Ok So I just spent the weekend flying in the absolutely GORGEOUS Monument Valley. We shot for 2 days and did about 15 flights. My motors are really dirty now with dust and sand (My camera gear is even worse)! My question is what is the best way to clean them and make sure nothing gets in the bearings? I have already replaced 4 motors due to bad bearings and I don't want to replace more. Thanks! Josh
I use an air gun hooked up to my compressor and blow out the motors, frame and stack after operating in dusty conditions. I've done that a few times now and no issues as a result thus far. nick
Thats what I was guessing... I will need to get some canned air though... don't have a compressor. Josh
Josh, I do use compressed air but after you clean the motor take a good look inside them for iron particles. Let me explain. Sometimes, sand and other mineral dust have iron or magnetic particles in it, they will "glue" to the motors magnets and sometimes the compressed air is not enough to remove them. If this is the case, you will have to disassemble the motors and clean them with a brush or something else. I had to do this after a flight inside a Shopping Center under construction. It took me a whole afternoon to clean all the motors. BTW: Don't forget the gimbal bearings. Good luck.
Hey Arthur, i though we were the only ones flying in dust enviro LOL ... A good trick I learned after 15 days in the midle of the cerrado filming national parks in Tocantins, Brazil, thats kind in the midle of nowhere were to use a tarp ( dont know if this is the correct word) or a piece of some fabric . I use heavy truck ones 3meters by 3 meters with eyelets on the corners and one on the center.to fix with pegs or we use small baloons filled with water or sand if not possible to use the pegs. Always try to take off and land there. I know there are a lot of dust in the air, but using this we cut the maintanance in half and also use for promoting ourselves as on the tarp have our web address We also use small cilinders of scuba dive with a 1st stage regulator and a hose. Good to take everywhere we use smsll aluminium tanks of 1.5 liters very light and can refill almost everywhere Abracos
(CS8) I was flying in an outdoor environment and was taking off/landing in dusty ground last week. I notice now that I'm back to my usual locations of grass that during take off and throttle increase I can hear one or more of the motors SLIGHTLY emitting a chirping or higher pitched sound. Almost like a squeaky wheel on a bike or a rapidly pulsing whistle-sound that speeds up or slows down according to RPM. Most observers would never notice, but I can. I'm wondering if anyone of you experienced this when you had dust build up? I looked into the motors without disassembling them but can't see dust. However, my lens and camera LCD had dust on them. I haven't tried compressed air yet, but will. I also notice on engine shut off that the props on boom 2 and 7 stop rotating 25% sooner than the remaining 6, leading me to wonder if there is dust and the friction causing them to slow down on power off. Thoughts?
I would say you are a Master at observing the signs and sounds of the copter -- and those motors are definitely telegraphing their condition to you. Rather than risk in-flight failure it might make sense to replace motors 2 and 7, and then carefully strip the "old" motors to see what is going on -- if you catch them soon enough (and it sounds like you did), then you might just be able to clean and lubricate (as appropriate) the bearings and bring them back to health. Andy.
Good question. I've not worked on the QC 3228, but if it's like the other motors I have stripped -- look at the underside there is a small spring clip. Remove that and the outer casing should come off to reveal the inner workings. What I'm not sure of is how to take these particular bearings apart -- I could have sworn I'd seen a posting on the forum by someone who'd done this on the 3228's -- Josh, was it you? Andy.
Phil, I had this "noise" issue also. I got a bottle of compressed air and "fired" it on the motor bearings, after that I put a little of WD40 spray on them. That solved the problem. This was 7 months ago and everything is working good. I you want to go removing the bearings.... first buy at least one new motor. If you destroy one while disassembling you will be able to replace it and keep flying. I haven't removed the bearings from the QC motors yet but I have done it with the MKs. It's not "hard" it's just plain boring and time consuming. After removing the outer casing (with the magnets) you have to heat the metal where the bearings are installed. Once it is hot I like to take a small ice cube from the refrigerator and touch it with the bearing so the bearing gets cooler than the motor housing. After a couple of seconds doing this I push a screwdriver or something similar through the other bearing and push the heated/cooled bearing out. Of course this will destroy the bearing and I only had to remove my bearing when they were bad and needed replacement. To install new bearings, put them inside a plastic bag, could be those that QC like to send parts in , inside the refrigerator and leave them there for quite some time, one hour or so. After that heat the motor as before, I like to use my solder hot air workstation to do that. Once it's hot take the "freezing" bearing and push it in with a piece of wood, so you don't get burns or make marks on the bearings. There is a video about this on Youtube, I don't have the link here but it must be easy to find. Good luck
Thanks for the explanation, Arthur. It falls right under one of the basic Rules of the Universe: You only need to things in a workshop: 1. Duct tape to stop things that move from moving. 2. WD-40 to make things move that have stopped moving. Good explanation of heat-shrink press fit bearings too! Andy.
