Capacitor Question for DJI phantom 3 PRO

[Colton48]

So before I start off, I know this is crazy and it should be soldered on, etc.
My options on this repair were to buy a board or attempt this.

Does any one know what this capacitor controls?
This capacitor is located next to the cord that controls the satellite in the rear of the drone above the battery.

Long story short the drone took a crash, after removing the case this capacitor was sitting sideways.
While sitting sideways (half disconnected)I moved it to the board and noticed a contact spark, showing it was making contact. I pressed it down hard (as it appeared to make contact). Doing so I used 60 second epoxy. 3 hours later I powered the drone up with no errors, etc. I haven't connected my gimbal camera yet but the sonar and everything else is working as well at the gimbal motor sound.

The capacitor feels to be gaining a slight amount of heat when powered on equal to the other capacitors.

Thus far I haven't been able to see any errors and the application isn't listed anything wrong after multiple power cycles. I even spun the motors to make sure they would spin and it wants to fly.

Perhaps I lucked out and the glue did it's job. If that's the case, soldered or not soldered with the amount of epoxy that is on this thing, thing isn't moving unless it fells 50 feet lol.

Things tested so far:
Compass,
Battery voltage,
Satellite,
remote control,
IMU.
All pass.

If anyone has a motherboard diagram that would be awesome.

Pictures below.
Thoughts?

 

[epicdoom]

without having the board in front of me to run the traces to the component its hard to say what part of the circuit its in and what it does for the circuit caps can be used for different reasons from holding power for start up to acting as a shock absorber in a circuit.. I would have tried to re solder the connections back as apposed to epoxy the component down even if I would have to add small wires to make the connection. I would fear it disconnecting in flight if you can read its values of the device I would try and match it up or buy the component that has the same values as long as it fit the space.

 

[Colton48]

Thanks for that.

I am also worried about something failing mid flight as well.
Soldering this piece would be very difficult as there isn't much room to get to it.
From the back of the board there's not access either.

I would assume this controls the gimbal / satellite / sonar possibly, as that's what it's near.
Those units appear to be working.

Based on how sturdy the epoxy is I believe I will most likely have to brave it and hope for the best.
I put it on a leash early and flew left to right, front to back and it was functioning properly with no errors thus far.

If anyone happens to know what that capacitor is used for on the drone, I would still like to know for testing purposes.

Thanks again.

 

[epicdoom]

yeah like I said I probably would have completely removed it soldered wires to what was sticking out of the board and soldered those to the cap leads. Id stay low level flights to make sure its gonna be ok so you don't have it fall out of the sky or take off into never land I trust epoxy to hold stuff especially things that are light weight and not moving it probably will be ok Id just take it easy for a bit to make sure. It would be awesome to have the schematic for these things but that's never gonna happen unless someone pulls a unit apart and maps out the board Best of luck to you Brother

 

[Colton48]

yeah like I said I probably would have completely removed it soldered wires to what was sticking out of the board and soldered those to the cap leads. Id stay low level flights to make sure its gonna be ok so you don't have it fall out of the sky or take off into never land I trust epoxy to hold stuff especially things that are light weight and not moving it probably will be ok Id just take it easy for a bit to make sure. It would be awesome to have the schematic for these things but that's never gonna happen unless someone pulls a unit apart and maps out the board Best of luck to you Brother

That makes sense. I didn't think of that at the time. With the glue sat down, it would probably be best for me to keep it as it is. Otherwise I risk pulling or messing other solder connection points.
I believe I made my bed and now I have to sleep in it.

The good news is all still seems well.
Before start up

After running for 6-7 minutes.

Infrared temp gun is showing positive results for a temperature change.
I would assume that if it wasn't passing electric, it wouldn't increase in temperature.
I could be wrong, I'm not an electrician. Any body have thoughts or can verify that this unit shouldn't increase in temperature unless it was passing electricity?

 

[Monte55]

That makes sense. I didn't think of that at the time. With the glue sat down, it would probably be best for me to keep it as it is. Otherwise I risk pulling or messing other solder connection points.
I believe I made my bed and now I have to sleep in it.

The good news is all still seems well.
Before start up

After running for 6-7 minutes.

Infrared temp gun is showing positive results for a temperature change.
I would assume that if it wasn't passing electric, it wouldn't increase in temperature.
I could be wrong, I'm not an electrician. Any body have thoughts or can verify that this unit shouldn't increase in temperature unless it was passing electricity?

Unless you have a high dollar IR thermometer , the FOV on it won't pick up on a single component on your board, Laser pointing only gets you in the area. You are reading more than you think. Plus being that close, the parallax correction between the laser and sensor will not give you what you want.