Looking for Tutorials/Advice on Tello Repairs

DroneBlocks Support
1

Hello all!

I am looking to see if anyone has either been successful at repairing their own Tellos or has found a good repair place for them? I either need more advanced tutorials than I’ve found so far, or I need someone else to look at 4 of my 10 Tellos. And they don’t all have the same issues. (Can’t be too specific ATM cuz they’re all at home and I’m at work.) Ah, the joys of aging technology!

2

We have about ifozen these drones and others as we fly swarms. We tend to fix oiur own. We keep the bad ones for parts. Please be more specific. on each drone problems. Where are you located?

3

Hi, sorry for the late response. Glad you’ve been able to fix your own. I’d love to get to that state, but I don’t yet have the knowledge to do so.
I am located in Ohio.

  • One of my drones has a “battery problem” except that it says that about all of the batteries that work fine in the other drones. It shows the “battery problem” notification in the Tello App and the Tello FPV app (which I started using when the original Tello app stopped working on my phone). Oh, and the drone will launch with this “battery problem” but won’t follow any commands.
  • One of the drones has stabilization issues - it lifts up, doesn’t stay at position.
  • One drone takes instruction from Droneblocks or Tello apps, but keeps claiming it has Wifi interference.
  • And the final drone with issues has two stiff motors.

I hope you have some advice or suggestions for me! And good luck to all of you with aging drones!

4

Anyone else have any experience with old Tello drones? Surely I can’t be the only one who’s been having these issues? (Or maybe I am! Perhaps my students are harder on the drones than other students.)

5

Hi Trina, I’m assuming you’re talking about the standard Tello drones (not EDU or TT)? This is really disappointing to hear and I’m wondering what firmware version you’re on? I’d like to take one of my older Tellos and compare the firmware version to yours. I have a couple that are now 4-5 years old.

6

Hi Dennis!

Yes, I only have standard Tello drones. Firmware version 1.04.91.01 (the “latest” version according to the upgrade cycle. I don’t think it’s been updated since I bought the Tellos.)

So I tested all but the stiff motors one today (it still has 2 stiff motors) and actually got the stabilization issue and Wifi interference ones to work. (Or rather, they were working just fine when I turned them on, even though during summer break they claimed to still have those issues.)

The one telling me it has a nonofficial battery is still doing this. (It wouldn’t even launch for me today.) I did the IMU calibration on it and it still said the same thing after rebooting it.

It’s nice that the official Tello software has updated and works on my phone again so I could get into the nitty gritty workings of the drones. Even though the stabilization issue drone seemed to be a lot more stable today, I went ahead and did a center of gravity calibration with it.

So it looks like I’ll have 8 working drones when the next semester begins. I think that’ll be enough for the students currently signed up.

Maybe my dad and I can find a way to swap motors from the bad battery drone to the stiff motors drone - that could get me 9 good drones. Has anyone attempted a motor swap before? Easy/difficult? My dad’s a pretty good camera/computer/microscope repairman, but I’ve only dabbled.