Anyone know how to get the tiny quadcopters remotes to work?

Seeds thought this was worth mentioning said Wed, Jul 29th 2015 at 12:38pm ET

Got my two pack of quadcopters today. One works great, other one seems to have issues with the remote- first batteries weren't staying in, but I fixed that by bending the little metal clips back in place. Still won't beep or pair with quad. Any tips? I'm sure meh staff would be happy to make this right for me, but I want to see if there's anything I can do to fix it first (especially since they sold out and I want my two working quadcopter things).

8 comments, 10 replies
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Seeds said Wed, Jul 29th 2015 at 5:21pm ET:

bump, early, because i god damn can.

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OldCatLady said Wed, Jul 29th 2015 at 6:53pm ET:

One of my quads came pre-charged; the other took a few hours to charge up. Both work fine now, except that with a 105 F heat index, we are not going outside to play with them.

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TaRDy said Wed, Jul 29th 2015 at 11:18pm ET:

@Pantheist On the first go round, I had an issue where one would not pair, the lights on the copter would always blink, it turns out the issue has to do with the transceiver on the controller was burnt out, I should post a picture of my original controller taken apart sometime.

It doesn't seem like there is anything you can do to fix it (if it is the same issue).
However, if the warranty is backed by Meh, @hollboll was very helpful at getting a new one shipped to me.

Have you verified it is indeed the controller that is faulty? Try pairing the working controller with the copter that has the suspect controller.

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TaRDy said Wed, Jul 29th 2015 at 11:42pm ET:
Here is the teardown:

Description of the images below:
- Top left of this image is the wire that acts as an antenna, if you look closely it is burnt a bit near the board, this tells us that something has gone terribly wrong.
- If you look at the black square in the center, that is the transceiver chip, I suspect something caused it to get fried, thus the antenna also ended up fried.
- Directly to the right of the black square, above the LED, there is a burnt out capacitor or something (not really sure to be honest).
For comparison, here is the same area on a clean working controller, look at the same 3 key points on this one:

Lastly, here is a picture of all the parts somewhat laid out...
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- @TaRDy thanks for going so in-depth!
  
  Seeds said Thu, Jul 30th 2015 at 12:17am ET
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- @TaRDy nice tear down. I suspect something like that happen to mine also. I turned it on, it beeped...never to beep again. It never connected to the cx-10. Tried another controller and it worked straight away. I contacted meh and they told me they are all out so no replacement for me :( sorry nephew nothing for you. I'm keeping the other one. :)
  
  rocketdan said Thu, Jul 30th 2015 at 12:21am ET
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Yoda_Daenerys said Thu, Jul 30th 2015 at 12:08am ET:

i have a couple controllers and copters with 3 working rotors, if anyone wants to pay shipping, they're yours

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- @dmlivezey I'll take em
  
  Seeds said Thu, Jul 30th 2015 at 1:14am ET
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- @Pantheist I am in MI, any suggestions how to handle shipping costs? I have 2 transmitters, 2 copters with 3 working motors each and the extra props and cables that came with each that are yours for the cost of shipping.
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 12:03am ET
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- @dmlivezey If it works for you, could you give me the dimensions, a guess of the weight, and you're return address I'll buy a prepaid shipping label you can just print and leave by the mailbox for the mailman to pick up. If that doesn't work well for ya, I can just paypal you whatever you need. My email is penguam AT gmail DOT com.
  
  Really appreciate you sending em- I love to tinker with things, so even if I can't get em to work properly I'll try to rig some kind of dangerous flying machine and post a video here if I'm successful :)
  
  Seeds said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 4:14pm ET
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- @Pantheist 8.5"x6.5"x4.75", weight under 2 lb., maybe even under 1 lb., I can run to the post office and weigh it without any trouble if that would help
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 4:49pm ET
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- @dmlivezey Haven't gotten to mess with em yet, just wanted to let you know they got here today. Thanks again!
  
  Seeds said Sat, Aug 8th 2015 at 3:30pm ET
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- @Pantheist enjoy! 🚀
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Aug 8th 2015 at 6:36pm ET
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jaybird said Thu, Jul 30th 2015 at 12:24am ET:

that same thing must've happened to the two my friend received because his first and replacement ones wouldn't pair

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TaRDy said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 12:59am ET:
I do have an updated picture set on this where there is another type of controller failure that appears to be fixable!

In this second type, the problem is that the antenna is pinched by the casing and causes poor transmission (so I suspect).

If I get a chance in the evening tomorrow, I will post pictures to accompany this information.

To check if this is your problem, do the following:
- Open the back of the controller (remove the batteries first!)
- Carefully, pull apart the two halves, being aware that there will be 2 wires connecting them still.
- On the circuit board half, look at how the antenna wire is routed (on the top), is it running along the top middle?
- If so, re-route it so it goes towards the right, where it shouldn't have any interference with the casing.
- Pop the batteries in and try to pair again (still separated).
- If that works, try closing and pairing again.
If it worked, but no longer works when you closed it up:
- Double check that the antenna wire is not pinched when you close it.
- Lastly, try checking the side where the batteries go and see if the clips are bent up towards the circuit board, it might be possible that it touches the board, but I doubt that is the case, it is hard to see where it would touch if it did, so this is just a last ditch effort. Anyways, lightly press them down.
Hope this helps anyone. I am fairly confident that the antenna routing fix helped with 1 of the 2 issues I have had in my batch of 6, so far.

My 2nd issue is copter related, we'll see if I can fix that, but I have to talk to support first.
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- @Pantheist It might be worth checking if the issue with yours was the same as this one...
  
  TaRDy said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 1:03am ET
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- @TaRDy ooh thanks, I'll have to try this tonight :)
  
  Seeds said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 4:10pm ET
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MostlyHarmless said Mon, Aug 3rd 2015 at 6:28pm ET:

Grrrr, I'm having the same trouble with one of the controllers in my set of two right out of the box. The Red controller will sync with either 'copter, but the Blue controller won't. I hesitate to open the controller since I don't want to risk a return issue. Hopefully, the Meh folks can help me out.

It's a shame... I wanted to teach my wife to fly 'copters and fly along with her.

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