Phantom motors

[Eagleeye9]

Gents,

It's obvious that due to the nature of the 4 motors if you lose one in flight for whatever reason the results could be catastrophic. To that end when should users look at replacing them or what indications may you get to know that one is going bad?

 

[Gizmo3000]

Gents,

It's obvious that due to the nature of the 4 motors if you lose one in flight for whatever reason the results could be catastrophic. To that end when should users look at replacing them or what indications may you get to know that one is going bad?

the only thing to wear out on the motors (that haven't been physically damaged) 's the bearings, which are cheap to replace.
an indication that they need replacing is a noisy motor (when turned by hand), or an overheating motor (hot to touch).

Haven't really heard many stories of motors failing tho to be honest,.usually it's a prop flying off that hadn't been tightened.

 

[Eagleeye9]

Thanks Mate, Thats put my mind at rest.

 

[Miika]

New stock motors are so cheap that I would buy a new motor if there would occur problems with the bearing(s).

Here's a Tedtalk about drones, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ

I'm hoping that someday even DJI will have these supersafe controllers that can make the drone stay in the air even when one motor is failing. I believe the Wookong has some safety features for hex/octo-copters that keeps them flying even if one motor fails during the flight. But as you can see in the Tedtalk video, theres a lot of possibilities even for quads to keep them flying in case of one or even two motors failing.

 

[miskatonic]

New stock motors are so cheap that I would buy a new motor if there would occur problems with the bearing(s).

Here's a Tedtalk about drones, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ

I'm hoping that someday even DJI will have these supersafe controllers that can make the drone stay in the air even when one motor is failing. I believe the Wookong has some safety features for hex/octo-copters that keeps them flying even if one motor fails during the flight. But as you can see in the Tedtalk video, theres a lot of possibilities even for quads to keep them flying in case of one or even two motors failing.

Quad copters are not inherently stable in the air. There is a lot going on with the Naza to keep the Phantom in the air. If a motor fails then it is going to come crashing down. Octocopters and hexcopters to a limited extent do have motor redundancy because they are more inherently stable in the air. It really has nothing to do with DJI controllers but more about aerodynamics and physics. The guys in the video are using some seriously customized hardware to do what they are doing.

Replacing an entire motor is both expensive and time consuming vs. replacing a bearing. The entire set of bearings for the Phantom should run no more than $20. They simply pop out of the motor and new ones just pop back in. Motors are around $20 to $25 apiece and require soldering. It is handy to have an extra motor or two around but I would start with replacing the bearings first.

 

[RedFishChaser]

Gents,

It's obvious that due to the nature of the 4 motors if you lose one in flight for whatever reason the results could be catastrophic. To that end when should users look at replacing them or what indications may you get to know that one is going bad?

I'd recommend replacing the C-clamps that hold the motor shafts as the stock ones are crap! I had one of my Phantom's plummet to Earth. Luckily missed the nearby storm water pond and bounced off pine trees and landed on turf. After taking the Phantom apart as it would not work, there was one extremely hot motor. Apparently the C-clamp came loose and ended up inside the magnetic field housing. Just for the heck out of it, I had upgraded all the motors to the Tiger eco motors. Didn't need to that, but I did. After that, I had learned that a Red ESC board was fried. So, I had to replace that. And all is working fine!

 

[jumanoc]

A good way for testing my motors is hearing each one with Naza Assistant. Get louder volume and watch my test. Wich one do you think I replaced?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdkJ7BbEDsE[/youtube]

 

[RedFishChaser]

Nice test!

 

[Sidewinder]

Show and Tell ... You can't beat the youtube concept for open source knowledge. Good demo on using the software for diagnosing problems. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Miika]

The guys in the video are using some seriously customized hardware to do what they are doing.

So what would be the problem.

 

[BallisticPhantom]

@ Redfishchaser

Dude Thank you for posting about the E-Clips... I red this yesterday, I started up a phantom I picked up on Craigslist today, one motor was not running correctly. I popped it off and low and behold there is a little E-Clip wedged in the outrunner... Simple fix, very glad I knew what I was looking for.

Great thread.