Copper Dust On Two Rotors

[RunningWithScissors]

I flew today. I was in the air for 1.5 hours. No dust, no overheating props. Everything worked great.

Bill,
Thanks for reporting back with your results. Glad to hear evetything looks good. Keep an eye on it occasionally.

 

[Deleted member 109724]

I flew today. I was in the air for 1.5 hours. No dust, no overheating props. Everything worked great. All I can assume is that dirt (Don't have much of that here along the coast) got in the props somehow. Even that is somewhat difficult to understand because I take off from a landing pad and hand catch all landings. Anyway, thank you all for your input.
God Bless!
Bill

That's great! It could have been dirt from your drone case, or rust dust, but no way to really tell at this point. Watch for signs of possibilities of what could be causing red dust in the future and let us know if you see it again! God Bless!

-Weston Ney

 

[Pacmanfever]

You can use a magnet to see if it is iron oxide (rust) from a ferrous source like a ball bearing, or bronze which is non-magnetic. If the motors have bronze bushings instead of ball bearings, you may be seeing bronze particles wearing from that surface. I haven't taken a DJI motor fully apart to see what the bearings are made of for the record.

Copper is in the windings, and won't present itself around the bearings because it isn't present as a bearing surface, and the copper windings are sealed with varnish.

 

[$gambino$]

You can use a magnet to see if it is iron oxide (rust) from a ferrous source like a ball bearing, or bronze which is non-magnetic. If the motors have bronze bushings instead of ball bearings, you may be seeing bronze particles wearing from that surface. I haven't taken a DJI motor fully apart to see what the bearings are made of for the record.

Copper is in the windings, and won't present itself around the bearings because it isn't present as a bearing surface, and the copper windings are sealed with varnish.

These motors are brushless and require ball bearings...i had a p4 mptor apart for sure ball bearing... it's also not from the windings because they have an epoxy coating on them to prevent shorts..... it's most likely from the shaft of the motor. It happens on my bigger RC helicopter motors, the shaft will sometimes get rusty.

 

[RaptorsView]

There are some types of pollen that are rust colored. Why only on two rotors though?

 

[N017RW]

Cause it’s not pollen.

 

[Meta4]

It's rust.
There's no way for copper to get rubbed or worn in the motors.
I fly at sea a lot and my props all look like that.