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And Another Rakon Q500 Build.....

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Well the kit arrived a week or so ago, had it shipped to where I work because I needed a bright spot in my work day,,,,,

Pictures, sorry, didn't take time out from the project for that,

Tools you'll need are a set of small allen drivers, 1mm, 1.5mm & 2mm.
A good hobby quality 00 size phillips screw driver.
I also used a set of Magni-Focus magnifying headset, some of the parts are really small,
A well lit work area about the size of a card table,
!.5 gal. of Loc-Tite, blue or red your choice.

The instructions are good by standards of upgrade kits but you'll find yourself searching Youtube and the net for images, I did that prior to the start of the build and the only thing that was hard to find was the compass mount location, that's wasn't real clear until I found a pic of another build while scanning images, it hangs down under the bird right out in the open,,,,

Time wise, well there are 48 1.5mm allen screws holding just the motor arms/supports of the Q500 together, 12 on each arm/support.
There are twenty 2mm allen screws holding the main center area of the body shell together,,,,,,,,,

So as to say I spent my pre-breakfast hour & a half screwing around,,,,,,,,,

You won't be reusing any of those screws for the Rakon build so they can go into a small container and moved aside.

However, when you get to the inside of the old bird you will be reusing some of the component screws so keep them separated and safe cause there are no extra screws in this kit for anything.

I made the decision to un-solder the main power wires to the speed control at the speed controller vs un-soldering them at the main flight control board, main reason is that speed controllers are less expensive the the main FC board for one and two, both front & rear LED leads are one plug on each side of the FCB instead of individual connectors for each LED board but at each board there is a small pin connector for the LED board on the ESC.
Gently remove those connectors at the ESC then using a good quality soldering iron remove the power wires from the ESC, be careful of the small plastic pin connector on the board it's very close to where the main power wires solder onto the board.

Save the LED lens & LED board screws, you'll be reusing those.

My airframe was badly damaged from a crash by the previous owner, he had tried to glue it back together without separating the two body shell half's but was sure it would be OK,
\Lucky for me I didn't go out & fly it, inside many of the internal posts that the body shell screws secure into were also broken and so were many of the motor mount bases on the arms.

I cut slots in each motor housing so I wouldn't have to un-solder the motor from the ESC and you won't have to to install it in the motor mount of the kit.

The battery box & door will be reused in the rebuild, remove the screws that secure the battery plug at the end of the box and the door will remove itself when you lift the box out,,,,,,,
It's not too difficult to figure out how it fits the box after you have it out and can look at things.
The door retainer clip in the top shell will be reused.

When removing the motors with ESC's still attached, and I labeled them as per RF, LF, RR, & LR

I also decided to reuse the rubber vibration pads for each motor in the new kit and they took a bit of modification to work in it but not hard, just cut out the joining rubber tube of each screw mount hole and reuse the rubber washer under the original motor screw & washer with the pad under the motor.

Removing the main rear LED is not hard just be careful not to break of the lens cover tabs that hold it onto the body but you can break off the two little tabs that hold the LED board to the body.

Same with the compass sensor, remove it from the body, unplug it and then the sensor board tabs can be broke off the bracket so to save any damage to the sensor by trying to pry it out of those tabs.
You won't be reusing the compass mount in the build, they supply one.

When I was all done with the disassembly I was able to lay the entire wire harness out into the new body deck.

The kit comes as 3 main sealed bags, landing gear & fasteners, motor arms & fasteners, a fastener & sticker bag.
When you open any of the bags do it over the work area as that there will be some of the fasteners that have worked they way back out of the sub assemblies so take your time and count all the screws for each of the components.

The fastener bag has separate bags in there for the gimbal mount, compass, & a main fastener bag with all the other body deck screws,

And a bag of stickers,

The motor arms are assembled but the screws are not tight, that was nice of them because it puts all the fasteners for each one already sorted out for you.

The body shell and body component decks come in there own sealed bundle of bubble wrap, and of course 90% of the body fasteners are in there too so don't get crazy un-wrapping the bubble bundle.

The motor arm brackets are already in place on each corner of the main deck, the lower deck and main deck are secured together.

I didn't realize what time it's getting to be, I have to get off to work but I'll do another post about assembling the kit, there are some tips & hints I think will help anybody willing to build this kit, I didn't find it hard or difficult, just time consuming.


Oh, and one other thing, before you start make sure you keep the cats out of the room and be at peace with the world,,,,,,,,,
 
Morning all, I know the last one was kinda long winded, I just wanted to list some of the tips or procedures for the tear down vs the build, everybody focuses on the build but it's important to take things apart for the build.

On the build tips:
on every screw that goes into metal fasteners, even the factory installed fasteners on the airframe decks, they are all loose, they just put them in to hold things in place for shipping.
Remove every single one on each and every part and tip the end with Loc-Tite, I used a tooth pick and a small dipping cup, they don't need a lot but all of them need some, even the ones going into ny-lock nuts.

The power wires are just long enough to reach the front two motor ESC's, you could cut them at about 1.5" back from the exit of the arm but you would loose some needed length for soldering them back together, plus when you re-solder to the ESC you can angle the wires a bit to point them down the motor arm.

I secured the FC board in first and laid all the wires out from there, at this point you could soften up the solder on the FC board for the forward motor power wires and point them forward from the board, this will give you a bit extra length on them to reach the motors, I didn't because I didn't want to risk any heat damage to the FC from my soldering iron.


Once I had the main deck assembled and the motors all soldered up I went back and used hot melt glue to secure them at a few points on the deck to keep them from wiggling during flight and reduce any chance of chafing.

Up on top, under the GPS board I used the copper foil from the upper body shell to shield it like it was in the original airframe, probably didn't need to, just thought if they had done it there was a reason.

Besides the vibration pads under the motors that's about it, I mentioned my mod for those in the first post.

'Good luck and have fun, it's an all day project.
 
Last edited:
Morning all, I know the last one was kinda long winded, I just wanted to list some of the tips or procedures for the tear down vs the build, everybody focuses on the build but it's important to take things apart for the build.

On the build tips:
on every screw that goes into metal fasteners, even the factory installed fasteners on the airframe decks, they are all loose, they just put them in to hold things in place for shipping.
Remove every single one on each and every part and tip the end with Loc-Tite, I used a tooth pick and a small dipping cup, they don't need a lot but all of them need some, even the ones going into ny-lock nuts.

The power wires are just long enough to reach the front two motor ESC's, you could cut them at about 1.5" back from the exit of the arm but you would loose some needed length for soldering them back together, plus when you re-solder to the ESC you can angle the wires a bit to point them down the motor arm.

I secured the FC board in first and laid all the wires out from there, at this point you could soften up the solder on the FC board for the forward motor power wires and point them forward from the board, this will give you a bit extra length on them to reach the motors, I didn't because I didn't want to risk any heat damage to the FC from my soldering iron.


Once I had the main deck assembled and the motors all soldered up I went back and used hot melt glue to secure them at a few points on the deck to keep them from wiggling during flight and reduce any chance of chafing.

Up on top, under the GPS board I used the copper foil from the upper body shell to shield it like it was in the original airframe, probably didn't need to, just thought if they had done it there was a reason.

Besides the vibration pads under the motors that's about it, I mentioned my mod for those in the first post.

'Good luck and have fun, it's an all day project.
Any pics of your Build?
 

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