Hi guys, this is my first post so bear with me. Have a couple of quick, simple questions...........
I recently bought 4 AKE High Speed PWM 12A ESC's and 4 AKE Quad Dancer QD1200B motors for a X650V4 (FC1212-P & AHRS-V2), in an attempt to gain power without going to the V8 configuration. I'm having some issues getting everything to play well together, and I'm curious if any of you have any experience running aftermarket motors/esc's with the stock FC-1212-P.
I calibrated the TX, changed the ESC profile in XAircraft Center from UltraPWM to Normal ESC (even tried UltraPWM at one point and updated the throttle range - no difference), plugged each ESC/motor into my receiver (AR8000), calibrated the throttle range and the ESC settings (brake off, battery type lipo, cutoff mode soft, cutoff threshold low, start mode normal, timing I've tried high and normal and low). I've also tried battery type NiMH/NiCd to prevent any possible cut-off, although I always test with a full battery (AKE 5850mAh). Later I soldered up a board so I could calibrate all ESC throttle ranges at the same time. They seem pretty close, but never quite on the mark as it is with the stock setup.
It flies erratically - the motors are jittery and seem to randomly pulse, but not nearly as much when the ESC timing is set to low, which is what I have it set to now. I've checked all soldier joints and connectors and they're solid, and I'm using an 5A switch mode UBEC (all red wires on ESC's disconnected) although I've tried it in every possible configuration (external bec, just one esc bec, all esc bec's into the FC).
The only thing I've done to make it flyable is go into Xaircraft center and set auto-leveling gain, attitude control gain and stick gain to 0. That will get it in the air without going crazy. After that, I found that disconnecting the compass helps make it less jittery (always calibrated before trying if that helps, but I'm not even using carefree or heading lock mode at this point). I emailed Jeff at CNCHelicopter (great company and service, by the way) and he recommended balancing rotors/vibration issues. I've balanced and re-balanced everything (motors and rotors), made sure everything was level and in alignment and tried different ways of isolating the AHRS-V2 from vibrations - nothing seems to help. Again, going back to the stock motor setup I have no problems - I've never even balanced the stock rotors or motors.
I'm a bit new to quads, so I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things here. I feel like turning all the gains down to 0 is masking a problem, mainly that the FC1212-P simply doesn't like non-UltraPWM esc's. I just rebuilt it using the original XA motors and esc's and it's nice and smooth, compass or not and autopilot (v2) works great. I'm not at the level of manually adjusting PID values, and although I'm more than willing to try it just seems futile for a guy who, A. doesn't understand the complexity and workings of those settings at this point and B. doesn't have three months to mess around learning on his own, only to find it might not help at all.
I feel like I'm spinning my wheels trying to figure out what's what on this quad. I've seen more info at another message board, only it's in Chinese. A quick google translate seems to show other users with similar issues. Messages like this (from http://bbs.5imx.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?fid=479):
"Seems to XA is still a little pick ESC? My friend said that his ordinary electric adjust it a little shaking, and later for high-speed power transfer becomes stable, it seems that optimization is not in place like. . . . . I need to re-buy a set of XA high-speed power transfer - Now fly is a bit shaking. . . Not the PID is irregular convulsions, a slight jitter. . Turning back to check the damping of the gyroscope"
And this:
"I also met the general ESC cramps, adjusting the sensitivity, the effect or not, for xa ESC lacks the problem, but it seems ordinary electric tone optimization is not in place"
Another message mentioned that the "double-P" setup didn't seem to help, referring to the FC1212-P and AHRS-P - which brings me to my next question...what's the status of the AHRS-P anyways? New firmware is showing up in XACenter, I assume it hasn't been released yet, or hasn't been released in the USA because it seems that a bunch of people in China are using it. I've also seen ground station prototypes and other things randomly. Where do you get any consistent information out there?
Is there any other aftermarket UltraPWM ESC that might solve my problems? I know I'll hear "buy a DJI NAZA" but it's not really an option for me and my wallet. I saw that CNChelicopters has a XA 20A ESC for the X450 - anybody know if this is an UltraPWM type, and would it work with an appropriate sized aftermarket motor?
http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet/the-1922/Xaircraft--new-20A/Detail
So I figure I might have these options for increasing payload (trying to keep everything around 1800g, let's say under 2000g comfortably):
-Find an aftermarket ESC (UltraPWM?) and motor combination that will allow me to continue running a V4 configuration with the FC1212-P.
-Stick with the XA ESC/motors and upgrade to the V8 configuration.
-Change to the XA Hexa frame, using all XA FC components and XA stock motors, and see if it will meet my payload needs (anybody know on that one?)
Sorry to write a small story, but have a lot on the mind!
