AR7000 RX antenna broken - What would you do?

[carpman]

I'm not having a good day today, various problems with my Trex 700 but whilst looking it over I noticed that one of the antenna wires is severed in half, haven't a clue how this has happened as I have a short piece of protective tube over the antennas and its inside there that its broken away!

Anyway I guess I have been flying it like this without any problems and I have just done a range test which was fine.

What would you do carry on flying, send it back to Horizon or replace it yourself? If I send it back that means no flying for around 4 weeks...

If its easy to replace, I read on another forum just to use servo wire I am not worried about voiding my warranty in the future I'd rather get flying again...

Hope you can help...

[Pinecone]

DO NOT FLY IT.

You can replace the wire yourself. Just replace with a wire of close to the same diameter, but as close to the original length as possible.

Or send it back.

Or buy a replacement, send that one back and then have two, or sell the second one.

Heck, if you don't mind the price hit, sell the one with the broken antenna.

[carpman]

I'm torn between just getting on with it and soldering a wire on myself or sending it back.

Send it back and it will be around 4 weeks for sure, but I guess its not that big a deal to swap around the AR7000's on my 600's and rebind when I want to fly the 700? I'm not really in a position at the moment to buy another (credit crunch has bitten hard here this Winter) but that would also take 2 weeks to get here!

I have been reading all over and as usual and you get people that just solder a wire on and go and those that have had problems doing this and recommend sending it back, not easy making a decision.

Agree with the don't fly it, it's one of them things you might get away with, or might not!

So who has soldered it and its been fine?

[BennyTRD]

Any word on a link to the soldering fix? I too have suffered from the broken antenna on a 6100.

[carpman]

Mines in the post on its way back to Horizon, i couldn't bring myself to repair a 6 week old RX...

[BennyTRD]

Lastnight I soldered in an equal lenght piece of servo wire from a dead servo I had sitting around.

[carpman]

I was going to do that but chickened out, I have other RX's older ones, and I will definitely do them if the same happens again.

Was it straight forward, any pictures of it broken apart showing location etc etc?

[BennyTRD]

I should have taken some I guess, but it's very straight forward once you get the receiver out. Just heat up the joint, tin your wire, reconnect.

[1961mga]

I realize this is an old thread, but I thought I'd add my two cents. I just soldered a new antenna onto a 6100 and it almost ended in disaster. I thought I was pretty good at this stuff, but my solder gun was kinda big for the tiny receiver's electronics. Anyway, to shorten a long story, I must have almost shorted out to some other connection. I say almost because it worked great on the ground and in the air until I was close to landing when the rx reset. Luckily I was within a foot of the ground and I had nothing more than a hard landing. I don't know if I'm going to be brave enough to try such micro-surgery myself again.

[killercornflake1]

Hi guys if you go to the HORIZON web site you will find an article on this
subject somewhere in the press release I think. I saw it a couple of months back now it had pictures and a detailed walk through of how to carry out the task including strengthening the joint with epoxy .

[Flyextreme]

I had one of my antennas feel off my AR7000...then while removing the RX, the other one came off. I did not feel comfortable replacing the antenna myself, and hoping it was ok on a $1400 bird. So I sent it in to Horizon to replace/repair the antennas. I was told it should not be more than $10 to fix it. They just sent me a brand new AR7000....Sweeeeet!

I don't know if it's something new...but it has a sticker on the box that says "Now Flight Log Compatible" I would like to know what is needed to use this feature...and how it works. I can't find any info on their website.

Thanks, And MERRY CHRISTMAS Bill

[Pinecone]

Buy a Flight Log device and plug it into the Batt port. It logs antenna fades and lost packets.

Eagle Tree also has a cable that will allow an Eagle Tree data recorder to log the info.

[marchambault]

Or you can make you own cable for the Eagle Tree...