Hmmm...

Which ESCs are you using? They normally signal that they have detected a throttle signal and that they have detected the throttle at zero and are armed. (For BLHeli ESCs at least, you should get three beeps when power is connected followed by two more beeps. The two beeps at the end signify the two important events that I've described.)

If you're not getting that (and I suspect that you are not), then maybe the ESC protocol is not set correctly.

(16-Jan-2018, 08:35 AM)unseen Wrote: Hmmm...

Which ESCs are you using? They normally signal that they have detected a throttle signal and that they have detected the throttle at zero and are armed. (For BLHeli ESCs at least, you should get three beeps when power is connected followed by two more beeps. The two beeps at the end signify the two important events that I've described.)

If you're not getting that (and I suspect that you are not), then maybe the ESC protocol is not set correctly.

Hi Unseen, everything is exactly as I flew it just before my mishap with UART3. The only change is from Betaflight to Cleanflight firmware.

The ESC are KK 60A PWM and I will check again to see if I get the little green lights on each ESC when the system is armed.

I did not think to check that last time I tried.

KK.

You shouldn't need to arm the craft. The ESCs should see a throttle signal from the flight controller anyway.

The only thing that would explain what you're seeing is if the ESCs don't understand the throttle signal.

Howdy Boys,

As you know I was flying my SP F3 successfully on Betaflight and made a simple mistake setting up the UARTs and got locked out.

I re-flashed with Cleanflight and could not get the motors working from either the TX or the motor tabs in Cleanflight. All other features in Cleanflight were working properly.

After many hours of fiddling I finally gave up and re-flashed with Betaflight.

I had to download the new Betaflight which I did and started to set up the settings only to find that I could only progress to the PID page before the screen went blank with a "Waiting for data" message.

I re-flashed backwards and forwards between Beta and Clean, same result.

I even tried my second Laptop, same result.


One thing I noticed on Betaflight config there is a little slide indicator in the top right hand corner that seems to indicate 8mb of data storage with 0 bytes free. Is this the SP F3 onboard memory? If so how do I clear it?

Even after re-flashing that indicator still shows OB free.

I have noticed over the period I have been using the SP that indicator has been moving towards zero bytes free.

Is that what is causing the trouble?


KK

Oooppss,

One thing I forgot to mention.

After re-flashing I can communicate with the SP and start to set up the parameters and then I get locked out with the "Waiting for data" message.

If I close down the config I cannot reconnect with the config until I reflash again.

After that the same sequence is repeated.... start to set up parameters.... locked out.....reflash....etc....etc.

Have I ever told you I do not like this murky quad world?    

KK

(16-Jan-2018, 02:58 PM)unseen Wrote: You shouldn't need to arm the craft. The ESCs should see a throttle signal from the flight controller anyway.

The only thing that would explain what you're seeing is if the ESCs don't understand the throttle signal.

Hi Unseen, to answer your questions re the ESC and throttle issues, I checked the min throttle setting in Beta and it was set at 1050.

I checked the receiver page and noted that my TX was set to take the throttle bar from 950 - 2010.

This should be enough for the ESC to recognise.

I also checked to see if the little green LEDs on the ESC were on and they were not.

So for some reason my FC is not triggering the ESC.  Why?

I have checked and re-checked everthing that I could find and I still cannot find out why the sliders on the Motors tab will not operate the mootors.

The battery is plugged in, the LEDs on the voltage supply panel are on, the LiPOs are charged and 5V is being supplied to the RX and FC.

Now of course I am completely locked out of the SP F3 so the motors have become a minor issue until I can re-connect with the FC.

KK

Do you get the tones from the ESC buzzers? Three beeps increasing in pitch, followed by 2 long beeps the 2nd at a higher pitch than the 1st. Those 2 last beeps are - 1, recognition of throttle signal, 2, confirmation that throttle is at 0% and ESC's are now ready to receive signals.

(18-Jan-2018, 06:17 AM)Tom BD Bad Wrote: Do you get the tones from the ESC buzzers? Three beeps increasing in pitch, followed by 2 long beeps the 2nd at a higher pitch than the 1st. Those 2 last beeps are - 1, recognition of throttle signal, 2, confirmation that throttle is at 0% and ESC's are now ready to receive signals.

Thanks BD, no I am not getting any recognition of the ESC, tones or LEDs.

Howdy Boys,


This whole SP F3 thing has got beyond me I am afraid as you may have gathered from my previous posts.

So I am going to go through step by step what I am doing next.

I have downloaded Betaflight configurator 10.1.0 which is no longer a Chrome app but a stand alone program.

I have just successfully re-flashed the SP F3 with the Betaflight SP F3 firmware and restarted my computer.

I am about to load the Beta config on my computer and try to communicate the SP F3 with the config.

The result will be the subject of my next post.

Step 2;

Successful comms with Betaflight config.

Calibrated accelerometer.

Enabled expert mode and the little Dataflash indicator above the Expert mode switch still shows zero bytes free.

For the ESC issue, I was asking you to check which ESC protocol you were using.

That's set up on the configuration tab:



If this is not set to something that your ESCs understand, then they won't detect the throttle signal.

Step 3;

Checked UART setting and it is definately UART 1 = ON and all other UARTs are off.

I have now set up the Configuration page and I am about to save and reboot and it is at this point that the "waiting data" warning appears.

Next post will tell the story.

(18-Jan-2018, 03:48 AM)Keyboard Kid Wrote: One thing I noticed on Betaflight config there is a little slide indicator in the top right hand corner that seems to indicate 8mb of data storage with 0 bytes free. Is this the SP F3 onboard memory? If so how do I clear it?

Even after re-flashing that indicator still shows OB free.

I have noticed over the period I have been using the SP that indicator has been moving towards zero bytes free.

Is that what is causing the trouble?

No.

To clear the onboard flash, go to the "Black box" tab in the configurator. There's a button on that page to clear the memory.

The only effect of the memory being full is that you won't get any new black box logs recorded. If you're not downloading and using these, then it doesn't matter.

Step 4;

Clicked on Save and reboot and the Log shows on one line "Saved"

On the next line is shows "Rebooting"

And that is where it stopped.

Step 5;

Clicked on "PID Tuning" and there it is....my old friend "Waiting for data"

So obviously something is stopping the Reboot.

Where to from here?

Does anybody have any ideas......Please?