Whilst we can check almost everything before flights, one thing i want to know is how many hours of life expectancy do the p3 motors have, flying under normal conditions, no crashes, etc etc!! does anyone know?thanks

I don't know that anyone has flown the Phantom 3 long enough to make that assessment.
I would like to think, they fly for a very long time, without incident of failure. ;-)

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2015-8-3 10:37
I don't know that anyone has flown the Phantom 3 long enough to make that assessment.
I would like t ...

As anyone determined how long the phantom 2 motors are good for?  That may be a good guide to go by for now.

dlongcamp@aol.c Posted at 2015-8-3 12:14
As anyone determined how long the phantom 2 motors are good for?  That may be a good guide to go b ...

very good point.
so any p2 users know the answer to my question?
thx

If you overheat a brushless motor and damage the magnets, the motor will tend to run excessively hot, and the Kv will rise and result in torque loss, then suddenly in flight the phantom will go into spiral of death, So make sure after every flight you monitor if motors are all same temp or one out of the four is hot, that is an indication of rise of KV = spinning faster with no torque.
To have a long lasting motor don't push it to the limit as in drag racing or climbing with increased velocity.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-3 13:31
If you overheat a brushless motor and damage the magnets, the motor will tend to run excessively hot ...

Ohhhhhhhhhh....................... I'm usually full forward both sticks on takeoff. Not good?!

Snerd Posted at 2015-8-3 13:50
Ohhhhhhhhhh....................... I'm usually full forward both sticks on takeoff. Not good?!

nope not good in the long run! Get a tachometer and check the head speed of each motor at hover and they should be in the same range, if one is faster that means it is going to fail real soon.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-3 13:31
If you overheat a brushless motor and damage the magnets, the motor will tend to run excessively hot ...

makes sense, thx

Would expect Blade or Ed to have quite a bit of hours on their units and not heard from them of any motor issues..

Yes, they would be a couple of longer distance fliers...

I would be interested in their responses as well.

RedHotPoker

Would be interesting to see there replies.  

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-3 13:55
nope not good in the long run! Get a tachometer and check the head speed of each motor at hover an ...

i know what a tachometer is but where do i get one and how is it used? do i have to install it?

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-3 22:08
i know what a tachometer is but where do i get one and how is it used? do i have to install it?

If you are close to Winchester then call hobby town USA on berryville ave they should help you in That regard, and when I get a chance I'll make a video.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-3 22:23
If you are close to Winchester then call hobby town USA on berryville ave they should help you in  ...

thanks again. any idea how to add someone on forum as "Friend"

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-3 22:36
thanks again. any idea how to add someone on forum as "Friend"

Click on the person's icon in the forum, that will take you to his "home page".  Once there, hover over his icon again and you will see the prompt to add him as friend.

Once complete, you have to wait for the friend to accept.  Coz not everybody wants to be friends man!

stvnvicbc Posted at 2015-8-4 00:15
Click on the person's icon in the forum, that will take you to his "home page".  Once there, hover  ...

ok thanks
oh i know, there is a lot of stuck up, know it all, at the forum for the wrong reasons, unhappy, frustrated, old and young f-tards. but who wants to friend them any ways?

have fun and thx for guidance

as long as the two internal bearing will last. I think DJI states something like 300 hours for the inspire for example but the thing is that you can never predict it. There were bearings that only lastes 30 hours for example.

The thing that I would suspect to fail first in the motors is the bearings... and if they are quality they should last a very long time

I have a old DIY drone that is almost 5 yrs. old and it still works 100%.
if they fail at some point the cost is minimal. 1 motor is 22 USD
- That is the price in Denmark pr. motor.

cheers´

Yes, Phantom 3 motors are rather cheap, in comparison to many other replacement parts.

But it will be a long time before mine need replacement. That's a good thing... Not Into Tinkering.

RedHotPoker

020667@gmail.co Posted at 2015-8-4 04:20
I have a old DIY drone that is almost 5 yrs. old and it still works 100%.
if they fail at some point ...

yes but it will fail when in the air and then it wont be the cost of motor @ $22. it will be the cost of a new P3 $999 or $1259. thanks for your info though.
be safe

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-4 13:32
yes but it will fail when in the air and then it wont be the cost of motor @ $22. it will be the c ...

I am praying that instead of seizing mid-flight, I will hear an odd noise during the self-checks at startup or something that will enable me to only need a $22 repair.

Please God.

Well I have the e300 propulsion system on my F550 for a yr now with 6,500,000 meters on them. My osd has a odometer on it and the motors and esc's were running perfectly when I took them off last month and installed the e310 system on it now.  I put 4 of the 6 e300 motors and esc's onto a F450 I built with a pixhawk flight control system on it and I keep logs of all my flights because I like yo know how many miles or km are on my parts. The F450 I with pixhawk is flying fine still with those 4 motors and esc's still and I've got about another 200,000 meters on them.. So on the 4 motors I'm still running have about 4,150 miles on them and they run perfect still..  Bearings are fine, motors start fine and they even stop spinning all at the same time once I land and disarm..  So I've gotta say the e300 propulsion system has been good to me.  75% of their lives I ran the self tightening 9443 props on them and the other 25% of the miles I've run the thrust boosted 9450 props which I've noticed about 2 meters/s more speed and almost a minute more fly time. So the 9450s are my choice of prop..   

