Discussions

Rotors flew off

Posted by Aaron Bridges on March 6, 2011 at 10:31pm

First off I want to thank everyone involved in this project, it's just amazing what a stellar job you've done!

 

I just got everything assembled and checked/verified and I was hand-testing to make sure everything is solid. I throttled up close to full get an idea of what kind of lift it's generating and all the rotors flew off. Luckily none of them hit me but it definitely scared me (and I was glad I was wearing eye protection and a heavy coat for the hand test).

 

So I'm wondering if they were just not tight enough. I had tightened them pretty tight with a little screwdriver through the hole but didn't want to strip them... Or maybe because I throttled up too fast? Maybe since I was holding it down with my hand the lift just pulled them off? I am planning on pushing the limits of the load capacity so hopefully that's not it. I am using 25A ESCs with stock Arducopter kit motors and rotors so maybe those are driving the motors faster than the mounts can handle? I will certainly test again after really cranking them on there but need to set up some kind of mount so that the rotors aren't a foot away from my face when testing!

 

After reading around and not seeing anybody else seeing this I am thinking that maybe I am just paranoid and needed to tighten them more but want to make sure that flying is going to be safe!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Matteo Carnevali March 7, 2011 at 10:20am

    it happened to me too! And the result was a big crash :(

    I'm tightening props really hard now ;)

  • Aaron Bridges March 7, 2011 at 6:53am

    Thanks for the replies guys.

     

    They just lifted off... I was afraid of overtightening them so I think that I just didn't go quite far enough. I will post again after I get it into the air.

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer March 7, 2011 at 6:12am
    Did they lift off or break?? Overtightening normally causes blades to shatter at the root. Being able to lift them off sounds like the beveled bit of the adaptor was not tightening onto the shaft as you screwed the prop down. I did'nt explain that very well did I! A bigger ESC won't drive the motors harder per se. It will allow more current draw though.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson March 6, 2011 at 10:37pm
    Never seen that before. I just tighten them with a wrench and they've never come off.
This reply was deleted.

Activity