Ok I have received a new APM2 board which came pre-soldered and pre-tested.. I built the PDB and connected everything up.. I began to go through the setup by calibrating my radio etc.. I had spun the motors up after just to test everything seemed to work..
I then got to the point in calibrating my ESC's using the auto process... After this I can't seem to get the left motor to spin(channel 2).. I moved the esc to another port to test the esc and motor and it works fine, so I am assuming that the ESC and motor are fine and properly calibrated.. I move it back to the correct port on the PDB and nothing.. I then emailed my supplier thinking it may be hardware related and he directed me to this forum for help first..
If anyone has any ideas please let me know, as I am dying to fly with this board.. I did see another person at this link http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_ESC with the exact same symptoms but did not find any info on a solution.. I have added his question below..
"Hmm. Seems there's no output on channel 2 on the APM after esc calibration (hex x setup). The motor want spinn up when testing. Switched channel 1 and 2 just in case to check motor or esc but not one of them. Channel 2 gives no output :( All the other 5 is spinning up just fine when testing..."
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UPDATE**** Ok so after reading all evening I guess I am not the only one with this issue.. I have not been able to determine if it is hardware or software but one thing I did find was that connecting a servo to that channel shows NO response to the throttle.. There IS however just random signals comming out that port.. When I connect the same servo to any other channel I get the expected results from the throttle input..
I am leaning toward hardware but I have been informed that there is a 2-3 week turnaround on RMA's from my vendor, so I guess I am stuck with a 250.00 lawn ornament until someone can point me to a software fix or I wait until more boards are produced.. hmmmmmm
Wow. I checked the manual carefully again, and realized that I needed to plug the last two motors into outputs 7 and 8. Everything seems to be working correctly now.