Problems with one slow motor

[Pyrzi]

Hi,
I got my first fpv drone setup. (Eachine wizard and FlySky i6) My quad is ready to fly but I have issues with arm switch. I did every step as guided in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Q2KdhtmFA&t=992s
but when I arm my quad my motors won';t start running. They only start when I increase the throttle and when I give zero throttle it will turn off the motors which makes it super hard to fly.

Anyone know what I have done wrong or what I need to do to fix this?

I also noticed that when i give just a little bit throttle all the other motors start spinning except one (back left). It starts spinning when i give more throttle but the wires that are connected in the middle part of the wing gets very warm (motor itself doesn';t heat up). All the other wires are cool and this happens even without taking off with the quad. Guess I am not going to fly anytime soon...

Thank you!

[Cheredanine]

Ok let';s take this in reverse order.
Wires getting hot - way too vague and some wires may get warm, gonna ignore that for the moment,
Let';s start with "calibrate your escs"

-connect to bf
-go to the motor tab
-(with props off) click the little switch in the lower right corner that says "I am an idiot and I hereby absolve the developers of all responsibility for what follows" or something similar
- slide the master slider right to the top
-Plug the battery in and wait for the escs to stop making a racket
- slide the master slider to the bottom and wait for escs to stop making racket again
-disconnect battery
-disconnect bf

Now we need to get. In throttle set correctly
-connect to bf
-go to motor tab
-(without props) plug in lipo
-switch the little switch again
-click on the master slider and one step at a time (using the up arrow) increase it to the point where all motors have stopped stuttering and have just started spinning smoothly
-write that value down
- add 30 points to it (so for example motors spin at 1007, 1009, 1010 and 1012, we take 1012, add 30 so 1042 and that is the value we set min throttle to)
-stop the motors, unplug the battery, go to the config tab, set min throttle to the value you worked out
Save it

Now that will give you idle up.
If you want your motors stopped at zero throttle enable motor stop

But most people use air mode rather than idle up as it gives you better control at zero throttle

If you are gonna use bf don';t use stu, he is keen as mustard but not much use at that, look up painless360 or josh bardwell is probably better

[Pyrzi]

Awesome you are my savior! Big thanks. I had motor_stop activated in bf and that is why it didn';t run. Here is some footage about motors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-paPJ8LHwRY&feature=youtu.be

Is that one motor normal? If I keep motors on for even 30s wires get so hot that I can';t keep my finger on it.

Btw is there anyway to make this more noob proof? Throttle seem to be super sensitive .

[atomiclama]

If I keep motors on for even 30s wires get so hot that I can';t keep my finger on it.

Which wires?

Picture would help.


That';s not right at all, I wouldn';t try to fly until you have that sorted.

[Pyrzi]

Not the wires but that connector thing between them.
Recieved my drone today from Bangood. I';ll try contact to them...

[Saleem]

Not the wires but that connector thing between them.
Recieved my drone today from Bangood. I';ll try contact to them...

The esc,thats what that pen thing is pointed at.

[Cheredanine]

Roflmao, welcome to quads.
The connector thing is the esc or ELectronic Speed Controlleras Salem says
They will get warm or hot if the motor/prop combo is pulling too much power
Solution is use less agresive props, or better still get better escs.
(To be fair most people will probably fly them until the catch fire then upgrade)

Watching your video it is towards the outside of normal, but then (no disrespect) they are cheap tat, however let me ask, the one motor that is slow is the one you are pointing to the esc on, is it just that esc that gets hot?
If so you have a problem, if all escs get hot then you just have the usual problems with cheap Chinese stuff (again no disrespect to yourself intended)

Can you solder?

[Pyrzi]

Yes just that one esc gets hot and others are cool. So I need to get new esc(s)? Any suggestions? If I go flying with this can that one esc break more parts from the drone?  I have done some soldering in the past (not much though). Need to get the equipment for that aswell...

[Cheredanine]

Ok you have a problem, possibly a wiring issue, but most likely bad SMD soldering in the esc.

Eventually the esc will overheat and burst into flame, quite literally. Potentially that can cause damage to other stuff, equally the motor could get damaged, and finally if the quad is in the air when the esc fails there is the subsequent crash.

