Put your Rx on a Diet

How to get make your own 13.5 gram receiver:

• Replace the antenna. The stock one weighs 4 grams. Replace it with wire-wrapping wire from Radio Shack (about $3). Because this is a solid conductor wire it will not take as much flexing as a multi-strand one will. To help keep it from breaking, leave a 3/4" long piece of the original in place and solder the new one to its end. Cover the end with heat-shrink. Make sure the new antenna is the same length as the one you started out with.

• The hard case weighs 9 grams. Remove the case by insert a small screwdriver in the slots on either end and prying the two halves apart. CAREFULLY pull the board away from the bottom half. It's a tight fit and needs to be eased out gently. Cover the receiver with a suitable piece of heat-shrink tubing. If none is available, Scotch tape will also work and can even be shrunk afterwards with a heatgun.

• The connector pins have a plastic spacer at their base. You can remove this by prying it up and off. Afterward all 11 pins can be cut down by an amount equal to the thickness of the plastic spacer. (This also helps to make the rx even more compact.)

• There are 2 reasons to remove the crystal socket for two reasons: the socket is held in place by heavy blobs of solder. This also allows the crystal to be installed flat against the middle of the board like you see in the pictures. The crystal is better protected and the height of the receiver is reduced from 20 mm to 12 mm. Lay the crystal down on the board and solder jumpers from its legs to the solder pads where it was originally connected.

• If you are really desperate to shed every last gram of weight, you can also carefully unsolder all 11 pins and solder the ends of the servo wires directly to the receiver. However, there are small SMD's (surface mount components) soldered around the pins on the other side. You will have to work very carefull in order not to disturb them. I do not recommend that you do this.

Finished receiver

Receiver with the original crystal position, and one with the crystal mounted flat.