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ESC Power Capabilities
#1
As I'm fairly new to the hobby, I'm at the point where I know why components work but not how some function.  If I was experiencing what I perceived to be to much power draw causing the motors to cut out, would it be the ESCs or the flight controller doing this?  My quad drops out of the sky under heavy throttle input and I'm wondering if the ESCs have internal settings that sense this and cause the system to shut down.  Also if this is the case, is it simply a matter of changing the ESCs (20amp) to 30amp.  Or would this be like opening the flood gates too wide which would solve the problem upstream but cause all sorts of problems downstream?
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#2
It's hard to say what the problem is, quad drop out of sky could be lost of radio signal, power shut down to RX or FC, or ESC failure like you said.

To rule out the ESC side of things, update your firmware to the latest, and make sure Temperature Protection is disabled?

By the way how are you powering your FC/RX?
And what ESC's are you using?
What motor/prop are you using?
Don't be a LOS'er, be an FPV'er :)  My Gear - Facebook - Instagram - Twitter
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#3
Here's details of the build & issue:
Space One 220x Frame
Emax RS2205 2300kv motors
BrainFPV RE1 F4 board & mPB for power
Tattu 4S 1300mah 75C lipo
Aikon SEFM 20amp ESCs with BLHeli_S with 16.3 FW
The RE1 is set up through the dRonin Quiote setup wizard. To start, I've got modes set up as leveling and autotune as per directions. I'm using Genfam 3-blade 5040 props and in leveling mode it flies solid even on full power punchouts. BUT as soon as I switch to autotune to let the RE1 do it's thing, it shakes and shimmys like it should for about 1-2 seconds then the quad loses all power. It's not a signal issue as I've range tested it to 300 metres. I'm pretty good at soldering and have checked all connections, so I'm sure it's not a power issue and voltage output of the RE1 is normal. Interesting thing is I first built it with all the same components except SPRacing F3 board and DAL 5045 3-blade props. It would hover but even the slightest throttle, it would just drop out of the sky. Exactly the same results with Naze32 and CC3D. As soon as I dropped down to 5040 props, problem solved. So I just assumed the 5045s were too aggressive. So my thoughts are that the RS 2205 are just pulling too much power for the 20amp Aikons to handle. Which seems strange as I've seen lots of similar builds with no problems. So after that long-winded explanation, should I change the ESCs to 30amp (just happen to have a set of 30amp Aikons sitting on my bench) or is there something else I should be looking at? Thanks
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#4
by fell from the sky you mean the failsafe kicks in?

can you throttle up without props on a table? (and motors are not stoping)

can you (might be risky) push the quad to the ground (with props) - throttle up and see if it disarms (you can have usb cable plugged in to see if failsafe will kickin)

can you check on 5040 biblades ? (just to see will it also will fail)

have you checked for any issues with continuity ? (ie after the arming power flows and it there is a short somewhere over the frame, some power security kicks in and kills all electronics not to burn them)

Can you fly without autotune mode ?
All the best
Grzesiek (Grisha/ Greg)

Curently flyable: Nox 5, Minimalist 112
Bench / in progres: fixing Nox 3,  Scrap
thinking about building: 450


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#5
A Blackbox log is always interesting
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#6
Autotune mode never really worked reliably as far as i been reading along.

I'd recommend lowering P- and D-values a good deal first. Chance is, you're in some kind of oversaturation which burns a lot of power.

Also as suggested, try some lighter props.

But in the end you're probably right, some 30a escs might work better. Maybe check miniquadtestbench for estimating what your motor/prop combo pulls typically.
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#7
(29-Nov-2016, 11:47 AM)Grisha0 Wrote: by fell from the sky you mean the failsafe kicks in?

can you throttle up without props on a table? (and motors are not stoping)

can you (might be risky) push the quad to the ground (with props) - throttle up and see if it disarms (you can have usb cable plugged in to see if failsafe will kickin)

can you check on 5040 biblades ? (just to see will it also will fail)

have you checked for any issues with continuity ? (ie after the arming power flows and it there is a short somewhere over the frame, some power security kicks in and kills all electronics not to burn them)

Can you fly without autotune mode ?
No, failsafe never kicks in, when I land it's still armed and ready to go.
I've tested from 5045 triblades right down to 5030 bi-blades with the same results
Yes, it flies great with 5040 tri-blades with no power loss.  It's only when I switch to autotune that I lose all power.
Yes, on the bench it throttles up with no issues
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#8
In that case id loose the autotune which never worked for me at least and chech can you fly on different props without autotune if yes, id focus on manual or black box tuning
All the best
Grzesiek (Grisha/ Greg)

Curently flyable: Nox 5, Minimalist 112
Bench / in progres: fixing Nox 3,  Scrap
thinking about building: 450


Reply
#9
(29-Nov-2016, 12:22 PM)fftunes Wrote: Autotune mode never really worked reliably as far as i been reading along.

I'd recommend lowering P- and D-values a good deal first. Chance is, you're in some kind of oversaturation which burns a lot of power.

Also as suggested, try some lighter props.

But in the end you're probably right, some 30a escs might work better. Maybe check miniquadtestbench for estimating what your motor/prop combo pulls typically.

Yes, I understand that there are varying results with autotune. If I'm at the point of oversaturation as you suggested it may explain my problem as I've seen some videos of FPV view of autotune in action, and the motors go through some pretty crazy gyrations.  I'll try lowering P&D but it seems like they're pretty low already.  BUT I just had a thought as I'm typing and if I recall, when in levelling mode as I am, that it'a fixed setting and not affected by PID settings. Hmmmm
Thanks for pointing out  miniquad benchtest I'll give it a try.  I've tried ecalc and although the results weren't optimal, it didn't give me the dreaded red font epic fail warning.  But yeah, I'll change the ESCs, lower the rates and take it from there.  Thanks for the replies!
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#10
Hmmm... level mode is something that could go wrong, on top of something that could go wrong lol Wink

Maybe try pure acro first. Another edge case test could be, to set only D to zero.
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#11
(29-Nov-2016, 05:10 PM)fftunes Wrote: Hmmm... level mode is something that could go wrong, on top of something that could go wrong lol Wink

Maybe try pure acro first. Another edge case test could be, to set only D to zero.

Or just flash the RE1 with Betaflight and be done with it Big Grin
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