Quadcopter Hot Motor | REAL WORLD TROUBLESHOOT

[@coletec7064]

Just earned a sub. This saved my bacon 5 years later.. Never would have thought about checking the screws for current but low and behold, the screw for the motor was touching the coils and after i found it and replaced with shorter one.. works like a charm..

[@JimHarris72]

JB thank you for what you do! You posted this 2 years ago and it is still saving developing pilots days and days of head scratching. Got me back in the air again, keep up the great work!

[@Kabab]

the pendulum effect of having the battery under will also give you warmer rear motors. slide the battery forward a bit to help compensate a little for that problem.

[@robertcarballo]

"Walnut tree branch hit my power line" We all know you hit it with a quad. :)

[@krazed0451]

Nah, he hit the walnut tree branch, the branch hit the line ;-)

[@AlexRexVlog]

lolz

[@waza4287]

He crashed his quad into the powerline and chopped the tree down aiming for the powerline to retrieve his quad.

[@jdrissel]

I was going to say that his secret "Class Z" quad chopped the tree down...

[@mortache]

Nah his quad just flew by and a prop strike chopped the tree. The quad was still flying after that

[@stuartmccloud307]

You just diagnosed my hot motor problem, I thought it might be a screw touching but never even thought to get the multimeter onto the frame. Big thanks!

[@PhillysHobbyHouse]

Educational that’s an understatement! You just saved a very expensive drone that I just built and noticed all four motors were heating up and so was my frame! On the first hover test I noticed and I honestly thought it was the drones weight! I discovered all the screws were touching the windings of the motors!! This guy is an absolute god of quads, thanks Joshua you saved me yet again!

[@paulhilber1481]

Thank you Joshua, after a crash i had desynchs and a hot motor, thanks to this video and a multimeter i found the solution immediately.. i used to long screws, they damaged the insulation and made contact to a motor cable after the crash... thanks again

[@permagroove]

holy shit. I just built a 4'er with the same motors and the back left one is getting hotttt. Thanks for the vid

[@jonbrabham]

that's a huge quad!

[@allan95]

Again you have saved my butt, i just rebuilt my quad and put pads under the motors and one started to get very hot so the first thing i did was search your videos and yes my screws were to long :) thanks Joshua

[@Scrub_Zero]

Power outage and you still deliver a troubleshooting video. You're the man!!! Thanks!!!

[@rumijarl]

I got hot motors and tried using the multimeter and low and behold it was the screws, just as you described. Thank you so much.

[@KingFPV]

Thats pretty dedicated right there. Power is out for over a day and STILL making videos so we can learn something today. *ThumbsUp* I received the ThinkTank FPV Session backpack today and it is all the rage! I wore it at work right after it was delivered heh, with all my gear in it and one quad strapped to it. Yeah!

[@DroneShotFPV]

I absolutely learned something today. I couldn't figure out a year or so ago what the problem was with my RMRC hellbender 204 frame was. I h ad 1 motor that got stupid hot, and always. I thought my tune was bad, or something else was wrong. I also had the VTX causing issues with "smoke" where the 90 degree adapter went through the CF frame and made contact, so I thought I had a short somewhere, I rewired EVERYTHING, but the problem persisted. Never was able to diagnose that quad, and I junked that frame thinking it was crap. I bet money now that the problem was exactly this, and all along I blamed that frame! I need to buy a new one and build it out, and tell it how sorry I am.. hahaha Thanks man, as always, love your videos, and your dedication to our craft and teaching everyone!

[@chadfontaine2717]

This older video helped me in a huge way. Thanks JB! Brand new Babyhawk II HD was crashing right out of the box. Turns out the motor screws were too long and there was continuity from three sets of motor screws to the FC. Final crash broke the frame and bent a motor shaft. Noted this in my warranty report to EMax :)

[@Dragon129Slayer]

wow, thanks again. you saved me a bunch more headaches getting this one back in the air. this completely solved my issue.

