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Repaired broken front left arm with epoxy/plastic strips

Waldo Pepper

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Hello Forum, friends,

Recently sat on one of my Anafi while flying with a friend, had placed the Anafi on a lawn chair. Unfortunately, had forgotten it was there and sat on the drone. We heard a crack, no physical damage was noticeable. Everything looked good, so I started to fly it and as it was lifting off the ground the front left leg completely snapped off.

Having a spare crashed Anafi for parts, figured I’d just use a arm from the parts Anafi. Unfortunately, the same parts Anafi arm was broken.

Have repaired other drones before using epoxy and strips of plastic, with the Anafi additional weight can be an issue and needed to keep the repair as light as possible. The three strips of plastic weight was .6 grams, the epoxy was probably around .4 grams. Total additional weight was about .10 grams, that’s 1/10 th of a gram for the repair. It’s auctually stronger now, this is probably the weakest area on the Anafi.

Also used a soldering iron, didn’t have too but wanted to make sure the two broken arm pieces were fastened in proper position before epoxy died. After applying epoxy to the two broken pieces, held both broken arms together and with the soldering iron tack melted all four sides. Just a tack melt to hold the pieces together, then applied additional eqoxy to one side applying a measured strip of plastic, I did this to three sides (both sides/top) each time allowing the epoxy and strip to dry. Takes a few hours to complete, because I’m only epoxying one strip at a time. The soldering iron was only used to melt a small portion of plastic to each side. So everything would dry straight and in original position, you may not need to used a soldering iron but with some repairs it’s critical to be aligned and that’s when I’ll use a soldering iron. The arm will close up against the Gimbal, be careful too long a strip will prevent the arm from fully closing.

Wanted to show it’s possible to repair these broken arms, without adding much weight.

Good luck everyone, have fun and enjoy your outings,

Paul

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Good luck. And I honestly mean it.
I did something similar and after an initial feeling of success my Anafi dropped out of the proverbial blue sky a couple of weeks later.
Flight data gave no indication whatsoever to the cause of the crash, but I can't rule out that it might have been my DIY repair...
 
Not sure if you have heard of this stuff before but a lot of people in the RC world swear by it.

 
Good luck. And I honestly mean it.
I did something similar and after an initial feeling of success my Anafi dropped out of the proverbial blue sky a couple of weeks later.
Flight data gave no indication whatsoever to the cause of the crash, but I can't rule out that it might have been my DIY repair...
Thanks Yemsky for mentioning your Anafi repair experience, appreciate you sharing yours suddenly dropped from the sky and may have been related to the repair.

A few minutes ago, reinforced the repair with electrical tape. I feel the epoxy/plastic is strong enough but just in case added the electric tape to keep everything intact.

Sorry to hear of your Anafi loss, hope you’ve replaced it since then.

All the best,
Paul

E076A2E9-201A-4180-8C57-101F5C69EFEE.jpeg
 
Not sure if you have heard of this stuff before but a lot of people in the RC world swear by it.

Thank you Agustine,

Appreciate the link, I may order a bottle for future repairs. Looks extremely strong, better then the epoxy I used.

Thanks again,
Paul
 
Thanks Yemsky for mentioning your Anafi repair experience, appreciate you sharing yours suddenly dropped from the sky and may have been related to the repair.

A few minutes ago, reinforced the repair with electrical tape. I feel the epoxy/plastic is strong enough but just in case added the electric tape to keep everything intact.

Sorry to hear of your Anafi loss, hope you’ve replaced it since then.

All the best,
Paul

I contacted Parrot and while they were not particularly fast they reviewed the information I provided, including the image of the Skycontroller data showing that the drone just dropped mid flight at 69% battery level...

IMG_BEAC76DC6C8A-1.jpeg


....and approved a replacement under warranty.
Actually getting the replacement was a totally different story though with a lot of unnecessary back and forth with Parrot's customer service (they did not want to do it directly but my original point of purchase was unresponsive despite their replacement approval...)
It made me so frustrated that after two months I bought a DJI Mavic Zoom, only to all of a sudden receive my Anafi replacement directly from Parrot.
 
Repaired my front left arm with great success. Used a technique I have employed for decades. Cleaned, dried the joint and flowed a small amount of thin CA into the crack to hold things together, it's important to hold the parts until the thin CA sets. I did not use accelerator as I feel CA is stronger without it.

I worked at Smith Bros. Hobby Center back in the day, Satellite City Hot Stuff came out and I was fortunate enough to work for Bob and Charlie Smith. Bob started Bob Smith Industries(BSI) selling CA and accessories. In the early days of the hobby BSI supplied many shops around the world with CA. Bob and Charlie experimented with thin, medium, thick, plastic, metal, Xcellerator, debonder; they were very creative, there were so many variations of CA. I find thin CA with a proper carrier is the strongest. When it gets hot and even smokes the bond is very tough. Poor fit or moisture can ruin a CA repair.

So back to my repair once dry-clean and the the thin CA cured I cut 3/4 oz. glass cloth into a 1/2" strip. I tacked the edge of the strip to the bottom center of the break then stretched it around with tension, like pre-stressed concrete. I applied ultra-thin CA and wrapped it around twice. The joint got hot and when set was very strong.

Today the winds were +/- 20 mph and I put several batteries through Anafi, it was tossed around like a leaf but there were no signs of weakness and the arm seems good as new.

That being said I like the new arm design Parrot is using, I'm thinking of getting a back Anafi and maybe a frame kit when available.
 
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@Vegasrobbi, a very useful write up. Do you have any photos of the finished repair?
I have been wondering whether the new arms would fit the original body or whether a new body would be required to use them and would the original Anafi electronics fit in the new body. However due to the fact that the new arms come complete with motors they are expensive so I will not be changing mine until they become unrepairable.
 
Mine also interestingly got the same treatment (friend sat on it), I epoxied the arm as a temporary measure but now fully replaced it once I could finally get my hands on a spare arm. Don't want to run a known weakened part for too long.
 

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