my buddy says prop balancing doesnt matter on small quads because the props are so light the imbalance is negligible and the FC just handles it anyway. but ive seen some guys on here swear by it even on 65mm props. the quad does have a little jello in the video and i cant tell if thats the new motors not being broken in yet or what. ESC calibration is done, filters are default betaflight tune for the board.

also not sure if this is related but one of the new motors runs noticeably warmer than the other three after a few packs. is that normal for new motors or should i be looking at something

the weird thing is it still flies, kinda. i took it up yesterday just to see and it was pulling a bit to one side and betaflight was having to compensate a lot based on the motor outputs tab. temps after a short 3 min pack felt noticeably hotter on that motor too.

my question is whether its worth trying to clean out the bearings or reflow the windings or whatever, or just swap the motor entirely. i've got a spare xing2 2306 sitting around that would work. the current motor is a T-motor velox v2 2306 so its not like it was super cheap but also not irreplaceable. just dont want to swap if a good cleaning might sort it out.

still there. maybe slightly better but not fixed. motors all spin smooth by hand, no grinding, temps seem okay after a pack. i'm running 2306 motors which have been on there since i built it maybe 8 months ago, about 80 or so packs on them. RPM_filter is on, i've tried adjusting the filtering in betaflight but it just feels like i'm masking something rather than fixing the root cause and i hate that.

at this point i'm wondering if the motors are just worn out internally even though they feel okay. or could it be frame flex from some earlier crash i forgot about. honestly not sure where to go from here

the thing is when i plug in the battery and arm it, that corner just doesn't spin at all. like nothing. the other three spin fine. i've already reseated the ESC connectors and checked the solder joints on the pads which all look okay to me but i'm not super experienced with board-level stuff. could this be the ESC going bad from the crash impact rather than purely a motor issue, or does the grinding + wobble basically confirm motor is dead and that's why the ESC isn't seeing it spin

running a 45amp 4in1 ESC setup btw, the stack took the hit on the bottom plate but nothing looks cracked

rpm filter is on, i havent changed any of the betaflight settings. frame is a TBS Source One so its not flexy by nature. genuinely stumped, anyone had something like this where the obvious stuff didnt fix it

also do i need to recalibrate ESCs after replacing motors or does it just kinda work if the new ones are the same kv? i didnt change anything in betaflight last time i swapped a motor and it seemed fine but that was a while ago and i dont fully remember if i did something and forgot

the thing is the frame itself is pretty old and replacement arms for the S550 are not exactly easy to find anymore. i can get knockoff arms but im not confident theyll be the same geometry. and at this point if im buying arms plus a new ESC plus possibly a new FC... im starting to wonder if i should just use this as an excuse to finally move to a proper purpose-built platform.

been thinking about something like a hexacopter built around a better frame, maybe even go X8 coaxial for the redundancy. idk. has anyone gone through this kind of decision and which way did you go

took it out yesterday and after about 4 minutes of flying i noticed the new motor was significantly hotter than the other three when i landed. like uncomfortably hot to touch, others were just warm. props are balanced, spin direction is correct, didnt see anything in betaflight logs that jumped out at me but i might be missing something. ESC telemetry shows current draw is slightly higher on that corner too.

my first thought was maybe i got a bad motor but wondering if anyone has seen this from a bad solder joint or something with the esc. the ESC itself took a pretty good hit in the crash too, i checked the board visually and didnt see any obvious damage but who knows.

betaflight connects fine, i can see all the sensor data, receiver is showing inputs correctly, everything looks normal on the screen. but when i try to arm i get the red light staying solid and nothing happens. checked the arm switch about a hundred times. its a 4s setup if that matters, was at maybe 3.7v per cell when it dropped which shouldnt be the issue i think.

dont really know where to start with this one

everything spins up fine in betaflight motor test, all four read similar rpms when i push the slider, but when i hold the quad in my hand and spool it up outside it just... feels slightly off. like theres a subtle vibration coming from that arm that wasnt there before. blackbox shows slightly higher noise on that axis too but nothing crazy, like maybe 15-20% more than the others.

i rebalanced the props, checked the screws are tight, even swapped props between arms to rule that out. still the same arm thats buzzy. im wondering if its just the motor internals being slightly different (tolerances, magnet strength etc) or if i maybe bent the arm itself in the crash and didnt notice. arm looks straight to the eye but i havent actually measured it.

anyone dealt with this before? do i just run some RPM filtering and call it a day or should i be more worried about this

i know some people do like a full inspection after every X number of packs but i dont really know what a reasonable interval looks like or what to actually check beyond the obvious stuff like props and obvious damage. like do you check your ESC solder joints visually every time? feel like that could get tedious pretty fast if you're flying a lot.

