First drone building project. I have the motors and the battery attached to a distribution board. All the escs light up when I plug the battery in. When I test the motors out on clean flight, two motors twitch while the other two motors don't even budge. I'm not to sure what's wrong. I'm almost positive the wiring on the escs to the motors are correct. I'm posting some images to help better visualize the situation. 

Greetings and welcome.  A couple of things that I see right off.  First you should not be soldering the bullet  connectors to the pads on the PDB.  The connectors should be cut off and a short length of wire exposed from the insulation, tinned and soldered to the pad.  Additionally, I see the potential for a short circuit if there isn't already one.  On of your connectors that you soldiered passes right over another pad.  I can't tell if it's touching or not and there is another one that is very close.  These things can draw a fair amount of current at times and you don't want them cross connecting.  You need to try and be as neat and orderly with your wiring as you can.  As far as the motors twitching or not working at all....I can't tell for sure in your photos, but it looks as though you only have one ESC hooked up.

There will be someone along I am sure that knows more then I do, but these are the things I see.  You did good with the photos...whenever you are looking for help troubleshooting one picture is worth a thousand words.  Lots of pics and a description of your equipment will help as well.

Also you need to "calibrate" your ESCs to your Flight Controller before expecting 100% correct behaviour.

But yes do a little tidy up up of the build, then calibrate, then you are set!

Calibrate is easy (really short instructions):
Plug FC into USB (to power up) - activate motors and set to max throttle.
Plug in Battery - ESCs will play a tune then beep twice - then slide to 0 throttle.
ESCs will beep and play another tune.

Power down and "voila" done - should work next time

(24-May-2017, 03:00 AM)sirdude Wrote: /**Greetings and welcome.  A couple of things that I see right off.  First you should not be soldering the bullet  connectors to the pads on the PDB.  The connectors should be cut off and a short length of wire exposed from the insulation, tinned and soldered to the pad.  Additionally, I see the potential for a short circuit if there isn't already one.  On of your connectors that you soldiered passes right over another pad.  I can't tell if it's touching or not and there is another one that is very close.  These things can draw a fair amount of current at times and you don't want them cross connecting.  You need to try and be as neat and orderly with your wiring as you can.  As far as the motors twitching or not working at all....I can't tell for sure in your photos, but it looks as though you only have one ESC hooked up.

There will be someone along I am sure that knows more then I do, but these are the things I see.  You did good with the photos...whenever you are looking for help troubleshooting one picture is worth a thousand words.  Lots of pics and a description of your equipment will help as well.
**/

Ok, I'm a totally new to soldering and circuitry in general. So, when you say tin the exposed copper wire. Do you mean to just solder the wire? Or, is there other material I should use, or could use for that matter? The solder I'm currently using is silver bearing. I took out the other 3 ESC to just figure out the wiring of just one ESC.  Thank you for the wiring techniques!

So I soldered without the bullets, and I still receive the same issue. Could it be that the motors are damaged? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmsZ-OP1...e=youtu.be  

^--- link to a video.

I probably wont be the one to help you but some questions that might help others:

What motor protocol are you using?
Which ESCs?
The FC looks like an Afroflight Naze32 Rev 6 which is probably running betaflight or cleanflight right?
What have you configured so far in your flight controller configurator (high level, not the exact settings)

If you are new to soldering, and using silver-bearing solder, you are likely to be having trouble with your solder joints. I don't use it, but I understand Silver-bearing solder, while making stronger joints, requires higher temps and is harder to work with. Get some 60/40 rosin core or 63/37 (better), and use flux.

Check out this thread: http://intofpv.com/t-how-not-to-solder

(25-May-2017, 12:28 PM)sloscotty Wrote: If you are new to soldering, and using silver-bearing solder, you are likely to be having trouble with your solder joints.  I don't use it, but I understand Silver-bearing solder, while making stronger joints, requires higher temps and is harder to work with.  Get some 60/40 rosin core or 63/37 (better), and use flux.

Check out this thread: http://intofpv.com/t-how-not-to-solder

+1 on the thread... I learned half of what I know about soldering from that thread (OK, so maybe I don't know a ton... but still) 

It's a very useful thread!

Could it be you are using pwm protocol/escs with latest betaflight or cleanflight? Could be bugs in the firmware then, especially if it's a naze...

First things first :-)

1- Your solder doesn't look any good my friend, and this can potentially lead to issues like this. put more solder, it will also help to keep your build safer in case of minor accidents.
2 - I´m having exactly the same motor issues you are having and the problem (in my case) is a damaged ESC + damaged motor. How do I know ? a) re-did all the solders related to this ESC/motor. b) changed the motor for another motor I know is working fine.

Is impossible to say the cause of your problem is the same, as suggested try to do the ESC calibration before anything else, it´s very simple.
a short circuit on the motor/esc cables while trying to run can damage both ESC + motor, ask me how I know   , so be aware it can happen

Sorry guys, problem solved. Indeed it was the soldering that was ineffective. So, I soldered the wires again, and all motors work correctly. Thank you!

(27-May-2017, 05:55 AM)Nazty Wrote: Sorry guys, problem solved. Indeed it was the soldering that was ineffective. So, I soldered the wires again, and all motors work correctly. Thank you!

Awesome! glad you got it sorted.

(27-May-2017, 05:55 AM)Nazty Wrote: Sorry guys, problem solved. Indeed it was the soldering that was ineffective. So, I soldered the wires again, and all motors work correctly. Thank you!

Don't be sorry. Thats what we are all here for, helping each other out and finding solutions. We all started in the same place too

(27-May-2017, 12:49 PM)Drone0fPrey Wrote: Don't be sorry. Thats what we are all here for, helping each other out and finding solutions. We all started in the same place too

Yep, every time you share your lessons with us we all learn more as well! 

Even for experienced folks the process of troubleshooting expands the mind and helps it to be more capable of finding solutions in the future.