Motor numbering

E

emansfield

New Member
Newbie question to quad veterans: what is the correct motor number sequence for quadcopters? Or, is there a consistent standard for motor numbering? I have looked at numerous quadcopter related sites and it seems that just about every possible motor numbering scheme is used. For example, Betaflight uses the following numbering: #1 - Right Rear, #2 - Right Front, #3 Left Rear, #4 - Left Front. On a page entitle 'Modeling Vehicle Dynamics – Quadcopter Equations of Motion' (https://charlestytler.com/quadcopter-equations-motion/) the motors are numbered: #1- Right Front, #2 - Left rear, #3 - Left Front, #4 - Right Rear. On the ArduPilot web page (https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/connect-escs-and-motors.html) the motor numbering is consistent with 'Quadcopter Equations of Motion'. On Quad Zone (https://www.dronezon.com/learn-abou...ellers-and-motors-direction-design-explained/) the numbering is: #1 - Left Front, #2 - Right Front, #3 - Right Rear, #4 - Left Rear.
It appears that there is no consensus about motor numbers and each manufacturer/website is free to choose its own standard, which seems to be a path to general confusion. Is this correct? If so, it means we have to be really careful to understand the motor number protocol in use when configuring flight controllers, etc. Wouldn't it be better for everybody if a standard motor numbering scheme was adopted by everyone dealing with quadcopters (let alone hex- and octocopters?) I suppose the problem there is getting everyone to agree on a standard.

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Hi there is no set rule on motors, you need to follow the numbering on the flight control board so the motor position matches to what the flight board needs to fly
 
Yah there are kind of two ways of doing it either "props in" or "props out". The motors that are diagonal to each other go opposite directions to cancel out the torque/yaw they would naturally induce on the frame (equal and opposite forces), but in terms of which signal from the FC goes to which ESC that is used for which motor it is up to any given firmware to define that.... really once you get into the details of knowing what all those parts are then just checking which signal output is meant to control which motor using the configuration tools is usually not all that hard and most pilots stick with one or two firmware types.
 
When doing something aside from a quad though like hexacopter or tricopter you can have "weird" configurations for the control outputs and so it is up to the builders to get to know the firmware and what it is "expecting"
 
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