I’m building a Lynxmotion HQuad500. I’ve made good progress, I’ve connected the Quadrino Nano to Radiolink AT9S controller successfully, and I can see throttle and suchlike movements behaving properly on WinGUI.
I’m now trying to configure ESCs.
I have all four ESC RC cables plugged into the Quadrino Nano as described in section 2.3.3 of the Nano User Guide. I have the power harness disconnected from three of the ESCs. I have previously had all four connected to the battery.
My problem is that when I connect the ESC to the battery and power harness, I hear the Quadrino Nano sound three notes, but I don’t hear three beeps from the motor. The motor is connected to the ESC. There are no markers on the ESC motor connectors or on the wires from the motor, so I am presuming that any motor connector can plug into any ESC connector.
Any suggestions?
My thoughts are:
How do I test the connection between the Nano and the ESC?
Have I accidentally pre activated the ESC? If so, how can I reset it?
How can I test that power and signal are getting though to the battery?
Thanks for that! I’ve followed the instructions meticulously, however, at step 10 I just hear the three fast beeps and not the one short beep. I confirm that the stick in my controller is in the up/throttle on position, and that WinGUI is confirming that this is the high throttle position. (Clearly, I’ve had to connect the USB and reinstall default firmware to confirm this - I had removed the USB and installed calibration firmware to calibrate the motors.)
I’ve used a multimeter to measure 12v across the battery terminals, and also 12v across the four sets of exit terminals from the power harness, so those are fine. The SSC providing power to the Quadrino Nano is hot, and the Nano and RadioLink receiver are showing LEDs, so they’re on. This makes me think that power is reaching the SSCs.
There is no voltage, however, across any of the SSC exit terminals/terminals that connect with the motors, even with the throttle in the up position.
You cannot calibrate the ESC using the Quadrino when MultiWii is loaded.
So i don’t understand the explanation with WinGUI confirming and the throttle UP/Down.
Nope - understand that, and apologies if my text was confusing!
So I installed the configuration firmware, put the stick into the up position (which I had previously checked on WinGUI was the high throttle position) and then connected the battery. Neither WinGUI nor the USB cable were connected.
All I heard were the three fast tones, with no other tones. I didn’t hear anything when I put the throttle stick in the down position.
I’ve replaced the ESCs with new ones, just in case the earlier attempts at calibration were problematic.
I’ve increased the controller sensitivity to 125%, meaning that top and bottom settings are comfortably over top and bottom ranges in WinGUI.
The connection and behaviour of the Nano seems perfect, including the connection to it from the controller. The throttle, pitch, yaw, and sensors are behaving as expected in WinGUI.
Power is going through the power harness because Nano LEDs light up when the battery is connected.
It’s unlikely that all four motors are broken or that all four ESCs are faulty.
All I’m hearing when I connect the battery with the throttle on full are the three tones, with no follow up tones.
I wonder if the Nano output is faulty or the connector from the Nano to the ESCs is faulty?
Is Robotshop able to supply me with a replacement Nano or a replacement connector between the Nano and the ESCs? Or is there anything else I should try?
The only other observations I have is that it seems odd that the three wired from each motor are not colour coded, and that they seem to be plugging randomly into the non-colour-coded wires from the ESCs. Have I missed something here?
Let me try to explain in more detail and sorry, my English is not always perfect.
The calibration of the ESC’s is required for them to know what’s a Low and High signal since RC systems do not send the same signal.
It’s also to have all 4 behaving the same when sending a given signal.
Signal we are talking about here is a PWM signal, the same style send to RC servos.
It’s a pulse and the time the pulse is HIGH determine the signal. (1500uS is usually the middle)
There are two ways to calibrate the ESC’s, one involve the Transmitter / Receiver and the other Only the Quadrino.
When doing the calibration through the Quadrino, the custom firmware that’s flashed to the board don’t do anything but the calibration (transmitter inputs are ignored).
Usual calibration steps for an ESC (general information, not linked to UAV’s)
Send a HIGH signal to the ESC
Power the ESC
Beeping sound confirming the HIGH value is stored
Send a LOW signal to the ESC
Beeping sound confirming the LOW value is stored
This sequence is Hard Coded in the custom firmware and will just run upon powerup.
It’s important to power the ESC and the Quadrino at the same time in this process, if the Quadrino is powered by USB it will not run the code.
If you want, you can connect the ESC’s to the throttle channel and do it manually one by one for each ESC’s
Regarding the 3 wires, that’s a brushless motor and the connections are not important.
You just connect each wires and if the motor do not turn the right direction, just invers any two wires.
I’ve had no success with programming all 4 ESCs at the same time, even trying it with a freshly downloaded calibration script.
I have succeeded in calibrating each ESC in turn. When I connect the throttle cable directly to each ESC and move the throttle stick up, the motors spin up nicely. Major success! To me, this proves that all four ESCs work and are programmed, and all four motors work.
When I reprogram the Quadrino Nano with the normal script, arm the motors and put the throttle stick up, three motors behave perfectly and spin up properly.
The ESC/motor connected to the brown cable does not spin up. When I swap the brown cable to the previously working yellow cable motor, it does not work. When I connect the yellow cable to the ESC/motor that previously did not work, the ESC/motor works perfectly.
To me, this proves that the cable harness linking the Nano to the ESCs is faulty, specifically with respect to the brown cable. Do you agree? If so, how do I get a replacement?
IMPORTANT NOTE: The connector between the Nano and each ESC connect in two ways - an easy way that feels natural and a hard way that feels as if it shouldn’t really work. The ESCs don’t work if you connect them with the east fitting way. They only work if you make the connection in the way that feels wrong. This held me up for a long time.
Two more images uploaded to the Evernote link above…
All 10 pins are normal - i.e. not bent. Photo uploaded.
Multirotor type is QuadX. I’ve uploaded a photo, and I’ve reflashed the board with the config to make sure.
Curiously, I’m seeing a 100 ohm resistance across both ends of the brown wire. I’m seeing approximately the same across both ends of the yellow wire. (My multimeter has a minimum resistance setting of 200 ohms.) I’m interpreting that as low, meaning that the problem may not be with the brown wire itself?
Incidentally, I don’t like having shareable links open - are you good if I unshare the Evernote link now?
Usually you would put your multimeter in conductor verification (beep) when there is a continuity to test the wires.
I can have the board / cables replaced for you.
