Hi Everyone. Finally my first post. I have been carefully trying to absorb all the information i could from this forum for the past three weeks, since i completed my first quad-copter build.
My set up is as follows
3s Lipo 25c 3600 maH battery - (http://ip-battery.weebly.com/hobby-plane-batteries.html )
Racestar 930KV motors
Gemfan 10x4.5 props
ixhawk flight controller - (PX4 2.4.8 Flight Controller NEO-M8N GPS Radio Telemetry OSD 3DR 433Mhz)
Diatone Q450 Quad 450 V3 PCB - frame
3 X 30A SimonK ESC Multirotor X525
1 X XXD HW30A 30A Brushless Motor ESC - this is on the rear right motor n0.4
My AUW is 1.32 KG.
Earlier on today I went for a little spin that ended up in disaster and my quad copter in the neighbors yard. After taking off on stabilize and engaging ALTH mode, i cimed up about 10 meters or so and started doing a small tour LOS around the neighborhood. 2 min later, it just seems as though the quad dropped out of the sky, but not all at once. Like a slow controlled drop - at which point i applied maximum throttle to regain lift. It just seems like the quad copter was not able to stay in the air or lift itself up. Its done this on several occasions in the past but i was low flying.
Especially when I am in altitude hold mode, sometimes the quad loses altitude as if the battery is low and it would come all the way and touch down before climbing up again with my throttle on maximum. I suspected the batteries at first, but i have 3 batteries that i am running, 2 X 3600mah and 1x6000mah. same effect.
I thought maybe the voltage was dipping but i cannot see it on the logs. if i take off immediately again, the quad-copter easily lifts off and will fly another 3 minutes before the 25% capacity alarm goes off.
I am lost for Ideas. I checked my batteries after the flight, My battery was still above 11v and the capacity at 90% - from a full charge with two minutes of flying mostly climbing. Not bad I think? Am i wrong all together ?
Have I messed up on the build? should I be running a 4s setup?
I Have also posted in the arducopter forum, but i'm desperate for more eyes on the problem..
Replies
Hi Greg,
Mike Boland over at Arducopter also came to the same conclusion. Number 3 motor and ESC.
And now that you mention it, its a brand new motor on number 3 with the old ESC, but i have noted that after any flight, the motor always seems much hotter than the rest. Perhaps it was a bad motor from the start.
I have a spare motor but not a spare ESC, so ill swap out the motor and do a couple of minutes hover and see if the motor is still hot in which case i waill have to wait another couple of weeks for my ESC's to arrive.
I am quite dissapointed with the cheap motors and ESC's. I will recommend any noob out there, i know motors and ESC's get expensive fast, but with the waiting periods every time on of the cheap ones burn out, it turns out to be such a pain in the bottom!!
I will get back to you with the results! Thank you once again!!!
I looked and your log. Your # 3 motor or esc has gone bad. Right near the end of the flight, the amps go up to 44 as your altitude decreases. Look at your RCOU rc out and # 3 is always higher than the other 3 by quit a lot. At the end # 3 saturates at full power and # 4 goes down. You are lucky it didn't tumble down. Let us know if that's it.