Soldering & Siliconing.... help please

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Hey gentlemen,

Hoping one of you can help me out. I tried to search on this topic but the first 40 pages of results weren't terribly helpful.....

I have read many of you talk about the questionable soldering that comes from DJI and how you have either re-soldered or siliconed the wire connections to protect them. A few questions:

- Does anyone have a photo of the inside of the Phantom Vision 2+ sans any modifications? I want to know what I'm going to find when I lift the hood.

- Do you recommend silicone or solder, or both? Why?

- If solder, did you remove the existing ones or just re-enforce them with better application? Did you use a specific type of solder, or whatever Home Depot sells?

- Are there any connections that are notoriously bad that I should be sure to hit?

- How complete of a disassembly is required for this? I am nervous about anything that requires me to flip over a circuit board that might be screwed down for fear of not getting it all back correctly.

Thanks in advance! I consider myself relatively handy, but didn't want to just dive in without asking some advice first.

Kristen
 
I always use desoldering braid to remove all old solder.

And the size and type of solder depends on the appellation.

For soldering the ESC and motor connections.
As far as apply silicone I do not recommend it unless it is especially made for electronics.
as most silicone sealants use acetic acid that eats copper and corrodes other metals.
 
If you do not have electronics or soldering experience, I do not recommend disassembling and soldering anything. Burn a close adjacent wire, cold solder(bad soldering), etc could make it worse than what you perceive is bad from DJI. There seems to be paranoia about the build quality due to flight failures.

If you feel uneasy about quality and control about the build, you can disassemble and check for loose connectors. Carefully wiggle wires to see solder integrity. If it breaks, you may need to fix it yourself since DJI will probably not warrantee an item that has been tampered by the customer. A good solder job should not break if wires wiggled, but not aggressively to the point of metal fatigue. The connectors used should not be loose to the point you need to silicone them together.

Pretty easy to take off top cover. Remove (3) outer screws at each end(not 4 hex screws holding motor). Remove the recessed hex screw outside of the landing gear. Remove or cut stickers. Carefully lift off top cover and disconnect GPS antenna connector. Done.
 
I use GE silicone II. it does not form acetic acid. Covering your electronic connections in silicone is called potting and has been used since Western Electric started doing it in their phones 60 years ago.
 

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