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.
Replies
I use APC Thin Electric 13 x 4.5 p for upper and 14 x 7 for lower motors.
When you are limited to 12" i would recommend 11 x 4.5 ep for upper and 12 x 8 e for lower motors.
I buy my props from a store in Germany, but I think you can get yours from APC online store.
The Thin Electric props are a little more efficient than the SlowFly and are usually well balanced.
Thanks for the information. Order the props and will give them a test.
You can hear the difference in the motors. Nice job in getting it in the air.
I'll try to look at the files, but am better at finding causes for crashes hehe :)
Maybe you should fly it in calm winds to get more consistent data? Your copter seemed to be handling darn though.
How do you hook up 2x GPS? Is that a 3.2 exclusive?
BTW, I decided not to test the KDE motors on the 3DR Y6; they weren't meant to be permanent. For one thing, the ESC's on the 3DR use 4mm plugs, and the KDE motors 3.5; don't have the gumption to do that much soldering. Also, I want to get the new model built before the first snow flies, and by the looks of things it may not be too many weeks away.
I have a pixhawk which supports two GPS units. There's loads of discussions on the 3.2 beta blog. Recommend you search there for answers. Also go to http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-installing-3dr-ublox-gps-co....
As for soldering 4mm plugs. I order from Hobbyking both Male and Female plugs. My OctaQuad or X8 uses two 4 in 1 ESCs and they came with 3.5mm plugs which I cut off and soldered 4mm female plugs onto them. The motors I purchased did not come with plugs so I cut the wires to desired length and soldered male 4mm plugs to them.
The easiest way to do this is:
1. Tin the wires
2. Using a block of wood, drill 5-6mm holes in them for the plugs to rest in.
3. Place the male plugs in wood and with a hot soldering iron insert in the hole, feed solder into hole till filled.
Once this is done, I used my camping propane cook bottles and a torch top (You can get them at a hardware store) to finish the process.
4. With torch running, grab plug with needle nose and super heat the opening until solder is melted.
5. push plug onto tinned wire ensuring you have gloves on or use a heat insulator to prevent you getting burnt via conduction of heat running up wire.
6. When cooled release and repeat for remaining plugs.
I also slipped on heat shrink tubing which is needed to ensure plugs don't short against each other and any ground points.
Doesn't take long to do this if you have the equipment.
Cheers
Hi all,
Flight tests in the next few days.
Here is a teaser for you.
Your assistant looks eager to start the test.
Do you find any interference problems with what I assume is the vx tx (5.8 ghz?) and the telemetry (915?) positioned like that?
@DG,
Not that I'm aware of, but I normally have the antennas pointing outward.
Sadie is curious too, but she tends to keep her distance. She makes a great spectator. LOL
Looks very cool, let's hope it runs that way and boosts the flight times.
Fingers crossed for the maiden.... and Sadie's safety.
Hello Y6-Fans
i also had the problem of ESC´s and motors (3dr 880KV) getting very hot. Also the flight time was very short - only 12 min with simple gimbal and Canon S100 - AUW 2750g with Zippy 4s 8000 mAh.
So I ended up buying new motors - EMAX MT 3506 650 KV. After mounting the motors I found that the 11 x 4,7 APC SF props are to small to give enough thrust for the Y6B. After trying different propeller setups i found that my Y6 works best with APC Electric 13 x 4.4 on upper and 14 x 7 on lower motors.
Although the EMAX motors are also rated only 200 W, they don´t get hot even after a long flight.
I still use the 3dr 20A ESCs.
Flight time now is 17 min with same Lipo - AUW 2800g because of heavier props.
20140923_201501.jpg
What did you modify to get the props to fit?
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