[BigglesLearnsToCrash]

Hi Everyone!

I really hope someone can help with this issue and I apologise for any newbie mistakes, I’m still quite new to this.

I have an Eachine EC250 Quadcopter with the specs..

Brushless motors: Emax MT2204 2300KV
Brushless ESC: 12A
Flight controller: CC3D
Receiver: R6D 6-CH 2.4GHz Receiver
Transmitter: RadioLink 2.4G 9CH AT9

It pretty much as it is here:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2561379-Eachine-EC250-Racer-Drone-with-RadioLink-AT9-Transmitter-RTF-(work-in-progress)

There have been some modifications, FPV, lost alarm, some 3D printed parts.. but at the moment, it’s stripped back to basics,
Motors – ESC’s – CC3D – R6D – AT9
Also, I am running it PPM rather than PWM

I flew it over last year and it worked great.

I’ve come back to it this year and have found that I cannot get it to arm (previously set to Rudder Right). So, I thought I’d go through the setup again.

The first couple of times, I was able to get through to the end of the complete setup and have successfully set up the transmitter; yet it still would not arm (its not set as “Always Disarmed”).

So.. I updated Libre to Black Rhino, up’d the AT9 firmware to most recent version (V1.5.6) and have gone through the complete setup procedure again.

Now the quad will still setup ok, but in Transmitter Wizard, I only get as far as setting the throttle stick and no matter how much I wiggle it, it’s I’m not getting any feedback in Librepilot. Without this, I can’t continue with the setup.

I know the transmitter is connecting to the receiver - the receiver blinks when I turn the transmitter off and the transmitter does show signal strength when the quad is powered.

I have tried back-dating the firmware on the AT9 to the 2015 (V1.5.1) and have done a factory reset, still nothing.

I now I seem to have reached the limit of my limited expertise…

The two issues I see are:
1 –  Unable to arm
2 – no throttle response read in Librepilot from the AT9

It may not be that these two issues are linked but also odd that the lack of response issue only showed itself whilst trying to fix the arming problem. I’m trying to work on issue 2 first of all.

If anyone can provide any ideas or insight I would really appreciate it. I’m happy to give more details or screenshots. I am simply stuck! 

[Mateusz]

Hi,

• Some time ago I had issue in wizard, that throttle moved, but then roll didn't, going back and forth helped, but then yaw didnt etc..
  The problem was noise I think, sometimes it works right away, sometimes it doesn't. When wizard shows move throttle and you do, then it goes to other stick direction and when there is large noise it may mistakenly register this as movement.
  But I think this got fixed by  adding certain threshold that stick must move at least some amount. I haven't observed this recently, so I guess problem is with receiver not receiving anything. Read further points below
  
• In your radio you must have all trims disabled (reset/default) and it should be configured to output yaw,roll,pitch and throttle to specific channels in mixer. If this is not set then obviously FC won't be getting anything on the correct channels.
• After upgrading radio firmware you may need to bind your receiver with radio again.

Arming problem is usually because there might be red boxes in health system. You can hover mouse on box and it says what is wrong. Also some conflicting settings may prevent you from arming.
Keep it mind to avoid (best not to use it at all) the "always armed" setting. This basically bypasses all safety checks which prevent quad from arming, and usually there is a very good reason for that to happen (safety). So you should never use that option and figure out/fix why it is not arming.

You may also go to Scopes, right click on one of scopes and select options. By default there is Scope called "Uptimes" but you can change it to something else.
For example instead of monitoring "SystemStats" you might add SystemAlarms UAVObject and Alarm-receiver UAVField. This will show up in scope so you can fiddle around with that to see what is happening.

Hope that helps a bit.

[BigglesLearnsToCrash]

Thanks Mateusz, Good info!

3 - Yes, I have managed to pair the transmitter and receiver each time I amended the firmware so its not that one,
1 - Interesting, I'll look into this one.
2 - not so sure, nothing of this type was changed that I can think of any reason it should stop working?!? It is possible I changed something when I was trying to setup the first lost alarm.

I should note, I have also tried "Always Armed" and still I get nothing. Although I do not remember if I tried this before or after I lost communication with the transmitter or only afterwards.

I'll have a look more in to this 'Scopes' thing as I'm not sure exactly what it is but sounds useful.

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean by Health System and Red Boxes.. (Still new to Librepolit) as a conflicting setting would make sense.
Could you clarify what you mean?
Thanks for the help!

[f5soh]

Hi, welcome.

Post your config file just before you try the Transmitter wizard.
File > Export UAV settings

Post some pics how you connected the receiver.

[Mateusz]

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean by Health System and Red Boxes.. (Still new to Librepolit) as a conflicting setting would make sense.

I mean that box in GCS Vehicle tab
https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/display/LPDOC/SystemHealth

But send your settings like f5soh suggested.

[BigglesLearnsToCrash]

Ok, got the uav file and some screenshots which may have some useful information.

Theres an image to show the current setup of the quad. (I know probably have too many wires in the flight controller).

[f5soh]

You are using the Pin8 (that's the preferred pin) but the Hardware page show normal PPM input - pin1 (depreciated)
- Select PPM_Pin8

Outputs are set to PWM - 50Hz, you should set at least output banks to PWMSync

Of course you cannot arm because there is no input defined (INPUT red alarm)

Easy way:
All the config issues above can be resolved just following the Setup wizard with PPM - RapidEsc, followed with a Transmitter wizard.

[BigglesLearnsToCrash]

Have done that one...
Results are the same settings by up as standard ESC and Rapid ESC.  Rapid was how I had it setup prior any recent changes..

[f5soh]

No

If you follow the wizard choosing PPM and RapidEsc the Hardware tab show PPM_Pin8 and outputs set as PWMSync.



This resolve both issues you have and also set the PPM settings like you set the physical pin8 as input.

[BigglesLearnsToCrash]

FIXED!
Nicely done f5soh! Thank you so much for that.

I was following your instructions this morning and only started to figure out what what you meant by PIN8 when spinning up the motors. When set as rapid, only one motor was spinning, Standard, all four. I assume this was due to the wiring setup.

I may have inadvertently made this change when trying to fix the buzzer.

Thanks for your help and for taking the time to post the video, I really appreciate it.
I'll reassemble the rest of the quad and get flying again!