Motor cuts out during fast movement

[pws328]

Hey guys, I just picked up a second hand original Phantom, and I couldn't love it more!

Unfortunately, this thing has had a pretty rough life (previous owner was pretty ham-fisted and seemed to crash it pretty regularly) and it's having an issue where one of the motors cuts out whenever you bank or rotate too quickly. It works fine under light or medium throttle, but if you try to move it too quickly (like when you're trying to avoid a tree), it cuts out and the whole thing comes crashing down.

I've checked the housing and motor for damage, but I don't see anything obvious. I'm assuming it's either the motor or the ESC, but I'm not sure if I should replace one at a time and risk further damage, or just replace both and keep my fingers crossed.

Either way, I'm hoping to do some filming on a trip next weekend, so I'm hoping to do this repair soon so I can make sure it works.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Woody]

Most likely it's the esc. Does the led light go out when the motor cuts off? If so then the esc is definately bad. Test it by taking the props off and run the motors, keeping an eye on the led.

 

[bobmyers]

Hey guys, I just picked up a second hand original Phantom, and I couldn't love it more!

Unfortunately, this thing has had a pretty rough life (previous owner was pretty ham-fisted and seemed to crash it pretty regularly) and it's having an issue where one of the motors cuts out whenever you bank or rotate too quickly. It works fine under light or medium throttle, but if you try to move it too quickly (like when you're trying to avoid a tree), it cuts out and the whole thing comes crashing down.

I've checked the housing and motor for damage, but I don't see anything obvious. I'm assuming it's either the motor or the ESC, but I'm not sure if I should replace one at a time and risk further damage, or just replace both and keep my fingers crossed.

Either way, I'm hoping to do some filming on a trip next weekend, so I'm hoping to do this repair soon so I can make sure it works.

Thanks for any help!

Sounds like a back bad connection -- probably inside-- when the motor stresses, the connection goes bad and shuts the motor down. If you know which motor-- you could always replace that one and see if it resolves the issue

 

[bobmyers]

Sounds like a back bad connection -- probably inside-- when the motor stresses, the connection goes bad and shuts the motor down. If you know which motor-- you could always replace that one and see if it resolves the issue

Sorry -- I thought this was a P3 Post

 

[pws328]

Woody - Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check the LED this evening. It was light out when it did it the first time, and pretty close to the ground so I didn't see it. I'm assuming I can test just the motors without the props and have it do the same thing. I'll post when I've checked it out.

Bob - I wish it was a P3 thread! But until I get the hang of flying I'll keep my super cheap original phantom. It might still be worth checking all the connections to make sure the original owner didn't screw anything up.

 

[pws328]

Just in case anyone is still following, I cracked open my phantom last night, and found that one of the pads on the offending motor's ESC was slightly lifted off the PCB, causing an intermittent connection when moved around, which would explain why it would cut out under heavy load. I attempted to solder it back in place, but really only succeeded in making it worse.

Now the question is, do I replace the ESC and the motor or just the ESC? And if I replace the motors, should I replace my all CW threaded motors with 2x CW and 2X CCW so I can use the self tightening props?

Thanks for any guidance on this.

 

[N017RW]

There's no need to replace any of the motors because of this.

The rest is up to you.

 

[pws328]

Thanks N017RW. I ended up ordering 2x CCW motors from B&H with my ESC (mainly to qualify for free shipping), but I figured while I've got everything opened up and the soldering iron out, I'll swap in the two CCW threaded motors for better prop compatibility, and just use the best two CW motors for the other two arms.

Although (and I'm not sure how I accomplished this), I managed to screw on two CCW threaded props onto two of my CW threaded motors, and they seem to be ok, so it might be more effort than it's worth.