My motor reversed in flight- please help

Mako79 said:
syotr said:
DattaGroover said:
During a normal flight with my P2, using a Taranis controller, it had red & green lights on normally, when it started a return to home run, completely out of my control. No big deal, but I wanted to land it myself, and get the camera angle right. My controller was 100% unresponsive, so I turned it off, then back on. At which point one of the motors did a full reversal.

It tumbled down to a very hard landing, ruining the shell. After replacing the shell (and one of the ESCs) I got it all back together, re-calibrated, but one of the motors still spins the wrong way.

Any idea what could possibly cause this, and how do I fix it?

Many thanks!
Check the wiring to the motor from the ESC you replaced. You likely have two wires swapped.
If a prop came off in flight, it does not mean the motor reversed. If an ESC fails and the motor comes to a sudden stop, then the inertia in the prop may spin it off.

If a motor comes to an immediate stop, would the props continue in the same direction and tighten further? A prop would only come off if the motors spin in reverse - correct me if im wrong..

Props will continue to go in the same direction, but will loosen.
 
The Definitive answer to what happened (it wasn't the ESC)

Prophecies said:
. . . This definitely looks like an ESC failure, though I'm not sure how simply turning the controller off and on again would have triggered this...
I was flying my Phantom in an open Park, and turned off my controller. It was an experiment. It was only about 15 feet in the air. It did a fast tumble and hit the ground, hard. Hard enough to need a new shell.

Lesson learned: IF I turn my Taranis off when my drone is in the air, bad things will happen. IF my P2 flies out of range, bad things will happen. IF my controller signal gets interrupted for more then a moment, bad things will happen.

I wonder if the eeprom is bad? I got it from someone else here. It seemed fine, but this is obviously a big issue. Could all Taranis 9XDs be this way? I doubt it - I'm sure I would have heard more about it.

My guess it is the eeprom. What do you think?
 
Re: The Definitive answer to what happened (it wasn't the ES

DattaGroover said:
Lesson learned: IF I turn my Taranis off when my drone is in the air, bad things will happen. IF my P2 flies out of range, bad things will happen. IF my controller signal gets interrupted for more then a moment, bad things will happen.
I'm not sure that your conclusions are valid.
Most Phantom flyers have turned off their controller in flight and have no problem. The manual says that this is one way to initiate RTH - not .. Don't turn off your controller or bad things will happen.
It would be a simple matter to do some testing (props off) to investigate what happens when you switch off your aftermarket Tx.
 
Re: The Definitive answer to what happened (it wasn't the ES

Meta4 said:
DattaGroover said:
Lesson learned: IF I turn my Taranis off when my drone is in the air, bad things will happen. IF my P2 flies out of range, bad things will happen. IF my controller signal gets interrupted for more then a moment, bad things will happen.
I'm not sure that your conclusions are valid.
Most Phantom flyers have turned off their controller in flight and have no problem. The manual says that this is one way to initiate RTH - not .. Don't turn off your controller or bad things will happen.
It would be a simple matter to do some testing (props off) to investigate what happens when you switch off your aftermarket Tx.
I agree. If my esc isn't broken, I plan to do that tomorrow. However, keep in mind that the phantom manual doesn't consider the Taranis. I have experienced two failures this way-I'm not imagining it. The Taranis has a very complex failsafe protocol, and I would bet something's wrong with a setting on mine.
 
I have not seen anywhere in this thread someone referring to your RC calibration. I am sure you have checked your failsafe and RC off in the assistant... Does it go to fail safe on both options and everytime? How is setup your RTH?
I have an aftermarket RC as well (Futaba 8J) and I can trigger safely the failsafe, or turn off the controller. in both cases the P2 comes back as expected, but I have thoroughly tested it in the assistant first.
 
Re: The Definitive answer to what happened (it wasn't the ES

DattaGroover said:
Most Phantom flyers have turned off their controller in flight and have no problem. The manual says that this is one way to initiate RTH - not .. Don't turn off your controller or bad things will happen.
It would be a simple matter to do some testing (props off) to investigate what happens when you switch off your aftermarket Tx.

Regardless of any brand Tx used, the Phantom should always be able to fly home autonomously when the Tx is shut off (with proper HL and GPS reception). If it crashes as soon as the Tx is switched off, the problem always lies in the Phantom flight control system, never in the Tx.

edit: @ DattaGroover: I meant, I agree with you partially :), aftermarket or original has probably nothing to do with it.
 
sergekouper said:
I have not seen anywhere in this thread someone referring to your RC calibration. I am sure you have checked your failsafe and RC off in the assistant... Does it go to fail safe on both options and everytime? How is setup your RTH?
I have an aftermarket RC as well (Futaba 8J) and I can trigger safely the failsafe, or turn off the controller. in both cases the P2 comes back as expected, but I have thoroughly tested it in the assistant first.
Well, that was my error. I thoroughly tested it on the assistant, including both failsafe switches, but neglected to test the failsafe function by turning the controller off.

In hindsight, I will be testing that today.
 
Re: The Definitive answer to what happened (it wasn't the ES

lake_flyer said:
DattaGroover said:
Most Phantom flyers have turned off their controller in flight and have no problem. The manual says that this is one way to initiate RTH - not .. Don't turn off your controller or bad things will happen.
It would be a simple matter to do some testing (props off) to investigate what happens when you switch off your aftermarket Tx.

