Replacing Receiver antennas?

[sprzout]

Last night, while bolting my drone back together, I accidentally cut the receiver antennas with the top plate. I'd done this once before and soldered one of the wires back together, which worked; the drone still got good reception and no problems.

However, I've now shortened the antenna wires by a fair amount, and so I started looking into how to fix it (if it were not going to cause further issues), or replacing the receiver itself.

So I went the drastic route first, replacing the entire receiver - I figure this is a worst case scenario and I can see what the cost would be.

My Blade Conspiracy 220 comes with a Spektrum DSMX Quad receiver with Diversity, model SPM4648. So I start to pull that up on Horizon Hobby, when I see that they have this:

"Replacement Antenna

Needless to say, I'm intrigued. Has anyone ever replaced their receiver antennas? I'm willing to give it a shot, even if it's $10 for the replacement antennas; it looks like these are plug in replacements for the receiver. Has anyone else tried this?

 

[PsyBorg]

For general information as long as the wire is long enough to expose ~32.5 mm of the core you can still use them. Over all wire length means nothing. Its the length of the exposed core that actually is the antenna.

As for replacement antennas if those are made for your receivers specific model number then yes you can replace them quite easily as they are basically electronic snaps like on baby clothes.

 

[jtrops]

That looks like it's the way to go. $10 doesn't sound too bad for something that you just plug in. Plus you get 4 of them.

I have made new antenna's for Rx's, and VTx's out of very small coax. They have worked well, and in the case of the VTx the reception actually seemed better than the clover antenna it replaced. As PsyBorg said it's the exposed section at the end that needs to be the right length (based on the wavelength of the band you are broadcasting in).

 

[sprzout]

For general information as long as the wire is long enough to expose ~32.5 mm of the core you can still use them. Over all wire length means nothing. Its the length of the exposed core that actually is the antenna.

As for replacement antennas if those are made for your receivers specific model number then yes you can replace them quite easily as they are basically electronic snaps like on baby clothes.

Ah!! Good to know!!! The way that I read it was that it was like life and death if they got cut at all. I'm still going to try to replace them, and absolute worst case scenario, a new receiver is $25...Although, I have a spare OrangeRX quad receiver that I bought in error a few months back; I wonder if it would work if I just swapped the cable connection from the Spektrum to that?

Still going to try and chase down the replacement antennas, and hopefully get lucky at the hobby shop down the street - they're a Horizon branded retailer, they might have them in stock. Can't hurt to check, right?

 

[LitterBug]

I do this all the time! Man I must crash alot.... LOL I've picked them up from amain hobbies for less. The lemonRX ones I pick up direct from the lemmonrx web site.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[sprzout]

This all makes me feel better that I can replace the antennas. When I first got my drone, the kid who was working the hobby shop said, "Yeah, don't break these antennas. If you do, it's really expensive to replace." He made it seem like I had to replace the entire FC, etc...Good to know I don't!

 

[PsyBorg]

Well depends on the receiver and if they are hard soldered to the pcb or if you actually damage the connectors for the replaceable ones. Just be very careful as the tiny connectors they use are only designed for a 10 - 20 cycle max where they will be reliable.

 

[sprzout]

Well depends on the receiver and if they are hard soldered to the pcb or if you actually damage the connectors for the replaceable ones. Just be very careful as the tiny connectors they use are only designed for a 10 - 20 cycle max where they will be reliable.

No worries there. I figure I'll try replacing it, and worst case scenario, spend another $25 to replace the receiver. If the cheap fix works, great - if it doesn't, so be it.

 

[sprzout]

So, I just realized that I didn't come back and say whether I was able to fix this!

Good news is, YES!

I followed this video to do so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5aHO8x6QZw

I bought a...6 pack? 8 pack? I forget exactly how many antennas were in the package, but I was able to buy them off of Amazon, and follow through with the video instructions to put in the new antennas.

Something I found that was different from what the video showed:

On the back of some of the Spektrum receivers, there are little hex screws, which I think were 0.5 mm. You'll need a teeny tiny allen key wrench to get all of that loosened, so if you don't have it, invest in the set before attempting to pull everything apart or else you'll end up breaking the receiver case to get it open. The video doesn't mention it, but on 99.9% of the new Spektrum receivers, they have these screws that have to be undone before you can pry the receiver apart.

Also, the new antennas are longer than the originals, but it works just fine. Popped off, popped on, and everything's great with the new antenna wires!