But, about 6 months after building that F550 I put together a F450 with naza-m v2 and the quad package of the e300 propulsion system and within 50,000 meters or 31 miles 1 of those e300 motors started doing something odd.  I would arm the motors to take off but 1 wouldn't start. But then I would disarm and rearm and then that motor would start.  Once started it ran fine. I flew about another 250,000 meters on that motor before replacing it. That entire time if it didn't start it would on the 2nd or 3rd arming attempt and always ran fine once started.  I replaced it just because I started to feel like I was pushing my luck.  And yes I'm sure it was the motor. I switched it with the other clock wise motor on the F450 and the starting issue followed the motor do I. Sure it was the motor and nothing else.  Plus since I changed it with s new one I've got 300,000 meters on the replacement and since all 4 start on the first arm before taking off.  That was odd I've never had a motor fail like that before.. Lol...  So except for that 1 e300 motor all the rest been running great send have a crap load of miles on them..  I'm pretty sure the p2 came with the e300 motors that is why I brought them into this...   So now in a year I can report back on the e310 propulsion system cuz that's what I'm running on my F550 with naza-m v2, and I'm pretty sure the p3 I'd running the e310 motors.  
Other than the color the e310 and p3 motors appear identical. Right down to having esc's with active braking and the windings and color if the windings are identical.  So far I've got about 450,000 meters on my F550 with the e310 propulsion system and have no issues, they are extremely quiet and run smooth and I've got about 200,000 meters on my p3 and those motors are running perfectly..  My p3 got its first crack stemming from one of the motor mount screws which bugs me though...  

So I've hope I've helped in answering your question at least somewhat! Lol. If any motors burn out I will come back and update this thread!  Lol

Mark97564 Posted at 2015-8-4 14:09
Well I have the e300 propulsion system on my F550 for a yr now with 6,500,000 meters on them. My osd ...

yes you have put my mins at rest somewhat. i suppose my next question would be; when starting the p3, i suppose it does a motor test of some sort or not?

thanks for your response

I'm pretty sure it does, when I arm my p3 the motors rev up a few times before idling.. I believe that is the p3 doing its motor check before take off.  Also in order to have active breaking like it does the esc's would have to monitor each motors rpm' so if a bearing is seizing up I'm pretty sure the p3 will know it when it needs to give one motor 75% throttle to spin that pm of the rest that have let's say 50% throttle..  I don't know this for sure but I'm almost positive that is why it revs the motors after arming and I'm pretty sure it's not able to have active breaking without knowing how much the motor has flowed down or sped up.  Someone will need to play with their p3 a little to know..  Take your props off and keep 1 of the motors from bring able to spin...  If the other 3 shut off and the p3 indicates a motor error then you will know if there is communication both ways between the p3 and. It's esc's...   In order for it to shut the other 3 motors down and indicate a motor failure it would have to be monitoring motor rpm' sand current draw..

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-3 13:55
nope not good in the long run! Get a tachometer and check the head speed of each motor at hover an ...

I don't think the speed of a motor will tell much as the sensors will tell the P3 to adjust individual motor speeds to to maintain level flight. If one motor is dragging, the other motors will instantly slow to keep the P3 level. If there isn't a catastrophic failure, you should be able to limp back or descend without damage. Tach is not necessary in my opinion.

Maybe not nessesary but it's one of the things any esc is capable of outputting a signal for so they would be foolish to not include it in diagnostics

Mark97564 Posted at 2015-8-4 14:25
I'm pretty sure it does, when I arm my p3 the motors rev up a few times before idling.. I believe th ...

i have another p3 with busted gimble, i will try what you said and let u guys know what message i get. thx for the hint

I believe the motors spin up at start to tighten the props?

Thanks for the contribution Ray

Right now R&D is saying 200 hours.  It does depend on where and how you fly.  Dust and dirt can effect the MTBF.

Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2015-8-8 09:23
Right now R&D is saying 200 hours.  It does depend on where and how you fly.  Dust and dirt can effe ...

thanks. ive had this p3 for 3 weeks now and have 22 hours of flight time. so i should be changing them every 10 months? which i have no problem with that. and i know how to open the shell but cant remember if the wires to the motors are welded to circuit board or a molex type connection?
any advice on that?

I'll change my motors at 100 hours if my phantom does not do any acrobatics on its own, 5 hours done, 95 hours to go.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 09:44
I'll change my motors at 100 hours if my phantom does not do any acrobatics on its own, 5 hours done ...

willie do u know the answer to the question i asked ?

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 09:58
willie do u know the answer to the question i asked ?

Nope did not open the phantom to find out, it's very simple three wires but I don't know what motor will replace the phantom motor, the tricky part is the soldiering but it's not big of a deal the wires are small so no need to heat too much the esc board.   Oh they are soldered on a board no connectors.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 10:02
Nope did not open the phantom to find out, it's very simple three wires but I don't know what motor ...

i opened the one i busted the gimble on. its pretty easy nust gotta take your time with the tabs on the shell.u think we can use the inspire motors?

rayrokni Posted at 2015-8-8 10:07
i opened the one i busted the gimble on. its pretty easy nust gotta take your time with the tabs o ...

Nope inspire motors are different and bigger.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-8 10:17
Nope inspire motors are different and bigger.

well it will be the same motor then or an upgraded one by then

When I couldn't and knew I wouldn't have a chance to fly for a while I've powered up the motors a few times with no blades to discharge battery from full to 50% charge………Is this bad and have I compromised the motors ??   

greenbean Posted at 2015-8-9 00:30
When I couldn't and I wouldn't have a chance to fly for a while I've powered up the motors a few tim ...

i would suggest using the battery discharge function in the battery settings.
no i doubt very much you have compromised the motors,