Motor mount reinforcement

Aluminum is a great heat sink. Normally heat sinks are directly attached to the heat source. I wonder if the plastic shell being sandwiched between the heat source and the heat sink will have any negative effects long term?
I don't Think that it's a matter of the two pieces being sandwich together, I don't know if you have the aluminum strong arms, but if you did have them you would see how they are machine and there or pieces of aluminum that go up into the holes where the motor mounts. Those four holes for the motor mounts with the screws draw heat directly from the bottom of the motors through the screws into the aluminum strong arm plates. Before I had them installed I would fly three batteries in a row and would be able to feel heat on the metal part of the motors but not on the bottom of the motors, now that I have the aluminum strong alarms installed there definitely is a heat transfer from the motors to the aluminum plates and I also definitely can tell they are not as hot as before..


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Does anyone know if the aftermarket aluminum motor mount reinforcement plates are worth the $$$. it seems to me that stress cracks are a real problem on the lower shell from what I've been reading.
I just received mine yesterday, they look good installed and the peace of mind isn't bad either!
 
Does anyone know if the aftermarket aluminum motor mount reinforcement plates are worth the $$$. it seems to me that stress cracks are a real problem on the lower shell from what I've been reading.
There are different opinions on that question, and we had some heated discussions back when the stress crack issue was peaking. My personal opinion is that they do nothing to prevent cracks, but can help with preventing a complete motor loss in the unlikely event of catastrophic cracking. It's happened twice that I've heard of here.

That being said, only a small percentage suffered from cracking, and the most accepted root cause seems to be a bad batch of materials. New reports are now few and far between. Chances are very good that you won't have cracks anyway.
Well my buddy and I purchased drones about a month ago , no crashes , my drone already had cracks on one motor . Already purchased the aluminum support for peace of mind well worth 30 bucks .
 
with only about 4 flights on my p3a, I noticed the faintest bit of cracking on one of the holes for a motor. I ordered and installed the 3d printed carbon ones. I didn't know they were 3d printed when i bought, still fairly impressed. I also used #6 lock washers on the motor screws, when I put them on, as well as a tiny bit of lock tite blue. I don't think they will be going anywhere lol. I like that they stiffen the arms from rotation.
 
What is the weight of the aluminum reinforcements?
 
I bought the plastic uav bits when I got my P3 end of last year. I never installed them. Then saw the thread of the motor separation and decided to buy the aluminum ones. The fit and finish on the aluminum ones is way better than the plastic.
I have a set of detachable rotor guards that I've never used but was thinking of installing just the mounts so that the weight is more evenly spread when lifting off rather than all being on the 4 screw holes
Any thoughts?
 
I received the aluminum alloy reinforcement plates and installed the. They do fit perfectly and from the looks of it will prevent any "motor lost" events. Taking the drone out for a "workout" at 95 degrees air temperature clearly demonstrated to me that the alloy plates work perfectly as a heat-sink. Their temperature appeared very close to the temperature of the motor housing. Clearly they will help to cool the motors. They also look rather cool!

I too removed the detachable prop guard gizmos. I almost never use the guards anyway.

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After nearly 300 flights with a few "rough landings" and broken props no hair-line cracks or any other damage using the aluminum alloy reinforcement plates. However, I did end up crashing it seriously into the side of a mountain, flying at 25 MPH during a Litchi mission where I made a mistake defining waypoints. So be it. I recovered it after a 2 hour hike to the location. To my surprise, the bird was still powered (battery on its last leg though). Nearly no visible damage (not even broken props). The alloy reinforcement took the brunt of the crash and protected the shell. However, the center board (ESC) did not survive - motors would no longer start even though everything else electronically and physically appeared OK. Once I took the shell apart, I noticed some internal damage mainly in the center where the heavy battery managed to crack the center board mount cage and a couple of shell screws ripped out as well.

So, I got a new center board, a new shell and a new center board mounting cage along with a complete screw set to rebuild the bird. All worked out great. I re-installed the aluminum alloy reinforcement plates because not only do they make the motor mounts strong, they also help cooling the motors.

One more 5-star for the alloy reinforcements!
 
Figured I'd add my story to the mix. Bought my P3P in spring 2016, got stress cracks earlier this month, about 6 months later. 11 hours and 46 flights in, not a crash or even aggressive flying.

I'm thinking about getting the STO aluminum reinforcements, they seem pretty good and I read nothing negative except for the folks that don't think reinforcements help. I'll chance it over doing nothing. I do have a support ticket in with DJI however they closest my first ticket very quickly before I could respond (wanted pic as proof) and haven't responded since I did a follow up ticket. :-/

Attached is the stress crack. Very minimal but I don't want to let it get out of hand.

2016-09-23 13.31.17.jpg

Josh
 
[Reviving this thread since the P3s are in sunset mode.]

I bought this UAV Bits product last summer for arm reinforcements (see the rest of this thread for stress crack reports) and installed it. I've had no problems.

However, I just realized that my other P3P doesn't have any reinforcements, AND it's a first gen model (the first, more fragile shell), AND this model is no longer in production. So I went to the UAV Bits site and find that they're 1/2 price.

Get 'em while you can. Some items in the P3 category there are now out of stock.

Not a speck of affiliation with the company.
 
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