Motors spin direction

Posted by ActionDrone on March 28, 2016 at 11:16am

Hello,

I'm setting up an X6 with APM Planner on a Mac. The FCU is a 3DR Pixhawk.

My problem is that the motors spin in the opposite direction: so top left spins CCW instead of CW, and so on.

To be more clear, each arm has its own motor spinning alternatively (CCW, CW, CCW etc.) but flipped compared to what is required by Ardupilot setup guide.

Is it a problem or I can keep them spinning like this?

I would avoid to change the ESC connections because I mounted the ESC and the motors very, very tight... I should unmount most of the chassis to do it.

Thanks.

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Replies

  • DirtCreature April 3, 2016 at 12:06pm

    BTW, I always had a hard time remembering which way quad motors should turn in the beginning. Here's my little mnemonic:

    Pretend the drone is vertical in front of you.

    Hold your hands above your head and point your fingers at each other from opposite hands. This is how the two top motors rotate - your hands are the outside ends of the props.

    Now lower your hands to your waist and point them at each other, palms up. This is the direction how the bottom two rotate.

  • K V March 28, 2016 at 6:54pm
    Most ESCs also have an option to change the spin direction on the firmware
    • Developer
      John Arne Birkeland March 30, 2016 at 1:49am

      Most definitively not. The autopilot demands CC and CCW to be at the correct fixed positions.

    • ActionDrone > John Arne Birkeland March 30, 2016 at 1:55am

      Hi John,

      do you know if there is a way to test the motor number? I connected the Pixhawk outputs to the PDB correctly, but I just would test them (from a Mac, possibly) just to double check.

      Thanks.

    • Developer
      John Arne Birkeland > ActionDrone March 30, 2016 at 4:53am

      http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/connect-escs-and-motors.html#check...

      Connect ESCs and Motors — Copter documentation
    • ActionDrone > John Arne Birkeland March 30, 2016 at 6:30am

      Thanks,

      I've seen that before but that tab is not visible on APM Planner 51b6aa92-2.0.18 on a Mac.

    • ActionDrone > John Arne Birkeland March 30, 2016 at 1:53am

      that's what I did. Now everything is correct.

  • ActionDrone March 28, 2016 at 3:08pm

    Hi all,

    thanks for your prompt support. Actually I already started to swap the wires between ESCs and motors. Then I'll check again the motors direction and see if everything is ok.

    Thanks to you all guys. If something is wrong I will post here for more help.

  • Cala March 28, 2016 at 3:03pm

    It's a problem, I have to give you the bad news that you have to change two wires from your motors, test that they are spinning on the correct way and them reassemble, be shure that the esc are plugged to Pixhawk in correct way.

  • Darius Jack March 28, 2016 at 3:02pm

    @ActionDrone

    APM provides no self-configuration option for ESC + motors

    so you need to run motor tests from Mission Planner

    to verify individual ESC + motor match preselected ports with Pixhawk

    to avoid flipping on the ground.

    Spinning direction is one issue,  proper ESC connection is another problem to be solved by you.

    In theory APM PRO could provide ESC + motor autoconfiguration since ESC ports can be software switched to match designed motor layout and designed CCW, CW settings

    to avoid problems with selecting other sockets for your ESC.

    Today you need to do that job manually and run configuration tests on yourself.

This reply was deleted.