Bearing Lubrication???

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Does anyone have ANY info on when or how to lubricate Phantom4 bearings. DJI seems to be totally silent on the issue and motor bearings on a P4 are inaccessible. Could it be they are sealed and "good for life" or what? With over 40hrs on the motors now I'm getting nervous and beginning to worry some of those high-pitched frequencies I hear are the sound of bearing wear.

Does anyone know?
 
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These bearings donor require lubrication.
 
I assume they must have "low drag seals" but why does dji not publish some more detailed maintenance recommendations or "life expectancy curves" they must have some data on it you'd think . . . I'll have to ask them.

This is one of the best "Good stuff to know" . . It's on the dji forum but does not come from dji but from a user named "hd_ultra" . .Thanks hd_ultra. This is the kind of knowledge that need to be in dji documentation. It's there on their forum but any new flyer would have likely already crashed at least once before they read this:


1. If you’ve crashed it and bent the gimbal or tore the little black ribbon cable, you can only send it back to DJI for repair or buy a new camera/gimbal combination. You CANNOT substitute a GoPro camera with a Zenmuse. End of story. Contact you dealer or DJI.

2. If your gimbal is shaking and vibrating or off the level, you may be able to repair it following the advice here viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19653&hilit=solved

3. If the gimbal is off level slightly, a full IMU recalibration in the software assistant may cure it.

4. If you remove the camera/gimbal, you will not be able to see anything in the app.

5. The camera is NOT replaceable with a GoPro.

6. If you dunk your V+ in sea water throw it away. Little apart from the plastic is worth saving.

7. If you dunk your V+ in fresh water, get it out as quickly as possible and take it apart. Use a hair drier liberally and then put everything in a sealed container and cover it in uncooked rice. Leave it there for three or four days before attempting to turn it back on.

8. Do not take off until you have home point recorded. This is the second set of rapidly flashing green lights. The number of satellites indicated on the app will turn blue.

9. If you lose satellites when in flight, the craft will enter ATTI mode and MAY get blown away. This is not a fly away, it is normal. Take control of your aircraft.

10. When taking off from the ground give it full throttle and release when it gets up a few feet. Let it sit and hover for a while to make sure it responds to all of the controls.

11. You cannot turn down the yaw sensitivity. Learn to be more gentle with the controls.

12. You cannot adjust the Return to Home height. It is either current elevation OR 20m (66feet) whichever is highest. If there are buildings or trees in the way when flying at this elevation on Return to Home, the aircraft WILL hit them.

13. When using waypoints, the craft will fly from the ground to the first waypoint altitude gradually. Imagine a wire stretched between the waypoints that you have added. If there is a tree or a building on that travel route, the aircraft WILL hit it.

14. The aircraft will complete its waypoint mission even if the transmitter is turned off. It will hover above the home point until you regain control by flicking S1 to ATTI and back again.

15. Use of prop guards, as these are almost universally accepted to enhance a wobbling state when hovering or descending called Vortex Ring State (Google it). GOOD FOR TRAINING
16. Standard props and batteries are good.

17. Flickering in video may be caused by the props creating shadows. A little electrical tape to shield the lens often helps. Or Get Lens Hoods. Check EBAY

18. There are lots of opinions on using the latest firmware. And everyone will tell you something different. I always use the latest. Just my preference.

19. If using Windows to upgrade firmware, you have to download the DJI drivers first.

20. The ‘7th channel’ lever (if you added it) to control tilting the camera down will not work when the app is switched on. Developers are working on a solution but it’s not ready yet.

21. Booster apps are available to extend the FPV range. Some do a modification with shields behind the antenna to reflect the signal.

22. There are numerous upgrades to antenna to extend both control range and FPV range.

23. You can switch the aircraft from Phantom mode to NAZA mode to enable other goodies such as Intellegent Orientation Control (course lock and home lock).

24. The camera is NOT replaceable with a GoPro. A solution will be released soon.
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25. When flying waypoints you can not control the direction of the unit. You can control the pitch of the camera, but not the yaw of the craft.

