Ant Attempt 2 - 'Tough Justice'

[GeorgeR]

I had this happen to one of mine, sadly its a case of low price = low quality. While I did get mine working again this convinced me that the dasmikro was nowhere near robust enough for combat, and I chucked the repaired one and gave away my unused one. I would recommend looking at other esc options. (the NanoTwo is fantastic)

If you do want to have a go at repairing it the way to get it working is to follow the traces on the board to find out what that pad was connected to, then solder the wire directly to the component pad. It is very fiddly, requires a very steady hand, and is not really worth trying unless you're confident in your soldering ability. For future reference I've seen other people cover the dasmikro in glue once they get it working to stop the pads falling off like this.

[Rocketeer13]

I had this happen to one of mine, sadly its a case of low price = low quality. While I did get mine working again this convinced me that the dasmikro was nowhere near robust enough for combat, and I chucked the repaired one and gave away my unused one. I would recommend looking at other esc options. (the NanoTwo is fantastic)

If you do want to have a go at repairing it the way to get it working is to follow the traces on the board to find out what that pad was connected to, then solder the wire directly to the component pad. It is very fiddly, requires a very steady hand, and is not really worth trying unless you're confident in your soldering ability. For future reference I've seen other people cover the dasmikro in glue once they get it working to stop the pads falling off like this.

Thanks for the quick response! Sadly I don't think the NanoTwo is compatible with my Hobby king TX, as it doesn't run any form of DSM (That I'm aware of). And aside from some cheap eBay models, I'm not aware of much else on the market? I've been doing some research of my own, and that method does seem to be the most common solution. If that's the only way to save it, then it's got to be tried. Could anyone tell me where that loose wire has got to go? It doesn't seem immediately clear exactly where the traces lead?

[peterwaller]

If you look carefully at the pad that has come off you will see it has a small hole through it.
This was a plated through hole that connected to the other side of the board.
If you look at the picture below the red arrow shows the track on the other side where the connection goes.
This is the 5v out from the regulator which goes to the pin shown with the blue arrow which is where you should connect it.

Hope this helps.

[GeorgeR]

Looks like you got lucky, that 5v regulator is a decent size to solder to so you should be able to get a reasonably robust connection. I lost one of the signal tabs and had to tack onto the tiny resistor next to those tabs, which was less than ideal.

[Rocketeer13]

If you look carefully at the pad that has come off you will see it has a small hole through it.
This was a plated through hole that connected to the other side of the board.
If you look at the picture below the red arrow shows the track on the other side where the connection goes.
This is the 5v out from the regulator which goes to the pin shown with the blue arrow which is where you should connect it.
Hope this helps.

Thank you so much! That really helps! While I was trying to sort this, I had the same problem with the pad next to it (the black wire), so I've since put spots of hot glue on all the other connections to try and give them a bit more strength. Can I reconnect the black wire elsewhere too? I'm guessing it's going to be in a similar place, but if it's possible to fix, I want to make sure I get it right.

[GeorgeR]

That black wire is one of the signal pads, it's connected to the bottom (in your pic) of R2, next to the first pad you lost. You should be able to see the track pretty clearly. This is the pad that I lost, and soldering on to that resistor is a challenge.
Be careful not to overheat the resistor as its easy to damage components that small. If you find the white wire in the middle of the board (between the red wires) is getting in the way you could remove it and attach it off board to the black wire coming from the battery, as they are connected.
Good luck!

[peterwaller]

Seeing as this seems to be a common problem here are some close ups of the board marked up with the pin designations and coloured lines showing alternative solder positions.

[Paulmchurd]

Worth a sticky!

[voorsk]

*saves image for future use*