With the difficulty in Care Refresh at DJI, I recently decided to replace a front landing leg on my Air 3S. Note that this is just the leg not the entire arm. My search here and online did not reveal the tricks in doing this.
One of the photos shows the damage before repair. The leg was struck by the prop from a fellow flyer. Yes midair collisions are possible.
Disassembly starts with removing the small grey led cover with the tip of an X-ACTO knife blade. It will fly away so make a plan to catch it. That was trick number one. Next remove the Phillips head screw that is under the led cover. I used a PH00 screwdriver. Then the three spline head screws can be removed from around the leg. I used a #5 six spline screwdriver. Since the rounded top of the leg on my drone was damaged, I cut out the plastic above the rectangle led opening to free the leg. Another photo shows what remains with the antenna and the led hanging down.
Aftermarket legs are available on Amazon. They look dark in my photo but they are actually a good match to the DJI grey. However there is a problem. The led with the wires attached, will not pass through from the back of the rectangular opening of the new leg. In another photo you can also see the rigid white insulation that DJI put on the solder joint on the back of the led. So, trick number two is that you can cut the two wires that feed the led so it can be placed in the new leg from the front. Then the wires can be soldered back together on the back. In my case since the wires are quite short, I spliced in about an inch of new wire to make reassembly possible. I placed shrink tube over the joints. Of course polarity is critical when reattaching the wires. The wires are extremely small so soldering is delicate and as others have said on this group, the use of a proper variable temperature soldering iron is important.
Reassembly involves sliding the antenna down into the leg making sure it rests in the slot at the bottom. Then replace the screws in the same places they came from. The grey led cover can be pressed down to snap in place.
My drone continued to fly after the collision but had minor prop damage. So I replace all four prop sets, calibrated everything and the test flight shows it is back to normal now.
One of the photos shows the damage before repair. The leg was struck by the prop from a fellow flyer. Yes midair collisions are possible.
Disassembly starts with removing the small grey led cover with the tip of an X-ACTO knife blade. It will fly away so make a plan to catch it. That was trick number one. Next remove the Phillips head screw that is under the led cover. I used a PH00 screwdriver. Then the three spline head screws can be removed from around the leg. I used a #5 six spline screwdriver. Since the rounded top of the leg on my drone was damaged, I cut out the plastic above the rectangle led opening to free the leg. Another photo shows what remains with the antenna and the led hanging down.
Aftermarket legs are available on Amazon. They look dark in my photo but they are actually a good match to the DJI grey. However there is a problem. The led with the wires attached, will not pass through from the back of the rectangular opening of the new leg. In another photo you can also see the rigid white insulation that DJI put on the solder joint on the back of the led. So, trick number two is that you can cut the two wires that feed the led so it can be placed in the new leg from the front. Then the wires can be soldered back together on the back. In my case since the wires are quite short, I spliced in about an inch of new wire to make reassembly possible. I placed shrink tube over the joints. Of course polarity is critical when reattaching the wires. The wires are extremely small so soldering is delicate and as others have said on this group, the use of a proper variable temperature soldering iron is important.
Reassembly involves sliding the antenna down into the leg making sure it rests in the slot at the bottom. Then replace the screws in the same places they came from. The grey led cover can be pressed down to snap in place.
My drone continued to fly after the collision but had minor prop damage. So I replace all four prop sets, calibrated everything and the test flight shows it is back to normal now.
