manual esc calibration problem
« on: March 09, 2018, 02:37:56 pm »
First time posting in here...My setup is a Qav180, RHD D2204-2300kv, little bee BLHeli 30a esc, cc3d, spm4648, DXe. Now thats out of the way, I am having a issue with motor #1 that carries the power, twitches before start up. For say the other three will fire up at 1065 but #1 will twitch till it reaches 1090.

I have tried the manual esc calibration, where I disconnected 2,3,4 and left 1 hooked up, power up transmitter, full throttle, plug in battery, esc beeps, throttle down and no conformation beep. Not Sure what I am doing here as I am new to this program and drones completely.

Re: manual esc calibration problem
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2018, 10:05:14 pm »
Edit: Oh, could very well be because #1 is warmer... because you are using it's BEC.  You could prove that by changing to use #2 to power the CC3D.  Do you have the red wire on the other ESCs disconnected?  I always leave them all connected (parallel).  That is 100% OK as long as the ESC's BEC is linear.  Even with all connected, one ESC will carry the lion's share of the power due to mfg tolerances.  Most ESCs actually have 2 BEC chips inside them, so they are already built with parallel BECs.

Do the other ESCs twitch at lower than 1065?  Trying to make sure that they at least all act alike.  If you just can't calibrate them, you can just run them as they are, with some set to 1065 and one to 1090.  I would add about 20 to those numbers because the numbers drop as the ESCs warm up (some ESCs, usually the ones without a separate frequency source called external oscillator).

For manual calibration, you must follow the instructions carefully.  In particular, you are keeping the CC3D FC powered via USB on all the time, but you apply power to the ESCs via flight battery only when asked to.  Also, you should use 1900 for max, not 2000.  That's because 2000us times 500hz = 1 which means that there is no time for the pulse to be off, so it doesn't work.

The motor is the speaker for the beep.  You must have motors hooked up to hear the beeps.  I hate to say it, but taking the props off makes it a lot harder to hear the beeps.  Don't put props on, instead put your ear close to the motor if your hearing is not the best.  :)

Did you try following the ESC calibration instructions in the wiki?  And the comment at the bottom is some good background info to help you understand more.
https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LPDOC/pages/12058743/ESC+Calibration

I don't have any of those ESCs.  Maybe someone that has some can give you more info.  I know that @Mateusz has those ESCs.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2018, 10:24:51 pm by TheOtherCliff »

Re: manual esc calibration problem
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2018, 04:10:22 am »
#1 has all 3 wires
#2-4 Just have the orange wire, the red and brown are cut

Only #1 twitches til around 1090ish
The other 3 start up around 1060-1065

Attached is a pic of my esc's

Re: manual esc calibration problem
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2018, 04:18:00 am »
I ended up buying a new quad today as this one is bugging me and I wanna learn to fly sooner than later. This one will be a project.. picked up a spedix s250 black widow, changed out the crappy receiver with my 4648 and bonded my DXe, which was a pita, but that clearflight took a bit to get use to it. Kinda like the cmd prompt to write codes to change values, old school like I'm use to.

Re: manual esc calibration problem
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2018, 10:43:39 am »
What you did with your wiring will work, but I always leave all 3 wires intact on all ESCs.

The only time you really need to remove the red wire is if the ESCs have switching BECs (uncommon) or if you have a stand alone switching BEC in addition to the BECs in the ESCs.

Also, instead of cutting the wire, you can carefully lift the tiny flap on the servo connector the smallest distance possible with a #11 X-acto and slide the pin (actually a socket) out.  Fold back the wire and tape.