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ArduCopter Flips on Takeoff, Plus some Battery Issues

Posted by Christopher Stephens on February 3, 2014 at 6:37am

Hi. My EAST program is working on building an ArduCopter as our big project this year. We have the frame up, but now are starting to run into issues. I have all the battery connections hooked up well, the ESCs all connected properly, and the Futaba receiver wired up. Now, we come to the big problem. When we take it out to test fly, just trying to get a couple inches off the ground, the Arducopter flips. It did this on a table, in the hallway, and the grass. 

My teacher and I did ESC calibration several times, and I've have attempted to level out the frame. I'm fairly certain that it is leveled out well, so I don't feel like this is a problem.

This brings up the big issue though, which is why the thing keeps flipping. Can anyone provide any help on this. Some detailed instructions maybe?

Also, we are using a 6 cell Venom battery (http://www.amazon.com/Venom-5000mAh-22-2-LiPO-Battery/dp/B0027GEYSE) and a Venom OPR2 Charger. Now, the battery is only showing 5 cells when hooked to the charger. I read that if you set it to 6 cells and start the charge it'll eventually bring the charge up enough for the charger to learn that this is the problem with the battery. Then stop the charge and restart it. When I monitor the charge of each cell, I see the charge of the cell reading 0.00 go up to 1.13 then 1.58, and then the charger errors out. Does anybody know of anything we can do for this? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This late in the year our funds are a little low, so we'd like to get it in the air with the parts we have.

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Replies

  • R. D. Starwalt February 8, 2014 at 12:11pm

    Several questions:

    1. What airframe are you using?
    2. Are you using a PDB - power distribution board? (a 3DR PDB has ESC connections that can be miswired)
    3. Are you using the 3DR PM - power module? (As Joe said, the 3DR PM cannot handle a 6S battery)
    4. Are all your ESCs the same brand and Amperage rating?
    5. Are all your motors the same brand and size?
    6. Are your props the same brand, diameter and pitch? (two CW, two CCW?)

    A picture of all this would go a long way to letting us help.

    -=Doug

  • R. D. Starwalt February 5, 2014 at 11:45am

    What version of APM are you using?

    What build of Mission Planner are you using?

    You don't actually get motor speed information but can get drive values to the ESCs.

    Know how to pull a log file?

    -=Doug

  • Christopher Stephens February 5, 2014 at 11:26am
    @Joe

    I tried the info mentioned at https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Props_2 but the CLI>>>setup>>>motors command no longer works. I did run a few other tests while I was there, and some config stuff. Um I dont know how to read the motor speeds to make sure they are all running the same speed.
  • R. D. Starwalt February 4, 2014 at 5:16pm

    Try checking some of these possibilities...

    3692942246?profile=original

    -=Doug

  • Joe Breznai February 4, 2014 at 12:21am

    also:

    https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Props_2

  • Joe Breznai February 3, 2014 at 11:26pm

    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/troubleshooting-2/#ArduCopter_tilt...

    Maybe above? It's easy to have props on upside down and rotations wrong. worth checking.

    Sounds like battery is dead if you have that low voltage on one cell in the pack. The3DR power module is only good for 4 cell packs in case you using that.

    Joe

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