New and looking for other flyers in the area along with pointers

[FliteRisk]

Hello the name is Daniel. I have been flying quads for about 4 months now.
I hope there are others in NC around Fayettville and Pinehurst that would be looking to fly.
Also I have an unknown issue with my second quad build. For some reason when I flip, spin, or move really fast other than just punching the throttle, I lose control of the quad and it just stops responding and crashes. The recorded video shows something called "runaway". Any ideas?

 

[Dugdog47]

Sounds like a dead battery

 

[FliteRisk]

DugDog47,
I thought that may have been the case, but I had a full battery. See the link below for video,

PICT0006.AVI

drive.google.com

I believe it has to do with a safety feature on the board for runaway quads. After a little research, I found out that there is some criteria to be met before you get full control of the quad without any flight restrictions.

GitHub - betaflight/betaflight: Open Source Flight Controller Firmware

Open Source Flight Controller Firmware. Contribute to betaflight/betaflight development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

What do you think?

 

[wafflejock]

The runaway takeoff prevention is only in effect for a brief period after arming and before flying with 25% power for more than half a second so that likely isn't it. Check for loose connections especially around the radio GND make sure antenna are in 90 degree orientation with each other if diversity transmitter.

 

[FliteRisk]

Wafflejock,
I was running a very high pitched prop and I placed the joystick positions on my OSD, I noticed I barely got them high enough for over 20% for takeoff, but I did just take it out and test this after flying around the house and I bet I cleared the 20% mark for 500 ms, but it still failed.
I did not see any loose wires for the connection of the radio transmitter, but I took it off and re-soldered the joints just in case. I will test out tomorrow and let you know.
Thank you for the pointers.

Edit* I could not wait. I went to fly it same thing. My first quad easily does all of these maneuvers, but this one does not like it.
I even hit the throttle fast and it made this whining sound and proceeded to fall down. No flips!!
I am wondering if the motors are not good.

 

[wafflejock]

Could be some signal getting out of range would double check your endpoints in betaflight receiver tab see if you are going from 1000-2000 or use rxrange in the terminal to fix, also maybe try ESC calibration, motors are pretty dumb and either spin or don't basically there are bearings wire loops and magnets in there but so long as it all stays in place and nothing shorting in coils they should have pretty consistent behavior.


Things cutting out could be power issues or ESCs overheating or otherwise having issues but I wouldn't jump to blame motors unless they are smoking or not moving or twitching or making bad grinding noises (shot bearings or junk stuck in there between rotor and stator)

 

[FliteRisk]

Well one motor burnt up or smoked after calibration so I ordered a new ESC board and 4 motors just in case. I did have another question about when to use capacitors and if you need to on the battery lead, but I can put that in the discussion section. I will keep this one updated when the parts come in. Thank you!!!

 

[wafflejock]

Well one motor burnt up or smoked after calibration so I ordered a new ESC board and 4 motors just in case. I did have another question about when to use capacitors and if you need to on the battery lead, but I can put that in the discussion section. I will keep this one updated when the parts come in. Thank you!!!

Huh that is weird I have heard in a lot of PID tuning vids that if the d-term is too high or in more modern betaflight if the filtering is too low there can be a risk of things over reacting and smoking motors but have never experienced it first hand, bummer but thanks for the info. Keep us posted if you figure out what made it toast in particular, might be worth getting blackbox logging going as well if there is microsd slot on your FC or other flash memory baked in.

Could have also been as simple as screw for mounting motor was too long and went into winding causing short in the stator.