3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on May 12, 2012 at 8:01pm

I think you may be reading the PDB lettering a bit too literally. All those sources show the same motor order, it's just the PDB is offset by a few degrees with placed in the quad in X mode. 

Comment by R. D. Starwalt on May 13, 2012 at 11:23am

I did notice this on my quad build but realized that the PDB has no influence on the orientation except as a mechical reference to the builder. It is important, of course, to make sure the correct ESC wire is going to the correct motor via the PDB. That could be confusing as you point out.

As a reality check for those not flying yet (meaning me too), use a meter to confirm the continuity from the APM ESC output to the appropriate ESC.

Comment by Nathan Martz on May 13, 2012 at 12:51pm

I ran into a similar issue when I built my first 3DR quad a couple weeks ago. In my case, the 4 wire ESC control cable from the PDB to the APM had totally different colors than the one referenced in the 3DR instuctions. I had to cross reference the pin order in the JDrones docs. After that experience, even if the colors were the same, I'd double check the order to make sure.

Comment by Jeff Taylor on May 14, 2012 at 10:08am

The fact that the X-mode forward arrow is nearer to motor plugs 2 and 3 doesn't mean that those are the front two motors, it's just showing the direction the board should face. When you go to plug in your motors, you should still plug them into the motor positions referenced in the page 10 diagram, 1 and 3. 

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