Ulf Schleth

by Ulf Schleth

BetaFPV Air65 RX LOSS

Sometimes you just buy what all your friends have. I did that with the Air65, even though I had heard that BetaFPV is not known for careful production.

We had an indoor racing setup. I crashed several times, but not too hard. Suddenly EdgeTX told me “Telemetry lost”, and I saw “RX LOSS” in the OSD. Then it worked again for a minute, and after that the RX was lost again… like a loose contact.

At home, I found this very well-written solution, “How to fix ‘RX Loss’ on the BetaFPV Air65” by Jakob Maier. I ordered the BetaFPV ELRS Lite receiver and did everything exactly as Jakob described in his article. The receiver fits very well without any tape between the Air65 frame and the board. I also bound it successfully. Unfortunately, Betaflight told me that the receiver was not communicating with it. So something else had to be the problem.

Then I found “BetaFPV Air65 random ‘RX LOSS’ on YouTube – Problem solved!” by Arthur S. That sounded logical — BetaFPV saves on solder! Maybe on Jakob’s FC there was one pin less affected (or something else entirely). But since I didn’t have a microscope or solder paste, I decided to try it without them.

I put some solder flux around the chip (yes, the one on the bottom front, with the arrow in the picture above, directly above the RX solder pads), heated my heat gun to 350 °C, and blew hot air onto that chip while pressing down on it with a pair of tweezers.

Now the Air65 is flying again.

I had to open up it several times. Afterwards, I also had to resolder the motor wires.  Then I had to reverse one motor because I soldered the cables in the wrong order. Now, i made my first flight and there are again 2 of BetaFPVs cheap motor wires broken. I didn’t have something like that in the past 5 years with my old Mobula 6. I’m curious if the Air65 II will be soldered better and have better motor wires. Let me know in the comments.

Now a whole sunny day is gone! Never do that… go out into the sun and repair your stuff only when it’s rainy or late in the evening!

Maybe I should order some solder paste in advance.