Autoquad 6 Q&A

[Crizz]

@Larry : like i wrote at last, connecting the AQ isnt the problem anymore - to power it by external battery is clear, havent tried any other way, and accessing AQ is okay now. The final problem is accessing the ESC32. And they are okay, tried with a servo-tester, and they spin the motors up very fine, so there must be any kind of interface-problem here. But will get continue chasing it

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

@Larry : like i wrote at last, connecting the AQ isnt the problem anymore - to power it by external battery is clear, havent tried any other way, and accessing AQ is okay now. The final problem is accessing the ESC32. And they are okay, tried with a servo-tester, and they spin the motors up very fine, so there must be any kind of interface-problem here. But will get continue chasing it

Hi Crizz,

when they work with a servo tester I assume the jumper is on V5 --> logic side is supplied with 5V (= POWER FROM MAINBOARD in the illustration below).


Since the logic inputs of the ESC32 MCU needs to be at 3.3V level I'm using a custom cable for dealing with the ESC32. It's made of jumper wires and takes the 5V power supply from the MultiWii interface, and all (3.3V level) logic signals from the AQ6 interface.

Find some pics enclosed!

ESC32 jumpered to V5. The spektrum sat cable is a CAN connection with the yellow wire soldered to the 5V pin of the UART interface.

Close-Up of the Flyduino USB-UART: all logic signals come from the AQ6 connector; 5V comes from the MultiWii interface.

The cable is made of jumper wires.

[Crizz]

thx @ Joerg, i already tried it with this wiring, my ESC32 also set to V5 and with 3.3V-mode red LED stays "off", so this indicated me early that i need the 5V wire instead of 3.3V

But will try today again with different settings and see if i will have any success, maybe i try at first with QGC 1.21

[DUKE40]

Hi Crizz,

what do you mean with settings? For connecting to the ESC from QGC there are no settings beside the connection speed which should be 230k.

[Crizz]

okay guys, update :

big step for me, small step for mankind - i can access the ESC32 now by 4-wire connect via Silabs UART in 5 V mode, but only with QGC 1.3

Can see FW-version and parameters - but cant flash new firmware. The left windows where to select either AQ or ESC-FW etc. only allow speed up to 115 kBaud. Guess thats the problem why i get errormessages when trying to flash.
So, is it possible to set the ESC32-baudrate down to 115 k, store, re-connect with 115k in flash-window to update and restore ESC-baudrate back to 230 kBaud after all ?

Have not tested yet, guess its better to ask for it than producing new problems on my own...

[DUKE40]

Hi Crizz,

I was able to flash with speed 115k in the firmware flash window, without prior changes to the settings of the ESC32.
I am not sure if it is necessary to change it, or if this is something linked to the version of QGC you are using.

[Crizz]

this i already tried w/o success, Duke. Is CTS-wire needed for flash ? I have only tried with 4-wire-connection

[DUKE40]

I flashed with 4 wire connection, so without CTS, but this was using QGC1.5, so in your case it might be different again.
Which version of the firmware is on the ESC?

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Hi,

just flashed 4 pieces ESC32 (bought 2 weeks ago from flyduino; only soldered the UART headerpins and closed V5 Jumper) with QGC 1.5A6 on a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, using a flyduino USB-UART (CP2102) and the cable shown above.

All 4 ESC32 could be flashed without Problems (to r57). Uploading new Parameter files works fine too.

Joerg

[Crizz]

maybe mine are too old. FW is 1.4.5082

Establishing connect under 1.5r6 says FA: unknown or No ESC32 , depending on the chosen serial speed ( tried 115 kBaud instead of 230 kBaud just to see if there is any difference).

MAybe its "user-error" only, i´m a little confused by all the different "connection" modes. In the right window for ESC32 data is a connect field, in the flash-windows is one, and even in communication a connect can be added. I treid almost all variants but none worked, only got different error-messages like "...missing ACK..." ... "ESC32 not in boot mode already"... "STM32 failed to connect to COM..." and some more.

Boot-pads were closed during startup (by a tweezer) and then left opened, when i connect in normal mode the actual firmware is shown, when connecting in boot mode nothing is shown.

Even tried QGC 1.21 but this is the same like 1.5r6 - no way to establish connection to ESC32. This is very strange... so i guess maybe its just me doing any step wrong ?