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0 So this weekend I broke two u.FL connectors off of two different VTXes - one Unify Pro32 Nano and one Unify 5G8 HV. In both cases, the antennas were tethered to something on the frame - in fact the Unify 5G8 had the SMA pigtail bolted to a bulkhead. Thankfully I was able to solder the connector back on one of them, but the other one ripped off the center pin pad, so it's trash.
How do you guys prevent this? Am I just crashing too hard? My solution on the re-soldered one was to encapsulate everything in glue, but that's not great if I don't have a pigtail and need to replace the antenna. Should I just go to an EVO with the cowling over the connector? Or is there some trick I'm not realizing?
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5 I heat shrink them into position. Not necessarily covering the entire VTX, but at least the part with the antenna connection. Definately helps. And I'm good at crashing.... I've destroyed the other end (where the antenna actually connects to the SMA connection) several times, but never ripped it off the VTX.
Deal
Here's the Deal
10" 6S FR10-G Long Range, 5" 6S Rooster, 5" 6S Badger, 5" 6S QAV-S, 5" 4S Badger, 5" 4S Phreakstyle Slam, 5" 6S Yema, 5" 4S Stark, 3" 4S Gecko, and a 3S 2.5" Tadpole, all of which are Crossfire. Tinyhawk, Tinyhawk S, and a DJI Spark. And projects on the bench....
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388 move away from u.FL. MMCX are better and easier to resolder if broken off.
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100 i didnt like mmcx and u.fl.
i desolder u.fl. and solder the antenna directly, i never had broken solderpads... xD
seems there are diffrent personal preferences.
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2 2 part epoxy is a great way to secure/protect small component connections. It’s permanent until you apply heat to it with a heat gun. It will gel up and flake off with the use of a pick tool or sharp tweezer.
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78 I have done it like Deal mentions forever. It keeps the connection secure, and if you want/need to remove the u.fl for some reason it is simple to remove the shrink.
Direct soldering like Huggy mentions is the most secure though...
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0 I had heat-shrink over it actually in one of these - the one that didn't rip the pads off.
Thanks for all the ideas - these are great! I do like the idea of soldering directly if I have a pigtail, hmm... anybody recommend a good tutorial on that, or is it just simple enough?
And I didn't know that about two-part epoxy! The makes it a very interesting option if I need to keep a u.fl, which I do since I ordered a custom long u.fl omni antenna from TrueRC in the hopes that eliminating the SMA pigtail and adapter might improve signal and reduce weight.
