Crap... (Pro Tip on Motor Mounting) + update on failure

Proxxii

Well-Known Member
So I just pulled a huge noob move... I got some brand new Emax 2205/2300kv Red bottoms that I was suuuuuuper stoked to get out and fly. Turns out, they only come with 1 size mounting screw and the coils sit pretty low. [CAUTION!!!] So if you have anything less than a 4mm arm you WILL ground your coils to the mounting screws. Everything was put together with great care. I covered the ESCs when soldering the connections (this helps solder not splatter onto a part of the board and short out your ESC, everything looked perfect and I was 100% sure the screws were short enough. Guess what! They were just hardly contacting the inner copper of the motors. = GG bye bye motor. Luckily it was only 1.

To all new pilots building there first and even 2nd or 3rd craft. Please please please double and triple check your mounting screws. It takes and extra minute and will save you hard earned $$$ and time/frustration.

P.S. !!!!!!!!! JUST BECAUSE YOU PLUG IN YOUR QUAD/AIRCRAFT AND EVERYTHING LOOKS FINE DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!!!!
This quad flew for 4 minutes before it decided to explode mid flight and drop out of the air like a friggin' rock. (Thank the QuadGods the it had a fairly soft flat landing onto the bottom side of the quad and not my battery (This crash was on concrete))

Hope this helped any new builds/Motor replacements!
 
So I just pulled a huge noob move... I got some brand new Emax 2205/2300kv Red bottoms that I was suuuuuuper stoked to get out and fly. Turns out, they only come with 1 size mounting screw and the coils sit pretty low. [CAUTION!!!] So if you have anything less than a 4mm arm you WILL ground your coils to the mounting screws. Everything was put together with great care. I covered the ESCs when soldering the connections (this helps solder not splatter onto a part of the board and short out your ESC, everything looked perfect and I was 100% sure the screws were short enough. Guess what! They were just hardly contacting the inner copper of the motors. = GG bye bye motor. Luckily it was only 1.

To all new pilots building there first and even 2nd or 3rd craft. Please please please double and triple check your mounting screws. It takes and extra minute and will save you hard earned $$$ and time/frustration.

P.S. !!!!!!!!! JUST BECAUSE YOU PLUG IN YOUR QUAD/AIRCRAFT AND EVERYTHING LOOKS FINE DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!!!!
This quad flew for 4 minutes before it decided to explode mid flight and drop out of the air like a friggin' rock. (Thank the QuadGods the it had a fairly soft flat landing onto the bottom side of the quad and not my battery (This crash was on concrete))

Hope this helped any new builds/Motor replacements!
Awful feeling indeed, I did this to 4 motors on a build, started to takeoff and ESCs got warn, and had I not noticed a problem the moment it would not take off it certainly would have caught on fire. Hard lesson learned hahahaha.
 
Awful feeling indeed, I did this to 4 motors on a build, started to takeoff and ESCs got warn, and had I not noticed a problem the moment it would not take off it certainly would have caught on fire. Hard lesson learned hahahaha.
I just think it was weird that it worked perfect for 4 minutes and decided to commit suicide.
 
I just think it was weird that it worked perfect for 4 minutes and decided to commit suicide.
May have been a little into the skin of the coating on the winding, and the vibrations made it come the rest of the way through the windings. Pretty unlucky chain of events :(
 
May have been a little into the skin of the coating on the winding, and the vibrations made it come the rest of the way through the windings. Pretty unlucky chain of events :(
I went out and got a new frame that was 1mm thicker to avoid this when the new motor comes in tomorrow. :] Either way I went from a ZMR chinese knock off to a shendrones mixuko (195mm) :D!!
But the zmr clone worked amazing to learn onthe machining was just kind of a pain. Would still recommend to beginner pilots for cheap entry.
 
UPDATE!!! Just learned about something that may have potentially caused this failure. Soldering motor wires directly onto an esc is only supposed to be done if you have a properly grounded soldering gun. If not you can basically introduce static to your esc and cause premature failure. It's hard for me to know what cause the failure at this point. But it's a strong contender. I have never soldered motors directly to my esc before and never had a problem till I did. So yeaaaaa.....
 
UPDATE!!! Just learned about something that may have potentially caused this failure. Soldering motor wires directly onto an esc is only supposed to be done if you have a properly grounded soldering gun. If not you can basically introduce static to your esc and cause premature failure. It's hard for me to know what cause the failure at this point. But it's a strong contender. I have never soldered motors directly to my esc before and never had a problem till I did. So yeaaaaa.....
Most soldering irons have a reasonably low EOS risk for something like your ESCs, so I doubt that was the cause though with a cheap crappy iron or perhaps backfeeding in your house would increase that risk.
 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279060235_EOS_Exposure_of_Components_in_Soldering_Process

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/uses/com...ticlecategories/electrical/backfed or induced

Might stick the positive of your multimeter (set to 120/200 AC) to neutral, and the black to your middle ground pin, check to see if you have any voltage. If so you either have an open wire, or something in your home was wired wrong. Either can potentially pose serious and possibly lethal risk. It would also contribute to a soldering iron having voltage across the tip.
 
It's hard to cover all the bases, the first few times times out. It's a shame you had to learn the motor screw length the hard way. But your post is a great cautionary tale and should help others.
 
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