Okay so this is my fist post to this forum and I can't figure out what's going on with my FC's software.  So I guess just bare with me while I write a short novel. I'm going to try to get all the info out there at once so you guys can help me faster.

Okay so I'm more or less a total noob to this hobby I have flown quads before but this is my first build. I think I bit off a little more than I could chew here but that's how you learn right? My flight controller is a SPracing f3 deluxe, the motors I'm running are Hobbymate 2204-2300kv they work great I'v tested them and I really like the motors. I'm planning on using 5x4.5x3 Props but I haven't even gotten that far. The ESCs that I'm using are Hobbypower 30 amp. I've done some reseach on them for documentation and according to the internet they are a clone of the Hobbywing 30 amp ESCs. Don't know if that will help but I'm putting it put there anyway. My PDB is a Matek Systems PDB XT60 Idon't think it realy matters but I'm putting it out there anyway. So back to the FC, I flashed it with CleanFlight and got it connected to the receiver using PWM. That all when pretty smoothly, I know they're talking because I can turn it on and see values jump around in the receiver tab of clean flight. when I plug the battery in the ESCs make the normal starting BEEP BEEP BEEP and then repeat a single beep with a 1-2 second pause in between them. I think that means that ESCs aren't getting any signal from the FC, but I'm not sure how to check/fix that if it is the case. I have tried going to the motors tab and playing with the sliders there to see if the motors do anything, but still no response. I tried it with every different ESC protocol option in the configuration tab.

So the biggest question is how do I get he motors to turn on and spin?

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to the hobby.  It is a steep learning curve with the first built.  Hopefully I can help.

First off, can you post a picture of your ESC?  Hobbywing makes a few ESC.  Some are BLHeli loaded and others do not. Or you can try to open BLHeli configurator (chrome extension) or BLHeli suite (stane alone program) and see if your ESCs are recognized.  If yes, you can flash with the latest firmware.

Open Cleanflight and pick protocol Oneshot125 (we can change protocol later)
Next, you should calibrate your ESC. 
Go to motor tab
Slide the Master slider all the way up, plug in your lipo
ESC will play a melody, once finished
Slide the Master slider all the way down
ESC will play another melody, once that is finish.
Your ESC are calibrated.

Now test the motors.  Unplug the lipo.
Make sure all sliders are at the bottle (1000).
Click the switch on the right with the warning "I understand the risk......"
Plug in Lipo.  Slowly slide motor 1 up until it spins. It should not take more than 1100 to make motor spins.  Now pull the slider down and test the rest of the motor.  Make sure the motors are spinning in the correct direction.

If all goes well, you ESC and motors are more or less working.  To truly ARM you quad for flight, you can stick ARM or switch ARM.  I prefer switch ARMing, which will take configuring you Radio TX and configuring under Cleanflight.  Once you get your motors working, we can work on the ARM part.  If you have trouble with the motor spinning, we will probably need more details about your wiring.

I your receiver is being recognized in Cleanflight but the motors won't spin up in the motors tab, it's quite possible that your ESCs are not connected to your flight controller properly. Some photos of your wiring setup may help to track down the issue.

Hm i would say the escs beeping would mean signal is ok? If they weren't getting a valid signal, they would only beep 3 times i think. As voodoo said, did you click the safety checkbox on the right side in the motor tab to enable motors?

Other than that... i read about problems with PWM receivers several times. If you still don't get it to work, maybe disconnect the receiver and set it back to default just to test motors alone.

Thanks for all of the feed back! First off I backed up all my settings, then is reset the board to it's default settings. Then I tried again with the sliders under the motor tab (with the box/switch checked), still nothing. So I disconnected the ESCs a plugged them into my servo tester. I then turned the servo tester all the way up and plugged in the battery, the ESCs did exactly what Voodoo said they would, so I turned the servo tester all the way down and they played the melody again Like Voodoo said they would. So I'm assuming that the ESCs are now calibrated. I'm pretty much still at a loss as to what going on so I'll post the pictures that I took.






Okay I think that's it.

You stated you tried every protocol in the ESC protocol drop down. Did you do a "Save and Reboot" each time? (Please pardon the question.) . I doubt that your ESCs will handle Oneshot so you should probably select PWM.

Just read a thread over at RCG on PWM on the SPRacing F3.  One thing that jumped out was this post:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost...stcount=11

His AETR channels were stuck in a Failsafe mode, and he used the CL to fix it.  You might find something in the remainder of the thread if that doesn't work - it's only a couple of pages. (One guy said his started working when he plugged in the AUX channels from the Rx.)

okay Thank I will take a look, and probably go thought the different Protocols again.

Well in short that didn't fix it the ESCs still aren't recognizing a control signal from the FC.

Your earlier reply came in pretty quickly after mine - did you see my second reply above about the failsafe?

Yes I went into the CLI and Change the rxfail channels 0-3 to h still nothing. The ESCs will boot up and play the three BEEPs and then nothing just a BEEP every second, and they get more and more out of sync the longer you leave it plugged in. when i use my servo tester the ESCs will make the normal BEEP,BEEP,BEEP, at the beginning and then it makes three fast beeps and a slow one after that i can turn the dial on the servo tester and the motor spins up just fine. I'll see if I can upload a video for you guys.

Sorry then i misunderstood, i thought you meant 3 beeps plus a single beep.

(07-Jun-2017, 01:34 AM)sloscotty Wrote: I doubt that your ESCs will handle Oneshot so you should probably select PWM.

This could be it? Maybe you need to lower pwm frequency too. Also they can only do 3s... that's not very future-proof

I'm not exactly sure where you can adjust the PWM frequency to the ESCs. For the Battery, I'm using a Tattu 1550 mAh 45c 3s.

With the servo tester, were you able to spin the motor?

Basically, wire one of esc signal wire to servo tester. Power the esc with lipo or other power supply. If the motor spins, then that means the FC is not sending a signal. At least this way we can start narrowing down the problem and ruling out things.

If you are unsure how to do this, YouTube has plenty of video.

Yes, the tester spins the motor.