Need help with Tricopter setup with KK board

[CasualChaos]

I have everything connected to my Tricopter, but my motors do not spin up together.
The front left motor spins up at about 20% throttle at a high RPM. The front right spins up at about 50% throttle and the rudder motor spins up around 60%. Once I get around 60% throttle, all of the motors seem to close in RPM but I have not put a tach on it. I am using the red KK board from KK Multicopter with V1.6 firmware.
Transmitter - DX7
Receiver - AR6200
ESC - Turnigy plush 20A

I really don't want to put the props on it with the motors spinning like they are. I also tried the throttle calibration but the procedure doesn't make sense. I states to "put the throttle in the full up position the power it on", but I can't arm the board with the throttle in the full up position. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bartman]

CC
Usually the throttle/ESC calibration is done without the flight board hooked up. The way to do it is to hook an ESC up to your receiver in the throttle channel using a spare Rx battery. I forget the exact procedure but I think you put the throttle to full up with the radio on and then attach the battery to the receiver. Then pull the throttle back to idle and I think it's done. Do that for each ESC and you'll be all calibrated and ready to go. Attach motors to the ESC's if it doesn't work or if you want to hear the chirps from the ESC's when calibrating.
Good luck,
Bartman

 

[RCNut]

Hi CasualChaos

Not sure how you went on this as you havent responded. However Ive just replaced the motors on my home built Tricopter with new more powerful ones and I've had to revisit the throttle calibration again.

On the KK board you need to;

1. Power OFF the controller board and your transmitter.
2. Set the TRIM pot to Minimum (usually fully counterclockwise)
3. Switch your transmitter ON.
4. Set the throttle to FULL.
5. Connect power to your controller board
6. Wait until the ESCs initial beeps, then after that they will beep twice.
7. Quickly move the throttle to minimum (OFF)
8. The ESCs will beep again.
9. Power off the flight controller then the transmitter.
10. Restore the YAW pot.

Now when you turn on your transmitter and power on your controller board the motors should all start together.
Also make sure your ESCs are programmed for NiCad batteries otherwise they may shut down when the Lipo battery voltage gets too low. Ive added a separate low voltage alarm that beeps and flashes when the battery voltage gets too low.

Ian

 

[CasualChaos]

Thanks Ian and Bartman for the information. I finally got it figured out. I set the ESC throttle range individually then set it with them connectd to the KK board. The problem was that the Yaw pot was reversed, so when I went to turn the Yaw pot to min, I was actually turning it to max which prevented me from setting the throttle range. Once I figured that out, I was able to set it and everything is working great.

I added a low voltage alarm to mine as well and it is a very loud indicator of low voltage. BTW, what should I set the alarm to go off at? I belive I have mine set for 3.5v per cell. Is this too low?