For all of you who received Cheerson CX-10 mini-quadcopters as holiday gifts and are learning to fly, bookmark this page because you’ll need it soon.  Here’s a list of some common repairs – you might as well learn about it now.

FYI – The Cheerson CX-10 is also sometimes sold as the Cheerson Q4.  This repair guide also largely applies to the similar Cheerson CX-10A and Cheerson CX-10C models.

Also just for reference, here is the manual for the Cheerson CX-10.

0.05 Ounces of Prevention

If you received this as a gift:

Cheerson CX-10

and it didn’t come with a prop guard (which weighs 0.05 ounces / 1.5g), then you should definitely get one. It will dramatically reduce the number of broken propellers you have to deal with, particularly while you are first learning.

	Blade Guard and 16 replacement propellers for Cheerson CX-10
	2 blade guards for the Cheerson CX-10

Replacing the propellers on your CX-10

Removing the propellers: The propellers can be removed from the motor shaft by pulling them straight upwards.  Sometimes they are loose, but sometimes it can take a little force. A pair of wirecutters gently put around the prop can help pry off the more stubborn ones.  Just take care not to bend the motor shaft or nick it.

Proper Propeller Placement: You will need to remove the propellers when they break, but even more often something will get tangled in them (in my house, that tends to be hair or carpet fuzz). Removing the propeller makes it easy to remove the offending tangle.

The key thing to remember is that when you put the propellers back, you need to match the direction of rotation with the propeller.  There are two types of propellers- some of them rotate clockwise, and some rotate counterclockwise. There is actually a letter code marking the propellers, but it’s easy enough to just remember the direction of rotation of the motor, and make sure that when the propeller rotates it should be pulling the quadcopter upwards.

Shorted out motor wires

This is a common issue. On one of my quadcopters, the motor wiring was worn and exposed on all four motors.  This is what it looks like:

The problem is that the wiring will sometimes short against the metal body of the motor.

In my case, the quadcopter would still turn on and pair with the controller, but then once you tried to fly it the motors would spin for a half-second and then stop.  The LEDs would then start blinking like it need to be charged again (even though it had just been charged).

On another quadcopter, it would fly for a few seconds, and then fall out of the sky.  Amusing, but frustrating.

Here is the fix:

1. Remove the propellers
2. Unscrew the four screw in the bottom.
3. Gently pry off the the bottom white enclosure (note the clips on each end of the PCB)
4. Take off the blue case

You should end up with something that looks like this:

5. Fixing the insulation on the worn motors is tricky because it might make it too thick to slide the motor back into the case.  In one case, I just removed the motor and remounted it so that the exposed part is away from the motor body.  In another case I used tweezers to put in a place a very small piece of black electrical tape to insulate the wire.

6. Put everything back together (be careful when replacing the propellers!)

Some other posts about the CX-10

• Differences between the different Cheerson Quadcopters
• Hacks for the Cheerson CX-10

There are a few variations on the Cheerson CX-10, and it can be a little confusing as to what the differences are.  Here is a quick guide.

See below for more information on all of these.

The Original: Cheerson CX-10

The original basic version of the Cheerson CX-10. Check price on Amazon.

For those interested in hacking the CX-10, it looks like there has been at least 3 different PCB revisions. The primary reason for caring about this is if you want to pair to another transmitter such as the Walkera with DeviationTx.  These are identifiable based on the color of the PCB when you open up the CX-10.  There is the Red, Green, and Blue.  There’s a lot of discussion on the Deviation TX board and RCGroups about which firmware is needed with which board (so go there for details), but in general I think that people have been able to make it work with all three versions.

I believe the Red and Green PCB versions came earlier. All of the units I purchased came from Amazon after Oct. 2015, and they have all been Blue PCBs.

The Cheerson CX-10A with Headless Mode

Cheerson CX-10A Mini-Quadcopter with Headless Mode Check price on Amazon.

This is identical to the CX-10, but with an additional flying mode called “Headless Mode.” With the CX-10 and CX-10A in normal flying mode, the side with with the blue LEDs is the front (the “head”) of the quadcopter, and the side with the red LEDs is the back.  The forward/backward, and left/right control (by default on the right joystick of the controller) are all referenced to this “head” orientation to quadcopter.

