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I Need Troubleshooting Help - Motor Failure During Flight

Joined
Nov 23, 2016
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Location
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I was flying my hex, it was in a low hover, about 30 meters up and about 30 meters behind me... there was a light breeze. Out of no where, I got an error stating the drone was in 5 motor operation mode. I had never seen or heard of this happening so I didn't believe message. The drone was behind me when this happened, so when I turned around I could see one of the motors not spinning correctly. . I immediately flew the hex to safe location to land and thanks to the redundancy of a hex, I was able to pilot and land my hex with no issues. Here's the footage from that portion of the flight (embedded below) - https://youtu.be/C8duPXgiWbQ

Now I need to figure out what happened to determine if I did something in error or if the hardware failed. Does anyone have suggestions on how to trouble shoot a Typhoon and H using diagnostic tools and flight logs? Please share links to any tools and videos that you may have. Any and all suggestion are appreciated.

 
You can connect the H to the GUI and it will run a diagnostics test. You can test the motors while it is connected to determine which motor is the problem. You will need to contact Yuneec to get it repaired under warranty.
 
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I agree with Steve, you'll need to call the man Monday.

Two questions: First, how old is it? Second, after you shut the craft down and turned it off, did you try restarting it and hit the red button to re-spin the props? Not to fly, just to try re-spinning the props. You seem not to have hit anything, but you were behind it and not looking.

I had one of my drones brush a tall weed, and a motor shut down, went to 5 props, etc. That was several months ago, and the drone suffered no ill effects.
 
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Jazz,
Good job getting her down safe.
Few things to check.
1) is the motor in question securely mounted?
There is a single rivet that secures the motor to the arm on the bottom, and there have been reports of them falling out.
2) Check the balance of the prop on the affected motor.
3) Check the wire connections to the affected motor.
They used bullet connections on both ends of the motor wires, did one come loose?
If all else fails, call Yuneec and have them look it over, maybe a bad ESC.

Keep us posted on what you find out.
 
Hi, I had similar problem and had to send drone back to manufacture for repair. Now three weeks later I received drone back after repair but now I can get controller to bin. I called support but now they are only open mon-fri 8-5 which make it difficult to do with work schedule. Best of luck
 
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Hi, I had similar problem and had to send drone back to manufacture for repair. Now three weeks later I received drone back after repair but now I can get controller to bin. I called support but now they are only open mon-fri 8-5 which make it difficult to do with work schedule. Best of luck
How are you doing the binding process? Did you follow the binding video?
 
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I agree with Steve, you'll need to call the man Monday.

Two questions: First, how old is it? Second, after you shut the craft down and turned it off, did you try restarting it and hit the red button to re-spin the props? Not to fly, just to try re-spinning the props. You seem not to have hit anything, but you were behind it and not looking.

I had one of my drones brush a tall weed, and a motor shut down, went to 5 props, etc. That was several months ago, and the drone suffered no ill effects.
I preordered the hex in March of 2016, but I can't remember the exact day I received it. I was able to fly the hex when I first received it. I don't think I started flying it until May of 2016. I don't have a lot of hours or miles on my hex. My hex is crash free and I'm not an aggressive flyer. The motor failure happened Friday Feb 24, 2017.

After I landed I restarted the motors and the failed motor remained failed. When I picked up the hex to inspect it, I was able to smell something electric like, which I've never noticed before... but I've never really checked for it before either. The failed motor moved as if it had a sand in the gears, this immediately made me think that the motor might have overheated. I checked for overheating, but it didn't feel any hotter than the other motors.

The only thing that could have hit the hex was a bird, but I didn't see any in the area. I plan to run diags on it today (Sunday Feb 26) to start trouble shooting.
 
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Mos def.... its one of the reasons why I went with a Typhoon H over a DJI.
I didn't want to name names, but that's exactly what I was thinking. Sorry you had to be the one to come across the feature, but it should make the rest of us feel more secure now! How did it handle on 5 motors? It looks like you had a good degree of control over it, from your vid.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
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The sense of sand in the motor causes me to think of a fragmented magnet if you have not been flying from a sandy, loose dirt surface. As others have mentioned, call Yuneec. Personally, i would not try flying it again until they've looked at it or send you a replacement motor. It's still under warranty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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The sense of sand in the motor causes me to think of a fragmented magnet if you have not been flying from a sandy, loose dirt surface. As others have mentioned, call Yuneec. Personally, i would not try flying it again until they've looked at it or send you a replacement motor. It's still under warranty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got some bright red motor condoms... err covers to minimise this. You have to uncover them at some point!

6Pc Motor Cap Protector Guard Cover Dust-proof For YUNEEC Typhoon H480 Drone Red | eBay

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
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I didn't want to name names, but that's exactly what I was thinking. Sorry you had to be the one to come across the feature, but it should make the rest of us feel more secure now! How did it handle on 5 motors? It looks like you had a good degree of control over it, from your vid.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
I could see the hex making small movements rocking back and forth as it varied the power of different motors to compensate for the failed motor. The hex flew exactly like it does under normal conditions, the speed and maneuverability were unaffected.
 
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I was flying my hex, it was in a low hover, about 30 meters up and about 30 meters behind me... there was a light breeze. Out of no where, I got an error stating the drone was in 5 motor operation mode. I had never seen or heard of this happening so I didn't believe message. The drone was behind me when this happened, so when I turned around I could see one of the motors not spinning correctly. . I immediately flew the hex to safe location to land and thanks to the redundancy of a hex, I was able to pilot and land my hex with no issues. Here's the footage from that portion of the flight (embedded below) - https://youtu.be/C8duPXgiWbQ

Now I need to figure out what happened to determine if I did something in error or if the hardware failed. Does anyone have suggestions on how to trouble shoot a Typhoon and H using diagnostic tools and flight logs? Please share links to any tools and videos that you may have. Any and all suggestion are appreciated.

I called Yuneec as you all advised and they instructed me to return the H to them to troubleshoot and repair. Yuneec is covering the shipping. Thanks everyone for the help.
 

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