[livingstone82]

FMC,

If you need the extra orings, look around in other thread where you can buy spare orings.

I just bought a boxed extra orings from monkey oring for Drone DX. They do sell it for the particular marker.

cheers.

[FMC]

Thanks

[ben0610]

Hey guys I bought a drone DX brand new and it shot great all day out of the box. But after I got back home from practice and was in the middle of removing the grips in order to clean the gun, the little battery mounted on the board somehow exploded?! How is this possible? There was a loud popping sound with a little puff of smoke, and battery acid all over the inside of the grip frame. After that the board just died. How is this possible? Can the gun be repaired?

[Jinx18]

Originally Posted by ben0610

Hey guys I bought a drone DX brand new and it shot great all day out of the box. But after I got back home from practice and was in the middle of removing the grips in order to clean the gun, the little battery mounted on the board somehow exploded?! How is this possible? There was a loud popping sound with a little puff of smoke, and battery acid all over the inside of the grip frame. After that the board just died. How is this possible? Can the gun be repaired?

Do you mean the little black cylindrical thing above the battery (capacitor)? If so the usual way a capacitor would blow up is excessive voltage. Even still I don't see a 9v doing that. Something must have shorted out on the board.

[ben0610]

Thanks for your reply.

Oh that's the capacitor? I didn't know that, haha. All I did was switch out the stock battery for a brand new duracell 9 volt. But I don't think that's what caused the problem. I didn't get any paint, dirt, or debris on the board by the way. When I removed the grips everything inside was clean.

[James@MacDev]

Originally Posted by ben0610

Hey guys I bought a drone DX brand new and it shot great all day out of the box. But after I got back home from practice and was in the middle of removing the grips in order to clean the gun, the little battery mounted on the board somehow exploded?! How is this possible? There was a loud popping sound with a little puff of smoke, and battery acid all over the inside of the grip frame. After that the board just died. How is this possible? Can the gun be repaired?

ben,

we will replace this board for you.
remove the board and clean the frame etc.
you will need to get an RMA from our site, once we have the old board we will send you out a new one.

the only reason the capacitor will blow up is if the battery is put in backwards and used. make sure you note how the battery comes out of the gun!

[ben0610]

Originally Posted by James@MacDev

ben,

we will replace this board for you.
remove the board and clean the frame etc.
you will need to get an RMA from our site, once we have the old board we will send you out a new one.

the only reason the capacitor will blow up is if the battery is put in backwards and used. make sure you note how the battery comes out of the gun!

Thanks James! Should I send the board to the Florida address listed on the website? And what's an RMA??

[James@MacDev]

ben simply go to the site and send an email to support outlining your problem and ask for an RMA (return merchandise authority).

[rkenders]

The battery clips should not allow you to put in the battery backwards. The Drone uses spring clips rather than a battery snap. The spring clips should be keyed so installing the battery backwards is not easily done. This is a pretty large over site! Oops! I fried my board because I couldn't tell which way was the correct orientation for the battery.

[Jinx18]

Originally Posted by James@MacDev

the only reason the capacitor will blow up is if the battery is put in backwards and used. make sure you note how the battery comes out of the gun!

There is no backupsafety measure incase someone puts the battery in backwards? I just checked the manual and it makes no mention of the correct orientation for the batteries. It does have a picture but never specifies. Im glad I saw this and hopefully other people do because many just throw a battery in, try it, if it doesnt work switch it, instead of finding out which is the right way.

Originally Posted by rkenders

The battery clips should not allow you to put in the battery backwards. The Drone uses spring clips rather than a battery snap. The spring clips should be keyed so installing the battery backwards is not easily done. This is a pretty large over site! Oops! I fried my board because I couldn't tell which way was the correct orientation for the battery.

Yea the battery clip that snaps onto the top of the battery sounds like a good idea.

[Jinx18]

What is the Rate of Fire (ROF) for Eyes Off? I assume it is the same as what you have set for eyes on, is that correct?

What is the Rate of Fire (ROF) for Eye Failure? Is it adjustable?

[Boomer14]

Originally Posted by rkenders

The battery clips should not allow you to put in the battery backwards. The Drone uses spring clips rather than a battery snap. The spring clips should be keyed so installing the battery backwards is not easily done. This is a pretty large over site! Oops! I fried my board because I couldn't tell which way was the correct orientation for the battery.

I've seen it done once.. putting the battery in backwards does let the smoke out of the board. It gets hot and smells bad. I was handed a drone a couple of years ago- "I changed the battery and now its smoking. Is something wrong?". The board needs that smoke or it don't work.

The wire harness on the old boards used to tear loose, so pick your poison. You can take the terminal off and solder on wires- i've had to do that. It is at your own risk and you have to know what you're doing when soldering that close to those electronics. I warn about the battery thing in the maintenance video I made. This is the only other instance I've heard of burning out a board from installing the battery backwards to date.