[@kylekuzmick5450]

THANK YOU! i just checked my 3 inch (on my second set of motors) sure enough continuity. i was falling out of sky regularly and went through a few escs. this should be mandatory on all these small builds

[@giedriusbev4200]

thanks a lot for this video! built another 5" with the new version Racerstar 2207 2400KV and after a minute of maiden flight two of the motors on the opposite sides were super hot and that's when i remembered your video. Just checked them with the voltmeter a surprise surprise both motors were showing continuity. Unscrewed the screws next to the wires and that fixed an issue. Thanks a lot for your help!

[@MrSmithFPV]

Really interesting. Have to check one of my quads later where I was not able to found the issue. EDIT: Checked out one of my quads and found out that this issue caused me a bad video signal. Changed the screw to a shorter one and all is fine. Thanks again.

[@sparks991]

You're my hero Dude! Had a very warm motor, looked up "drone hot motor" on KZbin, watched your video, and Bam!! Never would have thought a short to the frame would be the issue after a very careful build of a new drone. Thank You!

[@mike216ism]

It's crappy outside today so putting around the house to practice acro. Just checked and my rear motors were indeed hotter also. Must be because we are usually on forward tilt so rear are usually working slightly harder. Another excellent video as usual

[@ianrice1778]

I thought I had a bad esc on my walkera rodeo 110. After watching this video It made me realize it might be the motor screws are to long cuz the landing feet broke off on a crash so now the screws are to long without the legs. I was able to mod the motor mount and now shes fine. So I just have to say thank you for this!!!!

[@Black-ice_fpv]

Wow....thats professionally done...JB I think you're beyond your time...but Im sure you just study harder than the rest, dont take what you do for granted my friend, you take a lot of stess out of newbie quad operator....long life and blessings be upon you and your lineage, keep safe fly high👍

[@teourbs]

My kwad was all good,and one day like you said. It fell out of the sky randomly, i was like wtf. First i thought maybe a bad esc or because i removed the notch filters. But your video helped because i couldn't figure out why one motor was hot as hell. Thanks keep up the good work.

[@raygefpv2815]

You just fixed my quad. Thank you. You really do make me learn something every time I watch.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Awesome!

[@MarshallNesgoda]

Wow!!! You saved my butt with this information. Thank you so much Joshua! I am not sure how bad I was about to burn everything up after replacing a motor and did't notice the 1 mm difference in screw length. Watched your video and pulled out the Fluke. Problem solved.

[@mikehiggins4469]

Thanks for this video. I had 2 motors with this motor to esc connection! I wouldn't have neven known such a thing was possbile without this video. All fixed now!

[@robertbeckman5644]

Incredible, this video solved an issue I've dealt with on a new custom build. Never would have thought that was the issue! Wile E Coyote! Super Genius!!! Thank you so much!!!

[@ssidekick]

Watched your video and 'just for fun' ran those tests for myself. I had just switched to new motor protectors and eyeballed the required bolt length using the back two bolts (because they were easier to see, and it never crossed my mind that the clearance on the front could be different). Sure enough it showed continuity on all 4 motors to the frame because the front bolts were just long enough to touch while the back bolts were fine Great timing posting this video :-) Thanks!

[@zegum]

Good Work Joshua, I just discover the problem with my hot motors, it just a too long screw on it, and i should have a spare motor that I thought it was burned, but It was the same problem certainly. Thank you. ***** :)

[@SimRacer101]

One of the best videos I've seen in a while. Super helpful.

[@MarcusLetric]

Thanks for these videos Joshua. Although you said that carbon fiber conducts electricity, I was dumb today and fried my ESC after replacing a dead motor :D I was like, let's just plug in the battery to see if the new motor works - ESC was not yet installed just rested against the frame, making contact between the battery pad and I think the current meter. Smoke came out LOL

[@mcgr3g]

You just saved me from desoldering a motor and do an entire wrong troubleshooting!!!

