Tech Tip: Motor Troubleshooting

A drone has crashed and before you start it up you want to check and make sure all motors seem to be airworthy.

Troubleshooting:

1. Spin motors by hand
   1. The motors should spin almost with a little resistance. If the motors are hard to spin or it makes noise while spinning, there is damage.
      1. Sometimes the motor will be hard to spin but make sure it is not filled with some substance. Sometimes while spinning the motor by hand the substance will work free and the motor is fine.
2. Check coils + black wires inside the motor.
   1. The copper coils and the black wires leading to the coils can sometimes be damaged. If coils look misplaced, burnt looking (black), or black wires are cut, the motor is bad.
3. Check the metal lower disk for a bend.
   1. In a crash the lower disk can bend. If you notice it is bent, replace the motor.
      1. The drone will still fly when this happens but you will hear a loud, high pitched whining noise coming from the drone, and this is why.

Conclusion:

These ways should help the person doing the repairs check the motors before they try to take off. This helps make sure that before test flying a previously crashed drone that all motors appear to be airworthy.