Would incorporating SMT repair into my existing drone business help?

[Sebass]

Hey repair folks,
I figured I would post here to kick things off. I own/operate a RC/drone retail entity in Colorado. This small DIY based Radio Controlled drone retail/hack space has survived for about 2.5 years and just changed gears into a online concierge service this spring, ditching the brick and mortar. So facing debt, and inventory that is already obsolete I found Louis's inspirational YT channel through Reddit ,decided the opensource hack-space approach was not profitable and should incorporate repair of some kind as well as instruction in my paid offerings. I have also accumulated a large amount of returned or DOA boards that I might like to repair and sell refurbished.

I guess what I am wondering is repair of items in the $50-500 dollar range worth it? I don't really expect to find DJI FC Gerbers or any other drone/AV tech information on this site but rather basic SMT rework good practices and troubleshooting as well as a list of equipment I could purchase for this kind of work. I have some background regular sized PCB manufacture and quit a bit of practical exp building/soldering/troubleshooting drones on a mini scale.

I am not against repairing laptops for money it is just there are already 3 or more of these repair shops in my town, hell I even a competing drone store!

Here is a movie made by two of my customers to give you an idea of how we do drones in Colorado.

 

[larossmann]

if something costs less than $500 and does not have user critical data on it i can't imagine it being worth much time to fix it, but again this is up to the worth of your time, and your market and is not for me to say. but personally speaking i wouldn't find it worth the time. if you can fix more expensive ones, sure.

 

[Repairable]

Indeed fix the expensive ones.
Ditch the cheap ones and sell them a new one.
Same for the cars
Maby rc planes?

 

[Sebass]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I think the niche for repair would be video goggles and HD cams. Most of the cheap Flight controllers used in quadcopter racing are small 35mm double sided boards, maybe I can just get some different tips and repair them without a large investment into too many rework tools. Almost all the faults are caused by g force damage to the IMUs, reversed DC input, or damaged USB.

Since discovering Louis's videos I have been trying to focus more of charging some kind of hourly for my time. When I had the storefront/hackspace I did a lot of help and walk throughs for free. Since going online I have been trying to introduce cheap help over skype since I am a stay at home dad as well. Unfortunately when my old customers hear this they kind of just disappear.
Time will tell.