Replacing Flight Controller STM32 Processor

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

I called the solder paste, flux paste like four times. Sorry about that. I was concentrating too hard or something.

[@SamT_RV]

Project Blue Falcon recorded at 2am on a Tuesday night? Good work dude!

[@angelrivera-ed1ku]

Project Blue Falcon g

[@MrPnew1]

RIP PBF you gave us so much great content and we appreciate it

[@RCinginSC]

Dang dude, you made that look so easy. I do a lot of soldering in my job, but I've have never attempted to replace something so tedious. You got some mad soldering skills.

[@tommysmith2908]

Wow, you've taken repair to a whole new level. I'm kicking myself for all the stuff I've thrown away over the last year. Thank you JC.

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Yea I know the feeling. Used to throw away all kinds of stuff.

[@assamita81]

I don't think I'm going to be doing something like this, but it was really interesting seeing how to do it. I love all these soldering fix videos, even if I know I'll probably never do it.

[@davidstrong8800]

I do repair all my own boards as well as the people that i do fly with, it is nice to see your video highlighting that these can be repaired. Another great video!!

[@JohnTaylorFPV]

a trick that helps is covering everything that surrounds what you're working on with capton tape. It's good at blocking heat and will keep you from accidentally moving any surrounding components. Something else I like to do is take a good look at all the legs with a microscope. It's very easy to get not enough solder with the paste and you'll have an intermittent connection. It's pretty easy to tell with a microscope when you have a good connection or not. If you find a bad one, just put a little flux on it, a TINY bit of normal solder on the tip of your iron and just touch the leg with it.

[@dripfreefpv9695]

Excellent work. Your videos are well thought out and you are skilled at explaining things simply and clearly. I've been binging on your videos as I set up my first quad and have found your videos very helpful. If you never even mentioned that you were working on a flight controller this would be a perfect video for a general how to for working surface mount chips.

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Thanks bunch! Glad to have you. And yea these steps can really be applied to anything. Phones, appliances, anything.

[@Edward-Norton]

I've seen a different method of attaching a processor but instead of a hot air blower they used a fine tip soldering iron and drug it across the pins. Worked slick.

[@ds3656]

Extreme! You are the only person I know doing these types of videos keep it up.

[@RandomChaos851]

Nice! I find it a bit easier to place the tweezers on the chip and then heat it up. Takes a very steady hand, but as soon as its ready to pull, it comes right off. I also my iron with a good tip and tack all the pins down, then check with a microscope for bridges. Its also a good idea to try and wiggle each pin to make sure they are soldered down good.

[@MrStasyan85]

can you enumerate what cleaners and pastes you used? Its hard to read some of them from video. Especially the remover one.

[@MylesShannon]

Great video! I really like your repair series. Very helpful.

[@mistercohaagen]

Hardcore Mochaboy style right here. Bravo.

[@perkinatorfpv5553]

Much respect from me. I've always used stencils to apply solder paste to boards. I personally would never attempt doing this freehand like that. You may have issues long term with the solder paste though. From my experience, they require a specific heating curve (temp vs. time) for it to successfully bond and be reliable.

[@axisdev]

great video - practical instructions, looking fwd to the video on preparing a new cpu

[@Croolsby]

I can't find your video on how to tell if the MCU is bad. I have a short on 3v3 to ground. I removed the 3v3 voltage regulator, but there's still a short. Is my MCU bad?

[@mrmidnight32]

Does anyone know what holds the firmware? I bricked mine and need to know which processor I need to replace to unbrick my ESC...

[@Refused27]

good job man! damn that takes some steady hands

[@MrChuckmason]

What kind of digital tweezers do you use?

[@InFrontOfYourBack1]

Fantastic vid here. Thanks for making these. They are incredibly helpful.

[@reednoel9418]

Hi! my fc with stm32f303, and stm32F411 same legs, If I replace F303 with F411, and remap after, can it work ?

[@brkfpv60]

hi i have omnibus f4 pro v2 flight controller , GPS constantly breaks down , i change new gps module but after 3~4 flight again break down , 3 pieces gps broke . when i plug battery . uart 3 connected to bn 220 . i will connect pdb 5v gps power , i added capasitor .

