Order Number: UT-696532
Product Name: F4 1s 12a Aio Brushless Flight Controller V3 1
Brand: BetaFPV
I’ve soldered the flight controller up to 4 motors and 1 battery connector. When I plug the 2 cell battery in the flight controller gets very hot and when I plug just USB power in it still gets worryingly warm. The CPU gets up to 81C just sitting on the bench without the LiPo plugged in and over 100C with the 2 cell LiPo attached, without motors running or any kind of video transmitter attached or powered up.
Additionally the built in ExpressLRS receiver, which worked initially, has now stopped responding. I cannot bind to it and I cannot flash it via betaflight passthrough or wifi.
I have added a small heatsink to the CPU. It still gets far too hot.
I have tried reflashing the integrated ExpressLRS receiver. It does not respond and will not reflash.
I have attached an external expresslrs receiver to check the rest of my RF hardware. That works fine.
Hi
Sorry to hear about the issue. I have confirmed the fault with the manufacturer and we can arrange a refund/replacement for you. Please let me know which option you prefer so I can get this arranged for you.
How would you rate our customer service?
Kind Regards
Alex
Unmanned Tech
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If you can organise a replacement then I will test it thoroughly before soldering anything to it. I hope I was just unlucky and that most of these boards work fine as it has the features my quadcopter needs.
Thank you, the replacement has been arranged for you now and will be sent out ASAP!
Kind Regards
Alex
Unmanned Tech
Join our community at dronetrest.com, or on Discord.
OK so the replacement just turned up - thanks for all your help with that.
I flashed the board with the latest stable ‘BETAFPVF435’ firmware via the betaflight configurator. Same problem; the cpu is getting up to 85 degrees C on the bench with just the 5v USB power supply connected. I haven’t soldered anything to the board but I bet that if I did solder main power and connect up a LiPo then it would get even hotter, the same as the last one did. I’d love to get to the bottom of what’s going on here but these temperatures are not good.
Has anyone else successfully used this board?
Thanks for confirming, that is indeed very strange, did you check the FC before flashing firmware just out of interest, as perhaps there is something weird with the latest release on BF that is causing this. We have not had any other customers report this issue with us, so perhaps they are just using the firmware out of the box.
Also after flashing firmware did you change anything from the defaults out of interest?
Kind Regards
Alex
Unmanned Tech Support
Join our community at dronetrest.com, or on Discord.
I checked the temperature with my finger briefly before flashing and it did seem to get a bit warm. I flashed the board because the more recent version of betaflight supports temperature reporting for the CPU whereas the version it comes with does not. I have to suspect that most betaflight pilots will want to flash this board with the latest 4.5 stable version and I only flashed the board with the ‘betafpvF435’ firmware that it auto detected as recommended.
I have since tried flashing it with different versions including the version on betafpv’s website but it doesn’t seem to make much difference except that the earlier versions lack temperature reporting.
I have changed no settings and the board remains unsoldered to.
You could test this on one of your own boards but updating it then leaving it on to monitor the temperature over time but if there is a bug in the latest version of betaflight that causes them to start overheating you might prefer not to.
If the CPU wasn’t on an all in one board including the ESCs then it might get away with running at 90 degrees C but given the cpu’s specs say the chip is only rated to 105 C I have to worry about what’ll happen when the ESCs start pulling current.
Hi, would it be possible to send over a quick photo of your FC (top and bottom side) as BetaFPV engineers have asked for this so they can look into it as they are also concerned that you have had 2 FC with the same issue, as the design has not changed for a couple of weeks with no issues like this so they want to figure out what could be going wrong!
Kind Regards
Alex
Unmanned Tech Support
Join our community at dronetrest.com, or on Discord.
Perfect, thanks I will pass this onto our BetaFPV engineer and get back to as soon as I hear back from them!
Betafpv’s technical department just got back to me;
HI sir,
Once the drone takes off, the FC will cool down, so it won’t reach such high temperatures.
Thanks
Personally I think this is a bit of a cop out. The CPU on flight controllers should not require air cooling in flight just to stay below the 105 degrees C failure threshold. It’s not a video transmitter. If this is the way these flight controllers are designed then I’d prefer to send it back and spend the extra £10 on one with a different CPU.
Hi Chris,
I’m really sorry to hear this. To get this return sorted out for you as quick as possible, please can you follow the link below to start the process.
You can return your items under our “Change of Mind” returns terms and conditions. The items must have been delivered less than 30 days ago, and must be in an as-new, resaleable condition. Exceptions are allowed for the outermost seal being cut or removed, such as a clear wrap or seal sticker.
To begin a return, or to read the full terms and conditions, please see our returns page here: https://www.unmannedtechshop.co.uk/returns/
You can start a return on that page under:
“Unwanted / Change of Mind Returns” > “Start Your Return”.
I hope this helps, but if you have any questions or concerns, please do feel free to ask!
Regards,
David
Unmanned Tech Support
Thanks - I sent the flight controller back today via recorded delivery. You should receive it in a few days time.
If you get the chance to test the flight controller for yourself I’d be very interested to hear what results you get. I have used 2 different PCs (and operating systems) and gotten the same results so I guess you’ll see the same high temperatures I did. If you come to any conclusions I’d love to hear about it. Thanks.
Thanks - I sent the flight controller back today via recorded delivery. You should receive it in a few days time.
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