[@jansladek8149]

Dear Joshua, thanks a lot for this great advise! It helped me a lot! Greatings from Germany Jan

[@stishy75]

Brilliant, I had 2 quads doing exactly that and I thought I had dodgy esc's, cheers dude, saved me some money there!

[@stishy75]

Totally cool motors after my first flight, after shortening the motor screws, thanks again.

[@DuckyRC]

You. Are. A. God! Thanks so much Joshua Bardwell! this is exactly the problem I had. I was forced to use longer screws due to my frame and Im 99% sure this is the cause. Thanks so much!

[@TheifChubb]

Totally solved my problem, screws were leaking power into the frame!! Great video , never would of worked that out

[@KittFPV]

How could I have possibly not been subscribed to the literal source of all quad's power and greatness?!?! Done! :) ...love those Tornado 1407's btw, absolutely amazing! I'm running them on my Shrieker 130 :P

[@donsfishingadventures978]

I love this guy the man is a professor of fpv

[@madyet5235]

thanks joshua, coincidentally just ran into this issue. i will go back because now what i thought was the solution may not have been. back to the bench!

[@anthonyelmore146]

Dude, thank you so much. Having issues after attempting to soft mount my motors and sure enough I have continuity from my frame to TWO of my motor! Thanks!

[@acesfullfpv]

Great video! Never thought of checking screws touching the winding like this.

[@fiorenz85]

One of the most useful videos I’ve seen in a long time. Thank you so much for your advices!!

[@jackflitcroft881]

Hey I wanna say thanks so much for the video, ALL FOUR WERE DOING THIS!!! You seriously saved my ass, thanks so much.

[@Cloud1242]

6 years old now and still helpful!

[@UpToLevel6]

Great vid. Helped me solve an issue on one of my builds that I could not figure out what the hell was going on and I also got myself a multi-meter. Great stuff as always

[@jeromel1523]

Great video. Learning more about my quadcooter everyday. Thanks

[@DamienLanders]

I like to say thank you sir you are much help I was going to give up until I realized I needed to take out all my screws and then ran my drone again and come to find out thats exactly what it was I was grounding my motor with my screws

[@JordanPowers636]

Great video Josh thanks for uploading, didn't realize it was that easy to troubleshoot

[@chrisgicky2215]

Josh for the save once again.. +1 Karma +1 Love

[@g36pilot92]

An easy trouble shooting and build technique that'll save a lot of time & energy. The lead up to is very useful for understanding a variety of potential issues. Thanks!

[@daneyan1985]

Awesome Josh, I've been wondering forever why my rear motors always came down a bit warmer than the fronts. Thought I had an issue with all my quads lol.

[@StacemanFPV]

Good information! Definitely learned something today. Thanks for sharing this, Joshua.

[@curiouscoin4923]

Nice troubleshoot, but what does "D sinking" / "desinc" means at 08:45. Does it have to do with the insulation on the windings?

[@corvidaefpv2783]

Brushless motors use pulses in a specific sequence to turn the bell. The ESC's uses various ways to sense what pulse to send and when. When everything is running smoothly everything is in sync. If something causes the ESC to not be able to determine what pulse to send at the right time the motor then becomes out of sync and will be down on power or fail to spin at all. When the timings are out of sync it is called a de-sync. Shorts can cause havoc on some of the methods of sensing when to send the pulse.

[@loboquad2122]

Great vid, always good to learn something or get a duh reminder. So many things to watch for and I've seen a bunch of quick sloppy builds be big problems, checks like this would help save parts, time and frustration.

[@MichaelBeamTheMan]

Thanks for this. I had one motor getting very hot. Going to check it now. I learned something today.

[@iamrg5605]

Thanks JB, been having trouble with a product line from GEPRC the Crocodile 7, motors overheating on 4s, and smoking on 6s and can't help wonder if there isn't a relationship. Great work bro! Ya Ramblin' Wreak!