26. When flying in IOC Home Lock or Course Lock you can control yaw, while remaining on course.

27. If your battery starts to bloat or get puffy, it is bad. DJI only warranty's batteries for 3 months.

28. Vortex Ring State or Prop Wash can happen even without Prop Guards. So be careful when descending.

These are some common questions by new users of the Phantom 2 Vision + (DJI is not responsible for this post.)
 
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That's old information and doesn't apply to the current batch of aircraft (P3's and P4's) in many ways.
 
The bearings are sealed, no additional lubrication needed, to many variables to estimate the life of these but they should last a long time. Preflight the ease of rotation and radial and axle play, the clearance tolerance on these bearings are very small you will not feel any movement side to side or up and down. After flight check your motor temperatures, the temps of the motors will not be the same because of flight direction motor work harder, after a long forward flight the rear motors are warmer than the front, this is normal, if you find one motor way hotter than the others you may have a bearing situation.
 
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The bearings are sealed, no lubrication needed, to many variables to estimate the life of these but they should last a long time. Preflight the ease of rotation and radial and axle play, the clearance tolerance on these bearings are very small you will not feel any movement side to side or up and down. After flight check your motor temperatures, the temps of the motors will not be the same because of flight direction motor work harder, after a long forward flight the rear motors are warmer than the front, this is normal, if you find one motor way hotter than the others you may have a bearing situation.

Thanks that helps.
 
Maybe we should say no additional lubrication in needed. All bearings need some sort of lubrication. If a bearing is sealed to prevent loss of lubricant, it would only make sense that no additional lubricant could be added unless it was designed so.
 
Maybe we should say no additional lubrication in needed. All bearings need some sort of lubrication. If a bearing is sealed to prevent loss of lubricant, it would only make sense that no additional lubricant could be added unless it was designed so.

I would be nice if dji said it in the user manual somewhere. They are working pretty hard at 5000-6000+rpm so they can't last indefinitely, and I'd sure prefer to see some sort of expected "life" indicated by dji
 
I have never seen such LE data for any of the r/c hobby items I have purchased.
These are toys after all.

DJI expects them to last until the next revision comes out. ;)
 
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Maybe we should say no additional lubrication in needed. All bearings need some sort of lubrication. If a bearing is sealed to prevent loss of lubricant, it would only make sense that no additional lubricant could be added unless it was designed so.
Your right Montee no additional lube needed, if any one has changed P4 bearings it would be nice to know the make of these bearings and the hours of flight they had.
 
I have never seen such LE data for any of the r/c hobby items I have purchased.
These are toys after all.

DJI expects them to last until the next revision comes out. ;)

Planned Obsolescence
lol
 
I would be nice if dji said it in the udifferent manual somewhere. They are working pretty hard at 5000-6000+rpm so they can't last indefinitely, and I'd sure prefer to see some sort of expected "life" indicated by dji
I understand your concern but it is hard to put an hourly life on a bearing when it has different environments to work in. One pilot may fly easy and in cool weather and another may fly in hot climates like a bat out of hell. If DJI said 100 hours life, someone with 98 hours and a failure would raise all kinds of hell. They couldn't possibly state every single thing that could happen to a Phantom in life. Re...how many hours can the Phantom fly in the sun before uv affects the shell.....list every cleaning material not to use on Phantom. ...how hard is too hard to hit something. ...etc. They won't put themselves out for such liability. They have enough as it is. Does your car manual state how long your wheel bearings will last?
 
Your right Montee no additional lube needed, if any one has changed P4 bearings it would be nice to know the make of these bearings and the hours of flight they had.
Bearing failure is the least of my worries. Now, some will fail prematurely but that's probably rare. Electrical connections, bad piloting, bad pre flights, etc will most likely take your bird down before a bearing failure.
 
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That is an old list referencing P2s.
 
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This is one of the best "Good stuff to know" . . It's on the dji forum but does not come from dji but from a user named "hd_ultra" . .Thanks hd_ultra. This is the kind of knowledge that need to be in dji documentation. It's there on their forum but any new flyer would have likely already crashed at least once before they read this:

It MIGHT be a good idea to edit the post quoted above to note that it's for OLDER Phantoms and has little to no relevance to P3's or P4's. Bad information can be worse than NO information.
 

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