Exercising motors evenly

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

This might be a stupid question but my father in law came buy today and I showed him the P4P. He was thoroughly impressed. He did ask a odd question I never thought about. He noticed I flew forward mostly, so he asked if doing so will cause the rear motors to wear more compared to the front motors. So it got me thinking. Should I try to make it a habit to fly all directions to exercise the motors evenly? What is your thought on this? Thanks!

Sent from my SM-T710 using PhantomPilots mobile app

msinger · Dec 3, 2016

You'll likely sell/retire your Phantom before you ever wear out the motors by flying it.

CaptainDrone798 · Dec 3, 2016

KingDad1985 said:
This might be a stupid question but my father in law came buy today and I showed him the P4P. He was thoroughly impressed. He did ask a odd question I never thought about. He noticed I flew forward mostly, so he asked if doing so will cause the rear motors to wear more compared to the front motors. So it got me thinking. Should I try to make it a habit to fly all directions to exercise the motors evenly? What is your thought on this? Thanks!

Sent from my SM-T710 using PhantomPilots mobile app

Yes, you should rotate the props every 10,000 feet of use. Just kidding. The Phantom is Flight Technology & not a car. Each motor on the Phantom is constantly changing speeds regardless of which direction you fly. All is well, just fly and enjoy.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

Question guys. While calibrating imu. Does it need to be away from any metals or stuff like that?

msinger · Dec 3, 2016

KingDad1985 said:
While calibrating imu. Does it need to be away from any metals or stuff like that?

No.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

msinger said:
No.

Ok thank you. One thing I noticed today while flying. When I would go left or roght and stop it would sort of drift forward. Not everytime but it was kind of weird. Also while hovering it would sort of do the toilet bowl thing. Only very slightly though. I checked the compass and looked good. 1 was around 14 and the other 20. I changed the props and it still did it but not everytime either. Wasn't windy. Maybe 5-6 mph breeze. Maybe it's normal and I don't remember ir doing it. I need to do more testing .

With The Birds · Dec 3, 2016

The little bit of rest the front motors may enjoy while pitched in forward flight is more than counteracted by the aggressive ramp up they perform when active braking kicks in....... Seriously, I don't think this is worth worrying about it. DJI would have sourced motors with a spec that allows for any performance characteristics demanded by the flight controller. Motor issues are almost always evident well before catastrophic failure in any case. Routinely manually manipulate for evident end float, axial play and binding/roughness (disregard the cogging from the permanent magnets on the rotors) and you should be fine.

John Locke · Dec 3, 2016

KingDad1985 said:
When I would go left or roght and stop it would sort of drift forward.

Also while hovering it would sort of do the toilet bowl thing. Only very slightly though. I checked the compass and looked good.

Do you mean when in a hover while stopped, and you yawed left or right, the craft would drift forward? Was this within 30' of ground? Was VPS turned on ?

Regarding the toilet bowl thing, was this within 30' of ground? If no, I would calibrate the compasses again, regardless of the readings.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

John Locke said:
Do you mean when in a hover while stopped, and you yawed left or right, the craft would drift forward? Was this within 30' of ground? Was VPS turned on ?

Regarding the toilet bowl thing, was this within 30' of ground? If no, I would calibrate the compasses again, regardless of the readings.

Yes about 15 ft. Vps is turned on.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

John Locke said:
Do you mean when in a hover while stopped, and you yawed left or right, the craft would drift forward? Was this within 30' of ground? Was VPS turned on ?

Regarding the toilet bowl thing, was this within 30' of ground? If no, I would calibrate the compasses again, regardless of the readings.

No I meant while flying sideways about 10mph I would stop and it seemed to sort of drift forward while stopping.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

I will find a nice open desert to calibrate the compass

John Locke · Dec 3, 2016

KingDad1985 said:
He did ask a odd question I never thought about. He noticed I flew forward mostly, so he asked if doing so will cause the rear motors to wear more compared to the front motors.

DJI has you covered, that's why they gave you rear facing object avoidance, so you can fly backwards now to even out the motor wear. NOT!

Just kidding.

Don't worry about those motors, just go fly.

KingDad1985 · Dec 3, 2016

John Locke said:
DJI has you covered, that's why they gave you rear facing object avoidance, so you can fly backwards now to even out the motor wear. NOT! Just kidding. Don't worry about those motors, just go fly.

Lol. Thank you