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APM 2.5 First setup with HK ESCs and HK-T6A Receiver

Posted by Ahmet YILDIRIM on May 26, 2013 at 9:39am

Hi everybody,

My APM2.5 + LEA-6H GPS shipment just arrived yesterday.

Inputs are connected and radio is running just fine. Connected to mission planner and calibrated transmitter channels too.

But i guess, i have some problems with output <-> esc connections

I want to power APM via one of the ESCs. So here is what i did;

JP1 is plugged.

4 x ESCs (Brown,Red,Orange) -> 4 first x Output (-,+,S).

But so far, I couldnt get motors running...

Observations :

1 - Tried ESC Calibration;

https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_ESC

On step 5, instead of 2 beeps it keeps beeping until i move throttle stick fully down. And later if i move it up a bit, it doesnt power motors.

2 - Just plugged Lipo

A - C leds blink fast
Only A blinks

Then A - C leds blinks slowly

When I try to ARM;

A - C leds blinks fast

Then A stays on, C blinks

Hardware Detail : 

Turnigy Talon V2 Carbon Quad Frame,7 x NTM Prop Drive 28-26 315W 1000KV,HK Multicopter KK 3.0,4 x HK 40A ESC,Turnigy 1500 mAh 20c Lipo,HK T6A V2 6CH Transmitter & Receiver+APM 2.5LEA-6H GPS

So i stopped trying because im a bit afraid of damaging units on quadcopter.

What should i do next?

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Tags: ardupilot, esc, hobbyking, power
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Replies

  • Ahmet YILDIRIM May 26, 2013 at 2:33pm

    Finally it's working...

    It didnt elevate but i guess its because i switched to another propellers(More S like shaped) which i didnt test earlier.

    There is a worse problem: Throttle on my transmitter is not going fully down unless i switch throttle switch to OFF on upper left corner.

    Thus,

    When i need to ARM; I switch OFF and then back to ON. 

    When i need to fully down throttle; I switch to OFF, which can cause a lot of damage in real flight.

  • Ahmet YILDIRIM May 26, 2013 at 1:11pm

    I guess these Hobbyking 40A esc are kind of ones that doesnt allow calibration, rather expect transmitter throttle to be calibrated:
    "

    • Some brands of ESCs do not allow calibration of the input throttle range and will not arm unless you instead adjust your radio’s throttle end-points so that the minimum throttle is around 1000 pwm.

    "

  • Ted Weerts May 26, 2013 at 11:00am

    The APM board doesnt like to be powered by all 4 BEC's (red and brown wire) in parallel, and this could be causing a brown out on your board. you should just run the bec into the first output, and remove the red pins from 2,3,4 while leaving the orange signal line and ground wires intact.

    see http://copter.ardupilot.com/?wiki=apm25board_overview, scroll down to 'APM wiring example'

    also, from http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/APM2RC:

    Note on Paralleling BECs

    If you are installing the APM 2 in your own multicopter, it is possible to plug in the entire 3 wire BEC output / motor control input connector from each of the ESC's into the the proper position of the motor control connector on the APM, including their power and grounds.

    You can cut all but one of the power (red) leads as is commonly recommended or you can leave them intact to parallel the outputs.

    You definitely need to leave all of the ground leads from the BECs intact to provide the required common ground reference for the motor control lines.

    Although some engineers will disagree, generally the linear BECs used on most ESCs are entirely tolerant of being "paralleled".

    Power available is still the same as for a single BEC but in the most common kind of BEC failure, the remaining BECs can take over.

    Ground and (power) loops are not a problem because they are bussed together at the APM 2's motor control connector.

    The "switching" BEC commonly found as a standalone device or in very high power ESCs may not be as tolerant of being paralleled as the much more common "linear" BEC and should normally have all but one of their red power leads cut.

  • Ahmet YILDIRIM May 26, 2013 at 10:53am

    "

    After manual setting of all ESCs reconnect your receiver and ESCs and ensure your transmitters mode select switch is set to the "Stabilize Mode" position.

    On power up, after a few beeps, the ESCs should be silent or beeping slowly and you should be able to arm the motors by holding the left stick down and to the right.

    If this does not happen go through an additional Automatic ESC calibration sequence. For at least some ESCs this is necessary. ESCs should not beep rapidly and loudly after power up.

    "

    The last line is exactly what is happening with mine. I tried Manual Calibration and when I start with throttle fully up it loudly and rapidly beeps.

    If i start normally and then arm and throttle up, it powers the motor. But something strange because if i dont push a bit hard on throttle down, it still runs the motor at low speed.

  • Ahmet YILDIRIM May 26, 2013 at 9:57am

    Is there a photo of an APM2.5's output pins,powered with one of the escs?

This reply was deleted.

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