Hello everyone.

I´m building a QAV250 using NAze32 rev5, and I´m struggling to test the motors using cleanflight.

- Motors are already connected to the ESC (emax blheli 12a) and ESC are all connected to the FC.
- When I power the PDB with 9.6v 800mah from a charger I have (I´m doing this because I´m waiting the lipo 3s to be delivered) I see the  the FC turning on, and a beep coming from each ESC (unsure if the beep is actually coming from the ESC or from the FC, but anyway, looks like the connections are good.)
- I plug the USB on the PC, I see cleanflight recognize it without issues, I´m able to test/configure the calibration and all other settings
- When I go to the motors tab I try to test each motor individually, or all at once using the master, but nothing happens.

The question here would be: Even with the 9.6v 800mah coming from the charger to the board, shouldn´t the motors start kicking ? Maybe not all at once due the low power, but at least one with slow RPM?

Editing: By the way, I have all default settings.

Is there any other specific setting I was supposed to do ?

Any input is going to be very appreciated.

Super thanks

Problem solved, there was some wiring issues, redid the whole stuff and now it´s all working.
The only problem is that when I run the motor test, some motors start at 1050 some others start above 1160. where should I adjust this ?

thanks

(17-Apr-2017, 02:56 AM)flabombarda Wrote: Problem solved, there was some wiring issues, redid the whole stuff and now it´s all working.
The only problem is that when I run the motor test, some motors start at 1050 some others start above 1160. where should I adjust this ?

thanks

have you calibrated your esc's?

Hi Jimmy.

I followed the procedure.
- open Cleanflight
- set motors to full throttle
- connect USB to the bird (Flight controller)
- Wait for the beeps (+-15 seconds)
- Reduce the throttle to the minimum level.
- Unplug all.
- Reconnect and test.

When I use the MASTER switch, all motors start together as expected. The problem is when I use the transmitter.
I see motors 2 and 3 starting a lot earlier than 1 and 4. In fact motor 4 is the worst on this. If I manually turn motor 4 using the motor test switch from the cleanflight app, then it works normally. This behavior is only seen using the transmitter, I´ll post a photo tomorrow with the details.
But basically when I move the throttleto something close to 15-20% I see motors 2 and 3 with higher value than 1 and 4, where 4 is almost at 1000 and the others are at least 1100.

Any clue on what could be causing this ?

Thanks

If you are seeing the motors do odd things by arming the craft on the bench with no propellers, then what you are seeing is perfectly normal.

As soon as you arm the craft, the flight controller is going to be trying to fly it. Even on the bench, it's unlikely that the craft is completely level, so as soon as you increase the throttle, the flight controller will attempt to correct the quad's attitude and will increase thrust to some of the motors to compensate. As no propellers are fitted, the flight controller won't see the change in the gyro reading that it is expecting, so it will ask for even more power from the motors. Still no change will happen so it will keep on trying harder and harder. It's like talking to someone who has their fingers in their ears. You say something but get no response, so you say it again, but louder. Soon, you're shouting at the person because they won't react to you.

This is a common newbie mistake which I see repeated over and over again.

If the motors run properly when you test them in the motors tab then all is good. Put props on, go outside and fly!

If you have correctly calibrated your ESCs, you should test each motor individually in the motors tab and increase the signal to the motor until it is just spinning smoothly. Note down what value each motor needs.

Once you have tested all four, take the highest number you noted, add 20 and set that as your minimum throttle value in the configurator.

Hi Unseen !
Thanks for your detailed explanation.

I already tried to fly (with propellers of course :-) And what happened is exactly as I described, when I try to take off, it raises the front, and kind of crashes by nose and I need to stop the motors.
I´ll see if I can record this today and share, may be easier to explain with a video :-)

thanks

(19-Apr-2017, 04:16 AM)flabombarda Wrote: Hi Jimmy.

I followed the procedure.
- open Cleanflight
- set motors to full throttle
- connect USB to the bird (Flight controller)
- Wait for the beeps (+-15 seconds)
- Reduce the throttle to the minimum level.
- Unplug all.
- Reconnect and test.

When I use the MASTER switch, all motors start together as expected. The problem is when I use the transmitter.
I see motors 2 and 3 starting a lot earlier than 1 and 4. In fact motor 4 is the worst on this. If I manually turn motor 4 using the motor test switch from the cleanflight app, then it works normally. This behavior is only seen using the transmitter, I´ll post a photo tomorrow with the details.
But basically when I move the throttleto something close to 15-20% I see motors 2 and 3 with higher value than 1 and 4, where 4 is almost at 1000 and the others are at least 1100.

Any clue on what could be causing this ?

