Hello everyone, I am a new to drones and have a question about how to repair them. The last time I flew my SC-1 drone, I crash landed it on the street pavement. Unfortunately, before this happened, I removed the baskets. The drone still flies ok, but the cover and the body over and under one of the motors is broken. It is shattered to where it cannot be glued back and the basket cannot be reattached. I can buy a new body for it cheaply on the Syma Toy Site. Having not worked on drones before, I was thinking it would be not be too difficult to move the parts to a new body. But after watching some repair videos on Youtube, I am not so sure. Has anyone ever had to move all the parts from one body to another with a drone? I have not ordered the parts yet, and wanted to see what I was getting into. Has anyone taken out the on/off switch or the lights? I know the engines and the propellers need to go back just the way came out of the broken drone. How about the lamp shades? Do they come out easily? Any advice or insight offered on how to do this replacement would be most appreciated. Thanks
Replacing the shell on these "toy grade" drones is easier than you might think. Everything is held in with screws and plastic tabs (be mindful of the tabs, you can break these off without much effort). Make sure you have excellent lighting and a good work table that you won't lose any of the small screws (I like to throw a magnet tray on the table to collect the screws). Another "trick" I like to use is a good camera to snap plenty of pictures as I disassemble. These will serve as a good reference in case you have trouble reassembling and need a refresher on how the wires were routed. Some manufacturers use a spot of glue to hold wires or LEDs in place. If that is the case with your model, you can cut the glue out pretty easily and use a hot glue gun to reassemble in the new body. Don't get carried away with the glue. You don't want to add any more weight than you have to, and you don't want to throw the center of gravity of the quad off too much. And if you took a hard crash, take a close look at the motor and gears on each arm. Those plastic gears can become damaged pretty easily and it only takes a couple bad teeth on a gear to slow/stop a propeller.
LOL.. well maybe I'm more handy than I thought! Or maybe I've lucked out with the models I've opened up. I've been "under the hood" on my Syma X5C-1, and a buddies Syma X8C. Both were pretty straight forward on how they are put together. My biggest struggle with RC toys in the past is the hidden clips or snap together parts. I always manage to break some plastic when tearing those items down.
Thanks for your advice. One thing I would like to avoid is having to resolder or reglue anything. I would like to pick up everything and just place it into the new body and put all the screws back.
I am having problems with this drone. Is there anyway to re-attach the yellow camera wire that fits directly into the plug that goes into the drone? The wire has broken off. Can I solder the wire back into the plug --if so--with what--metal? I am afraid the end of the cable is still in hole where the wire goes into plug. Will I have to take the end out or can I reattach the end to the broken off piece---thanks,