Thing is with the wizard they will generally get in the air but they are, when it boils down to it, a collection of very cheap parts, with some of the cost going towards the assembly.

If you are gonna persist in the hobby you are probably gonna need to solder.


If I was replacing the escs I would use spedix es25, cheap, good and will cope with most motor upgrades unless you really go nuts, in which case get the 30 amp version

[Pyrzi]

Ok you have a problem, possibly a wiring issue, but most likely bad SMD soldering in the esc.

Eventually the esc will overheat and burst into flame, quite literally. Potentially that can cause damage to other stuff, equally the motor could get damaged, and finally if the quad is in the air when the esc fails there is the subsequent crash.

Thing is with the wizard they will generally get in the air but they are, when it boils down to it, a collection of very cheap parts, with some of the cost going towards the assembly.

If you are gonna persist in the hobby you are probably gonna need to solder.


If I was replacing the escs I would use spedix es25, cheap, good and will cope with most motor upgrades unless you really go nuts, in which case get the 30 amp version

Ok. Thank you master 

Off topic but does it matter where my transmitter antennas are pointing? Is it bad if I place them so they are both mostly inside the frame and pointing out from the back?

[Cheredanine]

You mean reciever? Yes, diversity recievers should be at a 90 degree angle to each other and ideally be clear of the frame so stuff doesn';t block transmission, seen a lot of people get away with that last bit but equally seen people have major problems because of it

[Pyrzi]

You mean reciever? Yes, diversity recievers should be at a 90 degree angle to each other and ideally be clear of the frame so stuff doesn';t block transmission, seen a lot of people get away with that last bit but equally seen people have major problems because of it

Ok thank you for the info.

[Pyrzi]

I can just buy one new spedix es25 and replace bad ecs or do I need to change all of them? Will the quad function properly if one ecs is different?

These any good? https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-ae-25a-brushless-esc.html

On other forum people say it is the motor  Probably need to get soldering equipment and test if it is the esc or motor.

[ThomRC]

Hey!

That';s the same quad I have, I have that TX as well though I';ve replaced it now. For the money for a beginner that doesn';t want to build, it seems really good.

I';d be careful if one motor is acting differently to the other. It could be the motor drawing too much power for the ESC or a fault in the ESC.

Have you tried calibrating the ESCs? In Betaflight go to the motor tab, turn master to max and click the little switch that lets you activate them (obviously don';t have props on for this), plug in your lipo. The ESCs should make a different tone to the one they usually make when you turn on. Then turn all the motors to 0. Once everything';s idle again your ESCs should be calibrated. I';m new to this so not sure if it';ll help, but could be worth trying. If you have an ESC heating up, I';d be sure to turn them down ASAP though, don';t need it burning out.

In regards to your last post, you want all the ESCs to be the same. I think the Wzard uses these: https://www.banggood.com/Racerstar-RS20A-V2-New-20A-Blheli_S-OPTO-2-4S-ESC-Support-Oneshot42-Multishot-for-FPV-Racer-p-1072075.html you can see pretty much all the parts on banggood by going to the Wizard page and looking at the "buy together" bit. You could ask one of their "help" guys if you want to make sure.

[Cheredanine]

It could be the motor, that was in part why I asked about soldering, the way to diagnose it is to switch the motor on that arm with one on another arm, then if the problem follows the motor the motor is the issue, if it stays with the esc, the esc is the issue.

Technically you can mix escs, the fc should compensate, however it is never ideal, I flew a quad where I had different escs front and back for a bit without issue, but generally I would stick to the same on each arm

Esc wise I would go for blhrli_s at the moment, it is well known and stable, the spedix are the cheapest and one of the best performers,
Example:
https://www.electricwingman.com/spedix-es25-multirotor-esc

Th next generation of blheli will be out middle of next month but given the motors and fc on that, you wouldn';t notice the improvements

[Pyrzi]

Thank you guys. I ordered new original motor and esc from bangood as I don';t want to invest too much atm and replace all the escs. Just have to wait another ~20 days again for the delivery...

