Busted the ground wire

X4-Batch2
I did a reversed inflation a few days ago - all was god - turned around but when I depressed the potentiometer,… nothing happened and the wing fell on my face😆 I still could hear the beeps and the 4 motors in synch.
The throttle screen was blank. Bummer! Drove back home hoping it was a disconnected wire I could see inside the throttle. I opened it and yes, I saw the ground wire disconnected from the board. Soldered it back on. Closed the throttle - turned the main switch ON - heard the beeps and the four brushless communicating. Then the moment of truth… two taps on the red top switch and bingo! I heard the chirping sound of the motors and good to go. All was well, except that the voltage reading was all screwed up and I couldn’t make any sense of it. I pushed the potentiometer down and the RPM kicked in as they should have😀 The original cable from the throttle is kind of short and I must have pulled on it a bit too hard when I turned around,who knows?..
Electricity, electronics and programing are foreign to me. I didn’t want to fly without knowing how much juice was left in the Bonkas and risking damaging them. So, rigged a small voltmeter alarm to one of the four Bonkas (6S) since they deplete at just about the same rate and had about the same voltage to begin with. I mad enough wire length, wrapped them as one thicker cable which I attached to the throttle cable about 6" away from the handle. I set the alarm on the voltmeter to 3.8V. I have a bright red display of the cells 1 to 6 indicating one cell at the time their voltage. The sound on the small voltmeter is pretty loud and should warn me when it is time to quit.
Busted ground wire:


Repaired:

Weird display reading:

I hope it works!:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Cheers!
Phil

Seeing the inside of those original controllers gives me a little PTSD from all the hand soldering haha.
We should still have a couple of newer controllers for that batch that uses a custom PCB for a cleaner and more reliable experience. If you’re interested in getting one just let me know.

1 Like

Hey Zach, are they the same and I could unsolder/resolder? Yeah! It was kinda a pain to do. By any chance, would you have a foot of each colored wires going to the board because the throttle cable was kinda too short to begin with when I was flying and I am not a giraffe😆 I would make an extension by at least 7 to 8" to elongate the main cable. It would also make it easier for me to solder to ends on the board.
Thanks
Phil

If you don’t mind a bit of soldering to join the cables I can send you a couple that you can make your own length. Pm me and we can arrange that

Hey Zach, I will go for the wires only for now and will try the small voltmeter I rigged to one Bonka. I think it will work assuming the 4 batts will discharge at about the same rate. When it will reach 8.8V the meter should blast my ears to let me know it is time to get down.
Thanks a bunch.
Phil