[@adambrown2626]

Great information, I had the same issue and now its sorted.... Big thumbs up.

[@jester3265]

Hi Joshua, Just a quickie to let you know that my esc's checked out it was my flight controller. I've ordered another. Thanks so much for your thoughts and time. 👍👍

[@h2o-fpv623]

Its nice every time I watch ur videos I learn something new very nice thank u.

[@scottjorgensen9870]

Great troubleshooting video and explanation. Thx for posting.

[@SickocrowAU]

Just bought an inductance meter to test for internal stator shorts, but this is a great tip for that cheeky hot motor.

[@soupy01833]

Thanks Josh. Fixed my hot motor issue. was easy once you know what to look for.

[@TheCoralClimb]

Thanks, as always super useful stuff!

[@kheshavdheereess5243]

Thanks for sharing this info sir, no wonder the motors were getting hot and I was having only about 5mins flight time.

[@wherojit]

Yes, very very educational. Thank you so much for the effort you put in.

[@enlightened9538]

Hi, I have a new Titi from karearea , and when I fly it, it flies for about 10/15 second and then the over heat warning comes on and the motors stop turning, I then check to find the motors red hot, my D gains are all 20 so they are not to high, the motors are strong and powerful and the props are 3 inch, as is the drone, all normal, but I have no idea why all four motors are getting so hot that the warning buzzer comes on and it shuts down, would real appreciate your thoughts, would send it back if I had not already sent it back for this problem, they said it’s fixed but it’s not, please help because this $400 drone is now just a paper weight. Lee

[@enlightened9538]

My mistake, my error, I had D gain on the Yaw when I should of not with such a powerful drone, now it flies great and no motors getting hot, even karearea drones sent it back with no D gain on Yaw and I going and give it 20 hence me having this problem, so Karearea drones did things perfect and I being an idiot changes the pids when they were already perfect, thanks Karearea.

[@Tavdog]

Thanks dude, my back two motors were totally shorting. fixed!

[@johnblackj]

Thanks for this video. My new lizard 95 would fly good for a while but ever so often it would just roll over until it crashed. All the motors are quite hot after a flight but is 115+ here in Arizona so I checked the continuity and both right side motor bolts short to frame. I guess the mounting bolts are a little too long. Do the two motors that were shorted need to be replaced? I can back out the screws and the continuity stops. I noticed you said that you were replacing the shorted motor in your video. Thanks

[@sailingandpaintingtheworld538]

Hi Joshua My motors are spinning up correctly only when put through BLHeli when calibrating ESC the rest of the time they just twitch. Can you help me? Many thanks. Richard Ward

[@matthewnoble4534]

It's my experience with rear motors that because the default settings rotate the props inward or counter clockwise on rear left and clockwise on rear right it overrevs the motors on yaw bank hard turns. Swap the prop rotation in betaflight cli, the yaw directions and in bl heli reverse the rotation. Of course it's not your topic here but I'd love to see a video of your experience after doing this. I believe more people would as well. I only build quads this way now I find it makes flight caricature better, don't pin rear motors at high rpms, and it doesn't throw mud or grass on camera's lens

[@beastafif7443]

U are really great bro. Love all ur video. So many fix my problem with ur vid

[@propellerkopf7155]

Educational as allways. Thanks!

[@chrisprucha6784]

EPIC tutelage going on here bud!!

[@Nick-xe2hu]

Last question. If all your escs are encased in shrink and the motor tabs aren't accessible to test continuity, could you possibly test by touching a motor screw and the negative terminal on the pdb of the suspect motor or does it have to be the motor wires?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

No. You will always have continuity between the motor screw and the negative terminal, because the frame is pretty much always grounded somehow, and the screws always touch the frame. You need to test continuity between the motor wires and the frame.

