ESC arming issue (Turnigy Plush 40)

Received my purple yesterday, just in time for Xmas ;)   Connected it all to my quad and it all seems to work (radio input, sensors, xbee).

What I can't get to work right now is the arming of the ESCs. I can arm the APM and verified outputs 1-4 with a servo (raw/radio view shows 1-4 output going up when adding throttle). But because the ESCs do not arm the motors do not spin up.

When powering the system up the ESC play the short melody. This is normally followed by a beep for each cell and then a long beep. However this part does not happen right now. Once in a blue moon, ESC number 4 arms and spins.

I calibrated all 4 ESC manually and they arm properly when connected directly to the receiver. Also tried to calibrate them with a trim offset to make sure they take a higher signal as 0 throttle. The calibration through the APM does not seem to work. The light do the dance on the initial power-up. But the ESCs do not seem to get the high throttle signal on the second power-up.

Could it be that my ESCs do not like the signal from the APM? It worked with APM1, KK and multiwii...

For now I'm out of ideas. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks, Andreas

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Permalink Reply by Stafford Brunk on March 21, 2012 at 9:09pm

I'm also getting this issue on my APM2 with Plush 30 amp ESCs.  I've found that the only way to ensure that all ESCs are initialized is to let the APM2 boot and then hit the reset buttons a few times until I get the battery-cell beeps out of my ESCs.  They work properly after that.

This is on Arducopter 2.5.

Permalink Reply by Stian Solbø on April 23, 2012 at 11:45pm
We're also getting this issue on a Turnigy Plush 60 (unknown version) on APM2 running Arduplane 2.33. Thanks for the hint on pressing the reset button, Stafford. This is a better "fix" for me than booting on USB power.
Permalink Reply by Joe Allen on April 25, 2012 at 8:11pm

Another problem child here.  Just got my APM2 and connected it to my 3DR frame that has been waiting for it.  No joy with getting the ESCs to arm though.  I have the 3DR branded 20A ESCs that came with the kit.  I have had no luck with any of the workarounds either.  It would help me out if the wiki were updated for the APM2.  I don't have an APM1 to compare to, so the instructions on which lights should be blinking, etc., don't help much.  Anybody got any other ideas?  Did that firmware patch work for anyone?


3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2012 at 7:26am

Joe, try the following:

1) Plug in your Lipo, then press the reset button on the APM 2 board to ensure it boots properly

2) Once the LEDs have finished their boot cycle, with the throttle all the way down, hold the rudder stick all the way to the right for a few seconds and see if that triggers another LED cycle that should end with a solid yellow LED.

3) If that doesn't work, try again with the rudder stick all the way to the left (that means your rudder channel is reversed)

4) If that doesn't work, try again with your throttle stick all the way to the top (that means your throttle channel is reversed)

Permalink Reply by Joe Allen on April 28, 2012 at 11:05am

The reset button trick does allow me to arm the board (red LED "A" goes solid), but the ESCs still do not arm.  The rudder and throttle are oriented correctly, as I can see the PWM output in the Planner when I attach to USB, and as I say, the APM2 board itself arms when I send zero throttle and full right rudder.  The ESCs work individually when connected directly to my RX for the manual calibration, so they are not faulty. Other suggestions of things to try or test?


3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2012 at 11:43am

Joe, that's odd. Are you sure you're in manual/stabilize mode? And you've gone through the MP setup, including RC calibration?

Permalink Reply by Joe Allen on April 28, 2012 at 1:26pm

Yep.  I don't even have anything connected to CH5 right now, and all modes are set to stabilize, so that's not it.  I was thinking that since the board is now arming, and the ESCs work on their own, logically, the problem likely lies in between.  I checked the continuity of all my leads from the output of the APM2 through the PDB to the ESCs.  Looks like something got flipped at some point, and the signal and ground lines were swapped, so I reversed all the connections to the ESCs (it's always the simple things).  Now I can get motor #4 to arm (progress!), and it responds appropriately to controls, but the other 3 sit twitching away, even after a couple resets.  I will re-calibrate all of them and see if that helps.


3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2012 at 1:33pm

Joe: I don't think you can fly with nothing connected to CH 5. The APM will detect no RC input and go into failsafe mode.

Permalink Reply by Joe Allen on May 2, 2012 at 9:27pm

Well, I re-calibrated all 4 ESCs, and I connected CH5, and now it works (after I hit the reset).  Hurrah for flight!  I'll have to try disconnecting the CH5 to see if that really has anything to do with it.  Thanks for all your help and patience with my de-bugging.  When will the reset issue be fixed?  Is that even mentioned in the setup on the wiki?

Permalink Reply by Ravi on June 15, 2012 at 7:57pm

i broke the red LED on APM2. APM2 iteslef is working fine. can someone tell the specs of LED on sparkfun so that i can  replace it by desoldering. thax

Permalink Reply by Andreas on August 20, 2012 at 2:41pm

All my Plush 40 ESCs now all arm properly since AC 2.6.X.  I was so used to my UBEC jump-start workaround that I did not notice until yesterday. First flight with 2.7.1 tonight.

Belated thanks for the fix, Andreas

Permalink Reply by Andreas on March 20, 2013 at 11:03am

As far as I can tell this issue is back in 2.8 and 2.9. Arming worked fine for all my ESCs in 2.6 and 2.7.

However with the current 2.9.1 version, several of my ESCs never initialize properly (the ESCs are a different "version" of the same Plush 40 ESC model). My workaround to first boot the APM with a separate ubec and only then power the ESCs still works fine but is a dangerous hassle.

I went one step further and put a switch on the signal line of the problematic ESC. During boot, the switch connects the signal to ground. Once the APM is booted I flick the switch to connect the signal line. Then the ESC happily initializes.

Since this problem was fixed in a previous AC version, it would be great to get that behavior back. ArduPlane 2.70 actually now has the same problem.

Any insight on what was done to fix this problem in the first place and whether that fix was removed by mistake?

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