ELEV-8 not arming/running
Bordenryan
Posts: 4
Hi, I am looking for anyone to help with my elev-8, this has been the most frustrating rc build I have ever done and am seriously considering throwing the whole thing in the trash. I have tried evey setting, every adjustment I can find individually and combined to no avail.
My issue is that the quad wont arm most of the time, and even if it does arm by moving the stick around (solid green light) the motors do nothing but sit there and chirp. Ive yet to see any of the rotors turn while being plugged into the hoverfly board (all of them were individually calibrated using the receiver only) I have scoured this forum looking for someone who has a solution and ive yet to find one, I used the radio settings for my DX6i on page 69 of 71 on the hoverfly open user manual with no luck at all, ive double triple checked my wiring and it appears that its correct according to the manual included with the kit. If anyone can take pictures of their working wiring setup from the esc's to the hoverfly board and from the hoverfly board to the receiver along with their radio settings it would be greatly appreciated.
My issue is that the quad wont arm most of the time, and even if it does arm by moving the stick around (solid green light) the motors do nothing but sit there and chirp. Ive yet to see any of the rotors turn while being plugged into the hoverfly board (all of them were individually calibrated using the receiver only) I have scoured this forum looking for someone who has a solution and ive yet to find one, I used the radio settings for my DX6i on page 69 of 71 on the hoverfly open user manual with no luck at all, ive double triple checked my wiring and it appears that its correct according to the manual included with the kit. If anyone can take pictures of their working wiring setup from the esc's to the hoverfly board and from the hoverfly board to the receiver along with their radio settings it would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
I also had a hard time getting my ELEV-8 in the air the first time. I've built and flown many airplanes and I've also built a Trex600 helicopter. I was amazed at how involved setting up the ELEV-8 was. There's a lot of wires and a lot of settings.
I'm sure we can help you out with this. (We done this many times on the forum.)
I don't have time to add much right now, but I wanted to let you know about the ELEV-8 links I've been collecting in my "index". Post #10 has this list of ELEV-8 links.
I don't have a DX6i but I think my DX7 will be close enough that I can help with the channel settings if no one else jumps in with DX6i settings.
I don't recall the setup procedure well enough to ask the right questions right now. Hopefully one of the links will help you. If not make sure and let us know.
A couple of questions for you:
- Can you verify that the receiver is connected to the OPEN's receiver port, and not the ESC port?
- Regarding the arming routine, it should be sweep left, sweep right on your rudder at low throttle (usually left side). Can you check the range of both the throttle and rudder in your radio settings? Are they both at 100%? If they are less than that, the firmware won't acknowledge the range you provide.
- Battery fully charged at 12.6 VDC?
- Have you configured the OPEN board in the Hoverfly Setup Utility to be an "X" configuration?
- ESCs were programmed using a programming card or radio?
We can get you in the air; don't despair! There's a lot of room for failure in setting up a quad and we'll solve this problem with you.Ken Gracey
2. Yes, I sweep left then right, and it arms (solid green light) if im at full throttle. They are also at 100%.
3. Yes, im using 2 of my 2s nano-tech turnigy batteries (I use these in my Team Losi SCTE 2.0 for racing) to make a 4s battery @ 6000mah. They are both fully charged
4. Yes, the board is programmed in "X" configuration
5. Yes, both I used the programming cards for the motor timing, start power, and battery type. Then used the radio individually with the receiver for throttle parameters. I have yet to be able to program the 4 esc's together with the hoverfly board
On power up it does the normal 3 post beeps, then 2 while the light is on solid red. Then it sits there for a few seconds and begins to beep endlessly while the light blinks red.
Thank you for your help
Ryan Borden
I'm not sure what you mean by this - why did you clip the power wire?
I think this is a problem. As a safety feature the HFO board may not properly arm in this signal. You must be able to sweep at lowest throttle, so I believe your radio throttle channel is reversed. Please check it.
I think this is a problem too. The motors and ESCs are rated for 3S, not 2S (if you've got them in parallel) or 4S (if you put them in series).
