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There aren’t very many easy ways to tell whether a quadcopter motor is damaged. Lots of times, they look fine, but drop out of the air. Is it the motor? Is it the ESC? Here’s a cool trick for testing a quadcopter motor using a drill and a multimeter.
The tachometer that I use is: http://amzn.to/2rIMYti
The multimeter that I use is: http://amzn.to/2nb1cAs
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+Joshua Bardwell
The voltage has to be multiplied by sqrt2 to get the actual peak AC voltage i have done the same before and posted how i did it in my RCgroups blog here—>https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2133513-A-cheap-way-to-measure-Kv
Thanks for the great info
Very interesting video. Congrats! Is there a way to fix a smoked motor?
I know you have a cool timing light. But FYI you can find the drill’ s stated rpm on the label near the serial / model number. Great test for us layman. And was blown away.
Videos like these are so great for beginners and experts Josh….Thx for this
Any chance you could measure the amps?
I’m trying to get my head around voltage spikes during regen/breaking. I have capacitors installed and it works great but the voltage generation just seems so small yet their effects travel through out the electrical system.
1:45 Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I thought these were “brushless DC motors” not AC motors… I thought the ESC is producing 3 separate square DC waves, not AC sinusoidal waves (which would have to change polarity to be considered AC.) Is this correct?
Hi, about this magic incredible thing comment you make towards the end, you could have also related it with active braking : which is in fact converting this mechanical energy of the spinning prop+bell and feeding it back as electrical energy to the esc/pdb (and uses the same idea of generator).
copy that. mind blown. thank YOU
Joshuaq thank you funny, I have a quad that did fall from the sky last week, one motor is not turning ? So trying tio investigate, motor or esc ?? my problem, do i want to un-solder the motor from esc, then risk damage to motor shaft, etc ??
anyway thank you, your videos are excellnt, i use them like a course ..
FYI, Josh you are the coolest weird dude I know, you do more to help out the FPV comunity than anyone else out there. Please keep on being you and thank you for all the great videos.
Love this hack Joshua, Many thanks for the always informative videos.
These funky little brushless motors we use are also effective three phase alternators. So by connecting one directly to another back to back will allow the twisting of one motor to drive the next. Might not instantly determine a faulty motor winding on it’s own without some fiddling but could be a quick way to compare a suspect motor to your “known good” motor out in the field.