Excellent write up, Arthur. I have not heard of the hot/cold technique...makes sense though. And particles "glueing" to the magnets I haven't thought of either, however coming from the land of the Red Earth I'm sure you are the authority there . A quick Google search, "bearing replacement for brushless motors" yielded many good instructional videos. The one thing that rings true in all of these demonstrations is the importance to seat the new bearings flush with the stator. Greetings, Adam
Gentleman I flew at a South America beach Black/gray sand some of it found its way into my motors, this sand has magnetic properties it sticks to the magnets I could feel the sand grinding wile I hand turn the bell so I disassemble the motor by removing the only difficult part the tiny snap clip pull the bell from the rotor apart the only way to clear the magnets on the bell was several super blast of air from a full scuba tank after that I went to Boca bearings and experimented replacing the 2 bearings, Mike there sold me 2 ceramic bearings he mention that they are better than the originals tested the motor and o boy smooth like never before
JLO: Did you happen to get a part number from Boca for the bearings in question? I have a feeling I need to replace the bearings in a couple of motors after an arboreal encounter.... And it was just that little spring clip that holds the rotor on? Wow. Andy.
Hi Andy the Bearing # for the QC-3328 motor is SMR694C-422 verify with Mike that its the right # the 422 could be a 922 measure your bearings mention that they are the same bearings he sold to Film It
Hi Jose: I'm finnaly getting around to following up on this issue. I did a search on www.bocabearings.com for SMR694C-422 and -922 and don't get any results, so I'm going to call. Was the Mike with whom you spoke Michael Rudinsky, please? His name is shown as VP Operations on their web site. I'll call them.... Thanks Andy
Hi Andy yes call and ask for Michael Rudinsky give him my name ask for the same ceramic bearings he sold me I just bought the rest I needed last week
Thanks, Jose. I suspect the actual part numbers were either SMR694C-YZZ #5 NB2 or SMRC694-YZZ NB2 -- the only difference seems to be the #5. Not sure what that references but it adds $5 to the cost....wait a minute ...#5 means they add five bucks to the price! I've sent an email. Do you use the combined heat the bearing/cool the shaft approach to getting the bearings off or are they just push fit once you remove the spring clip. Strange to say, I've not changed bearings before.... EDIT: Oh....and do you need two bearings per motor? (Is my ignorance showing, yet?) Andy.
No worries Andy yes there are 2 bearings per motor and I push them out with a small bamboo stick the one you use for cooking shrimp on the barbecue or you can use a small screwdriver the thing is, or not, not to damage the old bearing in case you want to use it for some thing else, once the bearings pop clean the area where they go, I inserted the new one using a socket from a socket wrench set that was slightly smaller than the new bearing and I actually bought from harbor freight tools a small arbor press that probably will not use again for a long time but it did the job right to evenly put pressure on the socket and on to the bearing so that went smooth the not so easy part is the little clip that holds the hole thing together is very tiny and you need a very fine set of clip remover tool I ended up grinding down one I had but I am sure you can find one design to remove and install the clip which by the way when removing them there is a big chance that the dam clip ether snaps and flies away you probably will never find it or it may snap and brake so I search and search and I found at Amazon a bag w 100 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062OEFNQ/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00 Andy I got the clips they look the same as the original but I have not install them yet I only did one motor install the new bearings and reused the original washer and clip and tested that one motor it tested very very nice I got to do the other ones by the way when you take out the clip and the washer just pull the bell apart from the rotor you will fill some resistance it is the magnets pulling in, just pull apart and thats it
That makes sense. Did you get the Harbor Freight warranty that lasts until you check out or the one that lasts until you get to your car? I'll order up a bag. Not too spendy. Thanks for the advice.