Motors Won't Arm

Hey everyone.

 

I've been having some trouble these past few days with regards to getting my motors to arm.

I am running NG version of the code and since I am working in a lab I am using the bench power supply unit to give me 8.4 Volts (should I bump this up to 11.1V?)

 

I have uploaded the code and it works fine. I've used the configurator on LabView and it shows the accelerometers and gyros are working well. I've also calibrated the ESCs separately.

This is where it breaks down.

 

The wiki states that to arm the motors I should put the throttle stick (left one) down and to the right.

My workflow is like this:

  • My Ardu board and shield are connected to my computer through a USB. The reciever is connected with 6 channels (5 of just data and one which grabs power for the receiver as well as receiving data).
  • I then switch on the transmitter and give it a few seconds to pair with the receiver.
  • Then I switch on the power supply unit which gives power to the motors - it is not connected in any way to the arduino. The only cables coming from the outputs of the arduino are plugged into the yellow (signal) cable of each ESC.

When I move the throttle stick down and right, nothing happens! No beeps, nothing. . . . .

I am confident that my ESCs are compatible with 200Hz wince when I was looking into the problem earlier and was wildly moving the sticks some of the motors started to beep at me, then went into a hardcore edit mode which only ended when I shut them down.

 

I know it is not an issue with my transmitter system since if I plug the ESC directly into the receiver (without an arduino board) then it works fine.

 

Can anyone give me a hand here?

Thanks

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Feely on March 1, 2011 at 3:32pm

Hi, from an ealier post with similar problem...

 

Connect up to your pc and try the serial commands to see what the APM is seeing from your receiver, serial command U as per
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/Quad_Serial_Commands

 

For the code to arm it is looking for the Throttle value to be low and the Yaw value to be high.

- Throttle needs to be minimum throttle+100. Minimum throttle was set earlier in the CLI and will be around 1100 (you can set it again if you want to see the accurate value)

- Yaw needs to be greater than 1850

 

When you are running the serial command U as above, if you move your stick to the arm position (normally left stick hard back towards you and hard right) do you see values of throttle and yaw at that level i.e. throttle less than about 1200 and yaw greater than 1850? 

 

If not, what values do you get and do other stick movements cause throttle or yaw to move. If other transmitter sticks move the figures then you need to swap around your receiver leads

 

Paul

Permalink Reply by Aryeh Marks on March 2, 2011 at 6:35am

Hi,

 

when using the serial monitor I get the following values

Roll - Max 2001, min 999, mid 1510

Pitch - Max 2001, min 1015, mid 1544

Throttle - Max 2006, min 1025, mid 1554

Yaw - Max 2002, min 1000, mid 1490

 

The other 2 channels are simple on/off values.

I seem to be getting the 'correct' values for the arming mode to capture, but nothing seems to be happening.

 

Is it maybe something to do with how I've powered everything? The ESCs don't feed back ANY power to the arduino (since it is powered fully off the USB) and I switch on the arduino before I power the motors.

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on March 2, 2011 at 11:22am

you have to connect the two grounds (APM ground and ESC ground)

Permalink Reply by Aryeh Marks on March 2, 2011 at 12:26pm

THANKS!

I decided to unplug the USB and power everything through the battery (with the APM being powered through an ESC) and it now works fine.

Thanks again :)

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