Lots of smoke and a loud pop!
Finished my Arducopter (3DR) and was setting up the configuration in the mission planner. I got it talking then loaded the firmware and checked out the sensor operation in the mission planner. Then went to the radio input page and saw no input, it was then I remmembered the flight battery needs to be connected to power the ESC's to distribute power for the RX.
Instantly there was allot of smoke from the motor 1 esc and wiring, I quickly disconnected the battery and looked for a wiring problem. I couldn't find a short anywhere. Then I removed the heat shrink from the motor 1 esc and saw the linear 5v regulator looked ok, but the inner layers of the pcb were blistered underneath the regulator and then I noticed the electrolytic capacitor was bulged at the top.
So I replaced the servo wiring to the esc and decided to test it not connected to anything but a motor on the output and Li-po(3s 2200mAh), thats when the capacitor blew very violently.
I moved the ESC from motor #2 into motor#1 and connected to the power distribution board and left off connecting the 5v BEC to the APM and checked the voltage @5v.......Good!
I then connected up the APM and other motors and all seems fine, but I'm missing an ESC for #2 motor and the DIY Drones store is out of stock :>(
What are my options, I'm so close to do a maiden flight.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith S on -
Can I use this?
http://www.valuehobby.com/power-systems/speed-controller/hobbywing-...
It's available locally..
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Permalink Reply by Jan Vervoorst on -
It is generally recommended that all ESCs are of the same type, because different ESCs might have different time constants (take different amounts of time to spool up the motors to your input command). Using another ESC might mess with proper stabilization of your quad.
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Permalink Reply by Joonas on
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It is of course best to use same type of ESC for all motors, but on cases like this where important maiden flight is hanging on the balance.. I have tested that its fairly OK to fly with different ESC if you just use the same type of ESC for a motor pair, on that case, the different timings are basically only affecting yaw, which does not seem to be all that delicate.
I did try to fly with 1 ESC swapped but that resulted on leaning to one side due to different calibration and what not but replacing the opposing ESC also worked nicely.
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Permalink Reply by Martin Szymanski on
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This indicates that possibly the ESC was not rated for the voltage to it. What was the battery voltage input?
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