Watch out for that lamp post!

[Duck]

I took advantage of some social distance and flew the nearby highschool parking lot. The school is closed, under construction and has only one entrance a long way from where I was flying so I could avoid flying around anyone. I managed to get my 5" through a few packs. I haven't gotten to fly it much so I was taking advantage of the time and the space to push myself. It was awesome! I did however hit a very lovely lamp post.



It rang like a bell. The post is fine and the quad isn't too bad either. After this and one other hard landing in dirt I noticed that my batteries were picking up some pretty good marks from the button head screws I use on my frame.

Both seem salvageable but this isn't a good trend in two flights. Looking at it, I think the screws are actually taller then the Ummagrip battery pad I have on there. Given that I would expect this to keep happening when the battery gets knocked.

The quad on the bench afterwards. Look away from the bad soldering. You didn't see it.

While flying my quad after almost 9 months of keeping it in a drawer is probably worth one battery damaged, I don't think it is necessary. What can I do to avoid damaging my batteries on the screws? Should I switch to cap heads? Would putting a thicker battery pad on help? It looks like the QAV-R 2 pad that came with the frame is a tiny bit thicker but it also isn't sticky and awesome. How about just putting a larger pad that has cutouts around the screws? Would that reduce the abrasions?

What do you do to protect your battery during crashes?

 

[Duck]

I took advantage of some social distance and flew the nearby highschool parking lot. The school is closed, under construction and has only one entrance a long way from where I was flying so I could avoid flying around anyone. I managed to get my 5" through a few packs. I haven't gotten to fly it much so I was taking advantage of the time and the space to push myself. It was awesome! I did however hit a very lovely lamp post.

View attachment 166424
It rang like a bell. The post is fine and the quad isn't too bad either. After this and one other hard landing in dirt I noticed that my batteries were picking up some pretty good marks from the button head screws I use on my frame.

View attachment 166425

Both seem salvageable but this isn't a good trend in two flights. Looking at it, I think the screws are actually taller then the Ummagrip battery pad I have on there. Given that I would expect this to keep happening when the battery gets knocked.

View attachment 166426
The quad on the bench afterwards. Look away from the bad soldering. You didn't see it.

While flying my quad after almost 9 months of keeping it in a drawer is probably worth one battery damaged, I don't think it is necessary. What can I do to avoid damaging my batteries on the screws? Should I switch to cap heads? Would putting a thicker battery pad on help? It looks like the QAV-R 2 pad that came with the frame is a tiny bit thicker but it also isn't sticky and awesome. How about just putting a larger pad that has cutouts around the screws? Would that reduce the abrasions?

What do you do to protect your battery during crashes?

Bonus shot of the absolutely shattered standoffs after the second crash. I probably cracked them on the lamp post but were not completely loose. I didn't notice anything during inspection after the first crash. The second crash was actually the quad falling out of the sky during level flight after about 4 minutes of flight. Given it landed on soft dirt, I think the vibration while flying caused the crack to open up and the FC started flapping in the wind causing the crash.

The one in the middle, top is actually quite bent but whole. Three were sheared off and one snapped right through the middle of the thick part of the standoff.

They also happened to be my only 4mm M/F standoffs so I am grounded until I can replace them. Using a 6mm makes the VTX rub the battery strap.

 

[Tench745]

A point of clarification; the screws in your picture are cap-head screws. Switching to button-head will help. If you have the material I would put on thicker padding first, and also switch out to button head screws when you can. That said, even though I have an old 250 quad I'm not a quad guy. More experienced folks may have other/better ideas.

 

[Duck]

A point of clarification; the screws in your picture are cap-head screws. Switching to button-head will help. If you have the material I would put on thicker padding first, and also switch out to button head screws when you can. That said, even though I have an old 250 quad I'm not a quad guy. More experienced folks may have other/better ideas.

5 seconds of google says you are right. My box of screws says ... both?

 

[Tench745]

That's strange... am I reading it right, does it also say "nutz"?

 

[Duck]

That's strange... am I reading it right, does it also say "nutz"?

Lol, I wish. It is just poorly printed and my hand was shaking while holding my daughter.

 

[Duck]

So I found some more latent damage. I flew again and I again fell out of the sky. Everything looked ok so I armed the quad again after flipping it over and one of the motors was dead. It had obvious burn crust on the wires. I happened to buy an extra 4-pack of the motors for swaps so I was able to replace and I noticed that when I armed the quad on the bench without props, that motor stuttered alot. I bit the bullet and replaced the ESC and we seem to be back in business. The carbon for that arms also seems to be split around the middle where the layers have de-laminated. I bought extra arms but I am hoping this should be OK. Any reason to not fly like this? The motor screws effectively hold the arm together but I know it will be weaker if I take another hit. Ready to fly again for now.

The new tekko 32 esc appears to have a cap that the previous, purchased as part of a set of FC, ESC & VTX last year, didn't have. I soldered it as best I could. It is out of the prop but otherwise unsecured. Is that ok? I got alot of color flashes in the video before. It only reproduced while flying but was constant. Might this help? Do I need to resolder it so I can ziptie it?