[Boomer14]

Originally Posted by Jinx18

What is the Rate of Fire (ROF) for Eyes Off? I assume it is the same as what you have set for eyes on, is that correct?

What is the Rate of Fire (ROF) for Eye Failure? Is it adjustable?

I run eyes off frequently, and its 30 or whatever your cap is. eye failure is 8 bps IRRC.

[third lobe]

Has anyone shot tournament grade paint through a drone dx? Wondering about 4 or 5 star GI or ultra evil.

[rkenders]

The answer to broken wires on a battery clip is simple. EVERYTHING else on the board has a connector why can't the battery clip? A connector for the battery completely eliminates the need to solder broken wires back to the board. If Dangerous Power can do it on a $300 gun why can't Macdev do it on a $550 or $1300 gun? Macdev makes great guns, but clearly fell down on some important details. The fact that a battery installed backwards will fry the board is a major fail. This is so easy to fix it's not even funny and multiple fail safes should have been used. Again DP does it on their "low end" guns why can't Macdev?

1. Make it mechanically difficult to attach a battery backwards by using a battery snap on top of the battery or use battery springs that are keyed so installing the battery backwards is obviously wrong and difficult to do.

2. Put a diode between the battery and the board so that current flow can occur in only ONE direction. Even if a battery was hooked up backwards "somehow", nothing would happen since no current would flow.

Between these two things, it would be virtually impossible to fry the board and the cost for adding them is pennies at most and should have been obvious to any engineer that they were important and necessary.

If someone wants to send me their Drone and have it modded so it can't be fried by a backwards battery. I would be willing to do it for free and at the same time I will take pictures of what I did and make a "how to" you can follow to repeat what I did. I went to college for electrical engineering. I assure you this is not a big deal to fix and parts will cost you less than $10.

[Burning Ogre]

1. MacDev used to use a normal wired 9v connector (breaks easily) and now uses the clips, which is think is neater. I think i'd would help to make 1 clip smaller than the other and put a big +/- on the board.

2. There might be a diode in there and failed for some reason in this particular case, that could be the reason why a replacement is offered. Then again, think befor you plug in you battery.

[rkenders]

Since the wires break easily a little hot glue around the base of the wires would solve that problem or simply install a small connector where the wires go and then use a battery snap that plugs into the connector. It's a "no brainer" in my opinion.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's very unlikely that a diode would fail. Rectifier diodes tend to be able to handle voltages and currents well above what a 9 volt battery can deliver so if there is one integrated into the logic board it didn't fail from the battery being installed backwards.

I agree with what you said. "Then again, think befor you plug in you battery." It would be nice if that always happened, but people get distracted, don't read the manual or just by accident make mistakes. It's just not rocket science to make things fairly fool proof so in case someone does make a mistake, the magic smoke doesn't get released.

[Krazy8]

The board is marked with + and -

I am with Boomer on this one as well, only the second time I have heard of a board burning out due to battery installation.

rkenders....perhaps you could do what you are describing to yur own Drone and show us some pics? That would explain a bit better wgat you are describing.

[rkenders]

Originally Posted by Krazy8

The board is marked with + and -

I am with Boomer on this one as well, only the second time I have heard of a board burning out due to battery installation.

rkenders....perhaps you could do what you are describing to yur own Drone and show us some pics? That would explain a bit better wgat you are describing.

I would gladly do just that. Problem is I need to wait a while before I get a Drone of my own. There are just so many toys my money can chase around that I have to prioritize. Board burn out from an incorrectly installed battery should literally NEVER happen.

The Drone has no physical/mechanical way to deter you from installing a battery backwards that I am aware of. A battery snap wont stay clipped onto a 9v battery if you try to put it on backwards. This is a mechanical deterrent to installing a battery incorrectly. From what I can tell the Drone has 2 bare metal springy pieces of metal that touch each of the battery posts. If the positive spring clip had a plastic shield around it that stopped the larger negative battery post from touching the metal, but allowed the smaller positive post to pass through would provide a nearly fool proof mechanical way of preventing a battery being installed backwards.

[FMC]

Originally Posted by James@MacDev

ben,

we will replace this board for you.
remove the board and clean the frame etc.
you will need to get an RMA from our site, once we have the old board we will send you out a new one.

the only reason the capacitor will blow up is if the battery is put in backwards and used. make sure you note how the battery comes out of the gun!

WOW I'm very impressed by ur customer service! I'd been hearing that ur CS was bad and was actually considering telling my team to shoot axes or eteks but after seeing this my teams shooting Drones for sure!

[alaskanthunderfok (Banned)]

Might be a dumb question, but what the heck. Will the PE pops Asa fit on this? It would make it so much sexier