Q500 Rebuild (w/ Stock Airframe) Questions

[DronePiX]

Tips and/or Advice on ESC desoldering my Q500 motors;
I'm currently rebuilding my Typhoon Q500 4K due to a pilot error crash, ya I admitted it, was a dumb *** and flew at night over a 55ft tall tree and clipped the peak which resulted in a 55ft branch-to-branch tumble...ouch! (effectively busted off the RF motor mount arm on the airframe completely, glued it back on with Gorilla Glue Epoxy which held impressively however it resulted in a repair that had about a 1.5° degree pitch on the prop, essentially making normal flight (even with full pitch correction maxed out) impossible, with it constantly turning leftward slowly, landings and flight became dangerous and too risky to fly even in zero wind. Ordered a new airframe and now desoldering the ESC and power wires to the motors... now my PRIMARY QUESTION is;
1. What's the easiest way to accomplish this task. Should I desolder at the ESC board under the motors (or) desolder the lines from the main board? (The main board solder points/contacts are much smaller than the ESC board points, I'm assuming this would be the easier route but would like some pointers on this from folks that have done it before.
Also my first ESC wire I desoldered (a RF black one on the motor ESC board) resulted in needing too much heat and the tiny triple wire ESC plug housing dropped off the ESC board, which is micro soldered or solder pasted on... not looking forward to this repair either lol, but I have accomplished rebuilding a couple of Hubsan H501S and H501C 500mm quads successfully, I'm no electronics expert but can be handy, most of the time lol.
Thanks in advance folks for any tips/advice!

 

[WTFDproject]

For the two mainboard wires, it is definitely better to de-solder at the main board.

For the three motor to ESC wires, you have to do those in the motor pods. Best tip I can give is use a BIG soldering iron, with some melted solder on it. You need to get it hot quick, and the wire out, before heat has time to transfer to other things around it. You may have to clean up the old solder to get the wires back in. If you don't have any de-soldering braid, you can use some scrap wire with flux on it to do a pretty good job. Same thing to try to get some of the old solder off the wires themselves. And watch out for the black wire. Different kind of insulation I guess, but it has a bad habit of splitting if it gets too hot.

For the ESC control wires (tiny triple wire plug) - There are two metal supports imbedded in the sides. If you can pull them PARTIALLY out, you can solder them back onto the ESC first. Then push the plastic part back down and solder the three actual connector legs.

 

[WernerJB]

For the 2 wires going to the main board I prefer not to desolder them but rather cut the wires about 5 to 7 cm away from the main board and later either solder the wires together or add small male/female connectors to plug them in.

 

[Musicteach88]

Hi, I’m looking to replace my q500 4K airframe due to my own pilot error, of course! Could anyone give me an idea as to how difficult a job I will be undertaking? I’m fairly skilled at soldering and following instructions. Is there anyone here that knows where I can find a detailed description of the process? There doesn’t seem to be any electrical or mechanical issues, just a broken frame. Am I taking on a big project, or should I pass and just buy another drone, maybe an H?

 

[7cyclops]

Been there. I rebuilt my q500+ 2 yrs. ago. I agree with wtfd. Desoldering from esc boards is a -----. If I had to do it all over I think I would try what werner jb said and cut the wires but I would try to do it a little farther up the arm. I did find 2 vids. on u tube. On mostly showed the guys head,,ha too funny. No rather irritating. But he taught me what not to do.There is a video,,,I think it is Dutch where aguy cuts the wires. Seemed to work well. So if tackling solder,desolder at the esc's I did use braided desolder wire and also a solder sucker pen. Available on ebay or most anywhere. Lots of old solder has to be removed and proper tinning required to resolder. I stress DE,SOLDERING from esc's was hardest part.I did a diagram of every part wire and screw. It was worth it. Save some time and trouble ,put esc's back in same place. Hope this helps. You can do it.Keith C.

 

[Musicteach88]

Been there. I rebuilt my q500+ 2 yrs. ago. I agree with wtfd. Desoldering from esc boards is a -----. If I had to do it all over I think I would try what werner jb said and cut the wires but I would try to do it a little farther up the arm. I did find 2 vids. on u tube. On mostly showed the guys head,,ha too funny. No rather irritating. But he taught me what not to do.There is a video,,,I think it is Dutch where aguy cuts the wires. Seemed to work well. So if tackling solder,desolder at the esc's I did use braided desolder wire and also a solder sucker pen. Available on ebay or most anywhere. Lots of old solder has to be removed and proper tinning required to resolder. I stress DE,SOLDERING from esc's was hardest part.I did a diagram of every part wire and screw. It was worth it. Save some time and trouble ,put esc's back in same place. Hope this helps. You can do it.Keith C.

Thanks Keith C. Yes, I plan to draw and label everything; definitely a necessary step. I’ll also look for those YouTube videos as a reference. Thanks, again. I’ll post my results when this project is completed. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be at least a month until the replacement airframe arrives, so I’ll have plenty of downtime to research and disassemble my bird.
Pete D.

 

[Lubeck]

I cut the wires about 6cm from the motherboard and then used bullet connectors. The soldering of the esc's was a pain in the arse! Plus I knew, a esc was cheaper than the motherboard to replace, if I messed up?

 

[Calvin]

Hmmm, just did a build into a Rakon kit airframe, because of the way the kit is built you don't have to desolder the ESC from the motor, just the power wires and since you're trashing the old airframe it can be cut to snake the motor & ESC out without desoldering.

If I were doing it again I would just cut the power wires and replace them with longer ones.

Watch out for the LED plug on the board, it's close to either set of wires and the soldering iron only needs to get close before it starts to melt.

A tool I found invaluable while working on these is a magnifying headset.

Led Illuminated Headband Magnifying Visor

Forget watchmaking, you could write "A Tale of Two Cities" on a piece of tortellini with this triple magnifier visor. Magnifies from 1.8X to 4.8X. Has a flip-down 1.9X lens and a flip-down 4.5X loupe, plus dual white LEDs in a pivoting mount, powered by (2) "AAA" batteries each, not included...

www.sciplus.com

Other tools needed are phillips screwdrivers, "O" and "OO" size, plus allen screwdrivers 1mm, 2mm, & 2.5mm.

I also purchased a new soldering iron, one that has a variable heat settings.
Hasa small tip but it can get very hot when needed.

I had a heck of a time with the solder web trying to remove all the solder, a solder sucker is the way to go.

Look for the Rakonheli Q500 kit build video's, better info, and yes I watched the back of that guy's head tooo long.

I had the same issue's searching for a replacement airframe, glad Rakon had their 40% off sale when they did.

Search this forum for Rakon build threads, good info in those too..

There are some drawbacks to the kit, when finished it stands taller than the stock drone so it's a squeeze to get into the stock case plus there's a cross bar on the landing gear so the foam gets cut and the controller no longer fits,,,,,,,,,,,,
I finally ended up just removing the stock styro-foam insert and did my own foam install.

Did you purchase the airframe off of EBAY from the guy that had it listed for $129?

There are a few guys on here with spare airframes, one is the early all white airframe,

I can get you his name so you could contact him yourself.