curious what other people actually do in practice vs what the youtube tutorials say you should do

ran the motor test in betaflight and it spins up fine, no stuttering in the graph but you can just hear it. been flying it a bit more since then which was probably dumb but i wanted to see if it would work itself out. it hasnt.

my question is basically whether thats a bent shaft situation or if theres debris in the bell or what. i pulled the prop off and spun it by hand and there's definitely some resistance in one spot of the rotation, like a slight catch. i dont have another motor to swap in right now and i dont want to order one if maybe i just need to clean it out or something.

ive done motor replacements on freestyle quads before so im not totally new to this but the mini 3 pro is kind of a different animal, way more compact and i dont want to rip a ribbon cable or strip something tiny in there. DJI wants like 180 bucks to look at it which is insane for what is probably a 25 dollar motor.

anyone done this themselves? is there a good teardown resource somewhere or am i going to be making this up as i go

ive already checked the props and they look fine, no visible cracks and they spin freely by hand. the motor itself looks okay from outside but i havent pulled the bell off yet. the drone still flies but its definitely pulling slightly to one side and betaflight is compensating a lot on that corner. pid output looks weird on the blackbox log but im not 100% sure what im looking at there.

anyone dealt with this before? wondering if its worth trying to just replace the bearings or if i should just swap the whole motor. the motors are t-motor F40 pro IVs if that matters

ive already resoldered the motor leads to the ESC because i thought maybe a cold joint was the issue ? looked fine visually but redid it anyway. same problem. swapped the motor to a known good one from another quad, same behavior on that ESC. so at this point im pretty sure its the ESC itself on that corner but i wanted to ask here before i just rip the whole stack out.

its a 4in1 so thats kind of a pain. running BLHeli_32, have tried adjusting timing and demag settings in the configurator but honestly im not sure i fully understand what those settings actually do at a practical level. any ideas what else to check before i just order a replacement

the frame is a TBS Source One and the arm is cracked near the base but not fully snapped. ive got spare arms somewhere in my parts drawer but honestly im questioning whether its worth rebuilding this one or just ordering a fresh frame and starting clean. the fc and escs look okay visually, no burnt smell or anything obvious.

anyone dealt with this kind of impact damage on a Source One specifically? wondering if the flex in those arms actually saved the rest of the build or if i should be looking more carefully at the stack for damage i cant see

ive balanced the props, checked all four motors by hand and they all feel smooth, tightened every standoff and screw i could find. filters are the same as before the crash. i'm kind of at a loss here. my mate suggested maybe the FC mount got tweaked somehow and its picking up more frame resonance now but i cant see anything obviously wrong with it.

anyone dealt with something like this where the actual source ends up being something stupid you wouldnt have thought to check

pulled the motor off and spun it by hand, feels slightly rougher than the others, probably the bearings took the impact. no visible winding damage that i can see but honestly im not great at spotting that. question is do i bother trying to replace the bearings myself or just swap the whole motor. i have like 6 or 7 of these motors in a spare box so its not really about cost, more about whether the stator itself could be damaged and i just cant see it.

running T-Motor F40 Pro IV's if that matters. FC is showing balanced amps across all four on the ground but i dont fully trust that reading.

i've already tried rebalancing the props and cleaning up the motor screws. not sure what else to look at. its flyable but the video is getting that jello effect and my rates feel mushier somehow which might just be my imagination

ordered a replacement motor (same stator size, different brand cause the original is discontinued) and got it swapped out last night. here's the thing ? when i run the motors up now in betaflight the new one reads slightly different temps than the other three after a 30 second spin up. not massively different but maybe 5-8 degrees warmer. all the esc outputs look fine in the logs, no desync or anything obvious. is this just the motor breaking in or should i be looking at something else? the kv rating is listed the same but i have no idea if the winding resistance is different between brands.

flying it again feels fine honestly but the temp thing is nagging at me

ive already swapped the motor out for a spare of the same model (Xing2 2207) and the problem followed to the new motor. so now i'm thinking its something ESC side or maybe a prop balance issue? the prop on that corner looks fine visually but i havent actually balanced them properly in a while. running 35x4 ESC. dont really know where to go from here

my question is basically - do i replace just the arm and leave the motor, or should i just swap the motor out anyway since it took the impact? im using T-Motor F40 Pro IVs on this build and i know they're not cheap but i also dont want to be flying with a motor that looks fine but has bent shaft or something internal thats gonna fail mid flight. anyone dealt with this before

ive been flying for about two years but ive mostly just replaced obvious stuff like props and frame pieces and called it good. this crash feels different though and i dont want to rebuild it and have something fail mid flight. whats your process when you have a serious one?