I have the 3DR hexacopter PDB. Recently my hex went down when one of my motors stopped in flight. I thought it was a failure of the ESC. Turns out, the PDB must have shorted out because I am not getting any voltage to that ESC. Power to the other ESC’s is fine. I am running 6S batteries and pulling about 27 amps average (about 43 amps max).
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is there a maximum rating for the PDB? I don’t see one on the website.
Check the picture, you can see the three copper spots around the solder pad where the problem occurred.
I had a similar issue for months, changed all components until I changed the PDB. 2 soldering plates for + where liftable and I had no solid power connection for two ESCs. The behavior of the hexa was, that I had Yaw issues all the time. The copter yaws sometimes ±20 degrees and I changed really all components, untill I changed the PDB. In my case I think I gave the PDB too much heat while soldering the ESC connectors. Another issue could be that the main battery cable needs much heat to accept the solder. I think its a matter of poor soldering skills in my case. But the issue was very hard to find
It can handle 90 Amps. Do you have continuity between the affected positive pad and another working power pad? all of them are common, so if there is no continuity means the trace could be broken.
90 amps!!? That’s only 15 amps per motor. That should be fine for my setup but it is cutting it awfully close for 3DR products. The Y6 kit comes with 20 amp ESC’s and motors rated for 30 amp ESC’s. The PDB rating should really be mentioned on the 3DR store website.
Anyway, the trace is broken. That is what I was showing in the picture. It looks like the traces burned at those 3 copper points around the solder pad. No continuity to any other pads. What I don’t understand is why this happened if I am only pulling about half of the rated amps.
