. Trying to save a few bucks. I do wish they would redesign those things The range is more than adequate with the stock antennas. If I had to screw the antennas in each flight so be it as long as there strong.
The price is within reason. Hopefully my mainboard has no problems and I'm stuck with the $51.60.
 
I wasn't awared of that. Thanks for the info. When I went ahead with it, I knew there was a possibility of breaking my controller and having to buy a new one. I will finf out tonight if it's so.


This would require soldering and understanding the know how of how transmitters work. That is assuming the software is programmed to understand the 900mhz frequency. In other words, I'm sjeptical and would take it with a grain of salt.
Well I can tell you something. I think I **** my pants today.

I went out to test the antennas. I am not sure if one of the cables inside the controller got damaged and is not receiving or if it's the external antenna that simply do not work. I mean, with or without the antennas attached, I lose connection at the same place.

I decided to do a mission of a house at 100'. Once it reached 70' I got disconnected and it did not connect until it started to land. I had 0 control over my Evo. It was the most intensive 12 minutes of my life. Once it landed I decided to take it out for a spin to see if it was a fluke. Since I am in a neighborhood, I wanted to achieve 250' but after 70' it disconnected and kept gaining altitude without input. Luckily I was going up slowly, so it didn't reach above 150' before RTH kicked in and landed.

When I get home tonight, I'm sticking the OEM ones back and hope they didn't get damaged in the process. If not, Autel will get $300 for a new controller. ?????

Update: It seems I forgot to set the camera settings to take photos while doing the mission. So I have nothing to show for all this effort. heh.

I have a controller if you need one.
 
Back to OEM. Now to test them before the light goes.
20190628_174518.jpg

Edit: Started to rain....FML....

As I feared. The battery broke the antenna cable.
20190628_174914.jpg
 
Update.

Took advantage of a little window between clouds and took her flying. Got up to 400' up and 1,600 distance with some trees between us. Only lost 1 bar. Will take her to the beach next weekend and see if I can get the .8 mi which is as far as I can see to keep it VLOS.

I am glad that I kept the originals in good shape and didn't damage the main board.
 
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That's good that you didn't damage your radio. I have yet to test mine I guess I will try a long range test first with it on the ground.
 
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I felt the same way. My antennas were not broke yet and I replaced them anyway. Night and day difference.
This thread is warning about replacing the antennas. But you are saying that you did the replacement yourself and that the new ones are better, right? Do you mean they are better in how they work, or they are just stronger?
 
Update.

Took advantage of a little window between clouds and took her flying. Got up to 400' up and 1,600 distance with some trees between us. Only lost 1 bar. Will take her to the beach next weekend and see if I can get the .8 mi which is as far as I can see to keep it VLOS.

I am glad that I kept the originals in good shape and didn't damage the main board.
Sorry I didn't see your posts before you damaged the connector. I have had a ton of stuff going on. The battery in the controller has to be carefully lifted and moved over to fit in between the new connectors. I thought I mentioned that before in previous posts. You can always buy another kit or single connector and try again. The battery is just glued down. It may take a few min but if you are careful you can slowly lift it up and move it. You can not bend the leads on the connectors at all. My antennas are working awesome so far. I just took them out and tested them a couple days ago. I will be uploading a video of it soon to my YouTube channel.
 
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Probaby better off trying to get something like these that don't come straight out and are off set so they will not hit the battery.

View attachment 4659

That is a great idea. That might just solve the issue. I know the connectors included in the 4Hawks kit are 90 degree connectors.
 
Sorry I didn't see your posts before you damaged the connector. I have had a ton of stuff going on. The battery in the controller has to be carefully lifted and moved over to fit in between the new connectors. I thought I mentioned that before in previous posts. You can always buy another kit or single connector and try again. The battery is just glued down. It may take a few min but if you are careful you can slowly lift it up and move it. You can not bend the leads on the connectors at all. My antennas are working awesome so far. I just took them out and tested them a couple days ago. I will be uploading a video of it soon to my YouTube channel.
I don't know if your battery is different from mine, but there is no wiggle room inside my controller. Literally there is just enough space for the battery and fan. It cannot be moved to any side. It was bigger than the guide @Apollo11capcom posted a while back.

Also, I found them a bit to big for my liking. Perhaps I'll try again in the future, but for now I'll leave them stock.
 
Are those long enough ? I just had to flip the battery over to get the rc case to close.
Probaby better off trying to get something like these that don't come straight out and are off set so they will not hit the battery.

View attachment 4659

 

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