cannot get multiwii scarab to arm

[taylor13]

hi all
just purchased my first quad a multiwii carbon stealth amour with a paris v4.6 board, a futaba 8j tx which comeswith a r2oo8sb rx hope I got that all right??
Yes I am a noob but I guess we all hava to start somewhere
Any way after hours and hours of patiently assembling I have come to a sudden long and frustrating stand still.
Firstly in the downloaded instruction it says "attach rx to boom" thats all no instructions at all on which plugs and where to connect S BUS perhaps??
So could someone please help with how to connect rx.

If i have happened to fluke it and connect it right (just triple plug to the SBUS) I get the paris board to start up then just goes to red led and will not arm>

i have tried to arm with right Yaw but still led stays red??

I do hope someone has the time to help me with this its very frustrating on a long weekend and no contact with Multiwii till Tuesday.

many thanks in advance
Steve

[jevermeister]

Have you verified that the signals arw getting into the system by looking into the gui.
May be your endpoints are not hi/lo enough.
Which mw version are you running?

[taylor13]

hi thanks for reply
I have not tried getting into the gui because quinton from multiwii pre programmed the tx for me. I did download mw 2.1 but didnt go any further do I need a connector to use it or just plug into mini usb on Paris board??
Also I just tried adjusting end points on tx to 125 throttle and rudder?? stil nothing

[jevermeister]

Hi,
It is hard to get any further without using the gui. There can be several problems.you nees an ftdi to connect the board to usb.

[taylor13]

hi I have connected gui and it is running but am having trouble changing throttle end points I am hoping thats what I am supposed to do?

[bill516]

See what reading min throttle has in GUI then check min throttle setting in config .h if min throttle in config.h is not higher than min throttle in GUI then motors will not arm. Note motors will not arm unless you have calibrated acc at least once. Acc is calibrated using stick function, its all explained in the Software and FAQ's on the home page of this site.

[taylor13]

thanks bill couldn't find min throttle reading in settings config, did try to calibrate acc but didn't work? also had problems finding explanations in software and FAQ.
its been a long day going to pull the pin now and try again in the morning.
thanks again

[jevermeister]

Min throttle is to be found in multiwii.ino i believe it is 1100.Make sure the values under the graphs in gui are lower thqn that. You cannot set minthrottle from gui. Only through code.

[bill516]

Just look for this in config.h its just under the selection for copter type.

/**************************** Motor minthrottle *******************************/
/* Set the minimum throttle command sent to the ESC (Electronic Speed Controller)
This is the minimum value that allow motors to run at a idle speed */
//#define MINTHROTTLE 1300 // for Turnigy Plush ESCs 10A
//#define MINTHROTTLE 1120 // for Super Simple ESCs 10A
//#define MINTHROTTLE 1064 // special ESC (simonk)
#define MINTHROTTLE 1100

/**************************** Motor maxthrottle *******************************/
/* this is the maximum value for the ESCs at full power, this value can be increased up to 2000 */
#define MAXTHROTTLE 2000

/**************************** Mincommand *******************************/
/* this is the value for the ESCs when they are not armed
in some cases, this value must be lowered down to 900 for some specific ESCs, otherwise they failed to initiate */
#define MINCOMMAND 1000

If your throttle goes below the min throttle setting above then you will be able to arm the motors. If your throttle goes down to lets say 900 in the GUI then you can set min command to 950 or even 901in config.h if you wanted as 900 would be recognised as below your min command setting. You will also note that there is a min throttle option, this is the min speed your motors will run at, tick over if you want to call it that, you can lower that until your motors are just turning at min throttle or you could even have them running at nearly take off rpm if you wanted, but not recomended. If you find you dont have enough power then you can increase max throttle to 2000 as I have in my example you should see values about 1900 in the GUI on full throttle with this setting.

[jevermeister]

Sorry. It is not minthrottle or mincommand.
It is mincheck and maxcheck.
1100 and 1900 I believe.

[taylor13]

hi
thanks you both for your help, the problem was the connections between the paris board and the rx, was never explained in the instructions I have now connected and have flown and have crashed. all is good
now just to get used to mode 2 after learning on mode 1
thanks again

[bill516]

Your welcome, nice to get a response that you've fixed things.

[jevermeister]

You are welcome!