Is anyone aware of any damage that can occur to the motors on the P4 utilizing the P4 in the following scenario?

  

  

I want to take advantage of videoing ground level activity with the P4 in a stationary ground level position for duration of time (i.e. 20 minutes).

  

  

To the best of my knowledge, the P4 will only record flight telemetry when the motors are running.  Currently, I overlay the telemetry information during post-production of a flight video with a 3rd party application that I have.

  

  

I want to run the motors WITHOUT the props attached, turn on the video and record for the duration of a battery “life” with the motors running only at idle for the entire time in order to record the date & time of the video.

  

  

The reason I’m asking is that I know some motors are design to operate only with a load (i.e. the props attached), and I don’t want to run the motors at idle for 20 minutes without the props if this will cause any damage to the motors.

  

  Thanks in advance to any replies.

I always assumed you can just record that video without the motors running.

I have run the motors on my Phantom 4 without the props as a way to fully discharge the batteries without flying but I mostly did it with the drone stationary. I found that if I moved it, the motor speeds changed in an effort to restabilize the drone. My guess is that isn't exactly bad for it but if you can record without the motors running, all the better.

I'm curious about others' experience on this.

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What telemetry data do you need, turning on "Video Captions" records Home GPS, Date, Time, Aircraft GPS, Barometer altitude, also camera settings details. These are stored as a '.SRT' extension file alongside video file. When you playback and chose "Subtitles" you can then load in the .SRT file which displays these details at bottom of video while playing back. This may not be exact format you require though. This would allow you to record without motors running.

Back to your original question though, I don't see that it would do any significant harm, if any at all, to leave the motors running, I do so quite often, but not for 20 minute periods. I don't expect overheating would be a problem, but certainly something to be aware of.

Edit:-  You may also be able to Edit the .SRT file using wordpad or similar to produce the results you want.

Edit 2, I've just tried it and .SRT can be edited to show time and date only, editing in a spreadsheet may be a better method to use.

No need to run the motors.

If it is only time and date that you need, the video files will have a creation time based on GPS time so you have the data without needing the logs, it is just a matter of using it. You could also get the information from the SRT files along with GPS position, exposure settings etc.  I can't think of anything else in the logs that would be very useful!

I think it's very unlikely it will do any harm, it knows the props are not installed and keeps the motor power low, however you don't have the cooling effect from the props so check the motors are not getting too hot - feel the arms rather than the rotating motor shell, if you are worried then it might be a good idea to leave the props on and tie the bird down.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-7-17 05:43
If it is only time and date that you need, the video files will have a creation time based on GPS time so you have the data without needing the logs, it is just a matter of using it. You could also get the information from the SRT files along with GPS position, exposure settings etc.  I can't think of anything else in the logs that would be very useful!

I think it's very unlikely it will do any harm, it knows the props are not installed and keeps the motor power low, however you don't have the cooling effect from the props so check the motors are not getting too hot - feel the arms rather than the rotating motor shell, if you are worried then it might be a good idea to leave the props on and tie the bird down.

Makes since - Thanks !!

Generally speaking the motors will be fine since they are running with no load and rpm.

I worry when my P3A is on too long, without actually flying, that it will overheat internally. Of course that would more likely happen idling without props attached or just turned on. When I update firmware I keep a small fan running into the vent holes.