can a worn out motor fry a 3 in 1 ?

[Canadian_Jesus]

Just a few minutes ago I made my last flight of the day on my Nano. I noticed towards the end of the pack my Nano was really lacking power and my tail started to wag again. Just before I brought it down for the landing my new 3 in 1 board started showing the same problems that my old one had before it quit. Power would cut out and my Nano would come to the ground only to have the blue LED flash back on and power my Nano back up after I returned the throttle stick to the bottom position. When I tried to spool it back up, the same thing would happen and the blue LED/Nano would power back down. This is the same thing that happened to my old board, except when my old board shut off, it would give my Nano full negative collective and smash it into the ground. I'm hoping that installing a new motor will fix this issue. The last thing I need right now is another fried 3 in 1 less than a week after I got it. I'm going to try more troubleshooting tomorrow as I don't feel like charging any more batteries tonight. I'd appreciate some insight from more experienced fliers and hopefully putting a new motor into my Nano will fix it. I have a spare in my parts box.

[Russell Harding]

Sounds like "failure to bind" from cracked receiver chip. Bird goes into failsafe and spools down.

During spoolup, vibrations break the signal and it spools down again.

Slamming into the ground is caused by uneven pitch -> when the receiver looses signal, it goes into 'failsafe', which has a hardwired servo position for zero pitch. If your pitch adjust is off (or adjusted by transmitter), it can cause it to 'slam into the ground' upon failsafe.

My thoughts. Good luck.

[Inat90degrees]

When I have had a motor go bad it would take off and fly normally and then start slowly descending as if the battery was not charged to full capacity. Tried a new battery it would do the same and after about the third battery I knew my motor was going bad.
I have also realized my motors were going bad when I had to hand spin the blades in order to get the motor to spin. I have also put in a new motor and it was bad or only flew a couple of times.
I have a board that has gone through many bad motors without any damage.
If after going through the process of elimination it could then be your board. I think I am saving my board from damage in crashes because I have O rings between the frame and the board to cushion it. And I have a piece of clear tubing along the bottom edge. As a learner this heli's board has seen quite a few crashes and still continues to function, just like a Timex watch, it keeps on ticking!
Now saying all of this, tomorrow my board my give it up!!
I also just got in a new charger and I feel as if I am getting more consistent smoother flights. It as if I am now getting my batteries charged to capacity where as before they were not reaching full capacity.
Hope this helps you!

[Canadian_Jesus]

Ok, I replaced the motor and this seems to have fixed the issue. I forgot how different the nano sounds with a worn motor. Nice and quiet now. Also the tail is holding up again. No wag at all. I took the advice and put in some O-rings in between my main board and frame. I don't have any tubing or anything, but I protected the bottom of my board with a thin piece of electrical tape. I took a look at my old board more closely using my jeweler's lens and the plastic on the board around some of the components and even the edges of some of those components appears to have melted and deformed. The battery I was using last night is one of my older ones and is getting pretty tired, it doesn't take as many mah's as my newer 45C batteries do. I use a Hitec X1 touch to charge all my batteries with a pico connector parallel cable that I got from Progressive RC. That charger makes a world of difference with quality of charge compared to the Celectra 1S variable rate. Thanks for the input guys. I love having a wealth of info readily on hand. This website is a great help.

And btw, is the break in time for these motors? About 5 or so flights easy hovering?

[Russell Harding]

Don't worry about break in time. They don't have brushes like a typical RC motor... more like some finger springs that rub and eventually wear out.

Resting between flights 5 minutes can keep the heat down, but that is also of debatable benefit. Stock up on motors, for sure.

[Canadian_Jesus]

I don't need to worry about resting time. I learned that lesson a while ago when I went through 4 motors in a week on my Msrx. I alleviated that issue by making sure to have at least two, preferably three helis for indoor flying at any given time. That way I can keep flying when one is down for maintenance. This Nano is over a year old and this is the third motor I've worn out. I guess I had what can be called 3 in 1 anxiety as my Nano (my current favourite heli) was down for a couple of months because of my last board. I'm glad I don't think I need to worry about that at the moment. I'm awaiting on a couple aftermarket parts at the moment to give it a better look. (I didn't go total CNC) I'm considering a double brushless conversion in the next couple months sometime. I'm thinking of doing a milder version as I don't want my Nano quite as fast as my Mcpx BL. All I really want is a slightly faster motor and a tail that can hold up better. I just have to wait a little until I have the extra $$ to fund that.