My congratulations to whoever is on assembly at 3DR, as my Iris arms were screwed in so tightly that it was impossible to undo five of the screws without stripping the heads! They were never going to fall off in flight though…
I knew it was bad when I got the allen key and using the short side nothing happened… so I applied more pressure and what gave was the head. So even more carefully trying the others and I end up with five stripped heads.
Hacksawing slots and then using a brace with a flat blade and leaning on it so the arms were bending, I finally managed to get them undone.
Yeah right “keep the parts as you will re-use them”. Such comedians at 3DR
OK Arrrrgh - now I am trying to undo the 8 under body screws and one of those has stripped…
Looking at them they appear to have threadlock on them, so double arrrgh!!!
Upgrade kit = broken Iris so far
Thanks for the suggestion, but it hasn’t helped. Too much loctite for bolt heads that are too weak!
Drilling and cutting a slot seems to be the only thing that works, but of course I am now down 6 short bolts and one long… plus plenty of damage getting the d*mn things out!!
So the upgrade kit isn’t money well spent for me
Finally I have got it disassembled.
D*mn loctite on the ESC board bolts too!
So I am now down 1 long bolt and 7 short!!!
Plus lots of cosmetic damage and damage round the long bolt on the hull, so not sure how well it will go back together.
Whoever applied the loctite needs to go in a room and have the door fixed with 100s of the 2mm bolts with loctite and see if they like it
A 20 min video and just disassembling has taken me about five hours in total thanks to loctite…
problem is the m3 hardware used on the iris and iris+ is NOT of the best quality IMHO for repeatedly removing and replacing
… I went to a metric supplier and replaced all with stainless steel m3 hardware of appropriate lengths.
I DID have to use a dremel to slot some of the old m3 hardware and wound up replacing the deck plates etc
from side damage…
and used removable blue loctite to reinsert all bolts not red unremovable loctite
and used m3 allen wrenches are NOT equal to this task… get a brand new M3 allen wrench in high carbon or SS to fit in… if the tip gets damaged use another brand new m3 wrench they differ minutely after use and will round off if abused… same for the M3 hardware… may want to also try a splined ball allen m3 head for more head lock in
hzl
ps yes heat will help but can cause more problems than its worth
Thanks for the heads up. Was going to remove my arms to try and backpack my IRIS+ with the hope of reassembly on site. But forget that. The soldering iron sounds like a good tip, never heard that before. Thanks.
I got some ball hex allen keys as they claim no slip and they are better, but still struggle with the bolts with loctite.
I am having difficulties finding the correct length M3, so the upgrade kit really should have included these… And a new hull as I’ve mangled mine getting out the long M3.
Shame they don’t seem to be available as spares…
I managed to get some Philips M3 of about the correct length and reassembled, although I had to use a washer on the hull to keep the leg on after hacking it apart…
Anyway, success as I managed a quick test flight
