Help! Emax 12A ESC (Soild Red Light)

Trevor62m

New member
Hey!
Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I had a quick question.

My Emax BL Heli 12A esc has a solid red light, no power is going to the reserver.

What dose this mean? And how can I fix it?
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
I have never used that make to be honest so this is only a guess. I suspect its to do with the calibration of the ESC, sometimes they wont activate if the throttle position is incorrect when calibrated. I would be tempted to reset it to the factor setting, see if that resolves the problem. Have you got a manual for it ?
 

Trevor62m

New member
I dont, I looked into a factory reset but it seems like its not supplying power to the resever so I don't know any other way.
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
I dont hear any beeps coming from the esc or resever. It doesn't even look like there is power on.
Assume you mean receiver ? in which case which make and model are you using ? is the ESC connected the right way around wrt the signal, positive and negative and has the receiver been bound to the Transmitter, Sorry forthe basic questions just got to ask in case.
 

Trevor62m

New member
Ya, so everything is bound and stuff. I actually built it at flight fest west a numder of years back. It flew once, after that I just haven't touched it. I plugged it in before I recharged the batteries just to see if everything was still working and it was, I just needed to program the transmitter. After I was done with that I went to plug it in again with full batteries of course and it doesn't make any sounds or anything. Just has a solid red light on the ESC.
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
An important key point there, between you checking it initially and it was working "you needed to program the transmitter" after that it didn't work ?
Sounds like a clue there ?
 

Trevor62m

New member
It did not. I dont believe its anything with the transmitter though because the resever seems like its not even turning on. I tried other resevers but got the same result.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Im gonna go out on a limb and say its not reaching max throttle or min throttle within the default range. I will also guess you either have a flysky or spectrum radio.. These limit ranges at about 84% of normal 1000us to 2000 us. Ill bet if you extend your range (~147%) on Spectrum that you will fall into normal operating range and it will light up properly.

BL heli is the standard clue for this as they are usually multirotor esc's and use tht full 1000 - 2000 range.
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
Do you have a spare 4.8v battery to power the receiver seperately from the ESC ?
If so power up the receiver (No ESC connected) and have 1 to 3 servos connected - AER (aileronelevator and rudder). See if they work, that eliminates the receiver and confirms its still bound to the transmitter, It will also confirm the problem is specific to the ESC.

Dont know what system your using but for example: Spektrum, the receiver uses the order TAER ch 1 is throttle. If you plug your ESC lead into ch3 by mistake the stick will be central not at zero. Some ESC's have a safety feature that wont allow it to start if it powers up with the throttle stick NOT IN THE OFF POSITION. So if the ch3 is being used, instead of ch1 it will not be at zero so the ESC wont activate.

One other point there is power to the ESC as you have a red LED active,are you sure you got the signal and negative the right way around when you reconnected?

I am sorry dont mean to try and teach my grandmother to suck eggs. I dont know what level of experience you have, so sort of starting with basics.
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
Im gonna go out on a limb and say its not reaching max throttle or min throttle within the default range. I will also guess you either have a flysky or spectrum radio.. These limit ranges at about 84% of normal 1000us to 2000 us. Ill bet if you extend your range (~147%) on Spectrum that you will fall into normal operating range and it will light up properly.

BL heli is the standard clue for this as they are usually multirotor esc's and use tht full 1000 - 2000 range.
Thanks for the clarification Psy, I mentioned something similar in my first reply "I suspect its to do with the calibration of the ESC " but not in as much detail, or put so eliquently ;)(y)
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
What do you mean by signal and negative. I think that may be the issue.
White or yellow is the signal wire, red is positive and black or brown is negative.
The red by its central position you can't get wrong but the other 2 can be reversed on the receiver. There is normally an s = signal +=positive and - =negative displayed in your receiver the ESC plug needs to be in that orientation !
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
1607473083832.png

This the usual orientation but check first on your reciever it mat be the reverse. Signal can be yellow in stead of white, negative brown or black
 

Trevor62m

New member
In terms of the signal and negative. I can't get that wrong because on the recent there is only 1 way to plug it in
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
Your throttle response opertaes between -100 (which equates to zero) 0 (which is half throttle) and +100 (max throttle).
Being a multi rotor ESC the throttle range may not have a minimum of -100 it may be <-147.