How to troubleshoot your Motors and ESC (Betaflight)

How to troubleshoot your Motors and ESC (Betaflight)

Problem:  One or more motors are not spinning up correctly when trying to fly your quadcopter.
This is a fairly common issue pilots encounter with betaflight quads.  Sometimes this could be due to an incorrect flight controller setting, bad connection, a faulty ESC or motor.  But before we can proceed to troubleshooting what is causing the issue.  This guide will show you the best way to properly test your motors.

What this guide covers

1. The correct way to test your motors/ESC in betaflight
2. How to find the source of the motor fault.

Testing your motors via your R/C radio is not the best way to check a motor, as when testing with your RC controller by arming and throttling up means the flight control filters and algorithms are active and sometimes will cause motors to start at different speeds/rates, particularly if you have a gyro issue on your FC.

Find the source of the fault (Motor or ESC)

Drones are complex and have a lot of things that could go wrong, so the first thing is to try find the source of the fault through a process of elimination by following the steps below:
  1. Visually inspect the motor, ESC, and Flight Controller and check for any burnt wires, or burnt smell.  If you find anything burnt then that is likely where the fault is, send us a photo showing the damage and we can try to help.
  2. Visually check the soldering/connection between your motor and the ESC.  Make sure the connections are good (no cold solder joins), and that no wires or solder is bridging the motor connections causing a short.  Basically clean things up to make sure the connections are all good.  See Blheli ESC is Not Recognised - How to check the connections.
  3. With the battery disconnected, try to spin the motor by hand to see if it is jamming.  If it does not turn check the motor for debris or physical damage.
  4. If you cannot see any visual damage the fault is most likely on the ESC/ flight controller (FC) the next step is to connect it to betaflight to test the motor electronically as discussed in the next section.

How to test motors in Betaflight the correct way

1 .Please remove your propellers from your quadcopter as failing to do so could cause damage or injury
2. If your motor does not spin and jitters when you apply any throttle after a few seconds make sure you throttle down immediately to avoid burning the motor out
  1. Connect your quad to betaflight GUI and connect the flight battery.
  2. Go to the motors tab, read the warning and if your props are removed, please confirm  "I understand the risks" slider.

  3. Move either the Master slider (to test all motors) or one of the individual ones to test a specific motor to see if it is working or not.

  4. If one motor does not work you will need to troubleshoot further to find if the issue is on the motor, or ESC. Please read on for more details.
  5. If no motors spin, then its likely that your ESC is not getting any power, or it has not been setup correctly on your flight controller.
  6. If any motor is spinning the wrong way around, you can change the direction using blheli configurator, or by swapping any two of the three motor wires connected to the ESC.
If the motors are all working correctly but your quadcopter is not flying correctly then it is likely a bad setup setting, in this case please read the guide on  dronetrest on how to configure your flight controller.

Check the ESC

If the test above reveals that one or more motors are not spinning we need to look abit closer as the ESC and FC.
  1. Double check all the connections again between the ESC and the motor (check for shorts) and also double check the connection between your FC and the ESC, make sure they are all secure, not shorted and connected in the correct order.
  2. Connect your ESC to Blheli configurator (or Blheli32 suite) and check the settings are the same on all of your ESC, as maybe the one that is not working has the wrong settings/firmware. 

    If you can't see all of your ESC listed here then the fault is most likely that you have the incorrect motor mapping or firmware loaded onto your FC.   It can also be a bad connection between your FC and ESC, so please also verify that.
  3. Test the MOSFETS using a multimeter as covered in this guide - How to Check If Your ESC Is Broken (testing your MOSFETS)
  4. Swap a motor you know works to one of the ESC that is not working.  Ie on a quadcopter, swap one of your working motors with the one that is not working.  Repeat the test again in the betaflight motors tab.  If the motor works, you know the fault is on the ESC.
  5. Re-flash the firmware to the latest stable release (If you are not sure what firmware to use, please check the manufacturer information for your specific ESC and it will tell you what firmware it uses (such as A_H_15 etc..  If you are not completely sure about what firmware to use please contact us with your order number so we can let you know.
  6. Connect the faulty ESC to a flight controller that you know works, try the betaflight motor test again.  If the ESC works this time then you know that fault is on the flight controller.  If the ESC still does not work, then the fault is on the ESC itself.
If you dont have a spare flight controller to test with, you can always change the connection order between the ESC and flight controller.  For example, if ESC 1 is not working, disconnect ESC 2 from your flight controller, and connect the ESC 1 to the ESC 2 connector.  Now try spinning motor 2 in betaflight to see if it works or not.  If it does, then the fault is on your flight controller.  If it does not, then we know the fault is definitely on your ESC.
Once you have narrowed down the source of the fault, and that component was purchased from us, please create a ticket, and send a photo/video of the fault so we can try to help you further.

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