Psyborgs Tips n Tricks #5: First power up of quad power train

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Ok. I am in the process of a total reconstruction of my Alien as it has worn out a few things and I wanted to update a few things as well as it needed a serious cleaning and repainting. All that will be documented in a different thread as it progresses.

For now I did another tips n tricks video on how to prepare for first powering up the main power train of your quads. I see a lot of people in here new to building just slapping parts in a frame and tossing a battery on then coming here to solve the issues of fried components.

This video shows how to check the main parts of the quad for shorts BEFORE applying power. Then using a smoke stopper when actually applying power for the first time. There are plenty of videos how to make smoke stoppers out on the internet so I won't got into detail on those but here is a quick picture of the one I made. Mine is in two parts as it also doubles to drain batteries when they die for proper disposal. It also doubles as a better way to bleed off voltage on unused power packs faster so they can be put on storage charge for safe keeping between dormant times with no flights. The bulb and a battery buzzer is perfect way to do this instead of the painfully slow process using chargers .

smoke stopper.jpg


And here is the video so you can actually see what I do before powering up a build for the first time or after any major electrical repairs or changes.

 
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PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Ty you sir. Hopefully someone new sees this and it prevents them from letting the magical smoke out of their gear. Or at the very least shows them how and what to look for when doing this.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Thank you Psyborg... I built a smoke stopper upon your recommendation 6mo. ago. It certainly saved a couple quads from immediate part loss. I have a a couple micro quads that were soldered in my ignorance of new-ness, that the smoke stopper indicates shorts and I will be revisiting them. but I have had little knowledge on tracking down shorts. Your video shows a good start to help isolate it.

any plans on doing more with that? Like one on Twitchy ESCs. I have a few. I have isolated it to the ESCs. Should I toss them (salvage for parts) or is there a way to fix them?

Anyway, Nice. Short direct and informative.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Well I have the soldering tutorial to go along with this. Got the second part uploaded just need to motivate and make the post. Then I have a few others of the Alien rebuild as I went thru that to do yet. I thought this was more important to other builders then personal stuff like the Alien project.

I would like to do other videos but not having proper equipment nor other things to actually work on kinda limits my options on what to do.
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
I added a switch to my smokestopper after some brilliant RockBoy guy at FFE17 showed me his switch with M/F XT60 connectors. The combination of both really comes in handy when testing. Sometimes those XT60s are difficult to unplug..... especially irritating when doing so repeatedly.

Thanks for the uber informative roll of blogs PsyBorg! A ton of good info!

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Yeah next time I am near an auto parts store AND my brain is functioning well enough to remember I have been wanting to grab a switch too for mine.

Ty for checking them videos out.
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
No where near as pretty as PsyBorg's, but it gets the job done.
Screenshot from 2018-01-27 17-12-02.png

Really don't need the 20A rated switch since it is behind the bulb too. 5A would be more than enough...

Cheers!
LitterBug