Regardless of any brand Tx used, the Phantom should always be able to fly home autonomously when the Tx is shut off (with proper HL and GPS reception). If it crashes as soon as the Tx is switched off, the problem always lies in the Phantom flight control system, never in the Tx.

Logically yes, and I also assumed that to be the case. However, this happened with 2 totally different Phantoms (same Tx).
 
syotr said:
Yeah, great tip, thanks. That totally aligns with what I was reading last night, and shows some god step-by-step. What doesn't make sense to me is why a power-off failsafe is so different than a "switch failsafe." With the Phantom stock controllers it is.

My mistake was assuming they would be the same and not bench-testing the "power off" failsafe.
 
DattaGroover said:
syotr said:
Yeah, great tip, thanks. That totally aligns with what I was reading last night, and shows some god step-by-step. What doesn't make sense to me is why a power-off failsafe is so different than a "switch failsafe." With the Phantom stock controllers it is.

My mistake was assuming they would be the same and not bench-testing the "power off" failsafe.

Well, now I have bench tested the power off failsafe, along with everything else. The switch-off failsafe and the power-off failsafe are EXACTLY the same, and the P2 does nothing it's not supposed to.

I checked ALL the failsafe settings on the Taranis and they were exactly where they are supposed to be (also double-checking with the link above)

The first time it did the tumble, it was when I turned the Taranis back on after it was off. The second time (this past Thursday) it did the tumble the moment I turned the Taranis off.

No I am back to square 1 - scratching my head, wondering what the hell. I wonder if the Taranis is defective?
 
sergekouper said:
At this stage I would try to identify the culprit by reinstalling the original controller, and if it wasn't that, I would try a hard reset of the whole thing as described here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277289
Thanks- I was thinking of that already. Just dump the Taranis for now. As far as the reset go, this problem has existed for 2 Phantoms. So, sure, a reset might work, but I'm pretty sure it has something (everything) to do with the controller.
 
Learned something again from this thread.
That a radio setting still has influence even after it has been shut off.
I was thinking about getting a Taranis or similar but never expected that this could even be a problem.

I just learned not to make logical assumptions anymore, when it comes to this radio stuff.
 
DattaGroover said:
sergekouper said:
At this stage I would try to identify the culprit by reinstalling the original controller, and if it wasn't that, I would try a hard reset of the whole thing as described here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277289
Thanks- I was thinking of that already. Just dump the Taranis for now. As far as the reset go, this problem has existed for 2 Phantoms. So, sure, a reset might work, but I'm pretty sure it has something (everything) to do with the controller.


The Taranis has a bit of a configuration learning curve.

Because of this I'll wager the issue(s) lies in the programming and not the hardware.

Stick with it, you'll figure it out and will have learned a great deal too.
 
N017RW said:
DattaGroover said:
sergekouper said:
At this stage I would try to identify the culprit by reinstalling the original controller, and if it wasn't that, I would try a hard reset of the whole thing as described here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277289
Thanks- I was thinking of that already. Just dump the Taranis for now. As far as the reset go, this problem has existed for 2 Phantoms. So, sure, a reset might work, but I'm pretty sure it has something (everything) to do with the controller.


The Taranis has a bit of a configuration learning curve.

Because of this I'll wager the issue(s) lies in the programming and not the hardware.

Stick with it, you'll figure it out and will have learned a great deal too.
Thanks, that seems most logical. Wish I could figure out what it is. When I test it in run mode with no props, everything is fine, apparently.

Plus I've been over the step-by-step Programming quote a few times. There's, if course, the glaring possibility that I'm just overlooking something
 
lake_flyer said:
Learned something again from this thread.
That a radio setting still has influence even after it has been shut off.
I was thinking about getting a Taranis or similar but never expected that this could even be a problem.

I just learned not to make logical assumptions anymore, when it comes to this radio stuff.
Absolutely!
 
N017RW said:
The Taranis has a bit of a configuration learning curve.

Because of this I'll wager the issue(s) lies in the programming and not the hardware.

Stick with it, you'll figure it out and will have learned a great deal too.

I would definitely go back to the original configuration to make sure to start from a clean stage. Original remote and hard reset of the flight controller. Then only I would reintroduce the Taranis, reseted to it's default values as well. This is the only logical way to not shooting in the dark and hope for the best.
 
sergekouper said:
N017RW said:
The Taranis has a bit of a configuration learning curve.

Because of this I'll wager the issue(s) lies in the programming and not the hardware.

Stick with it, you'll figure it out and will have learned a great deal too.

I would definitely go back to the original configuration to make sure to start from a clean stage. Original remote and hard reset of the flight controller. Then only I would reintroduce the Taranis, reseted to it's default values as well. This is the only logical way to not shooting in the dark and hope for the best.
Yeah, good advice, that's what I'm leaning towards as well. Today, I noticed that my gimbal is badly bent form Thursday's mishap. Kind of discouraging- I may wait awhile before putting more time in.
 
The Taranis has a bit of a configuration learning curve.

Because of this I'll wager the issue(s) lies in the programming and not the hardware.

Stick with it, you'll figure it out and will have learned a great deal too.
Well, you were right. I went back over all the details, and was able to fix the problem via the programming. I tested it it with no gimbal 2 feet off the ground first. ACTUALLY, I tested it on the bench first.
 

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