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An interesting repair challenge came to my lab last week and I thought it worthwhile to share because it involved a little
microsurgery type work.
As we know, surface mount boards can be a challenge in a normal component repair scenario. If the board is physically
damaged, it can get into the Fun Zone pretty quickly.
First a few words about the new mounting and hookup of the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K's CG03 camera. The original
camera mounted by sliding it onto a 'shoe' much like that on a hand held camera, upon which it would latch into place. A
small connector on wires from the CG03 would then plug into the underside of the aircraft.
The new style system is simpler for the owner. The 'shoe' on the camera and the respective item on the aircraft are
equipped with three little sliding contacts. On the aircraft they are gold plated pads, and on the camera they are special
gold plated spring‐metal contacts. This also locks into place upon being slid home. It is now not required to plug or
unplug a connector when attaching or removing the CG03 camera. I like it. A nice addition is a flexible rubber cover that
snaps over the contacts on the aircraft's underside to keep them clean whenever it may be used or handled without the
camera attached.
Inside the top part of the CG03, above the gimbal and directly below the 'shoe', there is a little board. On this board in
either case would be a plug for the original wiring harness to the aircraft socket. In the new model, three wires are
soldered to pads on the board and go up to a smaller board which carries the contacts. This whole thing is very well
made.
The little board from which the wire was ripped.
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330
Normally, and indeed in this case, wires soldered to PCB pads don't just come off, in fact it would require several pounds
of force to pull one off, and then one risks ripping up the PCB copper track ‐ that is, the 'wire' of the board itself. In the
Yuneec product, these wires are thick and strong, quite larger than would be needed for electrical purposes, and it
seems to be made this way to give the best strength to the assembly as a whole. The pads on the PCB are also larger
than would have been used in case only the tiny little wires were used. One difference I see between DJI product and
Yuneec, is apparently somewhat larger and more robust wiring as well as tougher (not as soft) insulation on wiring
between internal items inside the equipment of the latter.
As the reader may guess, here is the story of a crash and of the CG03 being hit quite hard so that its rubber mounts were
stretched to their limits, and one wire being pulled so hard that it did indeed come off with the usual unfortunate result
of a ruined PCB track. In this case the track was 0.4mm wide, which is a very common size and also good engineering
practice for compact PCB layout, for tracks used to transmit a simple electronic signal.
Normally I might be able to solder a jumper to the remaining track, but in this case there was no exposed end of
sufficient size to make the physically strong connection upon which I insist. Here is the point where the situation might
have required a new camera.
Ripped PWM track.
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330
The ruined pad was marked PWM, and this was encouraging because indeed the gimbal camera worked but could not
be moved. I felt that if I could restore that connection, I might be home free.
To shorten the story, I used a continuity tester of my own design that works at a very low voltage and will not injure
today's microcircuits, and placing one probe at the almost microscopic end of the torn off track, looked around to see
where another end of the circuit might be found. Fortunately there is a pin on a connector that is one of the
destinations of that track. (On a PCB a track can run all over the place to many different components) The loose wire was
just long enough to reach, and after preparing it by removal of the remains of the solder pad, dressing, and tinning, I
soldered it to the rear of the connector where the generously sized connector pin exited and surface‐mounted. It was
only about 1cm from the original place of the wire. The loose part of the track was later trimmed to prevent its moving
and possible shorts to other items.
Repair
Patrick Jankowiak
Service Manager
Replicopy / RDM Drones
1120 Jupiter Rd.
Suite 190
Plano, TX 75074
972‐702‐8388 X210
Disclosure: I was not paid to write this article nor asked to do it. I was paid to perform the described repair and wrote
the article to help others and to increase the public interest in electronics technology.
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330
Backup images
I need an X10‐40X ‘zoom’ stereo microscope
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330
Patrick Jankowiak 20160330