Hi, just been testing my Y6 with it's new 6000mah 4S pack and noticed the motors are getting hot. This is affecting the bottom motors more where if you touch them on the base, non rotating part, they are too hot to touch for more than a few seconds. The rest of the motor is hot but can be held without issue.
To check I did another flight with a 3S 4400mah setup and the motors were again getting hot, not as hot but the flight time was 5 mins vs 13 mins.
It's also worth noting with the 4S setup the ESCs were also getting hot, again after a 13 min test flight.
The flight itself basically consisted of a 13 minute hover in loiter mode, I was testing battery times, and consumed 5000mah. The weather for the UK was hot, 25 deg C. The Y6 is a new 2014 B version weighing 1900 grams or so, std config plus 600 gram pack, with std 10 inch props and 850 blue motors.
And finally to the question, is this normal of does something sound wrong?
The only thing I can think I haven't done is balance the props, guide for this would be handy, but I have no vibration issues looking at the data log.
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I bought a used Y6 that came with a 3s 5400 battery. It was flying fine in its stock configuration but then I added a gimbal and gopro camera and although it would still fly it was underpowered. I bought a 4s Turnigy 6000mah and it made all the difference in the world it will hover at 50% throttle and is very responsive. Flight times are 8.5 to 9.0 minutes.(seems awful short to me) I have the same problem, the bottom motors are hot with the top motors not so bad. I have changed the configuration from the old A to the new B config and am running 11" props on the bottom and 10" props on the top. My ESC's are hotter than with the 3s battery but not so hot that you can't hold your hand on them so I think they will be ok. I think the motors are the 850 stock ones that came out with the old B configuration (they are blue).
My question is how hot is too hot? I can take a temperature measurement on the next flight to see just what the temp is but at what temperature will you cook a motor?
I have gotten as far as alt hold in the tuning side of things but it will absolutely not loiter at all. I will be putting on the external compass as it seems that is the problem. I only have about 8 flights total on this Y6 so far but making progress on the tuning and I like the way it flies. Now, what to do with the motors?
Heat is the emeny of electronics and mechanical/electrical devices. with out proper cooling you can expect failure to occur much more rapidly on the hot motors than the ones that are warm or cool. With that being said, I wonder if the motors facing down with the props facing up are producing enough wind around the motor and windings to provide adequate cooling? Upper motors and props are pushing air down and around motors, where as the lower motors are not. This could be one of the reasons why I noticed the lower motors becoming hotter then the upper ones.
Hi Doug, not sure if I understand your clockwise / counterclockwise as the motors on my Y6 all spin clockwise when viewed individually from the top, prop end, of the motor.
The only thing I did notice is when spinning clockwise you would appear to be going against the natural curve of the air intakes at the top of the motor. Not sure if this creates more drag and worse airflow through the motor or not.
When looking down on the airframe, my top ones rotate clockwise and lower ones counter-clock wise. Yes you are right when looking at the props from the hun side that all are rotating clock-wise but that is a bit misleading. Refer to all prop directions from top down. All props are mounted with labe side up and I do hace the correct props pitch direction elating to rotating direction.
Issue is, whay are some motors running harder/hotter than the counter parts? One theory of the amount of volts between 4s and 3s batteries. At this point, I tend to disagree that voltage is in itself the issue. I think ESCs and autopilot tuning is the culprit along with push pull dynamics (which has been discussed elsewhere in diydrones sight).
I think tuning is the main factor. If the ESC can handle more power than the motors their could be the possibly of exceeding the motor's limits thus causing it to overheat. So maybe tuning needs to be adjusted to limit throttle max to prevent pushing too much current to ESC and motors. Do you need to be able to go (64 kph) 40 mph or maybe tune it to be a bit more conservative? I know when I autotune my Y6 it provided some rather aggressive PID settings and I had to detune them because of the over sensitive nature and tuned down the motors which I noted less heat buildup.
Yup on mine when viewing the Y6 from the top you can see the writing on every prop.
Gave not noticed mine running hot on 10" top 11" bottom slowflybon 4s lipo
Interesting. Were you hovering, running in auto, or flying manual? If Manual, were you fly conservative or aggressive? Are you configured as a Y6A or Y6B?
Your probably right about the airflow causing issues on the lower props although it's interesting that the stock props are 10x47 all round now, they used to be 11 on the bottom didn't they?
I think it may also be something more fundamental in that the bottom motors are shadowed from the airflow by their mount which in my opinion is why the very base of the motor is the part that really suffers compared to the top motors which have a more even heat distribution. If only I had a 3d printer I'm sure I could make a fix fairly quickly...... more toys hey.
Out of interest wouldn't larger props on the bottom put greater load on the motor increasing the heat? or am I thinking incorrectly.
The motor coils - the part of the motor that get hot - are on the bottom part of the motor. The moving part (rotor) has magnets only and does not produce any heat. Instead, it is in greater degree exposed to the airflow.
Besides, 11" props are too big for these motors. I replaced the stock motors with a more powerful ones and it works much better now (not counting it is able to lift more weight using 12" props).
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