JTheed said:
Not here either. Built at my kitchen table. I have to use an angle grinder there occasionally on my wife's meatloaf, but no metal shavings ;-)
F550 up in Flames! What just happened?
- Thread starter lgeist
- Start date
Not here either. Built at my kitchen table. I have to use an angle grinder there occasionally on my wife's meatloaf, but no metal shavings ;-)
Because of Igeist's problem with ALL of his ESC's and Motors, I decided to re-solder my remaining 5 ESC's back on and test them I found out that there is a 2nd one that now smokes and will not start the motor and one of the motors on a different ESC hesitates before starting. I have already sent back the one ESC but have now sent them an email requesting if I may return the entire package for replacement. Don't want to take the chance that one of the ESC's or Motors will die while in flight.
JTheed said:
Just got an updated RMA email from ALLERC and they are taking back the whole kit for exchange.
JTheed said:
Glad to hear that they took care of you! I'm still waiting to hear back from Atlanta Hobby on mine.
Great news!!! I wish we had an idea of what happend and how to possibly avoid that from happening to us. The good thing, you'll be back in the air in no time.
Yes, glad to hear you will be taken care of with minimal hassle. Sounds like this could be a fairly common problem with that gear.
Atlanta Hobby update on my burned F550: Before I shipped my F550 to them last week for evaluation of what caused the fire, they told my it would be a "couple of days" before they could get to it. They have now had it four full days so I just called for an update and am now being told that it will be sometime next week before they can even look at it. With that answer, I told them send it back to me today, as is.
I just ordered the E300 HEX Propulsion kit and a new frame kit and will rebuild it myself. Hopefully what ever went wrong the first time won't be repeated this time around.
EDIT: I just received a call back from Atlanta Hobby. After telling me it would be next week contrary to what I was previously told, they felt bad and went ahead and opened up my F550 a few minutes ago. Their findings were pretty much what I thought might be the problem - The stock DJI 2.5*8 screws normally used with the DJI plastic arms are about 1mm too long for the Aimdroix Aluminum arms and are shorting out the motors and ESC's. So as I suspected, my wounds were self inflicted.
I still think the AimDroix legs are much better (and lighter) than stock, but please proceed with caution if you're planning this mod in the future!
I just ordered the E300 HEX Propulsion kit and a new frame kit and will rebuild it myself. Hopefully what ever went wrong the first time won't be repeated this time around.
EDIT: I just received a call back from Atlanta Hobby. After telling me it would be next week contrary to what I was previously told, they felt bad and went ahead and opened up my F550 a few minutes ago. Their findings were pretty much what I thought might be the problem - The stock DJI 2.5*8 screws normally used with the DJI plastic arms are about 1mm too long for the Aimdroix Aluminum arms and are shorting out the motors and ESC's. So as I suspected, my wounds were self inflicted.
I still think the AimDroix legs are much better (and lighter) than stock, but please proceed with caution if you're planning this mod in the future!
Wow, that sucks. At least you know what caused it. Thanks for sharing the info, it could help someone else out later down the road.
lgeist said:
This is what I had found out as well. I didn't want to say anything until Igeist got his answer from Atlanta Hobby. While you say, "Self Inflicted", I say POOR documentation or LACK of documentation is the problem. Yes, it does state on the websites that sell the arms in black underlined letters warning about the screws way down at the bottom of a long web page, but AIMDROIX does not put anything in the box with the Aluminum Arms which IMHO they should have in BIG RED LETTERS, IF USING THE DJI MOTORS, USE SMALLER SCREWS. The M3 package of screws that you are told to use when you get the F550 ARF Kit are too long but there is no way to know this as they go in and the motors spin by hand just fine. So how do you know? You don't until it's too late. By everyone just accepting that "Oh, I should have gone onto YouTube to find out how to install these or Google "What screws do I use for AIMDROIX Arms on an F550, is nuts". If there is a Video, they probably found out the same way we did by burning up a set and then discovering the problem. Don't get me wrong, the Video's are great, but then the Manufacturer should put them out as well. DJI does Videos on their site but even that is lacking. The one for the E300 Propulsion System tells you to make sure you are using the correct screws. The kit comes with 3 different sets of screws, but do they tell you which ones you are supposed to use, NO. Just make sure you use the correct ones.
Ok, I'll step off the Soap Box now.
Yikes, I hadn't even considered that with the AIMDROIX arms!! I had ordered some screws just for that since the motors I bought didn't have any...but yeah it seems that the DJI motors have less spacing between the screw holes and the windings inside than any non-DJI motors I've seen.
