Why aren't my ESCs arming?

[hogster]

Hi all

Simple, but hopefully not a stupid question coming up!

I've got firmware version 372 on my AQ, correctly set up the radio input (all channels correctly assigned, going from -700 to +700 or 0 to 1400), my motor output channels have been correctly set and they don't conflict, I've shorted the 5V jumpers so each opto-ESC is getting a 5V feed (checked with a DVM), the ESC servo plugs are the right way round, all the ESCs are getting raw flight pack voltage on their main power rails ... but they just sit there beeping at me as if they're not getting any PWM signal

I haven't done a dynamic calibration yet, nor experimented with the TARE function, as I assumed neither of these were necessary to at least get the ESCs to arm ... maybe I'm wrong?

Any advice on points I might have missed are much appreciated!

Many thanks, David

PS. It's nice to feel I'm slowly making progress finally, I think a maiden flight is not so far away now

[SuperSharpShooter]

With r372 it looks like the AQ only sends a PWM signal to the ESCs after arming. Have you tried arming?

[hogster]

Ah that sounds promising, I will give that a try tomorrow.

Many thanks David

[hogster]

All working now thanks! I was also fooled by assuming that the servo plugs use the same orientation on the top and bottom ... so I ended up with the top 4 motors spinning, but the bottom 4 beeping

Is there any way to check the response of the motors (eg. to check that right roll command gives a right roll result, same for pitch and yaw) without having the motors spinning the whole time?

Many thanks, David

[Max]

[hogster]

Hi Max,

Hmm unfortunately if I go into the 'AQ Diagnotic Telemetry' screen and hit 'Start Telemetry' the firmware readout at the very top of the GCS screen disappears and is replaced by:

FAILURE: Temporarily rejected CMD: 2

... and the graph doesn't move. The 'MAVLink Data Plot' works fine, but the motors don't seem to be on that graph.

Any thoughts as to why this isn't working? I'm running GCS 1.3.1 and AQ firmware 372.

Many thanks, David

[hogster]

Actually, even if that graph was working, when my AQ is powered up, so are all the motors, so that graph doesn't really give me anything over watching what the motors do

Cheers! David

[Max]

[hogster]

Just for clarity, and for anyone reading this thread in the future, the "FAILURE" I was experiencing above was caused by a bug in the Mac GCS 1.3.1 software. I downloaded 1.3.0 and the telemetry feature then worked fine.

Sorry for not answering your question Max!

I've also found a way of powering the AQ separately so I can fiddle with the settings without risking my platform taking off

Thanks! David