Stuck in ESC calibration qaigmire


#1

I’m running through the 21 part drone building video course “How to Build a Drone” that came with the drone kit purchase. I got through to the Fixing Power Module to Frame except that I had issues in an earlier step with calibrating the ESCs. But before I repeated the Calibrating ESCs (X6B Receiver) step I used Mission Planner (MP) to flash the firmware as well as additional calibration of other H/W. I went through the calibration of the ESCs in MP but could not get the motors to respond. I then repeated the Calibrating ESCs (X6B Receiver) step from the course and finally got the motors to respond.

Woot! All was good in Mudville.

Then I proceeded to the “Correct Motor Spin Direction” step. There were 2 motors that needed to be adjusted per the directions in the video by switching any 2 corrections between the ESC and the motor. I did that to one of the motors, tested it and everything worked fine. I did the same to the other motor, went to test it and I could not get ANY of the motors to respond.

“Testing it” meant simply starting the transmitter with trottle down, plugging in the battery, moving the trottle to the lower right for > 1 sec and then moving the trottle up.

I’ve ran through the calibration sequence MANY times it an attempt to get the ESCs calibrated.

However it appears that I’ve really regressed and can not even get the ESCs to go through their audio sequence as described in step #6 as described at https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/esc-calibration.html#esc-calibration.

6. Wait for your ESCs to emit the musical tone, the regular number of beeps indicating your battery’s cell count (i.e. 3 for 3S, 4 for 4S) and then an additional two beeps to indicate that the maximum throttle has been captured.

I’ve disconnected 3 of the motors and their ESCs from the Pixhawk trying to isolate the issue with no luck. At this point I’m pretty much tapped out and really lost confidence in getting this build completed.

Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.


#2

William. Could you re-post your question in the Done Building section rather than Drone Talk?


#3

Moved to Drone Building section.