Okay, so this thing called comn cap apply f1 charge popped up while I was tinkering with my racing drone project. Honestly, the name sounded like alphabet soup at first. But my buddy Steve said his quadcopter felt snappier after messing with it, so I grabbed my toolbox last Tuesday.
My Garage Setup
Dusted off my workbench – total disaster zone with ESC boards everywhere. Found my:
- Flight controller that’s seen better days
- Lipos that look slightly puffy but still work
- That sketchy capacitor Steve loaned me
- Soldering iron with crusty tip (cleaned it with sandpaper)
Started by plugging in just the flight controller and receiver, no props attached obviously. The receiver LEDs blinked like crazy – never seen that before. Thought maybe my wiring was backwards, so I:
- Ripped out all cables with pliers
- Counted ESC wires three times
- Re-soldered every single connection while sweating bullets
The “Aha” Disaster
Powered it up again, still blinking. Smelled burnt plastic – panicked and yanked the battery. Turns out Steve’s capacitor had leaking goo on it. Wiped it with my shirt (dumb idea) and got sticky residue everywhere. After scraping it off with a screwdriver:
- Sanded the capacitor contacts until shiny
- Stuffed heat shrink tubing over loose wires
- Hooked capacitor between ESC and power with shaky hands
Third power-up… silent. No lights. My stomach dropped until I noticed the receiver had solid green. Tapped throttle on radio and heard ESC beeps! Felt like winning the lottery.
What Actually Worked
Whole process took four hours for what’s essentially:
- Stick capacitor on power lines
- Cry when it fails
- Fix bad connections
- Profit?
Flight test was messy – drone did this weird sideways hop first try. Adjusted capacitor placement near flight controller instead of ESCs. Now punchouts feel less saggy, but honestly? Might just be placebo. Still cheaper than buying new batteries.
Storing the project in a pasta box now. Cap’s still hanging by wires like a sad Christmas ornament. Would I recommend this? If you enjoy troubleshooting more than flying? Absolutely.
