Motor Not Spinning - Bad Power Board Distribution

Posted by Flying Buddha on February 23, 2014 at 3:41pm

Ive comb the internet and the Diydrones.com site and cant find an answer or anything thing that would help me out...so Im reaching out to you guys.

- I ordered a 3dr Y6 and noticed that a motor was getting extremely hot (TOP REAR, #6, Ya configuration), so 3dr replaced it. 

- Got the replacement in the mail and put it on, at the same time I decided to go with the Yb (frame 10) configuration since I had the frame apart.

- While testing motor rotations, my BOTTOM LEFT (#6, Yb configuration)  motor does NOT spin.

- For a test, I swapped the esc signal wires in the Power distribution board (PDB) and it seems that there is no signal coming from the #6 PDB esc plug.  

I think Ive ruled out the ESC and motor. Could it be the PDB or even the APM?

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Tags: board, distribution, hex, motor, not, pdb, power, spinning, y6
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Replies

  • Flying Buddha February 25, 2014 at 6:54pm
    Thank you guys...I think I was in such a hurry to fly this thing, I over looked the fact that one should disconnect the USB from the APM when calibrating the ESCs.
    Needless to say I was able to get in about a 14 min maiden flight.
    I'm so amazed how tuned it was out the box. I'll start all the tuning and gps calibrations tomorrow.
    Thanks again
  • Flying Buddha February 24, 2014 at 7:58pm

    ...so I decided to re-check continuity wire wiggling wires on the PDB and still everything checks out.  I recalibrated escs 

    but this time I decided to hook up a battery and give a little more throttle, if the Y6 has throttle for >3 seconds, the esc plugged into the PDB #6 beeps about 3 times and then spins up and doesnt stop. I then have to disconnect the battery to get it to stop. I tried this with two other esc/motors and get the same results.

    but wait, my #3 has also stopped working....agh! so frustrating.

    • Brendan22 > Flying Buddha February 24, 2014 at 8:27pm

      Can you calibrate #6 okay by itself?

  • Flying Buddha February 23, 2014 at 8:08pm

    Would it be safe to plug the ESC signal wires straight into the APM?

    • Josh > Flying Buddha February 23, 2014 at 8:11pm

      You can plug 'em right into your receiver as well if need to. Yellow channel 3 is usually throttle. Please remove your props first.

  • Jaime February 23, 2014 at 7:35pm

    Have you calibrated the ESCs? since the motors spin at low revolutions when doing the motor test. Sometimes if the ESCs have not been calibrated, they will not spin.

    • Flying Buddha > Jaime February 23, 2014 at 7:57pm

      Yes...I did it twice. I even swapped motors and ESCs around. If its plugged into the #6, it doesn't spin.

  • Nigel Brown February 23, 2014 at 4:35pm

    Hi FB

    Ditto!  I had this same issue with a 3DR Y6. After a day of analysis and testing, it turned out it was the PDB. I am starting to think that there might be a bad batch of 6 port PDBs floating around. You are the second person today I have heard of who has had this issue with a recent Y6.

    As per other threads. Check and recheck your PDB. if it is a bad connection, it may be difficult to diagnose (and even harder to fix). A beeping ESC is a good indicator that the ESC does not have clean power.

    I have included a link to a couple of vids that demonstrate the erratic ESC beeps, and the motor not spinning up).

    My fix included getting a replacement PDB from 3DR.

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18584467/3DR%20Y6/IMG_0765.MOV

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18584467/3DR%20Y6/IMG_0797.MOV

  • Brendan22 February 23, 2014 at 3:56pm

    I once had a bad connection on one of the 6 signal wires running between the APM and the PDB.  The ESC would intermittently loose it's signal and start beeping.  As suggested, check with a meter (and wiggle the wires a bit, with your third hand, at the same time) .

    • Josh > Brendan22 February 23, 2014 at 4:00pm

      Yeah, unless they have been hot glued those wires are a ticking time bomb. Had two of them pop off during my first build before it was even in the air.

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