Thanks
Your procedure may be a little incorrect.  With your flight controller connected to Cleanflight, raise the master slider to full.  Now connect the battery.  You'll hear the chimes right away (should only take a couple seconds)  Now quickly move the throttle back to zero and you'll hear more chimes indicating your ESCs are calibrated. 

(17-Apr-2017, 03:06 AM)JimmyLe813 Wrote: have you calibrated your esc's?

I did the calibration again.
Please have a look on the video.

Looks like motor 4 is not kicking enough.
I can post a video of how I´m doing the calibration if you still think this is the problem.
But vasically this is what I did:

Thanks

I´ve found something as basic as interesting.

When reviewing the PID tuning on cleanflight I noticed that at the Rates Preview my bird was also spinning and rolling. Very much the same behavior I saw on the actual "take off try" it did not rolled just because I kept it on the ground.

I also noticed that using the YAW sticker to manually stop the spin did not help at all. This is VERY weird.

Anyway, here is what I´ve done:
- Fix the TRIM at the transmitter to keep the bird stable on the Rates Preview (Pid Tuning tab).
- Also tuned the PID for YAW and ROLL -> RC  Rate = 0.30 to keep the controller smoother, less aggressive.

I´ll test that tomorrow to see how it behaves with these settings. Then I update the thread.

Any additional input would be appreciated. To start is there any specific flight mode recommended ?
I´m currently using:
- Anti Graviti + Baro
or
- Anti Gravity + Horizon.

Thanks

Looks to me like motor 3 (orange prop) is spinning the wrong direction and has the wrong prop on. (Should spin counter clockwise.)

EDIT: It's hard to tell which is the font of the quad, but looks like Green props are on front to me. Motor 3 with orange prop is the one I'm talking about.

About your 'craft spinning and rolling' in the preview on the Rates tab:

The Pitch, Roll and Yaw channels should be at 1500 when the sticks are centred and should go all the way from 1000 to 2000 at either extreme of their travel. The trims on your transmitter should always be centred and you should NOT use them to correct the centre value of your control channels. If the channel range is incorrect, you should first use the travel adjustment on your radio to get the correct range. Once you have the range correct, you should use your radio's subtrim function to make the centre positions 1500.

Once you have done that, watch the channel values to see how stable they are. Depending on the receiver and the protocol, you'll often see that the value varies slightly and will jitter a few points either side of the 1500 centre value. The deadband settings in the receiver tab should be used to account for this variation. Pitch and roll share the 'RC deadband' setting and the yaw axis has its own deadband setting.

If your centre value bounces around between 1498 and 1502, set a deadband of 3 - that will ignore any movement that does not exceed +/- 3 for a total deadband of 6.

Your throttle channel should also range from 1000 to 2000. If it doesn't currently do that and you change your radio's travel adjust to make the range correct, you will need to re-calibrate your ESCs.

As to your video, it's hard to see how the props are fitted, but you should be following the standard Cleanflight motor ordering:



Maybe it's my imagination, but is the black prop a different size to the others? You can't mix prop sizes or prop pitch - they must all be the same. All the props should be mounted so that the numbers on the prop are uppermost. Motors 1 and 4 should have clockwise props - a clockwise prop is marked with the letter R after the propeller size e.g. 4045R. The anticlockwise props don't have the letter R.

So, check your channel ranges and centre values.
Set some deadband and yaw deadband.
Centre the trims on your radio and leave them alone.
Check that each motor spins in the correct direction.
Install the correct propeller on each motor.
Tighten the prop nuts properly so that the prop cannot move on its own.

Unseen and Sloscotty

Thanks both for your inputs here.
I'll review it all and test tonight when I get home. Regarding prop size, I'm sure they are all the same, if I'm not wrong 5030.
The motor direction comments make sense because I noticed that one of the orange propellers nuts fall during one of this tests, and it should not happen because the direction should screw it not unscrew.

Once again super thanks !

(20-Apr-2017, 05:54 PM)flabombarda Wrote: Unseen and Sloscotty

Thanks both for your inputs here.
I'll review it all and test tonight when I get home. Regarding prop size, I'm sure they are all the same, if I'm not wrong 5030.
The motor direction comments make sense because I noticed that one of the orange propellers nuts fall during one of this tests, and it should not happen because the direction should screw it not unscrew.

Once again super thanks !

If the motors have differing threads on the prop shafts, it's really important to use the correct thread for the direction the motor will spin.

If the motor is supposed to rotate clockwise then the prop nut should tighten anti-clockwise and vice versa.

Guys, you rock !
Problem solved, it´s flying !!!
I have to invert the motors 2 and 3, both were soldered to spin on the wrong direction, causing the erradic behavior.

As a start, what flight mode would you recommend ?

Thanks