Hoverfly Hoverfly PRO and Opto ESC's

[Bartman]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note about a problem I've had and a fix to get past it. After wiring up a coaxial quadcopter I tried to do a firmware update but couldn't. I also couldn't get the HoverCLIENT to establish comm with the board. The red light would sorta blink then go out and then sorta blink again and then go out and stay out. The crazy thing was if I unplugged all of the receiver wires and the ESC wires, the board would work normally.

Al from Hoverfly told me that the Opto ESC's may be grounding the positives (in the servo wires) when power is removed. This might not normally be a big deal but with the PRO board the power input from the USB plug is shared with the first two ESC inputs. If the ESC inputs are shorted in the ESC then the USB will also recognize the short thus preventing the board from acting normally. Al can chime in if this needs more clarification.

Anyway, the solution is to pull the two top-left ESC's from the PRO when you're trying to update firmware or configure the board with the HoverCLIENT. When you're done you can plug them back in and it should work fine. I haven't flown with the Opto ESC's yet but expect to do so today. If it doesn't behave like any other helicopter I'll post here later but as of now I"m expecting it to be fine.

Regards,
Bart

 

[kloner]

ICE 75 does it as well, non opto

 

[ghaynes]

One of the drawings and the suggestion I had from HF was to have the red power wire from the BEC/ESC disconnected from all but the ESC from motor 1 when connecting to the HF board. So I simply slid the center red pin out of the BEC housing in and taped it back on the BEC lead. That way if I needed to use it, such as downloading the log data from the ICE 50's, it was still available. When I asked the issue of power to all of the connections with some ESC's wasn't an issue but with some it caused problems. So the digram and general guidance was only have it for motor 1.

 

[kloner]

is the ice esc opto? you have the red wires from a castle plugged into the hfp? mine wouldn't do that at all, tried taking the grounds away like my other rig and that made the esc's go blank and not boot.

 

[ghaynes]

Kloner the ICE 50's aren't OPTO's, at least as far as I know. I followed the guides on page 41 of the latest manual. It says "Connect power from a single ESC to the HoverflyPro to power the Receiver. " And the drawing shows one BEC lead with ground, power, signal and the remainder having just ground and signal being connected.

 

[Bartman]

Kloner the ICE 50's aren't OPTO's, at least as far as I know. I followed the guides on page 41 of the latest manual. It says "Connect power from a single ESC to the HoverflyPro to power the Receiver. " And the drawing shows one BEC lead with ground, power, signal and the remainder having just ground and signal being connected.

The TIger 30A ESC's don't put power through the red wires, there's no BEC. I haven't checked for residual voltage but I've had every red wire connected (Plush 30 and 40 A) with other 8-motor heli's and haven't any problems with HF PRO flight controllers.

 

[kjella]

hello
can i ask about somthing here
i have my okto setup with turnigy plush 60 amp and tiger u5 motor,so far the octo i flying well,but i am not sure if the plush esc is good for tiger u5 motor?anyone that fly with it?

if not i want to change to tiger 40amp esc,so can i use the tiger 40 amp with hoverflypro and do like i have done with plush esc removed the red wire exept for one esc that goes with black,red, white wires into the hoverfly pro board

 

[tahoelight]

The Turnigy Plush are a great choice for the HFP. Not sure how they would correspond with the U5, but HFP does not need a 400hz esc. My HFP octa (with plush esc's) has been my "go to" rig. It's been issue free and reliable for years! Don't change it if it "Aint Broke!"