Calibrating emax 12a blheli esc with naze32 acro rev 6 fc

[MototechRyan]

Purchased the Versacopter kit with the power pack E from the Flitetest store. And with the naze32 fc i could not get the various methods for calibrating the esc's to work. After some research, i found out my naze32 rev 6 was feeding 5v back to the esc's and my pdb when plugged into the usb of my pc. Confirmed this with a multimeter, reading 4.5v at the xt60 connector of the pdb.

Found a post on rcgroups about the naze32 rev 6 not having a diode to prevent this like the rev 5 does. And instructions to disconnect the middle red wire from the 4 esc connectors at the flight controller. Worked great. I made sure to put some insulation on the pulled power wires just to be safe.

Now at this point the sync process goes like normal for you can power up the fc without the esc's powering up before you get your fc connected and your tx turned on and throttle set to full or motors set to full with the gui. I recommend remounting the fc back in your copter or at least level in case your fc is set to not arm if tilted past a certain degree. Then after getting the esc's calibrated, power everything off and reconnect the red wires. Dont want anyone to think you permanently disconnect the wires. Thats where your fc normally gets power from when not plugged into a usb or pololu circuit.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2509020&page=2

Kind of a pain having to depin these wires to calibrate the esc's, but well worth the trouble to have the motors synced up. Hope this info helps others who have run into this problem with a naze32 rev 6.

 

[coreyltexas]

Motor testing tab, click the box next to the sliders (with props off) bring master slider all the way up. Then plug flight battery, after the series of beeps bring the master slider all the way down and listen for another series of beeps. Should be all that it takes, it worked on my rev 6 board.

 

[Craftydan]

Interesting . . . hadn't heard that Rev6 had dropped the diode bridge between the USB and ESC power rails.

Not a change for the better IMO, for the reasons you describe -- Sad to hear the "new" rev6 is functionally worse off than the old rev4 flip32 clones . . . all for the cost and space of a pair of diodes packed in a tiny SOT-23.

 

[MototechRyan]

The link in my original post to rcgroups also mentions later batches of rev 6 fc's having yhe diode added. Maybe i got one of the earlier batches. All i know is that my esc's power up when i plug into usb only.

 

[MototechRyan]

Interesting . . . hadn't heard that Rev6 had dropped the diode bridge between the USB and ESC power rails.

Not a change for the better IMO, for the reasons you describe -- Sad to hear the "new" rev6 is functionally worse off than the old rev4 flip32 clones . . . all for the cost and space of a pair of diodes packed in a tiny SOT-23.

I broke down and ordered a rev 5 from the Flitetest store on Sunday. I'd rather use a tried and true rev 5 on my Versacopter baby and use the rev 6 on a less expensive build that im not worried about crashing. I know crashing is inevitable having crashed my micro brushed builds numerous times. But i want the crash to be my caused by my input error. Not an unforseen fc issue.

 

[Craftydan]

The link in my original post to rcgroups also mentions later batches of rev 6 fc's having yhe diode added. Maybe i got one of the earlier batches. All i know is that my esc's power up when i plug into usb only.

That's also an interesting data point.

Might explain a handful of vendors with "limited time" sales well below the typical price for an Abusemark Naze.

 

[MototechRyan]

Yeah i paid 24 and change shipped from ebay. Didnt come with the break out cable though. And I've seen "QA failed" boards for sale on the abusemark site.

http://abusemark.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=36

Got my naze board today from the Flitetest store. Turns out i wasnt paying attention and assumed i was ordering the rev 5. But i ordered and got another rev 6. Its cool, its red and my first was purple. Plus it came with the breakout cable. Hoping it'll have the diode, but if it doesnt im gonna solder some in line with the 5v center wires coming off the esc's as close as i can get them to the connector at the FC.

Will keep yall posted.

 

[MototechRyan]

And the removed diode whoes continue. Just added a 5v buzzer and it wont shut off. Have one of my aux channels setup in baseflight to switch the buzzer on and off. But it just buzzs as soon as i plug in the usb or battery with no change when the aux channel is switched. From what ive read in the above link to the thread on rcgroups, this issue is being caused by the removed diode on the rev 6's.

WTF Timecop?!?! How are you going to sell a board that has features that no longer work due to removing the diode.

Is there anyway around this, has anyone got a buzzer on a rev 6 that turns on and off when tied to an aux switch in the modes tab?

 

[rexion]

i have went through the following steps you have listed above about disconnecting the red wires on all the esc going to the flight controller. and am still having problems with calibrating them. i will put the master on clean flight to the max and then plug in my battery, it will make a beep sires then i will bring down the master and nothing else will happen. what am i doing wrong?

 

[MototechRyan]

The only thing i can think of is the throttle settings in cleanflight under the set up tab. Hope someone with more experience knows. I have my min throttle set to 1000 and max set to 1900.

 

[Maue]

Got my versacopter and maze32 rev 6 and clean flight doesn't seem to recognize the giro and acelaromiter. I can adjust everything els but when I go to save it if more or less frezes on rebooting.