[Pyrzi]

Got new motor and esc. New motor did same with old esc so I assume that the problem is in esc. Although I don';t know how to connect new esc as there is different amount wires. One thick black and red wires are the same but old esc have only one smaller wire when new esc have two smaller wires (1 black & 1 white) with some kind of connector. So does anyone know how to connect those two smaller wires? Only place where the connector is suitable for is the receiver of the radio. Is that where it goes? Thanks for help again! :)

new esc: https://www.banggood.com/Racerstar-RS20A-V2-New-20A-Blheli_S-OPTO-2-4S-ESC-Support-Oneshot42-Multishot-for-FPV-Racer-p-1072075.html?rmmds=myorder

[Cheredanine]

You sure it is the same type of esc?

The two thick wires (red and black) provide power to the esc and on to the motor, they will connect to the power distribution board somewhere, it will be the same as the old esc

The other wire(s) are (on an opto esc) signal (usually white or yellow) and ground (black), it isn';t unusual to not connect the ground, hence connect the small white wire to the same place as the signal wire on the esc you are removing, I would remove the small black ground wire

See picture below of quad I am just rebuilding, only using three wire

[Pyrzi]

Great thx. I';ll remove the ground wire then and connect white wire in the same place as the old one. 

[Pyrzi]

I just might have to give up with this... I am not so great at soldering as I thought. First i managed to solder everything OK but when I tried to run motors it didn';t move at all. After that I tried to fix my those tin pads but managed to only make it worse. Now when I try to connect the battery I get a lot of sparks (+ side). Tin pads are such a mess now that I think they are slightly connected to each other and causing this... Sent and email to banggood and asked for refund..

[Cheredanine]

Sparks on plugging in lipo is typical of a short somewhere between + and ground

[Pyrzi]

Don';t think it is normal to hit this much sparks. Can';t now fully plug the battery because lipo';s + side is melted. But I was able to fix some of the tin pads and now all motors running. I';ll try with new battery tomorrow and do a test flight if I am lucky.

On first try everything was probably alright but I was too stupid and forgot to calibrate esc... Two broken batteries later my tin pads looks like ****** but at least the drone is working so far 

[Cheredanine]

Yeah again, that is something shorting, best to check with a multimeter tbh

[ThomRC]

That pic looks like there';s a problem with the connectors, either somehow shorting across from + to gnd or a poor connection between the connectors making a spark.

If there was a problem with the ESC, I don';t think it would cause a problem with the XT60. It';s worth bearing in mind in case tomorrow you plug in another battery with the same results. I';d assume a poor connection could cause other problems on the quad too.

I really don';t know what I';m talking about here, that';s just my gut instincts so hopefully someone that has more expertise can offer some advice. It might be worth waiting for more advice before you try to put another battery through it though.

[Jazzz]

If the new esc is opto your going to have to regulate the power with a separate BEC .
Which seems like way to much trouble and also the new esc might not work the same as the othere three .
Try and get an identical esc or 4 new ones

[Pyrzi]

Yes. Bad shorting was connecting + and - and causing sparks. No more sparks with new battery. Now also all motors seem to work same way in bf. Next step is test flight.

Any ideas if it is possible to fix those slightly melted batteries? They will give power for quad but wont fully plug in. Should I use some sandpaper or drill to fix that melted spot?

[atomiclama]

Just replace the connector.

You might be able to repair the connector but I don';t think it';s worth the hassle.

[Cheredanine]

Yes. Bad shorting was connecting + and - and causing sparks. No more sparks with new battery. Now also all motors seem to work same way in bf. Next step is test flight.

Any ideas if it is possible to fix those slightly melted batteries? They will give power for quad but wont fully plug in. Should I use some sandpaper or drill to fix that melted spot?

As per llama. As long as the lipo it';s self isn';t puffed, carefully cut on wire short of the plug , strip it back, add heat shrink and solder to a new plug, shrink the heat shrink then do the other wire

Be careful of the polarity and don';t let the wires touch,xt60 plugs are available from many suppliers

[Pyrzi]

Ok, thank you for the tips. I';ll look into that later.