I opened the RC Transmitter, wanting to just find out if it needed updating.
The 4 philips screws are the easy part, although mine were REALLY in tight,
a bit unnecessarily tight, I think.
BEFORE removing the back, carefully observe how the antenna is oriented
in its plastic ring collar. Note that there is a half-circumference notch
in the back side of the collar, and that the antenna is allowed to swivel
only 180 degrees in that collar.
THEN, if you MIGHT want to cut a small hole to permanently install a
USB cable, then marking the potential exit point now is a good idea,
while the front and back parts of the case are still mated. You can
read about my choice of exit point below.
Getting the back separated from the front at the plastic ring around the
base of the antenna mount was much more difficult, but some gentle wiggling
eventually got the back out from under that collar.
Connecting a micro-USB cable was easy, but I decided to do the add-a-cable
modification while it was open. Since my white USB cable was about 2 feet long,
and I wanted to maintain its integrity, I routed it as follows in the top (looking at
the guts... the circuit board, the backside of the two spring-return joysticks, and
the backside of the 2 switches):
Plug into the circuit board and route the cable up toward the antenna, turning right
to go between the S2 switch and the white mounting post there. Continue
down along the side between the joystick assembly and the side of the case,
getting the cable down below the joystick wiring. Then, down to the bottom
of the case, going between the lower right mount and the case, across the
bottom of the case, around the lower left mount, and up the left side between
the joystick assembly and the case, and turning right to go between the
upper left mounting post and the S1 switch. All that to use up some of the cable length.
Still looking at the back of the front half of the controller, I decided to cut
a small U-shaped notch in the edge of the case, about an inch away from
the antenna, near the curve in the case (closer to the S2 switch), to use to exit
the remaining cable from the Transmitter.
I cut a shallow notch in the front of the case, since it was more difficult
to work on, just cutting the mating flange, and not really into the main
thickness of the case.
I cut a deeper, but mating, notch in the back of the case, through the flange
and into the thick part of the case, so that the cable, when snuggly in the
U-notch, would be almost even with the top edge of the flange. However,
to make a snug fit when assembled, a tiny bit of the cable diameter
was still not down into the "U".
