Hi all,
Let me first state that I am amazed about the SW that has been created by you all, both the GS as the flight controller!
I have bought the 3DR Hexacopter a couple of weeks ago and did all the setups. It was flying nicely. The other day though it was hovering 2 feet of the ground in stabilize mode when it suddenly very quickly rolled to the left and pitched nose down into the ground without any RC input :-(
What I observed is that the ESC's on the copter do behave differently (already from the day the copter was shipped). Some ESCs seem to brake the motors when shut down, while others don't??
So I thought let's reprogramme the ESCs. When trying to do so I find out that the 3DR ESC manual is describing completely different (sound) behaviour from what the ESCs actually do???
So I am lost on how to program these ESCs. They are the ESC's that come as standard with the 3DR copters (20A) version. The website said that they came flashed with the SimonK firmware, but I doubt this.
Can anybody help me or indicate a source where I can find how to programme these ESC's?
Many thanks in advance.
Regards,
John.
Replies
Hi,
spread the word to others who may need the manual, we have it now.
Maybe it is a good idea for 3DRobotics to actually send this file with their ESCs so people know what they have bought.
Regards,
John.
HI,
I have also attached the manual they provide if you do have the SimonK SW flashed in the ESC, find that one also attached.
Regards,
John.
USERS MANUAL for Maytech Multikopter ESCs with SimonK FW _V.07.2013...
Hi all,
3DRobotics finally informed me which brand of ESCs they relabeled as 3DRobotics.
I have contacted the manufacturer, and they did sent me the original manual.
This behavior is in my ESCs by 3DRobotics indeed, so now I know how to program them.
This also means that the ESCs did not come flashed with SimonK SW as was advertised by 3DRobotics, this is a bit disturbing.
Anyway, for all of you who are interested, please find the manual attached,
Regards,
John.
Maytech Users manuel for Harrier-Suprem and Harrier-Economical ESCs...
Hi,
You can easily detect whether you have the SimonK flashed. If you enter throttle calibration and then don't lower the throttle stick, the non SimonK ESCs will start to make all sorts of sounds allowing you to go through setup menus. The SimonK ones don't do that.
Regards,
John.
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/initial-setup/esc-motor/
Or SimonK's site on programming. The blue ones have SimonK on them. The older yellow ones do not
https://github.com/sim-/tgy#throttle-calibration-and-programming.
You should hear something like this
"With the propellers removed and the source (radio, servo tester, or flight control board) set to full throttle, power up the ESC and wait for a single beep after the typical rising initialization beeps. This indicates the high pulse length has been saved to RAM. Move the stick or knob to the lowest setting, and wait for two beeps. This indicates that the low pulse length has been saved to RAM"
John,
I agree that those ESCs are a pain. The tones all sound the same to me. I kept getting three ESCs that would work and one that always seemed to be in a different programmed state. I finally buckled and ordered the flash cable for the ATMega and flashed all of my ESCs with Simon K firmware. I'm very happy with the results. It's a bit of an investment ($40) but worth it in my opinion.