Crash Proofing the E011/E011c/BWhoop

If you’ve found the E011c (santa whoop) or the E011 (or BWhoop!) addictive, you’ll eventually found out that it’s also a little fragile.

Specifically, the crystal oscillator on the top (gray cylinder that look out of place), and the antenna are at risk the minute you stop using the stock lego canopy.

Like many others, I like moving these two components to the underside of the board. It’s not terribly difficult soldering but it does require a steady hand, a small tip, a pair of tweezers (or a needle nose/hemostat), and a solder sucker.

To do this “mod”, first unsolder the crystal oscillator by using your soldering iron and solder sucker on the bottom pads (the side it’ll be mounted on eventually). There is also a small amount of hot glue type adhesive on the left or right (sometimes both) of the crystal you’ll need to gently “cut”. I find it VERY easy to get rid of when the board is hot (say, right after sucking that solder off).

After that, it’s simply a matter of soldering it back on the other side. It doesn’t have any sort of polarity, so whichever way you like. I always put a dab of hot glue under it after I get it soldered on, both to protect against any coincidental shorting and to further insulate it from crashes.

The antenna is the same procedure. I only recommend it if you are using a non-stock TX. You’ll need a much higher mW transmitter than the toy transmitter to make up for the RF loss that’ll occur when you put the antenna on the bottom. I’ve found with a 150mW transmitter (Devo 7E with 3-in-1 multi module) it’s a non-issue.

The antenna, you’ll want to use lower heat for.

I also soldered a “powerwhoop” connector for HV batteries to the board. I soldered the wires through the board, and for extra reinforcement added a small amount of hot glue. One other area you MAY want to reinforce is the motor plugs. The pins in those are fairly poorly held in, a small amount of hot glue can help keep them from getting ejected from the plugs in a hard crash.