Betamace
 lvl.4
Flight distance : 2133 ft
United States
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Forum mods are not going to like this but feel the need to share my experience on this subject. This post is not intended by any means to be a testamony.
First, a little history.... My first stress crack showed up last March during the first week of flying my factory supplied refurb. The crack actually grew in length as I was watching. I simply applied a few drops of Weld-On 4 along the crack. A month later, there were no new cracks and the crack that I had fixed could not even be seen so I decided to install cheap vinyl motor plates to spread out the pressure points around the screw holes and maybe give me a few more months of crack free flying.
This week I had to replace the center board (that's another story) and found 7 new cracks that had formed under the motor plates. The crack I had previously repaired was still intact! It's sad but those cheap motor plates did not prevent any new cracks from forming. Once again, I used Weld-On 4 on all the new cracks before reinstalling the plates. Made sure this time all the screws were not too tight, just snug.
Weld-On 4 is not a glue or epoxy filler, it's a very thin clear liquid that flows into cracks and semi-disolves the vinyl which then quickly re-bonds. The product evaporates completely so there's no dried lumps remaining on the surface. If you apply the product along a crack it will flow into the crack and after the vinyl cures the crack completely disappears, only leaving a slightly rough surface texture where the product was applied. If you try to wipe off any excess product while it is still wet, the softened vinyl will also be wiped off.
Ok, now the part about the center board.....
I had to replace a compass module because of my drone not flying straight and gave numerous compass data errors. The process of getting the shells to separate became a real battle. In all, I learned to only press in the sides of the bottom shell with your thumbs to release the clips. The bottom shell above the battery bay is too hard to press inwards with my thumbs.... Don't pry it with a screw driver. It seems that I killed my centerboard with a screw driver! Afterwards, it would not link with the controller no matter what I tried. I was considering on putting it up for sale on ebay for parts but instead bought another centerboard.
The new old stock center board came with FW 1.4.2 pre-installed that would not work at all with my controllers newer firmware so after a few forced upgrades that never completed, I decided to let the app do the upgrade. Once again, my refurb flies like it should!
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Captain
Second Officer
lvl.3
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