Continuing on my first hobby grade build.

[Chuck]

The brushless ESC's that I ordered have arrived. Four Simonk 30A that I purchased off eBay. Still waiting for delivery of the four DJI Phantom replacement motors. I haven't decided yet on whether to go with two-blade, or three-blade propellers, but all of the ones I'm looking at are carbon-fiber. Transmitter and receiver may be the final components of the flight system for me to decide on. Though I'm leaning toward the Flysky I6 combination. Particularly for the cost cost receivers with twin antennas.

 

[mozquito1]

Dual blade simonk esc
First esc's I ever bought where simonk.
Never could figure out how you flash them or update firmware. If there is any.
I bought 6 & killed 3 in crashes so was left with 3. Now I just use 1 of them to test motors when they come in post.
So I bought 5 FVT-littlebee 20a,
10 months I still got 5 working esc's.
Then I bought pocket rocket esc's & that's all I use now for my own builds & if someone asks to make them one.
I managed to get 30 of them off my supplier for £150. What fcb you opting for

 

[Chuck]

Dual blade simonk esc
First esc's I ever bought where simonk.
Never could figure out how you flash them or update firmware. If there is any.
I bought 6 & killed 3 in crashes so was left with 3. Now I just use 1 of them to test motors when they come in post.
So I bought 5 FVT-littlebee 20a,
10 months I still got 5 working esc's.
Then I bought pocket rocket esc's & that's all I use now for my own builds & if someone asks to make them one.
I managed to get 30 of them off my supplier for £150. What fcb you opting for

I opted for a Naze32 that I saw on eBay. It's compact, comes with a matching PDB, and a choice of connectors. Both straight and at a 90-degree angle. I noticed that it has an extremely small slide switch that I presume is for powering up the quad. Is it safe to leave these in the "On" position, and simply connect and disconnect the battery?

 

[Chuck]

I opted for a Naze32 that I saw on eBay. It's compact, comes with a matching PDB, and a choice of connectors. Both straight and at a 90-degree angle. I noticed that it has an extremely small slide switch that I presume is for powering up the quad. Is it safe to leave these in the "On" position, and simply connect and disconnect the battery?

And when you say that you killed three ESC's in crashes, do you literally mean crashes, or just hard landings?

 

[mozquito1]

Snapped arms, wires & water damage.
No, just hard landings.
You should have spent another 5$ and gone with the best cheap option.
SPF3. The naze32 gyro is crap & soon will be unsupported.

 

[Chuck]

The DJI Phantom motors that ordered off eBay have arrived, and I'm now looking at props for them. In the mean time, I have some questions. Although I ordered and received four individual ESC's to go with them, I notice a lot of advertising for "four-in-one" ESC's lately online. Other than being more compact, do they have any electronic or wiring advantages over the conventional ESC's? And with either type, how do you determine which of the three motor wires go to which corresponding ESC connection?

 

[Chuck]

Snapped arms, wires & water damage.
No, just hard landings.
You should have spent another 5$ and gone with the best cheap option.
SPF3. The naze32 gyro is crap & soon will be unsupported.

What is wrong with Naze32?

 

[RENOV8R]

What is wrong with Naze32?

Nothing "wrong" with a Naze, it's just that it's an F1 flight controller. Thus, the STM32 processor and flash memory are half that of an F3 FC. A couple other things are that it only has 2 UARTs, and Betaflight 3.2 will be the last firmware to support F1 FCs.

 

[mozquito1]

The gyros notoriously break easy.
I got through 7 of them boards in a few months, one submersion and a totally snapped board and 5 due to gyros failures. Hitting the ground & trees @ 70mph isn't what they where designed for
Weak gyro along with not many inputs.
For an extra 5 bucks you love me long time on a F3-4 baby. I totally understand designs being on a budget. I build for ppl or fix em up. If it ain't broke buy more.
If it is, don't buy more. The esc's I use are rebranded I think to pocket rocket from spedix. Immortal esc's.

 

[Chuck]

The gyros notoriously break easy.
I got through 7 of them boards in a few months, one submersion and a totally snapped board and 5 due to gyros failures. Hitting the ground & trees @ 70mph isn't what they where designed for
Weak gyro along with not many inputs.
For an extra 5 bucks you love me long time on a F3-4 baby. I totally understand designs being on a budget. I build for ppl or fix em up. If it ain't broke buy more.
If it is, don't buy more. The esc's I use are rebranded I think to pocket rocket from spedix. Immortal esc's.

What is the minimal voltage that motors designed for a DJI Phantom will run on? The original batteries and replacements listed online are around 14 or 15 Volts, but I notice that most home builds run on 11.1 Volt lipos. Will that be sufficient?

 

[mozquito1]

You could run them on 7.4v but they would probably only spin.

 

[Chuck]

You could run them on 7.4v but they would probably only spin.

That would at least let me know if I have them wired up correctly. Will they have enough power for lift with 11.1 Volt lipos?

 

[Chuck]

The DJI Phantom motors that ordered off eBay have arrived, and I'm now looking at props for them. In the mean time, I have some questions. Although I ordered and received four individual ESC's to go with them, I notice a lot of advertising for "four-in-one" ESC's lately online. Other than being more compact, do they have any electronic or wiring advantages over the conventional ESC's? And with either type, how do you determine which of the three motor wires go to which corresponding ESC connection?

I've examined the DJI Phantom replacement motors that i recieved. Other than two having bare aluminum shaft caps while the other two have caps that are painted black, there is nothing to indicate which two rotate clockwise, and which two are counter-clockwise. Even the three wires on each, all have black insulation. How do I determine the proper mounting position, and the proper wiring order to the ESC's?

 

[dragger201]

Other than two having bare aluminum shaft caps while the other two have caps that are painted black, there is nothing to indicate which two rotate clockwise, and which two are counter-clockwise.

Hey Chuck............the motors should turn in the opposite direction that it takes to tighten your "caps". This is a "self tightening" feature. As for ESC to motor wiring........it doesn't really matter.........unless you got motor/motors that are turning in the wrong direction. In which case just swap out two of the wires....and it doesn't matter which two.........(I swap the outside wires).................

 

[Chuck]

Hey Chuck............the motors should turn in the opposite direction that it takes to tighten your "caps". This is a "self tightening" feature. As for ESC to motor wiring........it doesn't really matter.........unless you got motor/motors that are turning in the wrong direction. In which case just swap out two of the wires....and it doesn't matter which two.........(I swap the outside wires).................

Thanks. Now my next step is to order props. I've seen both two-blade and three-blade in carbon fiber. I'm leaning toward the three-blade for the extra lift capability, as the cost difference isn't that much.

 

[dragger201]

I'm leaning toward the three-blade for the extra lift capability

That's a common misconception, Chuck. The 3 blade props are more stable, but much less efficient. You'll pay for that stability with flight time............

 

[mozquito1]

Whichever way the nut spins on the thread to tighten, we'll it's the opposite way. I just throw mine on & change motor direction in blheli suite. I only use nylock nuts, they don't come off either way.

 

[Rick M]

That's a common misconception, Chuck. The 3 blade props are more stable, but much less efficient. You'll pay for that stability with flight time............

Generally, I'd start with 2 blade props and change if you identify specific stability issues. For example the MJX Bugs 3 doesn't behave well in fast transitions from high to low power or high to low speed. It has a tendency to drop suddenly and not very predictably. It gets a lot worse if you fly them with 3S batteries, so most guys throw tri props on them if they use the 3S. It costs some pretty significant flight time (probably 4-5 minutes on a 2700mah 3S from what I can tell) and a little punch, but it makes it a lot more controllable when flying it fast.