First Build - Electrohub Spider Quad, need a bit of help

[Kingblue]

Hey guys I'm a newbie and I'm sure a lot of these questions might have been asked before, but I have some questions specific to my build and want to know if you might be able to help.

Basically I got interested in multirotors about 3 months ago and bought a couple small cheap ones to learn to fly a bit. Then I was debating buying a ready to fly, out-the-box multirotor for AP purposes, and came across Flite Test. I thought it would be cool to learn how to build stuff from parts and I'm basically way over my head. I have 0 experience with anything RC or electronic l, I'm a biologist haha.

Through various tutorials and google-fu I've been able to get this far, but need some help from some wingmen to help me get this thing in the air.

My main question at the moment revolves around motor spin direction. I (stupidly) assigned the motors when the thin was upside down and thus the motors are opposite of the diagram supplied with the flip 1.5 board.

On my quad the motors spin like this currently:
Front Left - CCW
Front Right -CW
Rear Right -CCW
Rear Left -CW

So they spin opposite of how the board says to set them up, but does this matter? Do i need to re-solder the ESCs to reverse the direction? I heard you might be able to reverse things via your controller but mine is a really cheap hobbyking 6 channel transmitter and doesnt have that function as far as I can tell.

I tried powering up the engines to see if it generated any lift, it seemed to but the rear left engine seemed to create more lift and turn the copter over. The cap also unscrewed itself from the engine and the prop came off once.

Here is an album of the prop setup. http://imgur.com/a/vzECJ Please provide any tips you guys have. Do I need to upgrade transmitters so I can reverse the engine spin direction? Should I re-solder the ESCs? Should it work as is and it just needs some tweaking or I put a prop on backwards?

Thank you guys in advance so much for the help. I really don't have anyone to ask around me, no hobby shops, no buddies into the hobby.

 

[Spastickitten]

Yes, you should switch them. The flight controller expects the motor to spin one way so it can speed it up and down for the rudder control. If you do this wrong, usually the quad will just flip on takeoff.

 

[PHugger]

I'm not so sure that the motor direction matters. I'd vote for just leaving them in their current direction as long as they are exactly opposite of what was suggested. Having reverse spinning motors helps to balance out any torque effects. This makes it easier to yaw in both directions, but won't otherwise effect it's operation.

The flipping is likely caused by un-calibrated ESCs or perhaps props installed upside down (markings always goes on top) or installed on the wrong motor.


Best regards,
PCH



PS - after you lose the stock prop nuts, replace them with Nylock nuts.

 

[Spastickitten]

Wouldn't the the flight controller just keep spinning the quad faster and faster trying to counter the motors? The rudder would be reversed. Isn't there something on clean flight to make your own motor configurations?

 

[PHugger]

The FC doesn't know what direction the motors are spinning. It can sense movement or more correctly acceleration. The motors & props on a quad only create downward thrust no matter which direction they spin - providing that the props are mounted and spinning correctly (tricopters are a bit different). Counter rotating motors are mainly used to counter the torque effects that would be present if they all spun in the same direction. If something is unbalanced the FC will try to correct and have to work harder than it would on a balanced design.



Best regards,
PCH

 

[Kingblue]

OK this is good info thank you guys!

It sounds like it should work, I'll double check my props to make sure theyre the correct direction, and maybe re calibrate my escs. I may need to try to balance the props fully before any test too.