Gremlin Noob having trouble arming the motors. Day 4 :(

[Frolic]

Foamy,
Hang in there. Do you have a multimeter? I used mine to check all connections as I put each esc in. They are so small! So all my blacks would show conductivity, and not across to the positive side. It worked, after I got all the software bugs figured out thanks to the help here.

So here is my first attempt at my summer goal

 

[ElectriSean]

Your yard look like it would be a blast to fly Based on the grin on your face you'll be ripping around like a pro in no time.

 

[PsyBorg]

Yeah you will be ripping that yard in no time mate. I do agree that looks like a great yard to do it in for sure.

Here's something that may or may not help you be more smooth. I was a thumb flyer for my entire RC hobby until I watched this and decided to give it a try and man what a difference for me when I got used to the pinch method.

 

[Frolic]

Thanks Guys. I still have some difficulties to overcome. One you guys may be able to fix. I am 51 and have had "short arm" syndrome for a while. My readers need to be 2x. My long range eyes are pretty good but the up close stuff is a bit blurry. So my goggles are chinesium and are poor quality. As you saw in the video I would start to lose signal as soon as I got around the corner of my house. I am using a 25mw vtx little camera. It seems like it would normally be decent on the other side of my house.

My thought is the biggest culprit are my goggles. The vrx is probably junk. But how can I tell? Also, a bigger question is that I want to get better goggles, but am concerned about my need for reader glasses. I think I want these.


http://www.hobbywow.com/en-aomway-c...mXEgBcO9CrGNcY1uEkDV1S_4dgGOVSqvxoC7bDw_ wcB

But my question is do the inserts work for people needing readers? Any experience would be appreciated.

Kinda cool that Saturday I was in a park and was able to get the Gremlin up 100-150 feet or so and up to 50 yards away and still a reasonable signal. Very windy with 15-20 gusts. But still having a good time. Flying around myself but keeping an ear out for it because if it fell in high grass I would net be able to see it. The view was neat, and I could see myself as a "figure" in the grass. Couldn't hear much because of the wind noise. Then I notice a figure on a bike approaching me! I bring it down as fast as I can. It lands probably 25 yards away. I didn't trust my flying or my equipment to bring it any closer when a stranger is approaching. Anyway, I land, take off my goggles and he is 20 feet away. I say hi! He is really nice but asks... "Are you flying something?" I reply "Yes". He then says "WHERE??" So fun to show him the Gremlin and have him be in awe. He was looking for something in the sky and couldn't find it.... haha.

As a side note, I built a nnSpitfire 1000mm beta build this winter. I have over an hour of flight with it. The same day as the Gremlin attempt to circumvent my house I put a Go Pro wanna be on my Spit. Sorry for the audio but you may enjoy the two crashes that I recorded. They are caused by having too much down elevator mixed with the flaps. I usually have that under control but some how I didn't have enough throttle on the first one and you can see the result. The plane needs a bit of work but as you will see I was able to fly again right away. Well till I tried landing in the corner of tall grass and flared into a tip stall. Trying to show off to a guy at the park!!!! I deserved it.

 

[Frolic]

Psyborg,

Well I found out a few things. One is that my goggles were not on the right channel. I didn't know that they could Cross a few during auto scan. So I got a bit better vision this past weekend..... Until smacked a tree in my attempt to go around my house.

The second thing I learned? Gremlins are NOT indestructible! I have one motor that doesn't spin anymore.

Do you have a suggestion on how to isolate that problem? I haven't done anything yet. My thoughts are to check for connection breaks. But what would be the best and safest process?

Do I check continuity at the input side of the esc's I would think. But what about the motor side? I may find an obvious break but still want to learn.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks man. Still have not gotten to circumvent the house yet! But your help is keeping me going for it.

 

[PsyBorg]

First make sure it spins smooth and free by hand. If you bent the shaft or warped the bell there could be binding keeping it from spinning. Then visually inspect all the wires for breaks or somewhere it may have been pinched but nut solid cut. Then check your solder connections.
Finally smell the motor and the esc. If all that passes inspection THEN you can start putting a meter to things.

I would start with the motor side wires as that seems to be the most fragile part of the chain from what I have read so far. They seem to break or disconnect internally where they transfer from winding to esc connections. But don't just do continuity. Check resistance between phases as well and make sure they are close and then compare that to the other motors.

After that go to the power side of the esc and check the signal wire connections and continuity. If all that works out then power the quad and check input voltage to the esc and make sure it is getting power from the PDB.

Something in that process should point you in the right direction. If not come back here with what you learned and we can go from there.

 

[Frolic]

Ok Psyborg,

I'm goin' in! Keep you updated and thanks for the roadmap


look what I found!!



Psyborg!!!!!!!!

Got it! I had a signal wire break at an esc, but also while disassembling the neg of the battery broke of the fc. when cleaning up the solder it molded to the neg on the nearest esc. Took me almost an hour to get the solder off the two points. I couldn't find my solder wick and I don't have a vacuum pump remover so I had to cobble together some wire into a solder wick. But before going to bed I was able to power up and the Gremlin spun up, Yahoo!

I now need to get the fc a bit centered and flatter. I can't calibrate the accelerometer flat because my bind plug puts a bit of tilt in the fc compared to the frame. then when I am trying to hover it has slight drift to the right...

Would the trim on my tx do anything with that? As I tried putting trim in it didn't seem to do anything. the same rate of right drift occurred.