Possible motor failure issue?

twoska

Member
Was flying great. Solid video. No jello. No crashes.

Went out yesterday and all of a sudden I have major jello and the quad isn't responding as it used to. It seems just off. GPS is locked in.

Here is a short video where you can hear the motor (I think?) acting up. Once it does the quad pitches and crashes. I took off 2-3 times and as it hovers for a minute all of a sudden it makes the sound and comes down.

is this a motor issue? Maybe the naza? Being new I have no idea what to check.

Thanks for helping

 
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Av8Chuck

Member
What size props? Sounds like pretty high KV motors with pretty small props, how much throttle does it take to hover?

The place to start would be to make sure the motors and props are securely attached. If they are, from the video it does appear that you have a bad vibration which could be caused by a bad bearing. Do all the motors spin, by hand, the same?
 

twoska

Member
1000kv motors with 10x4.5 props. Was flying and filming great. Than all of a sudden I have this odd noise, loss of control and major jello (Vibration). Leads me to think its a motor but not sure if it could be anything else. Naza? Some other calibration? Checked all the connections and screws. All tight,

I spun the props by hand. One did seem to stop a little quicker. Just a little. Maybe that could be bad?
 

twoska

Member
Here's another video from yesterday. You can here the odd sound at 1:14 - 1:17 and very clear at the end ... at 1:40....right before the crash.

The entire time I didn't feel in total control. Could the motor be going and the naza is trying to make up for the bad motor?

All the blades are balanced and batteries 100% charged.

 
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Av8Chuck

Member
Were the motors and ESC's hot? Anyone hotter than the others? Or was one colder than the others?

Its difficult to tell from the video but it sounds like you might have a cold or bad solder joint. Check the solder joints on bullet connectors etc..

What size MR are you flying? What's your All Up Weight (AUW)? with 1000KV motors and 10" props it sounds like your well above 50% throttle at a hover, not necessarily a bad thing but you might get this sort of power "brown out" with a higher AMP draw which is why I suspect a questionable connection.

There's no way to know from watching the video but it appears that what ever the problem is happens on the left side so I'd start looking there.
 

kloner

Aerial DP
this sounds like motor bearings leaving,,,, it's a hot mess.....

some ways to physically sort out motors, if any have alot of up and down play, that is most likely broken a bearing..... if you de prop it and fire it up at a idle, mid throttle, rub a nail on the motors and feel for vibration. you want them all smooth. the only thing we really maintain on a heli is prop balance and bearings.... the prop balance being off will eat a bearing in no time flat.

Heat will be present in the offender or the offender and it's partner from over working the other motor keeping yaw form over working since one or more motors aren't doing there jobs. usually only a heat gun shows it cause it can be really minimal, but vary when it never had. You want to watch heat as a diagnostic way to read the health of the system... ie laser heat gun thing....
 

twoska

Member
Thanks to all for your answers. I swapped out the 4 motors (One of them wasn't starting with the other 3 and just felt tight). Went flying and there was zero jello and everything worked perfect. So it looks like the one motor was shot. I will go and replace that motor and should be good to go.

Next job is to learn to balance the motors which I have never done.

T
 


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