Greetings!
I have been trying to get a quad working--having bought hardware both from DIYdrones and 3Drobotics--but I just can't seem to get the ESCs to auto-calibrate. Everything else seems to be working fine; I've calibrated my (Futaba T6EX) radio and reversed the channels as needed, I´ve calibrated the compass and accelerometer and I can even arm the motors. I've tried manual calibration N times and everything seems fine there, but the motors won't spin when armed and auto-calibration just doesn't work. My best guess is that the APM is not receiving the radio signal as full throttle but EPAs and trims don't seem to do anything.
Basically, when I try to auto-calibrate, I never get the signal messaging that APM is routing the radio commands straight to the ESCs, I always get the exact same beeps (three-tone melody, then three single tones, then cycle) and lights. The motors never spin up, even when armed, but they all twitch ever so slightly every time the ESCs beep. I have the newest software and firmware and I've done a CLI setup/erase on several occasions. This seems to me like something with such a simple fix that I've tried every single avenue to figure it out myself from manuals, forum posts, FAQs and such, but it's been a couple of months now (seriously) and I'm no closer to a solution.
Any ideas? Is there a thread here covering this that I have completely missed somehow? Is there no way to use the CLI to force the APM into auto calibration mode? Is this purely a radio issue?
For the record I have a "3DR ArduCopter Quad-C" with Ardupilot 2.5 and 3DR 20A ESCs. My radio is a Futaba T6EX. My batteries are 3S LiPo, 5Ah, 50c discharge, 100c bursts. Any help would be profoundly appreciated.
Humbly,
Gisli "GB" Brynjolfsson
Replies
i have 3dr 433mhz and radio futaba T6EX and APM 2.6
my 3dr when is fix to APM my radio control is disconnected to APM
and my radio control when is fix to APM my 3dr is disconnected !!
why ?!
pleas help me what do i do ?
Hi, I may be having the same problem: It's a new Y6 + Electronics kit, all 3dr parts that are about a month or two old.
9XR radio with OrangeRX LRS modules (running OpenTX and OpenLRSng). RX is connected to the APM via PPM (channel 5 pin).
I've done the RC calibration, all seems fine there. But when trying to do the auto ESC calibration, I turn on the TX, set throttle to full and give power to the APM via the battery, it won't enter ESC calibration mode.
The lights on the APM are red/blue all blinking.
Any ideas to try? Need any more info?
Ahoy! I had my computer finally give up on me and it took a while to get a new one but I'm up and running again. I posted a new video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV9n-bBRuag with the results of my last round of tests. In short, I'm still having the same problem but I see there's been some replies so I'm going to catch up and see what I can do next.
OK I found a work around for this issue. Hopefully this can help someone else. Since someone mentioned timing between the RX and & APM being powered could inhibit ESC calibration mode, I figured i'd try something. Finally some all-at-once ESC action!
-First I startup the APM normally, with my RX being powered by the APM.
-Using my telemetry (not usb), within Mission Planner, Under Advanced Parameters, I set the the next boot for "ESC Calibration" instead of normal boot.
-I unplug the main flight battery so everything is off. Here's the important part; I now unplug the cable powering my RX from the APM and plug in a completely separate power source for my RX. This way the RX is ON and my throttle is set to max BEFORE i power the APM. Finally, once the RX is ON, i plug the main flight battery to bring the APM online.
success! this finally allows me to calibrate all esc's at once! Basically seems like my RX is getting power too late to send the full throttle signal to the APM in time, so calibration just never occurs.
There are two ways to "test spin" the motors with Mission planner connected using the CLI terminal.
With all the ESC's + motors connected RX & TX on, go to the terminal & click on the connect button that is located on the upper LEFT side of the window.
- Type in "TEST" & press enter, [or click on the test button ] now type in "MOTORS" this should cause the motors to spin one at a time.
- The other way is to go to the setup menu.
If you are currently seeing the test] prompt then type in exit to go back up one level, from the Arducopter v3.0.1] menu prompt type in "SETUP" & press enter, Now type in "COMPASSMOT" & press enter.
If APM does not like your radio calibration compassmot will not work, but the previous MOTORS test should work.
If neither of these work, I may not have any other practical ideas.
If the MOTORS test works the there may be an issue with the way power is being supplied when the USB is not connected.
May the force be with you.
I re-watched your video. I would try bypassing the PDB and seeing if the auto-calibration process works. Plug your ESC's into the APM one at a time and do the calibration four separate times. You may have a bad ESC or the PDB might be shorting out one of your signal wires. The jittery motor and one working kinda leads my gut to think this.
BTW, I noticed that your min PWM for throttle was 1000. This should not cause any problems, the default failsafe is 975 I think, but it is still a really good idea to raise that as running your trim down or even just pulling hard on the stick could trigger a failsafe.
Your video was very clear in showing the steps the you undertook . good idea!
The video shows: - that APM can "see" your radio's commands.
- the ESC's will work with your radio.
- auto calibration failed to start.
This means that APM is not "happy" with something in the setup.
It appears in the video that your minimum throttle setting is very low. I think that is was below 1000 micro seconds, possibly at or below the failsafe value. If so, this may invalidate the signal and APM would likely not pass the signal onward or allow calibration, even though the ESC's accepted the low throttle setting when connected directly to the RX.
On your Futaba TX change the throttle end-point values. EPA (page 16 of the Futaba T6EX radio ) so that the minimum is 1200 and the maximum value is 1900. Do this while connected to the mission planner and viewing the radio calibration screen.
Once the throttle range has been changed click on the "CALIBRATE RADIO" button to do the rc radio calibration again.
Now try the auto calibration.
OK then.... this took a tad longer than expected as I had to learn how to use the GoPro, then the "GoPro Studio" software, then CamStudio, followed by Sony Vegas and, finally, the YouTube uploading process. I've uploaded a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ-v8IZcrFE that shows the situation before I start trying out the suggestions in chronological order (hail mighty Chronos!), I hope to have a video showing how I try Chris Card's (thanks again) suggestions and hopefully Chris Anderson's (much appreciated) before this evening, I might even get to Ted's (ever grateful) today, too, now that I think I have the hang of this whole video-making process. Maybe it's just me, but audiovisuals really help me when trying to identify a problem. And, yes, I do have a teeny weeny bit of an accent and, apparently, the voice of a high school kid,
Thanks once again for the attention and suggestions. I realize now I should have posted here months ago, I've been reading this forum since early June :/
-GB
oops, accidentally reposted...
Thanks for the suggestions, Ted. For the sheer heck of it, I'm going to make a video of how everything is now and how everyone's suggestions pan out, in case something's happening that I'm just not registering.
Again, thanks for all the help, guys, I really appreciate it.
-GB
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