FT Aura no throttle for a long time

[tschmid]

Hey everyone,

I have an FT Aura 5 on a Tiny Trainer, and for some reason, it always takes forever for the throttle to be enabled. I have a Taranis X9D+, and once I plug the battery in, the ESC makes the usual first sound (beep-beep-beep), but not the second (beep-beeeep). I can control all the servos, but no throttle. The strange part is, I leave the plane sit for a while (tens of minutes) while disconnecting the transmitter from it. After a while, I connect to it again, and boom, throttle works and I can fly.

Any suggestion on how the throttle should work or how to diagnose the issue?

Thanks!

Thomas

 

[dap35]

Is the throttle cable from the ESC plugged into your reciever or the Aura 5? Also, did you use the app to configure the Aura, or just the buttons?

 

[tschmid]

The cable is plugged in for sure. As I described, if I disconnect the transmitter from the receiver for a while, and reconnect, the throttle works perfectly fine. I used just the buttons to configure everything. There isn't any arming sequence you have to do, like on many drones that I used (both sticks bottom left/right, a switch you need to flip, or something), right? Because I didn't read anything about arming.

 

[dap35]

Aura Wiki

I use Futaba, so I could be wrong, but when I look at the Aura Wiki, it looks like the FrSky Taranis configuration also uses an SBUS connection from the RX to the Aura. And the links I followed had the setup something like this. If you use the Aura Config utility (windows based), run through the new config wizard. You can define the TX type, RX type (connection) etc.

 

[tschmid]

Will give this a try in the next few days. Thanks for your help!

 

[tschmid]

I finally had enough after today's dilemma. I waited for 15minutes for the ESC to finally get me the final tone to start to fly. It was super frustrating. So i cam home and hooked up my oscilloscope. I wanted to know if the problem is the FT Aura, or the ESC. Turns out, it probably is the combination of the two!

Check out this screenshot. Yellow is the output of Channel 1 of my receiver (FrSky RX4R). Everything looks great, nice and clean PWM signal. Blue is the FT Aura Channel 1 output. Notice how some of the pulses are misaligned? It is easier to see in this video of multiple scope triggers:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ltm9DXUwiMxhwpf76

The FT Aura is on 1.14, the latest version. I have used it with the Powerpack A (FT 20A ESC), F (FT 20A ESC), and B (FT 35A ESC). Both 20A ESCs have significant issues getting this signal and activating. The FT 35A is slightly better, but there is definitely still a delay.

What ESCs do you guys use with the FT Aura? It is seriously frustrating having to wait for 15 minutes for it so I can fly! Plugging the ESC into Channel 1 on the receiver makes them work immediately. I know, I can do that, but I want to move to the even smaller receivers that don't have PWMs anymore... after all, I have them on the flight controller...

 

[dap35]

I finally had enough after today's dilemma. I waited for 15minutes for the ESC to finally get me the final tone to start to fly. It was super frustrating. So i cam home and hooked up my oscilloscope. I wanted to know if the problem is the FT Aura, or the ESC. Turns out, it probably is the combination of the two!

Check out this screenshot. Yellow is the output of Channel 1 of my receiver (FrSky RX4R). Everything looks great, nice and clean PWM signal. Blue is the FT Aura Channel 1 output. Notice how some of the pulses are misaligned? It is easier to see in this video of multiple scope triggers:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ltm9DXUwiMxhwpf76

The FT Aura is on 1.14, the latest version. I have used it with the Powerpack A (FT 20A ESC), F (FT 20A ESC), and B (FT 35A ESC). Both 20A ESCs have significant issues getting this signal and activating. The FT 35A is slightly better, but there is definitely still a delay.

What ESCs do you guys use with the FT Aura? It is seriously frustrating having to wait for 15 minutes for it so I can fly! Plugging the ESC into Channel 1 on the receiver makes them work immediately. I know, I can do that, but I want to move to the even smaller receivers that don't have PWMs anymore... after all, I have them on the flight controller...

I have used both the 20A and 35A FT ESC's along with a 40A RC ElectricParts ESC. No 15 minute delay for me.

 

[tschmid]

Do you know by any chance which version of FW you run on the FT Aura?

 

[dap35]

1.14. I have used both the RX and the Aura to connect the ESC to. Both work fine.
Are you using a reciever with an SBUS connection to the Aura?

 

[tschmid]

I sure do. The FrSky RX4R is SBUS.

 

[dap35]

hmmm.. All of my stuff is Futaba so maybe FrSky behaves differently. . If you have the Throttle Type set to no throttle and it is still being odd, I would contact support at Flex Innovations. Include the config file from your Aura in the email.

 

[tschmid]

Well, I "fixed" it by keeping the ESC connected directly to the receiver. I can do that on two of my setups where I use the RX4R. On my Tiny Trainer, I use an R-XSR that doesn't have PWM. On that plane, I switched the ESC to an AGF AR13, and this one starts right up too.

I wonder if upgrading the firmware on the FT ESCs would help? Does anyone know what they run?

 

[LitterBug]

Well, I "fixed" it by keeping the ESC connected directly to the receiver. I can do that on two of my setups where I use the RX4R. On my Tiny Trainer, I use an R-XSR that doesn't have PWM. On that plane, I switched the ESC to an AGF AR13, and this one starts right up too.

I wonder if upgrading the firmware on the FT ESCs would help? Does anyone know what they run?

If it is one of the newer ESCs, they run BL-Heli. More details would be needed on which ESC it is. A picture would probably help, but I doubt ESC firmware is the issue. Have you recalibrated the endpoints? That may be all that is needed.

 

[tschmid]

Just tried that out. No luck. The ESC doesn't even go into calibration mode when I plug in the battery when the throttle is at full. It just beeps three times, then doesn't do anything.