Spare parts mystery

I’m getting closer to purchasing an X4… however I’m concerned about how to fix it when it breaks… for example if the electrics fry up or the throttle snaps… is anyone able to suggest solutions that exist (particularly in Europe)? Thanks :slight_smile:

I’ve had mine since 2019. First flew in February 2020.

My electronics fried when the voltage regulator powering the main board and controller stopped regulating. I got a new, upgraded, regulator, main board, and controller board shipped to me for free. It did take six or eight weeks. I had to install the parts myself of course and that included soldering a component onto the new controller.

I dragged the cage and that resulted in a couple broken tube-leg connectors. These 3D printed parts were also replaced free of charge.

A second cage dragged has cracked a couple leg plates. These I will purchase from this site. They’ve been made available.

Parts are available. It takes a while - months maybe. The machine is designed to fly not to get bumped. The X4 is very much a DIY setup.

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Quite a few parts are available from 3rd parties: for instance I’ve just obtained a motor mount plate cheaply from a Uk company. If you send them the CAD file they can cut most carbon fibre parts. Also the motors and motor standoffs are available from MAD motors. Props, batteries from Ali express. Some parts need to come from Paul & Zach in US and take longer. for instance pcb hub, throttle pcb.

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Thanks for the replies. I suppose the main risk is if the PCB breaks… and it looks like it’s only possible to replace them by contacting the team behind OpenPPG privately? Or can even these parts be DIY replaced? Alternatively can we order multiple PCB’s from the OpenPPG team and if so at what price?

If the up-to-date Gerber files and bill of materials are on GitHub, it’s fairly easy to get PCBs made without burdening the designers about an older design, when they’re focussed on the new one.
The issue at the moment is availability of parts - if the particular processor used is out of stock for 6 months there’s not a lot can be done about it.

And to be explicit, they have been changing the design specifically to use different electronic parts that aren’t (currently) out of stock, so that “if a part is out of stock” is a problem.

Really can use any PWM signal, the X4 controller and hub just also takes the telemetry info from the four ESCs. But if you just want to make your motors spin then you don’t need the X4 controller.

We are working on getting all the files up on the GitHub so parts can be made by 3rd party if wanted to.

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