SuperRoach hobby hacker Thread OP

Build Log LKTR120 - Redone ESC's and Signal Wiring / Prop Direction.



When testing your motors, First step is to never have your propellers on. It's very likely it would fly off the bench and destroy itself, if not hurting you. Second step - Never fully power up (full throttle) your motors without the propeller attached! This is because motors are designed for a certain top "speed" or rotations per minute. With a propeller attached, they have resistance or drag. Without an attachment, they can easily reach much higher speeds and accidentally burn themselves out. Whoops if you have that happen!



UPDATE: I have been schooled! With thanks from input from Reddit user mrandy:

Quote: That's true with gas or nitro internal combustion engines, but electric motors are perfectly happy to spin unloaded all day long. Their max RPM is dictated by their KV rating and power supply, and is the same with our without a propeller attached. In either case:



Motor Target RPM = Battery Volts * Motor KV



Without a propeller they'll just run at this speed using very little current. With a propeller, they'll run at the same speed (or close to it, like 90-something percent), but use a lot of current trying to maintain the speed. Less current = less heat, so the motor will be cool and happy without a prop.







Wire up your motors, and power them up.

This is surprisingly tricky. You usually would need to fully build your device, because you will not only need to power it, you will need to send a signal to power it up!



I ordered a



Up until recently, I've been averse to soldering. It's a weird thing to say - but it's true! I don't like soldering something until I'm 300 percent sure I will never change it again. It took this project to throw that away.



I needed to resolder all of the ESC's almost three times, as I rearranged the wires to get the right motor spinning direction. To do this, just swap two wires of the motor connection over. To make a ok strength connection, I Made a "L" shape wire, held it in place and soldered. I used a texta to mark which wire should be on the "ground" side of the ESC, to help remember which of the two needs to be swapped.



I have noticed some of the motors stutter when powering up, we will see if that becomes a problem.



I then cut the wires once more to be shorter - they looked so messy! A quick wire cutter trim fixed that.



Cable Routing the Signal Wire

Once I had done it all all that, I have taken the "signal" cable (yellow), routed it via the bottom. The idea - in theory - is that by having the cables there, I can "pop the top" of the quadcopter, and work on it without soldering anything in the future. This might get tricky! The Signal cables will be the first ones that need to be soldered to the top of the frame. I need to mount the flight controller upside down, preferably with double-sided foam tape to be able to do this.

Getting the spacing right is critical here, because you don't have much room in this build, and will need to directly solder most connections. I'll take a photo of the top frame when that's done. The signal pins go in slightly odd places ( a spot called "M2" is used) when you are using PPM for your flight controller.



A minor speed bump is the cable ties. They won't work. I bought 1.8mm cable ties, but these are far too short in length to be able to use. Doh! 2mm are still very "custom", and not able to be purchased at local shops like Officeworks. For now I will get some double sided tape. It is important to get the propeller direction right when making your quad.When testing your motors, First step is to never have your propellers on. It's very likely it would fly off the bench and destroy itself, if not hurting you. Second step - Never fully power up (full throttle) your motors without the propeller attached! This is because motors are designed for a certain top "speed" or rotations per minute. With a propeller attached, they have resistance or drag. Without an attachment, they can easily reach much higher speeds and accidentally burn themselves out. Whoops if you have that happen!I have been schooled! With thanks from input from Reddit user mrandy:. So feel safe, and go for it!This is surprisingly tricky. You usually would need to fully build your device, because you will not only need to power it, you will need to send a signal to power it up!I ordered a servo tester to help me with that. This led to one of the most awkward wiring setups I have done yet. A 2S Battery with it's crappy eFlite connector needed jumper cables to be able to be used...Up until recently, I've been averse to soldering. It's a weird thing to say - but it's true! I don't like soldering something until I'm 300 percent sure I will never change it again. It took this project to throw that away.I needed to resolder all of the ESC's almost three times, as I rearranged the wires to get the right motor spinning direction. To do this, just swap two wires of the motor connection over. To make a ok strength connection, I Made a "L" shape wire, held it in place and soldered. I used a texta to mark which wire should be on the "ground" side of the ESC, to help remember which of the two needs to be swapped.I have noticed some of the motors stutter when powering up, we will see if that becomes a problem.I then cut the wires once more to be shorter - they looked so messy! A quick wire cutter trim fixed that.Once I had done it all all that, I have taken the "signal" cable (yellow), routed it via the bottom. The idea - in theory - is that by having the cables there, I can "pop the top" of the quadcopter, and work on it without soldering anything in the future. This might get tricky! The Signal cables will be the first ones that need to be soldered to the top of the frame. I need to mount the flight controller upside down, preferably with double-sided foam tape to be able to do this.Getting the spacing right is critical here, because you don't have much room in this build, and will need to directly solder most connections. I'll take a photo of the top frame when that's done. The signal pins go in slightly odd places ( a spot called "M2" is used) when you are using PPM for your flight controller.A minor speed bump is the cable ties. They won't work. I bought 1.8mm cable ties, but these are far too short in length to be able to use. Doh! 2mm are still very "custom", and not able to be purchased at local shops like Officeworks. For now I will get some double sided tape. Images View all Images in thread Views: 312



Wiring loom via rear to allow it to "pop the top"

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This is the length for a 5.8ghz Linear Antenna.

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