LibrePilot Forum
Users => Vehicles - MultiRotors => Topic started by: Dragonfish on November 07, 2016, 04:16:40 pm
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I just finished building a new quad and I'm trying to get it set up with LibrePilot. I follow the vehicle setup wizard and when I test it out it goes from 0 to full throttle by 1/4 stick. Unfortunately I didn't catch that the first time I tested it and the quad shot up into the air. I managed to land it safely. To fix that I tried to move the upper limit down to just over where it feels like full throttle. Now I get smooth throttle all the way up to full stick but it won't lift off. What am I missing?
Frame: Robocat
Motors: Emax 2204 2300kv
ESC: Emax 20amp
FC: CC3D
Battery: Turnigy 1300mah 20C
Please help!
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Take a look here:
https://forum.librepilot.org/index.php?topic=2585.msg18027#msg18027
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Great thanks! I'll try it tonight!
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and here :)
https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/display/LPDOC/ESC+Calibration
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Well it turns out both of those options were already checked. I ran through the entire calibration process again and it still does the same thing.
When I arm the quad, I get to full throttle by 1/4 stick. From there all the way up to full stick the RPM stays the same.
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I just made interesting progress. I set the max output to 1350 then recalibrated and now I got the quad to hover one foot off the ground at full throttle. The motors were screaming so I have to be pretty close. Ideas?
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Does anybody have any other suggestions? I'm stuck!
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Don't like to think of someone being stuck.
- are all the props definitely on the right way up ?
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I just made interesting progress. I set the max output to 1350 then recalibrated and now I got the quad to hover one foot off the ground at full throttle. The motors were screaming so I have to be pretty close. Ideas?
Why would you expect it to fly higher than a foot if you backed the max output down to about a third of it's full range?
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I just made interesting progress. I set the max output to 1350 then recalibrated and now I got the quad to hover one foot off the ground at full throttle. The motors were screaming so I have to be pretty close. Ideas?
Why would you expect it to fly higher than a foot if you backed the max output down to about a third of it's full range?
I was getting ready to say the same exact thing...
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It's difficult to describe the behavior, I considered making a video.
So if I have the quad connected to my computer and Librepilot open and I go into ESC calibration, following the steps linked above I get weird results. If I have the min and max set at 1000/1900 and arm the quad with the sliders at 1000 then slowly move them up the motors start spinning somewhere around 1100 iirc and the RPMs keep increasing they hit max at 1300. Moving the sliders further to the right does not result in the RPMs increasing at all. So when I disconnect that all and arm the quad and use the transmitter the motors hit full throttle by 1/4 stick. This results in the quad shooting skyward almost uncontrollably. My logic was if I reduce the max to just a bit over that 1300 result it would smooth out the throttle response and in practice that's exactly what happened. Instead of hitting max throttle at 1/4 stick it got to max almost at full stick. Unfortunately it did not have enough thrust to get any higher than 12".
I have also learned that the ESC's may not be EMAX at all. They came with a Hobbyking Black Widow and aren't labeled. They may not even be 20 AMP.
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(Take a look here)
and here :)
https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/display/LPDOC/ESC+Calibration
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Hey Cliff! I followed those instructions to the letter the other day and it didn't help. I'm going to try to follow them again and video the process. Maybe you guys can spot something I'm doing wrong. Thanks again!
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What are your minimum throttle settings? Most of my quads are similar to yours and my minimums are around 1025 and the max settings are 1900. Maybe your max is too low. I'm pretty new at this so I'm just guessing. :)
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Ok! I finally got a video of my problem taken. I appologize for the suckage. At this point I'm starting to think it's hardware failure but I'm not sure which part to start with. I'm leaning toward the FC but I might just buy new ESC's too. Thoughts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaXbP7RKvBI
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Hi Dragonfish,
You mention in the movie that you tried calibrating using transmitter, librepilot, openpilot and nothing works. That sounds like ESCs just don't get calibrated.
