Overheated?

Ben · Jul 18, 2015

My buddy was flying his drone and the wind pushed it into a palm tree. It was tangled up and the motors got really hot. Now when we try to turn it on the drone will go through the lights on the battery. Then one of the props will twitch and it will shut off. Is it shot? Asking for a friend...

Adimuzio513 · Jul 18, 2015

Odds are the motor is shot, is it just the one motor? I'd try a level and compass calibration see if anything changes but I'd bet hel end up needing a motor and sounds like that may be a tough task for now seems all their stock are being put into new units at thus time. Try Calibs if they don't work try customer support they are his only chance at a new motor so hel have the best results being as polite as possible. Seems like they are doing what they can for people but from the sound of other posts nice is likely to get service or parts before getting upset with em.

Good luck guys hope it's back in the air soon.

rrmccabe · Jul 18, 2015

Unplug that motor pod by removing the screws on bottom, lift out pod and unplug two main power wires and the small connector and retest.

I dont think you can buy motors pods right now.

Han Solo · Jul 19, 2015

Similar thing happened to me the other day after Solo decided to fly sideways on its own. It had a "soft" (it was only about 3 feet high) crash and flipped over. When I got to the craft a couple minutes later, the motors were twitching. When I picked it up, they all spun. I killed power to the controller which shut down the Solo as well. The motors were pretty darn hot. I tried a few minutes later to power up the Solo, but the battery LEDs went lit up for a second or two, motor #1 twitched once and the unit shut off. This still happens after fully charging the battery and letting it all cool off.
Do you think pulling the motor pod and putting it back in may help? I hope that would not void the warranty.

Adimuzio513 · Jul 19, 2015

Han Solo said:
Similar thing happened to me the other day after Solo decided to fly sideways on its own. It had a "soft" (it was only about 3 feet high) crash and flipped over. When I got to the craft a couple minutes later, the motors were twitching. When I picked it up, they all spun. I killed power to the controller which shut down the Solo as well. The motors were pretty darn hot. I tried a few minutes later to power up the Solo, but the battery LEDs went lit up for a second or two, motor #1 twitched once and the unit shut off. This still happens after fully charging the battery and letting it all cool off.
Do you think pulling the motor pod and putting it back in may help? I hope that would not void the warranty.

If the twitching was from some kind of safety this would probably reset it but sadly I'd guess your motor got too hot and burnt up it doesn't take very long for a brushless motor to melt down if it's hot enough. May want to double check but I wouldn't think taking the pod out would void your warranty. I've already done it with one of mine and if the powers off there's no seal or any other way to even know that you removed it, so your fine to try, it's really simple to get them in and out as well. Good luck hope you get it figured out and get back to the air. Fly safe

Han Solo · Jul 19, 2015

Thanks. I will give it a try. But now that I think of it, all the motors were hot. Then again, it was a sunny day in the mid 90's after flying for 15 minutes or so

Adimuzio513 · Jul 20, 2015

I've heard some run hot but I've temped mine a bunch and my battery hit 110 and my motors highest yet was about 108 with an IR. That said you should be fine up to at least 160 even a bit more I try to keep my other brushless motors around there or less I'd assume these are the same range. I know mine seemed warmer at lower slow settings opened up to medium or fast they seem to run better and cooler overall for some strange reason. It's like they're governed or held back at that very slow performance setting, it flies like a different bird once I changed it. I was actually kinda disappointed first flight, changed that and been loving it since.

Han Solo · Jul 24, 2015

I sent the flight log to 3dr. They will replace the motor because solo lost gps. So the warranty works apparently. This was one of the Solo's selling points for me... the ability to upload a log for tech support to troubleshoot. If the issue was not operator error, they replace or repair. I am happy about that!