Got DJI arms? Let’s save your motors!

September 12, 20122 Comments

Alright. This post is really for anyone who is a multicopter pilot, but its focused specifically toward those who fly with the affordable and available DJI arms.

As most of us know, the DJI arms seem to break easily and it’s my opinion that they were designed to break that way. Upon impact with the ground post pilot error or mechanical foul up I’m sure I’m not the only one would would want my most expensive items on board to remain intact while the other cheaper items take the brunt of the asphalt assault. After all, I’d rather my $4 DJI arms take the hit and break off than my $75 TBS Discovery frame!

So, to the point of this post, these arms we are using are not alone when they take a hit, they obviously have motors bolted to them, and most times they contain the ESCs, and sometimes a few other gadgets. Now if you do a Google search for “DJI arms crash” you’ll find several images of broken arms from the result of a crash and nearly 100% of the time the arm will break in 1 of 2 spots.

Most often is at the very end of the arm just before the motor. And, again, most of the time people will ziptie their motor leads to the other side of that break… showing here:

And as you can see, the leads for the motor have been ripped out – leaving this person with a worthless DJI motor. So what I suggest is to zip-tie those motor leads to the outer most part of the leg and use 3.5mm bullet connectors so in the unlikely event that we’ll crash, that part of the arm will break off, taking the motor and zip-tied leads with it, and “hopefully” the bullet connectors will do their job and allow the leads to slip out once they are pulled on. Illustration:

So, anywho, that’s my little tip. I hope it helps.

 

Filed in: Build TipsFrames

About the Author ()

Fun-loving, off the wall, and energetic, this crazy red head sometimes enjoys building more than flying!

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