Hi

This is not my first quad I am building, but I never had this problem before. I get the "ready beeps" but motors cannot be spun. 

FCS is Mamba722mini with ESC Mamba F40 128K Mini (Blheli32, Dshot). However, something I did never use before are LEDs in between ESC and motors (https://fpvframe.ch/fpvx/product/relectwire-micro/).

Powering up the quad I get the 3+2 beeps. However I cannot get the motors to spin in Betaflight Motors tab. I used BLHeli suite to check the ESC, everything seems fine. But also in in BLHeli I cannot spin the motors. Just to be sure, I got rid of the LED strips. But still not possible to spin the motors. I use an external powersupply, voltage and current are  therefore not the problem.

The ESC stack is new, would be strange if all 4 ESC would be faulty. I don't think the strips could have damaged the ESCs (input/output was not specified), but the way I connected them they worked (when the motor beeps). 

Any ideas what could be wrong?
 
Thanks

Philippe

I’m still running BLHELI s ESCs .. but I don’t recall seeing one motor as a “master” and the others as “slaves”…
So you get no motor movement with a battery installed. And the sliders moved in betaflight?

(31-May-2024, 04:14 PM)Rob Axel Wrote: I’m still running BLHELI s ESCs .. but I don’t recall seeing one motor as a “master” and the others as “slaves”…
 So you get no motor movement with a battery installed. And the sliders moved in betaflight?

I did not define master/slave. I was like this and I did not think a lot about this. Yes, battery installed, moving sliders in betaflight and in the BLHeli suite, but nothing happens.

Ok.. I know some led / race wire need to be installed certain ways.. but never heard of this kind of failure..
Both the fc and esc are MAMBA.. but it doesn’t mean the plug going from one to the other is wired correctly or the same..
Check the pinout /plug on the fc and see if it matches the other.. we know the power and ground are correct.. or u would get nothing.. I think you would get ATLEAST ONE motor to spin if it was different.
Even if something was done incorrect in betaflight.. the motors should still spin..
Dumb question… do ur motors spin by hand? Not bound up? I’ve seen “C” clips to large for the frame hole..

(31-May-2024, 05:07 PM)Rob Axel Wrote: Ok.. I know some led / race wire need to be installed certain ways.. but never heard of this kind of failure..
 Both the fc and esc are MAMBA.. but it doesn’t mean the plug going from one to the other is wired correctly or the same..
 Check the pinout /plug on the fc and see if it matches the other.. we know the power and ground are correct.. or u would get nothing.. I think you would get ATLEAST ONE motor to spin if it was different.
 Even if something was done incorrect in betaflight.. the motors should still spin..
Dumb question… do ur motors spin by hand? Not bound up? I’ve seen “C” clips to large for the frame hole..

Motors spin by hand, no problem. I checked the pinout of the plugs/cable before connecting, its ok. The only thing that could be messed up is the ESC channels order.  Also something has to arrive, otherwise the motors could not "beep".

Did u flash ANYTHING?

(31-May-2024, 05:48 PM)Rob Axel Wrote: Did u flash ANYTHING?

yes, after it did not work I flashed the ESC with a newer version, the one Diatone specified (MAMBA_F40_128K_MINI)

Could it be an issue between FC firmware and ESC firmware? but blheli-suite only uses betaflight/FC as passthrough

For BLHeli32 it is normal to have the Master/Slave ESC setup. You are using the BLHeliSuite32 app correct?
As you mentioned if you get the full ESC startup and arm tones, the FC should be communicating with the ESC and controlling the motors correctly, so it is odd that they are spinning up. What motors are you running and what voltage are you supplying?

It might be worth a try to increase rampup power, lower pwm frequency, or even try using a different protocol and disabling bidirectional dshot to see if it makes any difference.

What version of betaflight is that fc on?

I had issues when I had a esc on jazzmaveric (I think)and swapped FCs and tbs fc was on a older version of bf and didn’t work.. I can’t remember exacly .. but I had issues

This may be completely unrelated because my knowledge is not good.

I only do things to make them fly and I have no idea the rhythm or reason for a lot of things I did.

A lot of times when the motors did not spin up on a new build I go to the motor page on BetaFlight and check the Bidirectional box. Sometimes for certain AIO flight controllers they don't like the Bidirectional box checked. On a couple of them when I unchecked the Bidirectional box the motors spun up fine.

(31-May-2024, 06:25 PM)mstc Wrote: For BLHeli32 it is normal to have the Master/Slave ESC setup. You are using the BLHeliSuite32 app correct?
As you mentioned if you get the full ESC startup and arm tones, the FC should be communicating with the ESC and controlling the motors correctly, so it is odd that they are spinning up. What motors are you running and what voltage are you supplying?

It might be worth a try to increase rampup power, lower pwm frequency, or even try using a different protocol and disabling bidirectional dshot to see if it makes any difference.

Yes, it is the BLHeliSuite32. Motors are 1505 3600KV, but I also tried other ones
Voltage was 3-4S. From powersupply (normally works well without props) but I also put 4S lipo on it. 

FC is on BF 4.5. 

I tried DSHOT300 and 600.
Bidirectional is disabled.
PWM I cannot go lower than 24kHz
Rampup Power from 50 to 100%. No difference

I just discovered, that also the "betaflight beeper" does not work. So it looks like there is no connection from the FC to the ESCs... On the other hand I thought the two beeps mean that communication works. Also I can change parameter in BLHelisuite and write them.

You are hearing the tones from the motor correct? If you place your fingers on the motors, you may be able to feel them gently vibrate as they sound. The first three tones is the ESC bootup, and the last two tones are the ESC arming tones. If you don't hear the last two tones, then likely the FC is not communicating correctly with the ESC.

Those motors should have no issue spinning up on 3-4S voltage. You might also double check you battery lead/plug make sure it is not loose or having a bad connection which could possibly restrict current?

Reading and writing to ESCs does suggest the ESC MCUs are working, but sometimes the mosfets have issues, but like you said if this is a new board then very unlikely all 4 have issues. And also the fact that your motors did the startup tones.

@Seismic
Not all ESC firmwares support bi-directional dshot, notably BLHeliS. In those cases you can usually reflash the ESC firmware with something like Bluejay that will, and that would allow you to use RPM filtering. But BLHeli32 supports bidirectional dshot (at least most of the more recent versions anyways).

(31-May-2024, 08:06 PM)mstc Wrote: @Seismic
Not all ESC firmwares support bi-directional dshot, notably BLHeliS. In those cases you can usually reflash the ESC firmware with something like Bluejay that will, and that would allow you to use RPM filtering. But BLHeli32 supports bidirectional dshot (at least most of the more recent versions anyways).

I understand. I have not kept track nor done any research on the different versions of BLHeli and Blue Jay firmware for speed controllers yet. I just use them. 

That's why I am a good user but not an in depth expert.  

Back when I was playing with speed controllers we only had SimonK firmware.

I just reactivated bidirectional DShot and now it works in BF and BLHelisuite??? 
Sometimes I think back in the old times when ESCs were not so "intelligent" life was easier

Sorry for bothering you all....


PS: I might want to go later to iNAV for this quad. Does it have bidirectional dshot support? 90% of my quads are BF, normally I build and troubleshoot them in BF, and then for a few ones I switch to iNAV...not sure if this is possible for this one.