Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Arnt-Inge Hansen on October 25, 2011 at 3:49am

But should them be grounded together with main power battery, thats the question?

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Permalink Reply by Kristian on October 25, 2011 at 4:09am

I see no reason to connect ground from apm/esc/receiver ground directly to main power battery. I think you should leave this "decision" to the ESC/BEC you are using. As I said earlier, there is probably a reason that BEC ground and battery ground is not directly connected inside the ESC. I.e. It may be some kind of noise filter between BEC and battery ground.

 

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Permalink Reply by Arnt-Inge Hansen on October 25, 2011 at 10:42am

Can you provide feedback when you have tested this out, so we get a clarification on this issue:)

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Permalink Reply by LIM Hun Pheng on October 25, 2011 at 11:57pm

Sure, once my replacement prop arrive. I will update.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

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Permalink Reply by Kristian on November 24, 2011 at 1:06pm

I grounded all ESC's to the APM, and connected two of the ESC's +5V lines to the APM. The reason why I connect two +5V lines form ESC's to APM is to have some redundancy and more available current. I know this means they will "fight" each other if they provide a little different Voltage, but it seems to be ok. I have flown around 10 battery packs without problems. But the problem last time appeared after a lot of flying, so can't be sure yet.

 

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Permalink Reply by LIM Hun Pheng on November 24, 2011 at 5:25pm

Michael, you can identify the tone by powering up the esc without any signal connection, or remove the signal connection after able to run motor.

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Permalink Reply by LIM Hun Pheng on November 24, 2011 at 7:40pm

the tone is most probably because of no PWM signal to esc from APM after crash, could be due to APM reset.

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Permalink Reply by Kristian on November 25, 2011 at 3:14am

I have some other quadcopters with 5V lines from all the ESC's connected. Never had any problem with these. A diode may be a good idea, but this will bring the voltage down a little?

I have gps/mag. No sonar.

The continues tone from the motors happened here too. I think it's because of a brown out or the APM code crashing. I don't think this is something the ESC would do by itself.

 

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Permalink Reply by Arnt-Inge Hansen on November 25, 2011 at 3:25am

If one of the escs get a short circuit(burn out), you will blow out all the others maybe, Anyway you have no 5v and going to crash if you are in the air.

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Permalink Reply by Arnt-Inge Hansen on November 25, 2011 at 3:31am

The voltage should not fall below 5v under any circumstance, if you can not adjust the 5v to 5.8 with a diode, I would not recommend it. Voltage must always be above 5v.

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Permalink Reply by LIM Hun Pheng on November 24, 2011 at 5:22pm

Hi Michael, after I did the repair and ground all esc "-" to APM and have redundant power, I had probably only 10-15 mins of flight time. No problem so far but I am still very careful for now. Will update when fully tested.

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Permalink Reply by Arnt-Inge Hansen on November 25, 2011 at 2:59am

My next recommendation here would be to get as stable 5v as possible to the APM and other equipment that requires 5v.I have solved it with 2 external BEC (Castle creations) that can be adjusted to the desired voltage. One of the BEC, I have a separate 2S LiPo battery (need not to be so large) it is only for keeping 5v constant. The second BEC, I have connected to the engine battery on PCB (4s lipo). I discovered on my Hexacopter that at the end of the flight time something happens with stability, then the voltage can quickly drop to 4.7 v. Both 5v to the new castle BEC must be connected through the diode and BEC must be set to 5.8 -5.9 v to compensate for the diodes. Hexa is rock steady, the only thing I'm struggling with is the cold weather and sonar. I have moved all the BEC from the center plate to bec mounts on the arms so that the motor wires do not interfere with the electronics on the center plate. I have not had the weather to test the noise yet. I have seen that it helps to warm the sonar with resistance and isloasjon in another post here. This I will also test.

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