MPU6050 wild readings only when motor / prop are running

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

I am building (just for the hell of it) what can be concidered a single arm of a 4 arm drone on a bread board just to learn. I have the motor, esc and everything working fine. The Uno is talking to the ESC and the motor / prop is responding as expected.

I glued a MPU6050 gyro to the board. When I open Serial Monitor in the IDE I can see the gyro respond correctly as I tilt the board: the gyro knows where the it (and the bread board) relative to the earth.

When I run the same program while the motor / prop are running I get wild numbers from the Gyro. I tried to isolate the gyro with its own power supply and still get wild numbers. I tried to isolate the gyro physically on small foam but still wild fluxuations only when the motor / prop run.

If I stop the motor / prop then the gyro responds normally. I I ever build a drone I will of course need a reliable gyro: so what am I doing wrong here?

Thank you!

2

Follow up: it seems to be vibration. When unglued and just dangling from wires as the prop goes through different speeds the gyro works normally. So how the heck do I mount it now? I tried foam blocks and nothing seems to be adequate to isolate the vibration.

3

That sounds like electrical interference to me. Be sure all the grounds are connected. Bypass everything and decouple each motor with capacitors. That should get you started. If that does not work post a picture, code, and schematic of the project.

4

gilshultz: the problem goes away if the MPU6050 is not glues to the wooden bread board with all the toher components, and left to hang by just its wires. does it seem a mechanical issue or still electrical as you mentioned?