Warning! Before you attempt to install this booster kit, make sure you know what you are doing and are properly prepared. NEVER power on the devices without proper cooling or the antennae all being properly connected! Failing to connect all antennae to the booster boards or providing them with at least some passive cooling may severely damage the chips on the booster boards.
The first step is to disassemble the controller. Here’s a video on how to do that.
Credit for this guide goes to Giovi321
Once you have disassembled the remote, carefully remove the fan assembly and the aluminum heatsink without touching the thermal conductive paste
Connect to power
- I found that the easiest access to power is through the left side battery (keep the antennas facing up to orient yourself), using the two little pads (one is squared and the other is a circle) just right next to the battery connector. Solder the positive and negative and connect to the step-up voltage converter and cover the connection with silicon glue. There is no need to scrape the pads as they are not covered by PCB mask.
- connect the EN pin of the step-up voltage converter to the first top-most pin of the ribbon connector of the C1 and C2 buttons on the back of the remote that you have now separated already. Solder and cover with silicon glue
Connect the antenna
After several trials and tests I came up with this odd but working solution.
- disconnect the two external antennas from the PCB (the ones identified with the labels “G” and “ANT0”)
- using pliers you can remove the two external antennas from the body of the remote and swap them (the right antenna will go on the left and vice versa) – be careful: the antennas do not rotate 360 degrees so when you insert them back in place you need to orient them correctly in order to be able to slide them into the hole
We are doing this because the cable of the right antenna is too short to reach the booster board (which we will place on the left of the fan), and we cannot use the left antenna as it is identified by the label G so I suspect it is the GPS antenna which we don’t need to boost (and it uses a different frequency so it would be useless to connect the booster board). I tried using the internal antenna identified by the label “ANT0” and I got still decent but poorer results compared to the right external antenna.
- Connect the cable of the antenna that is now on the left to the booster board and complete all the connections also for power
Physical modifications to the body of the remote
- cut off this piece of plastic from the back of the body of the remote to fit the board
- cut off this piece of plastic from the fan duct assembly (for two reasons: i) to improve airflow; ii) if you don’t do it, once you glue the board to the heat sink, you will cover some screws and it won’t be possible to disassemble the fan and heatsink)
Secure the board
1. Using siliconic heat conductive glue, glue the booster board to the piece of aluminum heatsink that is not covered by the fan assembly
2. Using some heat shrink tube, protect the step-up voltage converter and place it somewhere on the top of the remote close to the buzzer
Optional but recommended: adding additional active cooling to the booster board
The booster board will get hot. This is inevitable. I recommend adding an additional fan specifically for the booster board. The fan I have chosen is a 5V 1703 blower fan produced by SUNON, but any similar sized blower fan will do. A 3D printable support mount has been designed to make installation even easier, but is not mandatory. You can download it here.
Step 1: Install the support by removing the screw that holds the original fan and heatsink in place and screwing everything back together
Step 2: Use some cyanoacrylate (superglue) to stick the fan to the 3D printed support. If you don’t have the support than you can just glue the fan directly in place.
Step 3: Apply two strips or blobs of silicone-based thermally conductive glue to the heatsink to support the booster board. We do this for two reasons: keep the booster board a bit lifted from the plastic and the heatsink to ease airflow and to secure it in place by simply using the pressure of the back cover of the RC (when the remote is closed up again).
Step 4: Stick the heatsink to the back of the booster board, more specifically stick it to the top-left most corner like shown in the picture below
Step 5: Connect the fan’s black wire to the OUT- pad of the step-up converter that you previously installed and the fan’s red wire to the OUT+ pad of the step-up converter.
Step 6: After everything has been connected and glued in place, simply put the controller back together and test.