Do you have a remote control and a receiver to test this with?
Most ESCs require a "zero throttle" condition to initialize, which usually means sending a servo signal of about 1100us long, and holding that for a while. Once the ESC initializes, then you can start sending it higher values to control the throttle. If you power up the ESC and send it something other than a low throttle, it won't respond - this is a standard safety feature.
If you have an oscilloscope, check to make sure that your "signal" pin is sending the pulses, and check to make sure that you haven't plugged the ESC in backwards - the 3 pins on the ESC are power, ground, and signal. If you have the ESC plugged in backwards, you'll be sending the pulses into the ground wire, and they won't do anything.
I used a receiver connected to the prop, and my remote control transmitter. I initially used the prop to just pass the input values from the R/C receiver on to the Servo32 object, and also printed them to the serial terminal so I could see what the range of values was. That also made it very easy to test the motor controllers.
I've attached the test code I use for ESC's. Just hook the signal wire up to the correct pin and make sure your ESC's are grounded. Then run the test program.
You also need the ESC object I've attached.
Make sure your motors are secured to something, I've already had one fly apart at me.
After two crashes things are looking good. I've integrated the Kalman again, after a few tests I notice the error was just to great to handle, I made a flying oscillator. Now that the Kalman has been reintroduced the outputs are a lot more stable. Right now I'm working on the autonomous routines and integrating the web interface into the intelligence.
Why is it not good to connect the ESC BEC 5 V together? as in parallel? I currently don't, my setup is as follows: 1 BEC for the Prop(nunchuck, motionplus, 2 mcp3204, hmc6352, 6 sharp IR), 1 BEC for the IP Cam, 1 BEC for the Spinneret, and the last BEC for the wireless router. All the grounds are connected together.
My ESC's do get reasonably hot when running......I know it's not good, I just don't have to the time to change it.
@Jason
Any news on the DCM? Sorry I can't offer much help.
Nothing new on the DCM front yet. I've got a number of other projects on the go (and work, life, etc) so it hasn't been getting the attention it needs. I made some progress toward getting a flight system working with the DCM code, but it's nowhere near stable yet. I have some work to do.
As for the BECs, usually they're just linear regulators, so there's no problem in connecting them together as long as everything is running from the same power source. You might have problems if there wasn't a common ground, but that's only a hunch. The hot ESCs could easily be a result of the voltage drop through the regulators being converted to heat. A switched mode BEC would eliminate that, if that's actually the issue.
Comments
Most ESCs require a "zero throttle" condition to initialize, which usually means sending a servo signal of about 1100us long, and holding that for a while. Once the ESC initializes, then you can start sending it higher values to control the throttle. If you power up the ESC and send it something other than a low throttle, it won't respond - this is a standard safety feature.
If you have an oscilloscope, check to make sure that your "signal" pin is sending the pulses, and check to make sure that you haven't plugged the ESC in backwards - the 3 pins on the ESC are power, ground, and signal. If you have the ESC plugged in backwards, you'll be sending the pulses into the ground wire, and they won't do anything.
I used a receiver connected to the prop, and my remote control transmitter. I initially used the prop to just pass the input values from the R/C receiver on to the Servo32 object, and also printed them to the serial terminal so I could see what the range of values was. That also made it very easy to test the motor controllers.
This is way cool. It's not Propeller-based, but it could be:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1433657
I've attached the test code I use for ESC's. Just hook the signal wire up to the correct pin and make sure your ESC's are grounded. Then run the test program.
You also need the ESC object I've attached.
Make sure your motors are secured to something, I've already had one fly apart at me.
After two crashes things are looking good. I've integrated the Kalman again, after a few tests I notice the error was just to great to handle, I made a flying oscillator. Now that the Kalman has been reintroduced the outputs are a lot more stable. Right now I'm working on the autonomous routines and integrating the web interface into the intelligence.
Why is it not good to connect the ESC BEC 5 V together? as in parallel? I currently don't, my setup is as follows: 1 BEC for the Prop(nunchuck, motionplus, 2 mcp3204, hmc6352, 6 sharp IR), 1 BEC for the IP Cam, 1 BEC for the Spinneret, and the last BEC for the wireless router. All the grounds are connected together.
My ESC's do get reasonably hot when running......I know it's not good, I just don't have to the time to change it.
@Jason
Any news on the DCM? Sorry I can't offer much help.
As for the BECs, usually they're just linear regulators, so there's no problem in connecting them together as long as everything is running from the same power source. You might have problems if there wasn't a common ground, but that's only a hunch. The hot ESCs could easily be a result of the voltage drop through the regulators being converted to heat. A switched mode BEC would eliminate that, if that's actually the issue.
http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Infrared_Sensors
It is based on delta Temp