I recently bought 4 AKE High Speed PWM 12A ESC's and 4 AKE Quad Dancer QD1200B motors for a X650V4 (FC1212-P & AHRS-V2), in an attempt to gain power without going to the V8 configuration. I'm having some issues getting everything to play well together, and I'm curious if any of you have any experience running aftermarket motors/esc's with the stock FC-1212-P.
I calibrated the TX, changed the ESC profile in XAircraft Center from UltraPWM to Normal ESC (even tried UltraPWM at one point and updated the throttle range - no difference), plugged each ESC/motor into my receiver (AR8000), calibrated the throttle range and the ESC settings (brake off, battery type lipo, cutoff mode soft, cutoff threshold low, start mode normal, timing I've tried high and normal and low). I've also tried battery type NiMH/NiCd to prevent any possible cut-off, although I always test with a full battery (AKE 5850mAh). Later I soldered up a board so I could calibrate all ESC throttle ranges at the same time. They seem pretty close, but never quite on the mark as it is with the stock setup.
It flies erratically - the motors are jittery and seem to randomly pulse, but not nearly as much when the ESC timing is set to low, which is what I have it set to now. I've checked all soldier joints and connectors and they're solid, and I'm using an 5A switch mode UBEC (all red wires on ESC's disconnected) although I've tried it in every possible configuration (external bec, just one esc bec, all esc bec's into the FC).
The only thing I've done to make it flyable is go into Xaircraft center and set auto-leveling gain, attitude control gain and stick gain to 0. That will get it in the air without going crazy. After that, I found that disconnecting the compass helps make it less jittery (always calibrated before trying if that helps, but I'm not even using carefree or heading lock mode at this point). I emailed Jeff at CNCHelicopter (great company and service, by the way) and he recommended balancing rotors/vibration issues. I've balanced and re-balanced everything (motors and rotors), made sure everything was level and in alignment and tried different ways of isolating the AHRS-V2 from vibrations - nothing seems to help. Again, going back to the stock motor setup I have no problems - I've never even balanced the stock rotors or motors.
I'm a bit new to quads, so I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things here. I feel like turning all the gains down to 0 is masking a problem, mainly that the FC1212-P simply doesn't like non-UltraPWM esc's. I just rebuilt it using the original XA motors and esc's and it's nice and smooth, compass or not and autopilot (v2) works great. I'm not at the level of manually adjusting PID values, and although I'm more than willing to try it just seems futile for a guy who, A. doesn't understand the complexity and workings of those settings at this point and B. doesn't have three months to mess around learning on his own, only to find it might not help at all.
I feel like I'm spinning my wheels trying to figure out what's what on this quad. I've seen more info at another message board, only it's in Chinese. A quick google translate seems to show other users with similar issues. Messages like this (from http://bbs.5imx.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?fid=479):
"Seems to XA is still a little pick ESC? My friend said that his ordinary electric adjust it a little shaking, and later for high-speed power transfer becomes stable, it seems that optimization is not in place like. . . . . I need to re-buy a set of XA high-speed power transfer - Now fly is a bit shaking. . . Not the PID is irregular convulsions, a slight jitter. . Turning back to check the damping of the gyroscope"
And this:
"I also met the general ESC cramps, adjusting the sensitivity, the effect or not, for xa ESC lacks the problem, but it seems ordinary electric tone optimization is not in place"
Another message mentioned that the "double-P" setup didn't seem to help, referring to the FC1212-P and AHRS-P - which brings me to my next question...what's the status of the AHRS-P anyways? New firmware is showing up in XACenter, I assume it hasn't been released yet, or hasn't been released in the USA because it seems that a bunch of people in China are using it. I've also seen ground station prototypes and other things randomly. Where do you get any consistent information out there?
Is there any other aftermarket UltraPWM ESC that might solve my problems? I know I'll hear "buy a DJI NAZA" but it's not really an option for me and my wallet. I saw that CNChelicopters has a XA 20A ESC for the X450 - anybody know if this is an UltraPWM type, and would it work with an appropriate sized aftermarket motor?
http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet/the-1922/Xaircraft--new-20A/Detail
So I figure I might have these options for increasing payload (trying to keep everything around 1800g, let's say under 2000g comfortably):
-Find an aftermarket ESC (UltraPWM?) and motor combination that will allow me to continue running a V4 configuration with the FC1212-P.
-Stick with the XA ESC/motors and upgrade to the V8 configuration.
-Change to the XA Hexa frame, using all XA FC components and XA stock motors, and see if it will meet my payload needs (anybody know on that one?)
Sorry to write a small story, but have a lot on the mind!
Going to get away from XA completely. Looks like the XA USA guy is out of business anyway so may take that as a sign.