[@Nick-xe2hu]

OK good to go. Thanks for the info

[@felipeescamilla5060]

Great video! I most definitely learned something new today. Thanks bud.

[@audiogek]

Thanks! I like your videos. In my opinion the back motors get slightly warmer because they have to catch up with the front in every turn you make. Inertia also makes the quad want to do a backflip in every fast turn, which the back motors have to counteract.

[@BP-ot3mf]

As always a helpful video:) What's crazy is that for the first time time happened to me last night and of course I'm on the road. What's puzzling to me is that I lifted up the motor and ESC (screws all the way off) but it still tones from the frame to the motor wires. Odd.

[@gereonhuppertz]

Joshua - you are a life saver! Thank you!

[@peterjochum7652]

Thank you so much - I thought my motors where getting hot, but it was the screws touching the windings. I almost returned the motors ...

[@PenPeng]

I have one hot motor since a few crashes I think. But this isn't the problem :( I already swapped the motor with a brand new one and that also didn't help. Could it be a damaged ESC?

[@PenPeng]

For reference: Even though the old ESC didn't show any sign of damage (showed up in Blheli suite, made the correct startup beeps like all the others, spun up the motor correctly when testing) I swapped the ESC with a brand new one. Now the motor isn't hot anymore. It is a Racerstar V2 30A Blheli_S ESC.

[@tyfpvwinkelmann4761]

your videos have answer to all my crisis except one I have tried to tune my quad and im enjoying the tune while flying line of sight because im ordering a replacement camera for my old one ,there for im not flying fpv, but ive always had a problem with my motors getting hot and I mean hot hot, youll say owch when you touch them even if I fly I smooth pack for 2 minutes only meating half throttle o fue times, is there a chance that its my esc motor combo, that's all ik it could be, my motors are tbs mr.steele v1 and im switching to v2s and my esc's are Favourite FVT littlebee spring 35A escs witch are considerable low end escs but ive had them bc of there price, do you think that's the reason, sorry for all the reading I appreciate your help deeply

[@Fabienvg]

Thanks, helpful video :) Relaxing to watch and easy to learn stuff from you.

[@tannerstreppone1948]

Hey JB, what if its not a hardware problem, the back left motor on my quad gets too hot and i've tried adjusting the PIDs and they're still way too hot.

[@ThePromptWizard2023]

This video kicks ass. Nice stuff!

[@SharpTurnsFPV]

This was my exact issue, my motors even have plastic to guard from that but my bolts were just 2mm too long. Only one was shorted though, and this was after a motor replacement!

[@brownstone43]

All my motors and esc's are very hot when plugged in without props. ???

[@mafiafpv3469]

90% is because the props cool those down.

[@chlvideos7859]

Would replacing those 2 screws close to the windings with smaller screws work too instead replacing the motor?

[@flywithmefpv]

Thanks for this. I have a quad that has a frame screw that is heating up like crazy, now I know why.

[@BladeScraper]

Do you have any ideas about what causes one of my motors to be weaker than the others? I have a brushless micro with 1104 motors, 10A 4-in-1 ESC, and 3s LiPos. It's extremely noticeable in flight. ESCs have been calibrated multiple times with no change. In BLHeli the min and max throttle is the same so I know it's not a calibration issue. If I go into Betaflight motor tab and spin each up individually, the one is noticeable slower. It dips toward that motor in flight. I've tried two other motors and it does the same thing.

[@C4reful]

Try rotating the 4in1 180deg and resolder, if the problem moves to the other motor you know its the esc

[@JoshuaBardwell]

@C4reful's advice is solid. If you swapped the motor twice and the problem still happens, then the ESC is the next guess.

[@anthonyshort8957]

In order to get electrical heating in the frame, wouldn't there need to be *two* places where there is contact from powered wires to the carbon?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

No, because the frame typically has many places of continuity to ground e.g. through a mounting screw on the FC stack or a camera mounting screw. So all you need is a connection to positive voltage.

