ESC beeping

C

camryn

Member
I am building an X8 using KDE motors and ESC. Every time the copter is connected to the battery the ESC (or possibly the motors?) start beeping and do not stop. I have looked around and a lot of people mention the throttle calibration needs to be done. I have a hoverfly pro and have read that the throttle calibration is not needed with this. But, because I couldn't figure out the beeping, I decided to try anyways. I plugged each ESC one at a time into the throttle channel and I was able to get the ESC I had plugged in to stop beeping. However, after doing this to a couple ESC the ones I had gotten to stop started up again. The threads I found that spoke of doing the throttle calibration all say to do them one at a time. I believe I am doing it correctly. I have all of the ESC plugged into the flight controller. I take one out at a time and plug it into the throttle channel of the receiver. I set my throttle all of the way up and I power on the drone. And followed the steps and, like I said, I was able to get the right beeps until the beeping stopped for the the moment.
I have also read that this is the sound of the ESC being armed. If that is the case, is this just going to continue to happen every time it's plugged in until I take off?? I still have a couple things to do before flight testing and would like to not have to hear constant beeping. And, of course, I want to make sure that there isn't something I am missing.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated and if more information is needed please let me know and I will provide.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
first remove the props
first remove the props

turn on the transmitter

plug a separate 3 cell pack into the HF PRO board to get it booted up and connected to your transmitter.

move the throttle to full

plug a flight pack into the helicopter

wait for the ESC's to make the sounds that they're entering calibration mode, then move the throttle all the way down. the ESC's should chirp to indicate the calibration was successful.

power cycle everything, reconnect any wires you changed to make this happen, turn the TX on, power up the heli and see if it's all working
 

C

camryn

Member
Thank you for the reply!

Bartman said:
plug a separate 3 cell pack into the HF PRO board to get it booted up and connected to your transmitter.
Click to expand...

Why is it that I need to separately power the HF Pro?
Also, do I need to arm the flight controller before I power on the ESC?
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
the flight controller will need to have a valid throttle signal to send the ESC's at power-up so to do that you need to power it up first and have it sending the high throttle signal for the ESC's to see as they boot-up. that will get the ESC's to enter programming mode and allow you to set the throttle range, aka calibrate the ESC's. you can't necessarily do this when the controller and the ESC's are getting power simultaneously.

although you can try to do it simultaneously, just power the TX and leave the throttle full/high before powering up the helicopter. see if the ESC's enter programming mode. if not, try what I described above.
 

C

camryn

Member
So does the flight controller need to be armed? I believe I need to set the throttle endpoints for this however, after attempting to do so it does not seem like it worked.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
i have a summary somewhere for setting up the hoverfly pro, i can't guarantee i'll be able to find it but i'll look.

get the endpoints set up using the software and then do the calibration of the ESC's
 


C

camryn

Member
Bartman, we tried what you mentioned but it didn't work. I also read in a lot of places to remove the red wire from the ESC's. I tried this and it also did not work. I also saw a diagram in which it said to plug a 5v BEC into the ESC power rail but I am unsure of how to do that on this board. Thank you for any advice.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
the ESC's are beeping because they either don't have a signal from the flight controller (which might indicate that the radio receiver isn't sending a good signal to the HF PRO board) or the lower throttle limit isn't low enough for them to arm. the lack of a useable receiver signal might also be why the HF PRO is blinking purple instead of green.
 

C

camryn

Member
It is flashing green so we do have it armed. We were just informed we need "signal boosters" such as these:

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8356__Turnigy_Rx_Servo_Signal_Booster_2_7v_5v_.html

We are having a hard time finding them in stock though. We were told we need 8 and HobbyKing only has 2 left. Also, we were REALLY hoping to find them local but our hobby shops don't have them and we don't have Radio Shack.

I'll update you incase this works for anyone who has this issue. Of course, you probably thought we already had these...
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
i've heard about signal boosters too but never used them. i have two from Spektrum but never used them, NIB. :( i think it's BS. which board do you have? Black or Green?

let me ask you something, have you been able to hook the fc board to the computer and observe the readouts and stuff from the board?
 

C

camryn

Member
We are able to connect to it and it reacts to the transmitter and will arm. So I would think so. :/ We have the black one.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
when you move the throttle full up or full down does the throttle indicator go up or down and stay there or does it pop back to the middle as the throttle reaches full up or down?
 


Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
with the fc hooked up to the computer, go in the radio menu to EPA (end point adjustment) and with the throttle at full down (idle), increase the lower value until the slider in the hoverfly assistant software pops back to the middle. if you haven't touched this already the throttle will be full down which should be -100%, make the value more negative until the slider pops to the middle and then roll the number back until the slider goes back to the bottom. do the same for the top and then see again if the ESC's beep continuously when the heli is powered up and the throttle is at idle.

it's taking some time but it's all coming back to me. lol
 


Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
how about you post a few pics of the installation. i'm going to guess at this point that your ESC wires are installed upside down, that diagram with the different colors can be confusing the first time
 

C

camryn

Member
Okay I will send you photos ASAP once I get home from work. Thank you for all of your quick replies. It has been a very frustrating and disheartening problem.
 



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