Hey, we’re running a Cube Orange Plus in a quad configuration using gartt ml5008 motors. Weve performed initial calibrations according to ardupilot documentation and mission planner including esc calibration and motor tests. However, during flight, we faced a thrust loss around 34 seconds into a hover test in stabilise mode. The thrust loss occurs in one or more motors causing the drone to roll and rapidly lose altitude. We’ve encountered this similar problem on a completely different platform running the same cube orange plus but in a hexacopter configuration using different ESCs. This has led to multiple crashes in the same manner. Any help would be appreciated(attached is a video and log).
Edit:
ESCs are Hobbywing Skywalker 60Amps
Battery: 10kmah Tattu 6s
Motor2 is commanded to maximum output since it is probably not producing (much) thrust. I dont believe this has anything to do with the flight controller, it looks like a typical ESC desync.
Those Hobbywing Skywalker ESCs are quite basic, which is not necessarily bad but there could be better ones around. Also you want to avoid any bullet connections, keep the power wires short and the motor wires long.
You followed the instructions from the wiki, that is good. Battery monitoring is STRONGLY recommended but deemed optional in the ArduPilot documentation.
It does bring a lot of advantages, and ArduPilot methodic configurator configures it for you before the first flight so that you can avoid this and other issues.
If there was a physical yaw imbalance (eg: twisted motor mount) then you would see two distinct groups of motor outputs - one group for CW motors and one group CCW motors.
For weight imbalance you see nearby motors working hard (whether that are CW or CCW or not) and opposite motors with low output to compensate.
Map you motor outputs to the diagram - generally your Motor3 is quite low compared to the others
It’s a bit odd that motor1 is working hard when it’s close to motor3 - I’d expect 1 to be a bit lower and motor4 to be a bit higher. Maybe some of the imbalance is caused by props are not all created equal.