Discussions

Engine hickups in flight

Posted by jos on August 9, 2012 at 12:52pm

I'm flying a DJI Flamewheel 550 with a APM 2.0, it's flying very nice. and using the DJI esc's and engines.

Sometimes in flight one engine is quitting the job. Only for half a second and then back to work.

Just enough time to recover :) The hardware seems ok, i checked the connections of the esc and the motor connections .. Is it possible thats it a software issue? 

The problem occurs sometimes in hover and also when flying a bit rough ...

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Replies

  • jason goldenberg November 15, 2012 at 1:15pm

    Jos, can you send me what your final tunings were for your hexacopter?  It would be a good place for me to start.  A screenshot of your settings would be perfect.

    Thanks

     

    Jason

     

  • Jerry Normandin August 15, 2012 at 11:12am

    During my first flight check I was lucky and noticed issues with the 3mm bullet connectors. Here's what I did.

    I tinned the connectors with solder.   It's a tight fit, but it works.

  • jos August 14, 2012 at 5:02am

    joo, i found the problem! :)

    all my engines (stock engines and esc's) from the Naza Flamewheel s-550 had problems with the esc connectors.

    the trick was, i put a drop of soldeer on the tip of the engine connectors and now the problems are disappeared :)

    see circle where i put the soldeer.

    (don't put to much on it, or the wont fit anymore) :)

    Untitled-1.jpg

  • Alex Hills August 12, 2012 at 8:48pm

    I've had motor hiccups on my 3dr hexa twice so far that have resulted in crashes.  It was in stabilize mode.  I'm using a dx7 controller.  I'll look at the replies here to see if they help.  Just wanted to say i was having the same issues.

  • Tsahi Mizrahi August 12, 2012 at 1:21pm

    Still no luck to stabilize this.

    try to normalize throttle but it suddenly goes up or down like motors get boost.

     

    2012-08-12 23-08 10.kmz

    2012-08-12 23-08 10.log

    2012-08-12 23-08 10.log.gpx

  • jos August 12, 2012 at 6:10am

    today i tried again, stabilize mode, acro mode, auto mode.

    all with motor hiccups, and the auto mode with no help from me.

    In the logs where no input spikes, but still hiccups with an (random) engine :(

  • Tsahi Mizrahi August 12, 2012 at 4:45am

    Hi Randy,

    Thanks for your reply.

    Did some more tweaking yesterday, quad is bit more stable but still go up and down a lot.

    My AQ50D was holding the height so I assume it is more parallel to Alt Hold ?

    I will take a video to show this.

    As for the Sonar, I’m aware of the Shield and plan to do it, now I’m also know where to look for spikes J

    Regards,

    Tsahi.

     

  • Tsahi Mizrahi August 11, 2012 at 8:44am

    I'm trying to fly my APM for first time.

    Params are default x525.

    Try to fly in stabilize mode and motors are some how have strange behaviour.

    Like throttle is up and down, and copter climb and fall.

     

    2012-08-11 16-21 4.log

  • Mike Boland August 10, 2012 at 12:46pm

    We are running a pre built and test flown JDrones Hexa with 13Ah of battery on board.

    The motors are pretty warm and ESC's only slightly warm after a flight. No connectors in circuit to the motors, all soldered.

    The only connector is the battery and if that had a bad connection I would see a brown out of the system.

    This motor twitching is a regular but very random thing and only appeared after the 2.7 update.

    Max current on our setup is 32Amps at WOT, so the battery and ESC's aren't even trying hard.

    Even though I have managed to tune a very solid Stabilise, I have issues with the other settings, but this motor pulsing off is very recognisable. It gives you a WTF moment, it IS that recognisable and random.

  • Jerry Normandin August 10, 2012 at 12:19pm

    How does your wiring hold up when the quad is flying? Do the connectors get hot from delievering

    a lot of current ?  Maybe the female side of the connector is expanding faster than the male side resulting 

    in a temporary open circuit ?

    Another possibility is your ESC is underrated for your motor so your ESC is getting hot ?

    During hover you use a lot of power,  rough flight.. more power. Do you have an ottopilot board? Check the forums if you don't.  I suggest installing and enabling that.  I have my quad set to autoland if the battery is low.

    Mike what size battery and motors are you using ?    My  2800mah lipo is only good for 5 minutes of stable flight.

    Any longer than that and the battery is at 45% or so.. that's when you will observe the "twitch".  I programmed my quad

    to end flight when the battery is at 46%.    I'm using the ottopilot board to monitor power and voltage.

    Once I can land gracefully with a heavy load I will install my 6000ma battery :) I have it.. it arrived from hobbyking, but that bad boy is almost twice as heavy as my 2800ma bat.  I don't want to land hard with that weight.

    If your battery is running low, you are going to get twitchy motors.   That happens with any servio control circuit. You need to monitor power and when the power is at the low end of stable flight then auto land.

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