A "broke" and then "fixed" DX6i

Ok, so far my blog sucks. But I'm going to try to make a honest effort to get at least one post in a day...or every other day....or maybe just one big one a week....but that one would be really interesting and worth waiting for!

For this post I'm going to give a quick run down of how my Spectrum DX6i got "broke" and "fixed".

It fell on the flour, the antenna broke and fell off. End of story.

Now I will tell you how I fixed it.

WARNING!!!!!
DO NOT TURN ON THE RADIO WITHOUT AN ANTENNA ATTACHED!!! If you do your radio will die! I'm not responsible for any damages you might do to your equipment. If your not comfortable with taking things apart don't do it! (it's a good idea to take the battery's out if you do thins)

So I took the back cover off and found the radio module. On this there is a very small snap on RF connector. You need to take this off very carefully.  

After that I took apart the "broke" antenna assembly. Then I ordered a new pigtail with that small RF connector on one end and a reverse polarity SMA on the other end. You can get them at Mouser with this part number: RN-UFL-SMA6  Or you can get them at sparkfun.com or anywhere else you can find.

Next I made a housing for the SMA connector. I cut down and then drilled out a hole in a solid peace of Teflon (not all the way through) then drilled out a smaller hole. It made a nice little pocket for the connector to sit in.(you can probably use a little chunk of hardwood or another type of plastic.) Make sure you screw the SMA in tight.

Then I cut down the old antenna holder and test fitted the new connector.

I sanded all the outside surfaces and then used 2 layers of adhesive lined heat shrink to attach the little connector housing to the top of the antenna assembly. I also cut out the spot for the screw. (if you don't have adhesive lined heat shrink use some hot glue then put the heats shrink over top of it.)

Then I just put it all back into the controller. Make sure you don't kink or pinch the cable, and be very careful plugging in the little RF connector. (make sure it goes strait down and snaps into place)

Then you just attach your own 2.4Ghz antennas and your good to go! REMEMBER!! DO NOT TURN ON THE RADIO WITHOUT AN ANTENNA!!!!

Now I know there are probably better ways to do this but this is just what I did. Feel free to explore other methods and ideas.
If you have any questions or would like more details toss them into the comments and I will try to answer them ASAP.

P.S.
You can use the antenna that came with the booster or find another 2.4ghz antenna at Sparkfun.com to use when your doing normal flying. Just be sure to check the gender of your SMA connectors before you order.