Hi all,
Some not so good news I'm afraid
I very carefully setup my X8 (w/ AQ) in my garden, made sure I had good GPS lock, and then gently spooled up.
Firstly all the motors spat into life at different intervals, and with enough speed to start to tip the X8 over. Then after a few attempts, one of the props stopped turning, and the ESC was emitting a constant *beep beep beep beep...* noise ... Thinking the ESC had just somehow lost sync with the motor, I power-cycled the system, and this time all 8 ESCs seemed to respond ok again.
Curiously, on putting my finger on the ESC heatsinks, they were all slightly warm to the touch, which seemed slightly odd as the motors had hardly spun for more than a few seconds.
On my next attempt to take-off, almost immediately smoke starting pouring out from one of the ESCs
My EagleTree logger showed that the current was peaking at 30-60A (!) during the initial spool up period, and up to 90A (!!!) during the second attempt where one of the ESCs burned out.
Is this a problem with the AQ PWM demands (was it trying to spin the motors up too quickly?) or are the ESCs just too cheap? The Cortex manufacturer hasn't had any other problems with these ESCs before ... I'm now worried that all 8 ESCs have been overstressed and I'm not sure if it's wise to use any of them again The starting PWM is 1125us – maybe this should be a lot lower? All 8 ESCs were calibrated by plugging them directly into a receiver and moving the throttle stick to full and back.
I've attached the EagleTree log file, and the AQ log files can be accessed here:
http://www.horizonimaging.co.uk/rcgroup ... les/4-5-14
I will upload a video file later where you can see these non-take-offs ... I'm not sure if it was just me, but the motors sounded quite rough, certainly on spool-up, as if the ESCs were really struggling to drive the props.
If case this was a combination of inadequate ESCs and too high PWM demands from the AQ, can anyone recommend easy-to-get-hold-of 30-40A opto-isolated ESCs that are good on 6S? Maybe ones which have a built-in soft-start and so can handle starting big props without burning out?!
Many thanks in advance for your support,
David