build steps

Vehicle runs on its own power

First boot with no lab supply anywhere: the real packs, through the real busbars, regulators and rails, running the real trays. Everything up to this point has been on a bench supply.

1. 1check

   Thrusters behave - all six

   With the single thruster in water at low throttle, confirm it is mechanically and electrically healthy.

   What good looks like

   1. Spins both directions smoothly, around neutral.
   2. No nasty vibration or grinding — that points to a dry bearing or debris.
   3. Current vs throttle is sane and symmetric — it rises smoothly with throttle and is similar in both directions.
   4. ESC is not getting hot.

   If it fails

   • Only goes one way or stutters: check the ESC signal wiring and the QGC motor-direction setup before you add any more thrusters.

   Done when

   The thruster runs smoothly both ways with symmetric, sane current draw.

   ---

   FIRST: fix the frame parameter

   The Pixhawk currently reports VECTORED_6DOF, which is the 8-thruster frame. The design has always been six thrusters (4 vectored horizontal + 2 vertical, spread fore and aft for pitch authority).

   Set FRAME_CONFIG to Vectored (6 thrusters) before any motor test. Left on VECTORED_6DOF with six thrusters, the mixer commands outputs that do not exist and the vehicle fights itself - it will look like a thruster or wiring fault.

   Verify in QGC that the motor test page shows six outputs, and that each one spins the thruster you expect in the direction you expect.