I have a problem with a "4in1" control unit for a RC helicopter. Due to some problems with helicopter setup, it is currently vibrating heavily which makes things even worse.
The 4in1 unit basically has two PCBs with electronic speed control, accelerometer, radio receiver and servo controller.
The receiver has short (say 2.5 cm) piece of wire which acts as a 2.4 GHz antenna and is soldered to an SMD pad. It is also glued to the PCB with hotglue. The SMD pas is around 2 mm away from the edge of the board towards which the antenna is supposed to point.
My problem is that after a while, the solder joint breaks and so does the glue joint and the antenna falls off. Fortunately, I haven't had any crashes due to that, but I'd rather fly with antenna than without.
So I'm looking for tips how to securely solder a wire to a SMD pad on a vibrating board. I already tried just resoldering the wire and gluing it with hotglue, but it seems that it doesn't help much.
Here's the photo of the part. The solder ball is where the antenna should be attached. I removed the layer of hotglue that was over it. Here's full size image, for those who dare click it.