In Headless mode, the head of the quadcopter stays fixed to where it was based on how it started at takeoff of the device.  This means that even if you rotate the the quadcopter with the left joystick and the blue/red LEDs indicate that the head of the quadcopter is rotating, it will not affect how the left/right controls work. When operating in headless mode, the LEDs will blink on and off (I guess they figure it’s ok for the LEDs to go off because they no londer indicate the heading).

This headless mode can make it less confusing for beginners to fly, but it doesn’t always work that great, so in general I never use it.  However, I have noticed that in headless mode it the yaw rate seems to be reduced, and that overall can make things it slightly easier to fly.

On Amazon, the CX-10A seems to cost about $2-$3 more, but not all the listings are accurate.  I’ve ordered a CX-10A at least once and received a normal CX-10. The packaging is the easiest way to tell the difference (see photos above), plus the symbol on the top middle of the body is different.

This CX-10A is also sold as the Cheerson Q4 where it is bundled with a handly little wrench to help pull off the propellers.

The Cheerson CX-10C with a Camera

Cheerson CX-10C Mini-Quadcopter with 0.3MMP Camera. Check price on Amazon).

The difference with this one is obvious, and it’s pretty amazing.  For an extra $10, you get a video camera that can record video or take still pictures to a micro SD card. The video below tells you everything you need to know.

The Cheerson CX-10D

Cheerson CX-10D Mini-Quadcopter with altitude hold. Check price on Amazon).

This model adds the altitude hold feature the CX-10A (there is no camera). This is a nice feature for beginners, because keeping the drone at an even altitude is one of the trickier things to learn at first.  Many folks bounce their drones off the ceiling and then the floor a few times before getting the hang of it.  The altitude control feature is implemented using a barometric sensor. There is a nice review of the CX-10D here.  

The Cheerson CX-10W with FPV

Cheerson CX-10W Mini-Quadcopter with Wifi FPV Check price on Amazon).

This version adds the amazing ability to stream images from the camera on the drone to your Android or iOS phone, which enables FPV (first-person view) flying.  It is fun to play with, but admittedly, using your phone to fly this is not the best interface.  Here is a thorough review of the CX-10W.

There is a third-party version of the app that enables you to fly via a CX-10C transmitter and then stream and record to your Android phone (the default app disables the transmitter capability once it is on).

The Cheerson CX-10WD with FPV and Altitude control

Cheerson CX-10WD Mini-Quadcopter with FPV and altitude hold. Check price on Amazon).

This version adds altitude capability to the CX-10W.  This unit is thoroughly reviewed as well.  

Fluoreon FX-10

The Floureon FX-10 is even smaller than the Cheerson CX-10.  Check price on Amazon.

If you don’t have enough room to fly the Cheerson CX-10 then you need a bigger living space, but maybe the Floureon FX-10 can help too. It includes headless mode, and flies about as well as the CX-10. Here is nice video review.

It is also sold as the Cheerson CX-Stars, the Mota JetJat Nano, or the DHD D1.

This is a compilation of links describing various hacks on the Cheerson CX-10 mini drone.

1.  The first one is my own hack where I control a Cheerson CX-10 from a PC using a webcam.
   
2. This is a how-to on converting a Cheerson into a FPV.  Pretty amazing!

Cheerson CX-10 Smallest FPV

3. This post describes how to add shoulder buttons to control the yaw.  This is nice because with the Cheerson controller, when trying to rotate the yaw, the thrust is often inadvertently affected as well.

4. This forum post shows how a different RX can be hacked into the Cheerson.  In this case a DT RX32D was used.  This enabled custom firmware to be implemented.

5. Teardown and Video showing Cheerson controlled by Walker DeviationTX

6. Another Teardown.

7. This Gitub Gist has code for connecting an Arduino to the XN297 chip in the Cheerson TX. Enables one to control the Cheerson via the Arduino, or in this case, using the Arduino to read from another Flight TX into the Arduino.

Arduino Source code

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