[@nsboost]

I've got piles of parts and more are added every day (i fly a lot... and fairly badly lol). Keep these videos coming. I love this shizz! nice bird too. I got a 2000 ws6 with a s480

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Hell yea man. s480 was the plan but after building the LQ408 I never got around to it.

[@arcanis79]

Incredible the video and your channel, you are my favorite youtube, continue so these videos are super interesting

[@ThePromptWizard2023]

PRO level there man, holy cow.

[@bhaasleman8813]

hey where I can buy stm32 processor?

[@Duckhandsfpv]

I have been waiting for you to make this video for a bit. have you tried qwikchip solder? It melts at a lower temp and stays liquid for longer. Eevblog's yt channel turned me onto it for removing larger chips like this. It helps avoid the risk of heating the wrong component. Solder paste can be used for this in a similar way to quikchip but requires a heat gunn too.

[@madforit9661]

I have 3 boards and on all but 1 the stm32 chip gets hot. Can yo show how you tested the board,to show why it is just that chip and nothing else that is linked to the chip. As i have replaced the chip and still am unable to get it to boot mode The chip does not get hot anymore

[@noodlenguyen2419]

Hello! Can i get some of your help with a mod im doing with the JJRC x1? I have the 4-1esc that comes with the X1, and will be replacing the fc with a Flip F4 Omni. The only output wires from the X1 4-1esc is battery out (pos), gnd, and 4 signal wires from the motors. Looking at the Flip F4 Omni, and the 4-1esc, can i wire the battery out and gnd, not regulated by the esc, to the Vbat and gnd on the fc (left of fc, third row down) and the 4 signal wires to the PWM pins (right of fc) and the PPM pins to the ia6b receiver?

[@stuartbailey1632]

Where do you buy the processors, I cant seem to find any.

[@h2o-fpv623]

Hey Blue falcon great video very interesting I think I can do it too it's good to try fixing this boards I will need like a magnifying glass or something to be able to see better. Anyways very nice video.

[@FarmerFpv]

awesome video- you going to do one of all the tools you used? thanks... Farmer Fvv

[@mike6165]

Hello. Please Do you know type of LDO 5v->3.3v marked as 5335J on my clone of OMNIBUS F4?

[@How-To-RC]

Wish I was this good with electronics.... I can't get my evo f3 board to connect to cleanflight. It will flash. But it won't let me into the setup section

[@xmenxwk]

okay 2 things, solder wick usually have flux inside and you didn't clean the board after using wick, It looked dirty 8:42 Anyway, nice idea on using solder paste on 2 sides.

[@maxmax-xx7nw]

Hey, i have connected 3s battery to CRNT Pad (current sensor ) and there was magic smoke from processor , do exchanging it will fix my fc?:P

[@gguman150]

How to check the MCU for it fried or not?

[@pauljohnson7538]

Hey JC I'm having trouble with my microcopters with brushed f3 evo they won't pick up on the s bus receivers they are bound and connected but not showing up in beta flight when I choose serial receiver and save re connect and it won't be chosen anymore same problem with 2 boards and 3 different receivers gotta be something I'm missing HELP Paul.

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Not sure what to say bud. If you've followed my videos exactly how I do it, then I've shown everything I know. Could be a firmware or hardware problem. Sorry I'm not that much help.

[@assamita81]

What UART do you have the receivers connected to? I had the same problem and it was due to the fact that I hooked it up to UART3, but in this F3 EVO boards they need to be in UART2 (also remember to change the serial to UART2 in the ports tab in BF). Let me know if that works

[@pauljohnson7538]

Miquel Pavillard I did use uart 2 then even tried 1 but like I said when I choose serial receiver it changes when I save it my first board came with the frsky receiver built in and worked until I changed some settings then lost receiver connection and new boards new receivers all the same

[@EnuffsEnuff318]

Important tip: Don't have any coffee until AFTER the job is complete.