I dug on the Internet and it appeared to be a clean flight issue.
People are saying that version 0.66.0 has addressed that and your rev 6 will program normally.
I cannot find this version.l and am forced to fly this with the base program in full acro. Even with 80% expo on every Chanel but throt it is almost impossible to get airborn without it tilting out of control with the slightest input.

I'm surprised that flite test is selling a product with so many issues around it befor they get fixed.

 

[MototechRyan]

Let me add, i calibrated my esc's using baseflight . Having the same issue as others with cleanflight getting stuck when clicking save and not being able to set it to use my satellite rx...i gave up on cleanflight until the bugs are hopefully worked out with the release of 1.11.

My Versacopter is flying good with baseflight though. I have my yaw rates turned up to 1.0 and roll and pitch up to 0.75. I know with the pids settings available from the Cleanflight community and running cleanflight she'll fly much better but baseflight is working pretty good for me so far.

 

[Levi D]

Let me add, i calibrated my esc's using baseflight . Having the same issue as others with cleanflight getting stuck when clicking save and not being able to set it to use my satellite rx...i gave up on cleanflight until the bugs are hopefully worked out with the release of 1.11.

My Versacopter is flying good with baseflight though. I have my yaw rates turned up to 1.0 and roll and pitch up to 0.75. I know with the pids settings available from the Cleanflight community and running cleanflight she'll fly much better but baseflight is working pretty good for me so far.

Pretty sure there is still not a stable version of Cleanflight that will work with Naze32 Rev6. Im using base flight. I have just helped my friend get his versa set up, with power pack E, and the new Naze32 Acro rev6 and we had the same problem with calibration. The one esc that we had powering the Naze was getting back fed from the board when the usb was plugged in, making it impossible to calibrate because you could not effectively turn off the motor to get the esc's into calibrate mode. You could get whichever esc's that didn't have power and ground to calibrate, but whichever esc you were using for the bec to power naze would stay on and spin slowly. We finally did what you did and unplug the power cable, calibrate and then reconnect after unplugging usb.

This is kind of a pain in the butt, and not very useful IMHO. I would much rather purchase a rev5. Lets see if any of the retailers have advice. If there is a bad batch, I would hope they would recall these and issue rev5 or fixed rev6. The only positive note is that it is easier to set up your receiver.

I wonder, is this a problem with the ESC? I can't figure out why the esc would power up if it is getting power to where it should normally be outputting power. Have you tried another esc?

 

[MototechRyan]

On the rev 5 naze32's there is a diode that only allows current to flow into the FC from the esc's red wire/5v bec. When the rev5 FC is plugged into the usb only, this diode prevents the current supplied by the usb from flowing back into the esc and powering it up and everything else connected to your pdb with the voltage supplied by the usb.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your esc's. And am unsure if diodes will be added to later batches of rev6s. I just saw a post in the link above to rcgroups where someone mentioned that the diode may be added to later batches.

Timecop said he removed this diode on the rev6s to allow the receiver to be powered up when on usb power only. IMO, he took the easy route and could have designed a better circuit to "please both camps".

 

[MototechRyan]

I haven't tried any other esc's...yet I actually just ordered a set of Luminier mini 20A esc's from getFPV.com earlier today. They were on sale for 19.99...and i recently saw a video on youtube of a quopter fitted with kiss esc's.

In the vid, the author made quick throttle changes to different throttle openings and it sounded soo beautiful. You could hear the different notes created by the blades. Like a musician running a scale. And i want that. Granted the esc's i ordered aren't kiss', but they're a step in the right direction and more affordable for me. I'll go find the video and edit it in to this post.

Here's the vid, its at about 45 seconds in

https://youtu.be/ut0agYErgtk

 

[kevinsray]

Nice.

So, this issue wouldn`t be an issue if you are using Opto ESC, right?

Purchased the Versacopter kit with the power pack E from the Flitetest store. And with the naze32 fc i could not get the various methods for calibrating the esc's to work. After some research, i found out my naze32 rev 6 was feeding 5v back to the esc's and my pdb when plugged into the usb of my pc. Confirmed this with a multimeter, reading 4.5v at the xt60 connector of the pdb.

Found a post on rcgroups about the naze32 rev 6 not having a diode to prevent this like the rev 5 does. And instructions to disconnect the middle red wire from the 4 esc connectors at the flight controller. Worked great. I made sure to put some insulation on the pulled power wires just to be safe.

Now at this point the sync process goes like normal for you can power up the fc without the esc's powering up before you get your fc connected and your tx turned on and throttle set to full or motors set to full with the gui. I recommend remounting the fc back in your copter or at least level in case your fc is set to not arm if tilted past a certain degree. Then after getting the esc's calibrated, power everything off and reconnect the red wires. Dont want anyone to think you permanently disconnect the wires. Thats where your fc normally gets power from when not plugged into a usb or pololu circuit.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2509020&page=2

Kind of a pain having to depin these wires to calibrate the esc's, but well worth the trouble to have the motors synced up. Hope this info helps others who have run into this problem with a naze32 rev 6.

 

[Craftydan]

So, this issue wouldn`t be an issue if you are using Opto ESC, right?

That is correct.

It's also only an issue with the oldest of the Rev6 boards. The later sub-revisions put the power diode back in.