Red light blinking means there's a problem, and it's likely one of the items we discussed above.
I'm on an airplane right now so I may not be able to check back as frequently as I need to.
There are maybe a thousand of these kits out there and I'm pretty certain yours will fly too.
Ken Gracey
You have a safety disaster looking for a place to happen if you have props on at this stage.
Ken Gracey
I did the same. Not sure exactly where I've seen this, but the idea seems reasonable. The idea is to supply 5V power from only one source, i.e. one ESC. To accomplish this all but one ESC's gets the power lead disconnected. I suppose it would be like connecting the outputs of 4 voltage regulators together for a common supply otherwise.
Not really sure about the practical benefit, but shouldn't do any harm.
-Russ
A couple of things. Channel 5, the gain channel, must have a valid value, say +25%, before the board will arm. Also, the end point adjustments on the rudder, (left / right on left stick) may need to be 100% before the control will "see" the full left and full right it is looking for to arm.
It might be worth using the Hoverfly setup utility to verify your radio / wiring. It works fine for me, but one of the guys here is having issues getting that working properly.
-Russ
Well, I think it could do harm. Suppose you had four ESCs providing the same 5V to the HFO board. Wouldn't you feel a bit more confident having four power supplies plugged in instead of one? Since these little three-pin servo-style connections provide a somewhat loose, or "wiggly" connection I'd feel a lot better - assuming they all provide the same regulated output - that the chances of one wiggling free has less opportunity to bring your quadcopter down. But I guess if you loose the Vdd/Vss you also loose signal so you're falling out of the sky anyway.
It just seems like a lot of extra effort to cut the various power leads, too.
Yet I suppose there's probably no difference.
Ken Gracey
And, I believe these rudder end point adjustments must be coupled with a low throttle (1 us) pulse instead of high (2 us) pulse, as the original poster implied when he pointed out that "it only arms with high throttle". I can't imagine the HFO firmware would allow an arm with high throttle. That'd be so dangerous and obvious to omit as a condition, even to a perpetual beginner programmer like myself.
Ken Gracey
Yes, absolutely... In fact, my radio has a similar safety. It won't enable the transmitter unless the throttle is off.
FWIW... a pic:
There are numbers on ESC connector (barely visible). Don't pay any attention to those.
Regarding the single BEC supply to the Hoverfly:
-Russ
I've seen the "only one" BEC suggestion many times.
Some voltage regulators don't parallel well. If one regulator outputs a voltage a little lower than the others you can end up with a regulator getting very hot.
I pulled the power lead out of the housing and used a small piece of heat shrink tubing to keep it from shorting with other unused headers. I didn't want to cut the wire so I could easily move the ESCs (with intact BEC) to other projects if desired. I have used some of these extra 5V sources to power additional electronic on the craft (with a shared ground connection).
I did think it ironic that after going through the trouble of removing 5V connections, I removed the heat shrink wrapping from one ESC to find the BEC used two regulators in parallel to provide the current stated in the specs. Apparently the regulators in these ESCs don't have a problem from being used in parallel.
I think the regulators on the Propeller Proto Boards have an issue with being used in parallel. I had a project with two Proto boards and I thought I'd parallel the voltage regulators so I could increase the available current to a power hungry device. One of the regulators got really hot while running in parallel and the problem went away once I isolated the regulators. So apparently this can be a real issue even if it's not an issue with some ESCs.
Aha. With all of these that I've built I've never really looked closely at that picture. Now I know why people seem to be cutting off power wires. I don't believe this is a necessary step if the ESCs output the same voltage.
-Russ
2. My throttle is not reversed, I checked this again just now, and reversed it with no luck.
3. I have one 3s battery that i just tried and it didn't give me any different results.
If I understand correctly your main problem is arming. However, you have been able to arm at least once, but the motors did not respond to throttle. Is this still where things stand?
FWIW here's a clip of my helicopter running the Hoverfly setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Yvge-PTzA
Good Luck!
-Russ