In BLHeliSuite there is an option to enable/disable TX programming, if it's disabled, then it's not possible to calibrate ESCs over servo.
Since you tested different possibilities, I suggest checking what firmware is flashed to your ESCs and updating it. Hope that helps. If it's BLHeliSuite configurator also allows setting min/max PPM or shows if these values changed after calibration. If you have SimonK try updating it.
Hope that gets you closer to solving your problem.
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I've spent the morning trying to find out more about these ESCs and I'm not getting very far. They came with my quad (when it used to be a Hobbyking Black Widow) and I can't even be sure what firmware they use. I'm starting to think it's more work than it's worth and I should just buy new ones. Then I think I should get a new flight controller while I'm at it to take advantage of the newer technology. That leads me to also want to buy a new receiver because my current one only supports PWM. Quite a large snowball.
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That way you might end up with 6 quads and ban for new toys at home. Don't ask how I know ;)
If I were you I would still invest time to fix them. First because it's an interesting learning experience, and second it's a pity not to use them :) Good rule is not to buy new toys until you can't really use or used what you have. That way you won't end up with lots of unused electronics that gets old :)
Just get one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/RC-Afro-ESC-USB-Programming-Tool-/252218313626
Connect servo wire to it, power up ESC with battery and connect using BLHeliSuite https://blhelisuite.wordpress.com hopefuly it detects these ESCs.
According to this post your ESCs have Atmel chip https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2526838-Hobbyking-Black-Widow-260-12A-ESC-identification
So Afro-ESC-Programming-Tool should be able to read them. That way you can determine what they're flashed with.
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If you have an Arduino then you can use it to flash or verify the firmware using BLHeli Suite. I just used my Arduino UNO to flash my AfroESC 12A from simonk to BLHeli 14.8 I believe. https://oscarliang.com/esc-1-wire-bootloader-signal-cable-blheli-simonk/ (https://oscarliang.com/esc-1-wire-bootloader-signal-cable-blheli-simonk/) If the esc doesn't connect to the software then they may have been sent without a compatible bootloader
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I have an arduino uno sitting brand new in it's box at home! You just gave me a weekend project :D
Thanks!
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Is it possible that my ESCs don't have a bootloader? I've tried multiple combinations of pins and different interface types in BLHelisuite and none of them can find my ESC. They connect just fine to my Arduino though.
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It's very possible that they weren't flashed with a Simonk or BLHeli boot loader/firmware. You could end up buying a Amtel Atmega flasher. It has a socket that fits on the actual IC. They have some sort of base firmware that lets them work as an ESC but none that would work with BLHeli
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Yes it's quite possible there is no bootloader.
However you can use standard method for programming Atmel AVR (Atmega) chips, which is ISP programmer. Luckly you can turn your Arduino into ISP programmer by flashing correct sketch on it. Even better, BLHeliSuite has option that does this for you.
Check this article https://oscarliang.com/change-bootloader-esc-atmel/
I don't know if with this approach BLHelSuite can detect previous firmware (it should) but I always knew what my ESCs are, so I didnt pay attention. I am pretty sure you can flash them, even add bootloader and be happy. The only difficulty might be: What to flash with ? :) But if you know what firmware is compatible then it's easy. I would say give it a try and check it it's possible to read what's flashed there, at worst case you will learn about ISP programming :)
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Put a prop on one motor and run it up with a load. I know that most of my motors have some top end deadband (not nearly that much though?) if they don't have a prop on.
I find that there is always a little bit of top end deadband, and I remove it (after calibration) by reducing the max pulse width. If you actually get full power at 1500us then just set that for your max. :)
There are things in the ESC CPU called fuses which are just settings. One of those fuses controls the CPU clock speed. If the fuses were set wrong, the CPU would be running at low speed and not be capable of keeping up with a motor spinning at top speed and so it does not let the motor run faster than it can keep up with. I would read the fuses and see what the CPU clock speed is, and also research what the fuses should be set to. ESCs will sometimes (should always) document what their max RPM is, and it is based on the code and the CPU clock speed.