Went out flying yesterday with 18 charged LiPos and 3 quads. After LiPo number 7 I accidentally tripped over my transmitter. Everything looked fine so no harm done. Carried on and stuck the 8th LiPo on my quad. Plugged in the LiPo, started the HD cam, clipped my transmitter to my neck strap, donned my goggles and started the DVR, then went to arm the quad but had a WTF moment when I couldn't feel the arm switch  



It looks like I somehow managed to snap off the most important switch when I tripped over the transmitter  

I heard this happening before but never understood how people managed to do it. Now I know how. That meant the end of my flying session with 11 fully charged LiPos still left unused. A new switch is already ordered but it means no flying until at least next weekend. I could of course temporarily remap the arm switch to another switch but my muscle memory knows what switch to reach for in an emergency so I decided against doing that for safety reasons.

Ouch.

Could you move one of the other switches into that position in the mean time? Would be a shame to waste the weather we're getting in the UK South at the moment!

Well, that's a bummer!  I guess we all will benefit from a tutorial on how to replace switches.  

Glad nothing really got damaged bad.

(_8^(O)

d'oh!!!!

Yes, the weather here was great this weekend which is why I'd planned a few flying sessions to make the most of it. It was REALLY windy though on Saturday and I was constantly being blown around and fighting with the sticks.

I also had another near miss with a security patrol LOL. I went flying somewhere different to my usual place but it was on private property. While I was swapping over a LiPo I saw a van drive past up with security stickers plastered down the side of it and then it disappeared round the corner. I quickly stuffed all my gear back into my rucksack and waited for a bit. Sure enough it re-appeared again about 5 minutes later and just parked up on the roadside some distance away with the occupant watching me. I'm not sure if he suspected what I was doing there but I just got my packed lunch out and began munching on it like a normal hiker would LOL. After about 10 minutes of him watching me eat my food he then just drove off, so I took the risk to continue flying until the switch incident stopped play.

I guess I've just been lucky that I managed to last 2 years without snapping off a switch until now.

I did consider moving one of the 3 position switches to where that 2 position switch was but for a few extra hours of flying on the Sunday it seemed like too much unnecessary hassle because I would only have has to move the switch back again afterwards. I think my wife was probably happy because it meant that I wasn't able to go AWOL again for a few hours on Sunday and I had no excuse not to do some of the chores around the house instead.

I'm not sure if I'll do a full tutorial because it's a straight forward enough job, but I'll likely take a few photos. I also ordered a few additional spare switches while I was at it in case it happens again.

The replacement switches have arrived. These are identical to the original upgraded black versions of the switches as installed in the Taranis X9D+ SE transmitters and are made by "Salecom" who are a reputable brand. The red version of the switches you see on some other FrSky models aren't the "upgraded" versions, although I don't honestly know what the difference is. The black versions are more expensive, so that must mean they're better, right? LOL

The shipping charges for these was a bit steep as it was 25% of the total cost of the parcel. That is why I bought some extra spares just to make the cost of delivery seem a bit more reasonable compared to the overall value of the ordered goods. I bought 1x momentary switch, 2x 2-position switches, and 2x 3-position switches of the long stem type only because the short ones don't usually get snapped off.

I'll try and get the broken switch on my X9D+ SE replaced before the weekend if I can in case an opportunity arises to go flying,

Hehe, I did the exact same thing a while ago and broke the same switch, also my arm switch.

But I couldn't wait for the replacement to arrive before I fixed it, so I just remapped the arm switch on only one quad and flew that until the replacement one arrived.

I however wasn't as smart as you and only ordered one new one. So I'll probably break this one at the most inconvenient times....

Deal

Now all fixed  

       

Hi Snow,

Thanks for the excellent pictures.    

You have got one of the best set ups for taking clean pictures; plus the lighting is always good. 

Well...looks like easy job of changing switches...nothing to it. {Even I could do it, ha ha} 

Glad you are back in business.