Can I fly with upside down motors?

[DavidtheDJ]

Hello,

I am thinking about trying to make a 3D printed quadcopter frame thats small and thought, why don't I make the motors mount upsidedown but with the props rightside up? I looked around a bit on google but I'm not sure if others were saying what I was thinking. So what would propblems be other than landing gear if the battery was mounted lower than the motors?

To help see what I mean, this is a link to a very quick design I made up:

https://tinkercad.com/things/5BreCe09drD

Thanks!

 

[French]

You can mount the motors facing down as long as the props are right side up and the motors are spinning in the correct direction.

You will not want your quad landing on the spinning motor shafts though. That torque on the shafts would be asking for issues. Why not design a prop guard / landing legs to go under your design? See these as examples - https://flexrc.com/product/owl-3-frame/ & http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:107216

 

[DavidtheDJ]

Thats nice to hear and yes I will be considering landing problems as this was just a idea. Those expample do look good as ducts may also increase the overall thrust.

Thanks for the response!

 

[AndyP57]

You would need to take of fairly quickly after connecting the battery to prevent the electricity dripping out of the inverted motors. Maybe landing in a tray too to stop the grass getting contaminated with remaining volts.

 

[DavidtheDJ]

You would need to take of fairly quickly after connecting the battery to prevent the electricity dripping out of the inverted motors. Maybe landing in a tray too to stop the grass getting contaminated with remaining volts.

Oh yes of course, I wouldn't want to waste runtime or effect the envrioment around me. I could even try to make the motors have a built in tray so even in the air I wouldn't be dripping unused juiced from inefficient motors.

 

[SnowRocker88]

It's been done before. Heck, even some commercial designs run inverted motors. On the commercial models this makes it so the arms themselves can be formed into both prop guards and landing gear as a single unit. Not sure why one would be inclined to do so with a DIY but I'm sure someone could find an advantage to it.

 

[ElectriSean]

I have the Nano QX2 with this design, a couple things I've noticed: It almost always lands upside down, and it is impossible to take off from grass or even gravel, the rotors hit everything. Now if they could make it take off upside down, they might be on to something

 

[LitterBug]

I have the Nano QX2 with this design, a couple things I've noticed: It almost always lands upside down, and it is impossible to take off from grass or even gravel, the rotors hit everything. Now if they could make it take off upside down, they might be on to something

Run in 3D mode... Take off inverted then flip over to "normal" orientation.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[SoCalPilot]

You would need to take of fairly quickly after connecting the battery to prevent the electricity dripping out of the inverted motors. Maybe landing in a tray too to stop the grass getting contaminated with remaining volts.

LOL!

I like the upside down motor look. I say go for it.

 

[JimCR120]

Another Motor Upside Down Option

Hello,

I am thinking about trying to make a 3D printed quadcopter frame thats small and thought, why don't I make the motors mount upsidedown but with the props rightside up? I looked around a bit on google but I'm not sure if others were saying what I was thinking. So what would propblems be other than landing gear if the battery was mounted lower than the motors?

To help see what I mean, this is a link to a very quick design I made up:

https://tinkercad.com/things/5BreCe09drD

Thanks!

I saw your question the other day and once I had a little time found the video with which I wanted to respond to you.

Watch the whole thing or fast forward to about 3 minutes to see how the motor can be upside down but the props still on top, another option you might want to consider.

 

[jipp]

interesting. i would not of thought of that way of mounting them. i wonder if his prop savers has caused any crashes.. id imagine if he pushed it they cause problems like when you push it and a prop breaks in mid air. but maybe prop savers are ok. dunno.

chris.