Discussion group for ArduCopter users
Building Possibly My Last Multicopter
I left the hobby in 2022 after the crash of my Tarot Ironman due to a propeller blade separation resulting in complete destruction of the aircraft. Since then I have been flying an old DJI MAvic Pro that I bought used from a photographer who wanted to upgrade. Anyway, recently l've thought about wanting to build one more multicopter. I enjoyed the challenges of building one plus the satisfaction of flying something I built. So I decided to once again embark on a build project. My needs…
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Dan, try setting your trim on the Tx to minimum or full trim...you might not be getting the full throttle to get into the calibration settings.
Happy to skype with anyone who want to inspect my setup. This is ridiculous since I can't get the basic 3dr kit to work...
I've been trying to do this with the ESC directly connected to channel 3 (Throttle) on the receiver. the APM2 isn't in the loop at all.
I'm doing this indoors. Probably 70 degrees F, 21C
Dan,
do one last thing, Take ur Rx and hook up esc to the Rx and power it up and see what happens. dont do manual calib with esc connected to quad controller, do in directly hooked up to ur Rx. Now we have to thing of the ridiculous and try and find a solution.
certainly didn't intentionally set to NiMh. No matter what I do, I seem to only be able to get the musical "123" tone (self test) and a long beep when it arms (with throttle low). I don't get three beeps or two beeps or the musical programming sequence, so I can't get into programming mode. I've confirmed my transmitter throttle is 0%/100% with no sub-trim.
Agree with Ramesh that it's unlikely that all 4 are bad. I'm clearly missing something.
Dan, I had nightmare calibrating/using 3DRobotics ESCs in low temperatures. However, they worked fine indoors. Also given it is spring here, it works outdoors as well. Are you working on low temperatures?
Rod, and Dan,
the default on this esc is Lipo, but it could have happened that during all the fiddling he went into programming mode, and NiMh got set, can happen. Then this may be the only solution. reprogramme to Lipo.
Dan, did you set your ESC Battery type to NiMh before you performed the Throttle Range Calibration?
If so, the ESC will not issue the three beeps indicating 3S LiPo because it cannot detect the NiMh cell count. I confirmed this by setting the Battery Type to LiPo and again performed the Throttle Range Calibration and received the expected number of beeps.
I made this mistake myself when I did it the first time. On my Quad, with the Battery Type set to NiMh, the ESC sends the following sequence when I first plug the ESC into the throttle channel of the receiver with throttle set to full power.
1. Musical tones
2. Two beeps
After dropping the throttle to minimum, I did not hear the three beeps as expected, but I did hear a single beep indicating that the setting took effect.
I spent $6.95 to purchase the Turnigy Programming Card from HobbyKing and it has definitely made setting my ESCs easier. Unfortunately they appear to be on backorder right now.
My ESC settings as set with the Programming Card are as follows:
Brake: Off
Battery Type: NiMh
Cut Off Type: Soft
Cut Off Voltage: Low
Start Mode: Normal
Timing Mode: Medium
Music: Personal choice
Governor: Off
Dan,
all 4 esc cannot be faulty, that will be one hell of a coincidence, and unlikely to happen.
ok Dan, as i suspected, the calibrations is standard like almost all esc.
now, u have to confirm one thing, after u have put ur tx on, and moved th to full, and powered up esc, it will some beeps, then after 2 sec supposed to give 2 beeps. Now move th to bottom, if u wait after these 2 beeps for another 5 sec, and it gives a beep 56712 then u have gone into programming mode. so hope u not going into programming mode. Beyond this there is nothing u can do specially if all 4 esc r doing it. Oh, and hope when u doing manual calib, u doing one esc at a time. Should work. Also, just a hunch, hope ur end points for throttle ch in Tx are at 100% and Limit points are also at 100%. Sub trim to zero.