ggrif

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Littlebee ESC issues
« on: August 17, 2016, 06:02:20 am »

Working on a prototype CNC'd "billet baltic birch😜" frame. Using Littlebee 30's because of small size/solid state caps. Having a bit of trouble during Vehicle Setup LP 15.09, original OP Revo.

Flashed the 'bees with BL Heli 15.06 (I think, whatever the latest is, as of today). Problem, when I get to the Motor Output module in New Vehicle Setup in GCS only motor 1 and motor 4 turn, nothing from 2 and 3. But, when I finish the wizard, all 4 motors arm and respond to throttle, pitch, yaw, roll commands. Motors 2&3 twitch whenever flight battery is connected, armed or not.

Over the past few years I've run the vehicle setup wizard probably a hundred times, I've never seen this behavior before. I'm sure it's related to the 'bees, just don't know how to fix this.  Don't want to fly until I understand what's going on.  I've found a few mentions of the twitch issue but the fixes suggested don't apply. I'd really like to know why the motors don't respond during setup.

As always, thanks in advance for any help

Re: Littlebee ESC issues
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2016, 07:15:18 am »
Sometimes if you reverse the motor/esc direction in blheli suite the min and max on the esc will be different. It may fix itself if you leave them normal direction in the blheli suite and just swap the wires. So they may need another calibration. That should stop the twitching. Good directions in the wiki without using the wizard.  Sorry I don't have a link. Also going back through blhelisuite and making sure all settings are the same. Min and max for all escs. Start force all that stuff.

Also the little check box at the top of the blheli suite. Disables programming from the Tx. I believe it makes the flight controller unable  to change the settings in the wizard setup.


« Last Edit: August 17, 2016, 07:20:22 am by NicholasDavid »
5" alien 4s 596grams with battery and GoPro FPV
Lantian LT210 4s 604grams with batt and GoPro FPV
GE X220 4s 6" 513grams with batt and HD cam FPV
Homemade acro X copter. 6" 4s - like a warpquad LOS

ggrif

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Re: Littlebee ESC issues
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2016, 05:47:46 pm »
Thanks for your reply.

I did reverse motor 1 in BLH, it is set back to normal now, wires changed instead. No change in results in the wizard setup nor manual.

I unticked the Programming by Tx box (even though the pop up says that disables throttle calibration mode, try anything at this point) for each ESC and re-verified for the third time all BLH settings are correct and the same for each controller. Neither manual cal nor wizard cal worked.

I re-ticked the boxes, and when re-connecting ESCs to FC noticed motors 1&4 gave me a beep when re-connected, motors 2&3 did not, as was the case in previous tries. Swapped connectors around, 1&4 gave me a beep where ever connected, 2&3 did not. Hmmmmm.
Opened LP, attempted manual motor neutral setup, motors 1,2(!) and 4 spun up, 3 did not, set neutral for all four at 1025 (Sunnysky 2216-9 1100 BTW).

Disconnected flight battery and pulled USB connecting FC, let everything sit for two minutes, reconnected, tested outputs, all 4 motors spun up!  What the?  Nothing I dislike more then solving (?) a problem and not knowing what solved it. Motors seem to have stopped twitching too.

Guess I'll go ahead and finish up and try a very cautious test flight.

Re: Littlebee ESC issues
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2016, 10:26:23 pm »
Glad it all worked out.
5" alien 4s 596grams with battery and GoPro FPV
Lantian LT210 4s 604grams with batt and GoPro FPV
GE X220 4s 6" 513grams with batt and HD cam FPV
Homemade acro X copter. 6" 4s - like a warpquad LOS

ggrif

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  • 178
Re: Littlebee ESC issues: resolved, disabled OneShot125
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2016, 01:37:08 am »
I was not happy not knowing what had "fixed" my problem. Although I was able to make several successful test flights I wasn't confident the issue would not return.

I am happy with my frames performance so I decided to try out the latest NEXT. Encountered the same issue, wasn't able to resolve it until I found a post on another forum about ESC calibration issues with Littlebees. Although the FC in question was a Naze 32 and the problem was related to Rev6 of their operating system I figured I'd try the fix anyway. Illogical, I know but I've been fighting this for weeks. Fix consisted of disconnecting any 5v power going to the board during ESC cal since the board was powered via USB as well.

It worked! All motors beeping and spinning happily. Until I disconnected/reconnected flight battery, motors 2&3 dropped out, again.

Finally, I disabled OneShot, several days, flights later I am gaining confidence the problem is solved

Now, why did doing that fix it?  Maybe next ver blheli will fix?

Re: Littlebee ESC issues
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2016, 06:27:20 am »
I recall hearing there is an issue with BLHeli OneShot.  Motors take minutes to arm sometimes.

Switching to PwmSync may fix your issue if you don't mind running a slower ESC protocol until there is a fix?