[@pabz06]

Hey JC I now have 2 dead BFF3 FC and I'm looking to see if I can repair one with the other or whatever. For one of them, if I power it up either USB or battery, blue and red LED immediately go on and stay on. No flashes. The other was due to letting my buddy fly my quad... long story short, he full throttled into the ground. Now when I power up I get no video. its just black, esc make their power beep but no signal. I get initial blinking on the board but then it kinda freezes and leds will continue to do the boot up patern. any ideas?

[@daneyan1985]

Im in the same boat you are man but both of my processors are jacked, found somewhere they sell the processors though.

[@peterwoo2489]

Could you replace a F3 with a F4 that is the same size vice versa ?

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Nope. All F4s are larger and have more pins so they can't be swapped with each other

[@peterwoo2489]

Thanks :) What about other components such as resistors and capacitors. How do you identify whether they should be replaced/ identify which components they are.

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Those are a bit harder usually because if one breaks off you dont know what size it was. If you have another flight controller thats the same then you can look at that one and get an idea. On ebay they sell variety packs of resistors and capacitors of all sizes. I just grab one out the bag and put it on.

[@neal4254]

this is worth a 1000 likes!!!

[@Sam-gr8pl]

Great video...like always THX JC!

[@seckam1990]

great vid, you will save people alot of money :)

[@conkerkh]

For most people with less soldering experience it's better not to remove solder from pads cause they have high chance of removing pads along with solder. You can easily solder new mcu on top of old solder and just remove excess later as you did

[@electroluxe76]

Most interesting stuff! Thank you for sharing this knowhow.

[@Coreycry]

400°F I suppose, or is it °C ?

[@juergenstremmler2286]

Short time ago I physically damaged a new Picoblox FC. And this is how it happened. By mistake I had soldered a bridge on 2 solder pads for a S-BUS RX instead the correct ones for a PPM RX. No problem, I thought, lowered the temperature of my soldering iron a bit, pressed it on the bridge over the soldering pads and tried to remove the solder with my desoldering pump. (instead of using desoldering braid…) Immediately both pads came off and that was it for the board. It was physically damaged and went to the trash….

[@gusf8451]

Next time you can use Kapton tape it's heat resistant tape and it will hold all the other components while you're using your heat gun.

[@Brettzone]

good video , thanks

[@richardaffonso]

Great video. I have to admit you have taught me a ton of shit! Thank-you. Also I got my strix coming this week. BadAss frame

[@daneyan1985]

I've killed two betaflight f3 processors, wish i had the skills to do this myself. Fc's are gettting more and more expensive. Has anyone attempted this yet?

[@nathan1sixteen]

for all that work, I'll just buy another $20 board!

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Not a bad idea. But I dont just fix processors. Fix regulators, diodes, broken off capacitors, ESCs, cameras, video transmitters, motors, anything. The money adds up. I've probably saved a couple thousand dollars over the years. Off camera I can change a processor in under 4 minutes.

[@nathan1sixteen]

Project Blue Falcon Wow, you do do a lot of fixing. I don't fly too hard so I tend to not break too much stuff. My soldering skills aren't that good either.

[@ProjectBlueFalcon]

Yea if you're not breaking that much it's not worth buying all the tools and everything. Buying new parts would be the best way to go. I'm like "the repair guy" in my area so I just do repairs for other favors like 3d printed stuff and beer lol

[@assamita81]

would love to see a motor repair. I've got an Armattan Oomph (so not cheap) that seems to hover normally, but when I punch it, it loses power and makes the quad drop. I know it's not the esc because I've switched it and it always falls by the side this motor is in. Maybe the copper wire has lost some of its enamel?

[@MadMarcWinnipeg]

wow !

[@presentthejackrussell2041]

Look like operating in a surgery!

[@dripfreefpv9695]

Excellent work. Your videos are well thought out and you are skilled at explaining things simply and clearly. I've been binging on your videos as I set up my first quad and have found your videos very helpful. If you never even mentioned that you were working on a flight controller this would be a perfect video for a general how to for working surface mount chips.