Have you run it without the mount? Perhaps the mounting screws are causing the motor to stop turning... I know that's pretty unlikely, but it might be worth a check? If not, then I'm not sure what it could be other than a setup error or a dodgy motor
If the motor's getting that warm from that short time it was in use in the video, it would suggest that there may be a problem internally, something that's increasing the resistance. I'm pretty sure even the cheapest of brushless motors shouldn't get that warm that quickly. Could be something that hasn't been mounted concentrically on the shaft and is rubbing on the insides of the can or it could be, as Matt touched on, the mounting screws on the front are just a tad too long and are touching the internals.
Try it the same way as the Align, i.e. just being held in your hand without the mounting plate attached. If the problem still persists, then the motor's probably gubbed. It could just be some setting on the speed controller that needs adjusted but I reckon that's less likely since you've proven every other aspect of the setup with the Align motor connected.
Thanks for the responses guys. Naturally, as I made the plate, I double and triple and quadruple checked the screw lengths, they're plenty out of the way, but I just tried it off the mount and it behaves the same.
The motor and ESC are both sensorless.
Reviews on HK are very positive for this motor, so I may do best to try and get another one, but naturally I'm put off. There aren't many alternatives in my price range, sadly. The Align is usable but I think the poor thing will give up before long, it's had a hard life. :P
Not sure what to do!
By the time you kill the motor I'll be out of the competition so you can have Massacre's inrunner for silly speed. Or you can have the 35mm Outrunner of Shame
Buy another one asap, you're already in minus money so another 30 quid won't hurt (that's about what I owe you anyway :P)
Put in the Align for testing.
Order another motor, and claim refund on the one you have.
Sounds like you've lost a phase in the motor. That also accounts for the heat as it might short inside the can.
I have spoken to a tech guy at Hobbyking, through their live chat system, and amazingly it was very useful. The guy was asking questions, watched the video, making suggestions, and very clearly knew his stuff. Got to hand it to HK, I'm pleasantly surprised.
He thought it might be ESC setup. I think by default the YEP150 is designed to run outrunners (the Align is in fact an outrunner enclosed in a case, I called it an inrunner to avoid confusion, this guy knew his stuff enough to point this out) which would make sense in that case. I don't have a programming card, but we're going to try and set up the PWM and timing to run the Turnigy as per his suggestions, via the Spektrum.
Will keep this posted, I hope we can solve it. Really don't want to have to get into ordering a replacement this late in the game!
I doubt being setup as the wrong type would make that much difference.
I presume you tried cutting the power to the esc, then recalibrating it with the correct motor? A lot of escs won't like a motor being swaped like you did in the vid, it will need calibrating. Also if you can change the timing to high other than the stock settings it might help.
To prove the motors good you need to check the phases are balanced with a multimeter. Check the resistance of the phase wires against eachother... They should all be pretty close... If there not, it's the motor. Also check the motor phases to earth (in this case the motor case) to see if something's shorting.
Yeah we have tried all different timing and different PWM ranges, still not running right at all. They do have an effect but it's gutless regardless. Still gets hot regardless, too.
Also yes, we have re-calibrated with the turnigy several times, same behaviour.
Haven't tried the checking to earth, will do next. Looking more and more like a dud.
edit: checked, all is correct. I can't think of any other reason for this behaviour, other than the ESC and motor simply not being compatible, but there is no mention of limitations in the product description for the ESC.
Last edited by Ellis; 29th March 2014 at 21:46.
The motor didn't seem to be turning at all to start with. If you give it a kick-start by manually turning the shaft, does it start running? That's a symptom of a bad phase I saw on one of the bots over here. It could be an internal short, which accounts for it warming up so fast. one other thing to look for is wear around where the wires enter the motor case. You might find the insulation has moved or worn through, or that some of the wires have gotten metal fatigue and snapped. That would be hard to fix but its worth knowing why the motor broke so you can avoid it in the future.
I'm with the other guys; its time for a replacement motor.
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