OK, so the next final update.... hey, there MAY be one more but I doubt it....
Drone 1: Paired with the controller, updated fine (stock software) and turns out the front right motor pod is dead. The other three work just fine. So will inspect for cable issues, if I don't find any, I'll just replace the motor pod and see what happens.
Well I used drone 3 as a spare parts drone, took the motor out (4) and swapped it with the motor from Drone 1... however no dice. However did notice that the cable from the motor to the controller board wasn't plugged in. So tried plugging it in, wouldn't go in. Took a closer look and saw that one of the pins was bent. Straightened it with a tweezers, plugged the motor back in... it did that little "jumpy" turn on start up, the sign of a dead motor pod (used the motor test in solex without luck). So swapped in another motor from Drone 3, and viola, worked just fine! However.... motor 3 was making a sound that sounded like a dodgy bearing, so swapped that out with the #3 from Drone 3. So now 1 fully working drone!
Drone 2: It's working just fine, no strangeness at all.
Drone 3: One motor dead for sure ( could actually smell it when I pulled it out), have removed the other 3 motors at this point. Two of them are in drone one, so that leaves 1 possibly not working motor, 1 working motor, 1 motor that sounds like it has a dodgy bearing (originally from Drone 1). This drone also has the compass legs and antenna legs ripped off and it's the one that would like up, but not do anything else ( no beeps no nothing). So thinking this will just b e a spare parts drone, I don't want to invest the money in spare parts to make it fly after all, I have 5 working drones now, I don't think I need a 6th. It's worth more to me as spare parts.
So unless anything changes, that's where I stand for now. $168 investment and 2 fully working drones in return and some spare parts worth about $200 in total.
Maybe after all this Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas madness dies down we'll see a few more bundles of broken drones come up on ebay. For now though, I think the investment was worthwhile.
Drone 1: Paired with the controller, updated fine (stock software) and turns out the front right motor pod is dead. The other three work just fine. So will inspect for cable issues, if I don't find any, I'll just replace the motor pod and see what happens.
Well I used drone 3 as a spare parts drone, took the motor out (4) and swapped it with the motor from Drone 1... however no dice. However did notice that the cable from the motor to the controller board wasn't plugged in. So tried plugging it in, wouldn't go in. Took a closer look and saw that one of the pins was bent. Straightened it with a tweezers, plugged the motor back in... it did that little "jumpy" turn on start up, the sign of a dead motor pod (used the motor test in solex without luck). So swapped in another motor from Drone 3, and viola, worked just fine! However.... motor 3 was making a sound that sounded like a dodgy bearing, so swapped that out with the #3 from Drone 3. So now 1 fully working drone!
Drone 2: It's working just fine, no strangeness at all.
Drone 3: One motor dead for sure ( could actually smell it when I pulled it out), have removed the other 3 motors at this point. Two of them are in drone one, so that leaves 1 possibly not working motor, 1 working motor, 1 motor that sounds like it has a dodgy bearing (originally from Drone 1). This drone also has the compass legs and antenna legs ripped off and it's the one that would like up, but not do anything else ( no beeps no nothing). So thinking this will just b e a spare parts drone, I don't want to invest the money in spare parts to make it fly after all, I have 5 working drones now, I don't think I need a 6th. It's worth more to me as spare parts.
So unless anything changes, that's where I stand for now. $168 investment and 2 fully working drones in return and some spare parts worth about $200 in total.
Maybe after all this Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas madness dies down we'll see a few more bundles of broken drones come up on ebay. For now though, I think the investment was worthwhile.