[@cenabitednbfpv587]

Wow this was one of the most helpful vids ever awesome... I HONESTLY appriciate everything you do for us. One

[@Gho5tface]

Stupid question: If i get no beep but a reading of 600 when meassuring an esc pad and the side of the quad frame, is that bad or does it have something todo with the fc mounting holes being grounded or something? I am using steel screws for the stack with tpu sleeves over them for pseudo soft mounting.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The ESC motor pad shouldn't have any continuity to the frame at all.

[@Gho5tface]

Thanks for the reply! Seems to be stack - when I press left/right against it, it reads infinity/600.

[@M390VI]

Does motor direction affect how hot they get? More specifically, does having a fully inverted motor direction, with cli: yaw_motor_direction = -1, affect motor performance or not? I run mine reverse in order to not have the props fling stuff on the FPV camera lens. Just wondering if I might be losing performance by doing it.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

I don't really know about that. It's possible that inverting yaw direction will make the motors work more equally on some frames. In that case, the back motors would be a bit cooler and the front motors would be a bit hotter.

[@DmgNeville]

My back right motor stopped spinning like the others after a minor crash. No visable damage anywhere on the wires or motor or soldered connections. The motor will spin a few times quickly and stop suddenly. It does this for a few seconds then beeps and stops all together. The other motors spin fine. It spins freely and feels the same as the others when I spin them with my hand. I noticed a tiny drop of resin on the arm under the motor, Im guessing this means it got too hot? After watching this video and hearing you talk about the battery wire maybe rubbing or touching the motor leads/arm and how this could be a problem and conductor leading to it getting hot, I realised had my battery wire wrapped around the wires and arm of said motor. Does it seems like this is my problem? I have new motors coming and I will for the first time re-wire/solder and change to the new motors. (im a noob). Any help is good help, thanks.

[@jacobshore2851]

my eachine lizard had hot motors and it looks to be this problem. I've only taken it for 3 flights and am wondering if i have done permanent damage to my quad. thanks for the great video.

[@JC-zg2id]

How would you be able to test whether or not your flight controller is making your motors hot without replacing the flight controller? My last build had hot motors so I rebuilt it, but used the same fpv system and flight controller. Now, with a different frame, escs, and motors, I still am getting pretty hot motors. I'm running spedix es30a escs, rcx rs2206 v3 motors, and an omnibus f3 from rtfq. If I were to replace the fc, I would have to replace it with an old naze. How well do you think it would still fly?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Set D gain to zero. If motors are still hot, it's not the flight controller.

[@gamerpaddy]

had a similiar problem with my VTX. i screwed it into the frame and as soon as i powered it up the PDB started smoking. below it the frame was burnt afterwards, right below the positive battery terminal. it was quite weird, the pdb didnt had contact with the frame since there was plenty of soldermask and there wasnt any components on this side., none of the wires was damaged. just the Camera and VTX was touching the frame with its grounded parts.

[@Plur307]

Just as a frame of reference I find the threshold of pain at about 55 to 60 C (yes I know everybody has a different threshold of pain). I worked in a lab for a few years that had a 55C water bath and I had to add and remove samples from it constantly so I have a pretty good idea what 55C feels like. It is uncomfortable but not truly painful. But once you get to about 60C it gets truly painful for me. Motors can still handle 60C without being damaged. So I agree with Josh, if you can still touch them without drawing away in pain, you aren't damaging the motors.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

I think this is about right. I suspect the threshold of pain for most people is around 140 to 160 degrees F. And I think the enamel and magnets are good to at least 180, and probably more.

[@dragonflyuavs1616]

Hey! Needed some help! I have had the exact same problem! First I thought the motor malfunctioned and replaced it! It happened with the new motor also!? What do I do to fix the problem! If I replace it it can still happen again right?

[@MADDOG724]

Great video, thanks for sharing the knowledge!!!