According to the Matek diagram, most of the FC is powered from USB. One idea would be to add a reasonably sized USB power pack and connect this to the USB and test on the bench how the FC responds when the battery is disconnected. If you can mange to fly this way you may be able to further troubleshoot the issue.
Sure looked good when flying and if VIB is low then thatās great for a 3d print design. Can you share any further info about the frame (Files)?
It looks like this. The center frame is isolated from the motor frame and suspended on soft silicone donuts. (Available from good pharmacies for blokes performance enhancement).
There is no problem with ālagā of flight controller.
53 mins hover.
There is nothing obviously wrong in the log apart from the fact that it just stops. This indicates a flight controller crash / reboot.
If its a crash there should be a crash_dump file on the sdcard - can you check? If there is we may be able to diagnose what caused the crash.
One thing to be careful of is bad sdcards and letting it fill up to much. This is only anecdotal but sdcard problems seem like they can result in quite serious flight problems.
I would agree but its virtually a different drone apart from the RX and ESC and like I said the FC is not being powered from the ESC. I guess its not impossible that the (4in1) ESC could make a brief short in the battery leads. Butā¦ that would show in the FC current monitor as a massive draw for a fraction of a second.
Itās a pity you dont have the ESC telemetry connected, that would give the voltages at the ESCs, maybe offering another clue - or maybe not.
And itās a shame these small flight controllers dont have a Vcc measurement, but thatās unavoidable.
Maybe neither of those would help in this situation anyway.
So either the flight controllerās onboard regulator is shutting down (affecting just the flight controller), or maybe the battery connector or some other connection is overheating and contact is lost (affecting everything)
Are the contacts in the battery connector tight? XT60ās and similar have a habit of loosening up when they are wiggled in and out all the time. A small screw driver can spread the pins and tighten them again.
What about the power wiring?
Can you send a photo of the battery wiring and surrounds?
You will just have to keep checking and let us know what you find
I do have ESC telemetry working. It shows most things but not current. Like the other data it just stops.
As in the above description its all new bits, including connectors, cables, battery and FC. Virtually a different drone apart from the ESC and RX and the ESC was fine in a bigger drone.
Im worried that after rebuild, new ESC and RX, it will just happen again.
I would imagine if there were some strange glitch with arducopter and the Matec H743 then others would be reporting it by now.
Hi Vince,
Sorry - I stand corrected - you do have the ESC data.
There was a couple of glitches that looked like voltage spikes (likely mistakes in the data) that made the actual voltage values go right down to the bottom of the graph, it looked like a flat line along the bottom. I didnt look close enough.
But as expected it doesnāt shed any light - the data just stops with NO indicated drop in voltage or anything or else useful.
As thereās not much original bits left, the ESC is certainly on the suspect list butā¦ā¦on this FC the ESC is supplied via a current measuring shunt. I would think is it went short there would be a couple of logs of very high current before it died. However itās not clear. Also this ESC was fine in a much larger 5Kg quad.
Anyway I will replace it, and the RX then there is no common bits left.
If it crashes again in the same way I think itās a generic H743 - arducopter problem. But nobody else seems to be reporting a problem.
Seems my hobby has become digging plastic from a muddy field.
You could do a ābench flightā keeping the quad locked into a bench and moving around the sticks intermittently while measuring the 5V rail to see if there is a surprise voltage drop?
ESC FETs accumulate damaged over time from inductive voltage spikes, prop hits and crashes. So, being used before does not imply they are still reliable.
Yes agree but this is my first non APM/pixhawk/cube build and the first time my drones have been crashing. I canāt help myself being suspicious.
Iāll rebuild with the only 2 original bits replaced esc & rx.
I am using it in a slightly unconventional way, as itās for a wing but I canāt see that would be a problem.
I printed some non lifting ābarsā and fitted as props and had it āground hovering ā for about 10 hours between recharges and it didnāt have any issues.
Before I fly again (after 5th rebuild) I will get a new ESC.
