QC102

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ESC Calibration
« on: March 21, 2016, 06:27:11 am »
OK - I am an idiot and  my complications will seem trival to most....but

No 14 on the Confluence ESC Calibrations process - says to wait for one beep....... etc,.
I am using Emax 30a Simon Series  and they do not do single beeps... they play you a tune - dit dit - di-da-dit   and  I am told that  if  you go past this - the ESC will go into self calibration mode..
Having spent 20 minutes online to find out what iMac KBs use for  home and End  points- which are PC shortcuts - ( Fn - left and right arrows for apple kb)  I went through the process.
I have the  EMAx programme card and  all the  ESC  are on the same settings
Going on to Test Outputs   I find  that the motors/ESc have different start to  spin points - 1030, 1077, 1042, 1082.   Which I saved.
Testing the motors not connected to the computer - they all seem to star together as I slide the right stick up.

So if anybody is using Emax ESCs am I  Ok  with this or have a got the process wrong?

f5soh

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Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2016, 10:28:12 am »
Never see Simonk Esc with programming card (Manual says "based on Simonk")
If your Esc play a music you are entering manual programming mode.

If Esc are calibrated fine all motor start at exact same value, except if there is mechanical issues.
Take a look at manual attached:

Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2016, 01:34:56 pm »
On January 7, 2016 user SIMONK on the RC Groups.com forum had this reply to a user that asked about throttle calibration on a Maytech ESC :

"Hmm, I'm not sure what software they are actually using there, but I think in general, it's perhaps easier to just set the min/max on the flight controller than to try to go through and calibrate all of the ESCs. Calibration is fine, though, and it should work if you do them all the same -- but calibration in itself is not a precise process, since it has to inject margins to deal with what normally calibration was used for: deviations in oscillator speeds with temperature, stickiness in the sticks or trim, etc.

If it is using my stock endpoints, I usually just use something like this (naze32):
set minthrottle=1064
set maxthrottle=1864 "

The latest BLHELI flash doesn't even have a calibration routine for PWM inputs, only for PPM and ONESHOT.
Q450
Revolution

cato

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Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2016, 06:35:49 pm »
Emax usually use BLHeli while saying it is SimonK. Recently they changed that behavior and now declare them correctly as BLHeli.

About the programming setup: I haven't 30A, but 12A Emax and hope they work alike. If so, the ESCs know two starting sequences, the bip---bip-bip-bip---bip is the normal initialization sequence, in which the "center" beeps tell you the number of cells in your battery, so two beeps are 2S, 3 beeps, 3S a.s.o.

To calibrate the ESCs, they need to go to programming mode. The sound sequence is given in your manual. On mine it is a kinda two note tune. After this sequence you have a few seconds to start calibration (pressing STOP), before they go to "normal" mode with their initialization tune. At least that is how the 12 A work (and it seems all Emax work alike).

If you get the "normal" sequence all the time, then sth is wrong, as the controller is unable to put them into programming mode (usually done by sth like "throttle zero" if you use a tx).
Nighthawk 250, MT1806, 12A ESC OneShot125, Revo, M8n GPS, FPV
Cinetank MKII, Elite 2216, 30A Afro OneShot125, Revo Clone, M8N GPS

QC102

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Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2016, 01:47:55 am »
Thanks to all for  replies and guidance.
I did see the "based on..." but assumed it was just another SimonK clone modified. 

About the  only reason I went with Emax was their programming  gizmo,  which at least  lets me see  all four read the same setting - albeit I have not got to a stage where I would change from default to a "higher grade" setting - basically through lack on knowledge about what the others do!

I have applied logic that  because the default settings are uniform - I have now manually set the  motor start point and leave the end point at 1900.
I just checked  them again and what I find is that motors 1 and 3 (cw) are basically the same setting - as are motors 2 and 4.
I also run the motors for a minute or so to warm them up  before  starting on the  setup.

Is there any significance in the motor settings and axis or is  it  just  this particular set of motors?

Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2016, 06:27:52 pm »
In setting up my quad, the Output Signal Configuration step of the wizard requests info on the ESC's being used - Standard 50 Hz, Rapid 490 Hz, or One Shot.  My machine uses Afro Slim 20A ESC's with SimonK firmware.  Any advice on which I should choose?
Thanks

f5soh

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Re: ESC Calibration
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2016, 06:42:02 pm »
Those are not oneshot compatible so choose "Rapid 490 Hz"

At end you find PWMSyncr in Output tab