ESC Calibration issues

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rsbkh
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:59 pm

ESC Calibration issues

Post by rsbkh »

Hi, I'm new to all this and have built a quadcopter with a mw pro ez 3.0 board from rtf quads. I'm at the stage now where I need to calibrate the ESC's. When I connect them they beep, but when I move the throttle up or down they don't beep. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've uploaded the sketch that enables calibration mode but nothing seems to work and in the videos I've watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi75ucBZkeY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QznM_8JlcGk.
I'd appreciate any help anyone could offer here.
tia
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Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: ESC Calibration issues

Post by Kbev5709 »

Is your receiver bound to your transmitter (does it get a solid red light?) Do you have your transmitter on when trying to calibrate? Are you powering up by connecting the battery? Is your RX powering up when you hook up your LI Po?
The proper procedure is to make sure your TX and RX are actually bound and talking. Then you turn on the TX. Then you move the TX throttle to full throttle. Now, plug the ESC signal wire into the throttle signal pin on the RX. Then connect the LI Po. Wait for the ESC to beep. Immediately throttle full down. Wait for more beeps. Unplug Li Po. Unplug signal wire. Move to the next ESC and repeat.

No ESC wires get hooked up to the FC during this procedure. All your ESC signal wire needs to see is the RX throttle and the range from high to low. After all ESCs are done then hook them up to the FC on the ESC out pins. Take off your props and then do a config.h calibration. Make sure you re-comment the calibrate statement after running the procedure and re upload your sketch again with it commented. Should be done then.

In that first video Moochachos or whatever his name is left the FC hooked up to the RX and used the ESC out motor pin on the FC to hook his ESC signal wire to. Not needed. It may work ok for him somehow but most people don't do that. I see in your picture that you are trying to do it through the FC as well. Just hook ESC signal directly to the RX throttle signal pin to do the calibration. Repeat for the other three. You can even leave all the other RX wires hooked to the FC while you do it. Just unplug the FC throttle wire from the RX and replace it temporarily with the ESC signal wire directly from the ESC to the RX. Remove the FC from the calibration until you are ready to do the config.h calibration.

Make sure everything is done in the exact order I laid out in my first paragraph regarding the proper procedure.

The config.h calibration sketch should ONLY be used after all of the other ESC calibration is complete and it is IMPORTANT that you DISABLE IT after using and before trying to fly. The only way to disable it is to re-comment the statement and re-upload the sketch again with it commented.

rsbkh
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:59 pm

Re: ESC Calibration issues

Post by rsbkh »

Thanks for the response. That seems to have worked. I've got the motors spinning now and they seem to work as they should with throttle control.
I have run into another problem now with respect to arming. The motors sometimes take a few minutes before the throttle responds. I'm not sure if using the yaw stick to arm and disarm the copter is working. My work around was to use my aux 1 channel to arm it. Even that has a significant delay sometimes.
Do most people use multiwii config gui or wingui?

Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: ESC Calibration issues

Post by Kbev5709 »

rsbkh wrote:I have run into another problem now with respect to arming. The motors sometimes take a few minutes before the throttle responds. I'm not sure if using the yaw stick to arm and disarm the copter is working.
When everything is set up correctly the FC should arm immediately upon the arm command. You can verify that the FC is armed by the Arm LED (usually red in color) lighting up and staying lit. Down and right on the throttle should arm with no delay if you have that option enabled in the config.h sketch.
rsbkh wrote: My work around was to use my aux 1 channel to arm it. Even that has a significant delay sometimes.
While there is nothing wrong with arming via TX switch, it is really wasting that switch which could better be used to enable a flight mode. There should also be no delay in the arming when using a switch so there may be something wrong that is beyond the norm in your wiring, code, or FC. Most (no ALL) of the time when people are having arming issues using the yaw function it is because they have neglected to properly center up their transmitter to 1000 low, 1500 mid, and 2000 high. Have your centered your TX? Also, your config.h MinCommand should be less than your MinThrottle. All of my mega boards and two different kinds of ESCs I use all workgreat with the MinCommand at 950 and the MinThrottle at 1000.
rsbkh wrote:Do most people use multiwii config gui or wingui?
I don't know what most people use, but I prefer the WinGUI over the MWConf. Beyond that I prefer the EZGUI to the WinGUI. The main drawback to the WinGUI is that EOS Bandi has never updated the GUI to include MW 2.4. There is a work around, but it shouldn't need one, and makes for conflict between EZGUI and WinGUI in version numbers. It can all be worked around but it sucks to have to do it in the first place.
Another drawback to the WinGUI is that it doesn't work on an Android phone. I guess if I had a small sized tablet running Windows I could kiss the EZGUI goodbye, but lugging this laptop around when flying missions sucks badly which is why I prefer the EZGUI to the WinGUI.

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