Quadcopter Parts Failing

H

haldhafari

Member
Hi,

I built my own quad and they work temporarily but parts keep failing and requiring replacement. The battery, motors, ESC have been constantly failing, sometimes releasing smoke!

I’ve used different types of components still same phenomenon, which may indicate bad circuit.

Motors: QWinout A2212 1400KV

ESC: QWinout 2-4s 30A

Battery: 3S Lipo

I connect all grounds from ESC to Battery GND and VCC to Battery VCC

I’ve tried different size motors and different brand ESCs and same problem.
 
When comes to releasing the magic smoke it depends on the component what the likely root cause is. A smoked motor can happen because of shorts from screws scraping the enamel coating off the coils in the motor or from too much current and not enough air flow leading to enough heat build up to melt the enamel off the coils and cause a short. If an esc smokes too much current went through it as well getting escs with enough "buffer" for max current the motors will actually draw given the props or trying to let a motor run when it is stalled/jammed against something is easy way to create spikes of current if the current spike is big/long enough the heat will cook stuff. If you have an FC blow it's likely an issue with the wiring and not something that happened from power draw since that's basically between the battery escs and motors the FC only sending low power signals for throttle control to the escs.
 
One other thing worth noting if using 6S many components that advertise 6S compatible are right at their limits voltage wise so is best if get things that claim 6S support and also support 4S and run them at the lower voltage (kv of motors tied to voltage but can get escs with lots of overhead in terms of voltage and current and be less likely to cook components). Also also if batteries spontaneously combusting not being damaged and burning then would stop buying those batteries and dispose of them safely.
 
Okay one more thing when I first started flying smoking a motor or esc was more likely too just because I wasn't fast about disarming before or immediately after a crash, more experience and muscle memory get better at disarming to avoid having motors try to run when they are locked on a branch or otherwise unable to spin. I started off with individual escs but convenience of the 4 in 1s and less personally destroying things convinced me to switch to the 4 in 1s at some point but if is a problem consider using individual escs, cheaper and easier to replace.
 
Thanks a lot for your in-depth response. I’ve bought 3S Lipo batteries, 30 Amp ESCs and 900 to 1400 kv brushless motors. I’ve had ESC or motor or battery failing. ESC or motor have released smoke in the past but have improved. They stop working entirely but no smoke. I just bought a new set of ESCs.. will calibrate and then retest.
 
What size props are you running as I friend said this a put a lot of strain on motors and ESCs the props change speed a lot when your flying
 
That may be to big 3 cell 2212 motor rates 5x5 for best amp pull so it's does not overload the motor and ESCS. When I ran big props it had a heavy lift motor which was a 800kv motor slow turning but very high torque go on to Ecalc.com put your spec in for the drone and it will tell you if it will work or not
 
Ecalc.ch is helpful when picking custom parts too typically I suggest beginners start with 2 or 3 inch props and move to 5 if want more flight time but bigger they are the harder they fall and the more likely to toast things or cause real damage
 
Ok, I started with 4 new 1400KV motors and 30A ESCs with a 3S battery and 10 inch propellers this morning. They started all working as expected. After a couple of runs, I see two motors are not working. One stopped rotating at all, another is twitching. When I touched the stopped one, it's cold. When I touched the one attempting, it's very hot. All ESCs are hot. The other two motor/ESC pairs are still working as expected. I'll re-test the cold one and check if somehow power is no longer reaching it. The one twitching, I'll wait for it to cool.

Update: the twitching one had the motor become very hot and the ESC burned & SMOKED.

I have power and ground from ESCs connected directly to power and ground in battery.
 
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Yah check the http://ecalc.ch site (plug in round about battery motor and frame/prop size check weight and hit calc to see if power to lift and general electric power requirements met) or page holtneil linked, basically need to make sure the motors and escs can handle the wattage/current for big props like that. I have a hexacopter with big props but need relatively low kv but high torque motors for big props
 
holtneil said:
I still think 10 inch props are too much on the page I linked you to it said even 7 inch will overload motors and ESCs
Click to expand...
The majority of online videos seem to use 1045 props and don't seem to have a problem.

I am using a power module

The output powers the Pixhawk and the ESCs.

I noticed that on some videos the power module is not even used.
 
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^^ Just wanted to show what output of that ecalc.ch site is, I'm not affiliated in any way but when putting together a hexacopter here from random parts it was super helpful (I paid for 1 yr license at the time but has since expired). Plug in the weight of the craft and choose w/o Drive if not counting the motor weight, choose a battery capacity and cell count, choose a ESC max current from the drop down, select a motor brand and model, choose the prop types or adjust from generic if know what prop diameter/pitch is, hit calculate.
This will show you if the thrust to weight is too low you can't take off, and give the estimated flight time. Key things to look out for is any red text warnings about overloading the ESCs or motors with whatever components you put in and checking the thrust to weight ratio gauge, basically higher thrust to weight means it will be more maneuverable and still able to maintain hover and add bits of thrust to knock out wobble. Choosing some motors about what you said trying to use so far it'll throw an error:


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^^ see the "remarks" about max current over peak for the ESCs (smoke ESC) and estimated motor temp (melt enamel/short in motor) would cause issues.
 
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