I'm not sure where you bought them, but that's something that RMRC (where I got mine) would probably post in their ad if it was pointed out to them as a possible disastrous issue.
I'm not sure where you bought them, but that's something that RMRC (where I got mine) would probably post in their ad if it was pointed out to them as a possible disastrous issue.
JTheed said:
Agreed. I was somewhat aware of the long screw issue but thought I was OK because I GENTLY tightened the screws while turning the motors by hand to make sure they weren't hitting. But as you mentioned, even with the screws fully tightened, the motor turns freely but the screws are still making contact with something conductive inside the motor housing. I just send the distributor an email begging them to include a BIG WARNING letter when selling these to future customers. I wonder how many other people out there have made the same mistake as you and I?
On the bright side, I was already looking for an excuse to justify the new E300 package, now I have it ;-)
The correct screws are M3 x 6. I sent an email to AIMDROIX about this and this was the reply.
"Hi,
I'm really sorry for your problem. If you go to the RMRC page description, http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index. ... ts_id=1800
You'll see a note there that will avoid your problem. Also if you use the stock DJI screws you'll notice that it does not fit in the slot, so why would you use them? We will include M3 X 6 motor screws with our arms. Can you provide me pictures of what happened to you?
Also provide me your shipping address."
So, it appears that they will be sending screws with the arms in the future but I replied to that email asking for clarity on that (that they will include the screws from now on) and will let you know.
Where he says that the stock DJI screw does not fit, I told him that we didn't do any modifications to the arm slots, just held the motors and put the screws in and that there was no way to know there was a problem until a Full Motor Start was initiated. Even hooking it up to the NAZA software and doing the motor test, you had NO WAY to know as it all went fine.
I don't have any pictures to send them and was not asking them for anything other than to put a piece of paper in the box that states that you will damage the motors and esc's if you are using the DJI motors. I even suggest that on the RMRC web site they put it in red . I saw the warning, but it was more than 2 weeks after I ordered the product that I started assembly. I didn't even give it a thought because they seemed to work fine.
"Hi,
I'm really sorry for your problem. If you go to the RMRC page description, http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index. ... ts_id=1800
You'll see a note there that will avoid your problem. Also if you use the stock DJI screws you'll notice that it does not fit in the slot, so why would you use them? We will include M3 X 6 motor screws with our arms. Can you provide me pictures of what happened to you?
Also provide me your shipping address."
So, it appears that they will be sending screws with the arms in the future but I replied to that email asking for clarity on that (that they will include the screws from now on) and will let you know.
Where he says that the stock DJI screw does not fit, I told him that we didn't do any modifications to the arm slots, just held the motors and put the screws in and that there was no way to know there was a problem until a Full Motor Start was initiated. Even hooking it up to the NAZA software and doing the motor test, you had NO WAY to know as it all went fine.
I don't have any pictures to send them and was not asking them for anything other than to put a piece of paper in the box that states that you will damage the motors and esc's if you are using the DJI motors. I even suggest that on the RMRC web site they put it in red . I saw the warning, but it was more than 2 weeks after I ordered the product that I started assembly. I didn't even give it a thought because they seemed to work fine.
Weird, I got mine from RMRC (back in early Dec, that is) and no screws for motor mounting were included...in fact I ordered the ones I did use from them as well. Checking my order history it looks like they were M3x6mm button-head hex.
OI Photography said:
I'm thinking that in the future they will provide the screws, not that they had been coming with the arms.
Here's the response I just received from RMRC regarding my complaint about the screw warning:
Hi Lloyd, I am sorry to hear that you had missed that. I will pass on to the web team to have them make that warning bigger.
Thanks,
Ernie
ReadyMadeRC
Hi Lloyd, I am sorry to hear that you had missed that. I will pass on to the web team to have them make that warning bigger.
Thanks,
Ernie
ReadyMadeRC
lgeist said:
They really need to be specific that if you are using the DJI Motors, it will damage the ESCs and Motors if they use the DJI Standard Stock Screws.
http://aerialmob.com/store/index.php?ma ... ducts_id=7
You might want to consider this arm kit, so many more possibilities. I have one set on my TBS Discovery and will be ordering another in a few weeks for my endurance build, expect to get almost an hour of flight time.
You might want to consider this arm kit, so many more possibilities. I have one set on my TBS Discovery and will be ordering another in a few weeks for my endurance build, expect to get almost an hour of flight time.
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