Devlog #10: motor test issues and a flight controller swap

not gonna lie, things went downhill pretty fast today.

i celebrated a bit early. all my motors spun fine on the individual motor test, so i figured i was basically there. then i hit “test all” and only 2 of the 4 motors spun. and it kept happening.

i was sure it was a software/parameter thing at first, so i spent hours over the past few days going through ardupilot params trying to get all 4 to fire at once. couldn’t get it. every motor spins perfectly on its own, but only 2 ever spin on the test all.

after sitting with it for a while, i’m pretty sure the issue comes down to the flight controller. i’d been running a cheap board that’s really built for fixed wing, and going through the ardupilot docs it just wasn’t the right fit for what i’m doing. so i’ve ordered a proper flight controller to swap in.

the timing isn’t great. i leave for my trip the day after tomorrow, so for the next month i’m stuck on just the software side, no hardware. the new FC is on its way but realistically i can’t promise the drone actually flies until the end of july.

bit of a setback, but at least i’ve got a direction now. onwards.