Connectors and wires on the ESC - check periodically!

[DocBr]

Yesterday I had the third case of wire breakage on the ESC. It's on a different solo. Last year was a crash - Solo fell from a height .. I first looked for the cause in the firmware, because I installed an unstable beta version of Opensolo 4. But when I disassembled my Solo, I found that one power wire on the ESC was broken near the board and acidified. This actually caused the motor to stop. Vibration did its job .. Recently I was assembling Solo from components purchased for spare parts .. Already during the assembly again came off one power wire on the ESC ..!) I carefully reviewed all the others, two more wires were not in good condition, I resolder them again .. And yesterday, when I was conducting a flight test, this Solo also fell! This time the height was 2m because I was testing the battery in the hang. I armed Solo again and one engine did not turn. This time the whole connector was torn off!
During the first tests of this Solo, I did not notice that this ESC is constantly lit only by green light and does not switch, does not flash .. But the motor worked fine and flew several batteries.
Also check the reliability of the connections from time to time. Vibration accelerates the destruction of poor soldering!

 

[timgilley]

I've had my Solos apart several times and thought some of the soldering looked like crap. Thanks for the suggestion. A good rainy day project touching up the ESCs and checking the ESC connectors.

 

[RichWest]

Here's a previous posting of the power leads not properly soldered. Just another issue that was seen in the past.

No spinning motor, this cold be the cause.

I got lucky it happened in the ground, otherwise it will drop out of the sky. Taking the pod out is simple and will be a good idea to check the soldering On your main bird motor pods for peace of mind.

3drpilots.com

In your example, control connector, seems very little solder contact on the pads. I expected more visible corrosion on the pads if as you say. But I do agree, you should periodically check solder joints. The lead-free solder seems to fracture, the gimbal HDMI connector was a problem in this regard.