Stratus power connector

[Clark1961]

Anybody else had the Stratus power connector break? Plugged mine in yesterday and the connector came lose from the board. Looking at the micro-usb socket that came out I thought some plastic bit had broken. After opening up the case it is clear that the glue had failed. The socket is just glued to the board. There is no mechanical attachment of the micro-usb socket to the board. Is this standard design or did Appareo cut a manufacturing corner?

 

[happypilot876]

I believe Appareo improved the USB socket connection method shortly after the Stratus was introduced in 2012, so you should be able to get warranty coverage on that. Contact Sporty's or Appareo, wherever you bought yours, and explain what happened. Hopefully they don't give you static for opening the case!

 

[poitras]

This just happened to me today. I bought the Stratus 13 months ago and the warranty is for 1 year. I'll try calling Monday. If they knew of a defect, they should have done a recall. This thing is just too pricey to buy a new one every year. On the other hand, just before it broke, I saw that it was delivering traffic info (I had recently updated the firmware and foreflight software.) It was silly of them to block that in the first place.

 

[Clark1961]

They covered mine under warranty. No question at all. Very nice folks to deal with.

The replacement unit has a better fit of the case to the micro-usb socket compared to the old one. Haven't opened it up to see if it's the same mechanically. Will try to fly with the new unit tomorrow or Monday and see how traffic works now that I have ES.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Sigh... Yes. Replaced the one I bought last summer because the socket came loose just like you describe. New one is starting to have a slightly different problem - Socket is tight, but it just doesn't like to charge when the cable is in certain positions, it has to be just right. That one's gonna go back too...

At least they didn't give me any flack at all about the replacement - Just called Appareo, told them what happened, they sent out a new one right away.