Solved Help! Multirotor not arming

[hollopeter]

Hey FliteTest peeps, I could use a little handholding here.

My quad has gone on strike and I'm not sure what to do. I've got a Rotor Riot Moxy with ELRS and a RadioMaster TX12 transmitter. A few days ago I flew it around like usual, no issues and hung it up. Today I went to get it out, plugged in the battery, went to arm it and... nothing. If I unplug it the radio does the usual "Telemetry Lost" and "Telemetry Recovered" when I plug it back in with its delightful British accent. The receiver shows a solid green light when it's hooked up. The main board shows a solid red LED and a ~1 Hz blue flashing LED. It doesn't want to hook up to BetaFlight either, but that may be more my fault than anything. I re-bound it via the plug in the battery 3 times method with the same results. Again... not entirely sure it was successful - fairly new at non Spektrum stuff - but the messages are still the same at least.

Possibly unrelated but interesting data at least - recently I went to fly it and held on/walked with it a bit longer than usual and it went full throttle on me and left my hands (taking a chunk out of a couple fingers on its way - healing well now) before spinning in the sky for 30 seconds or so and crashing. After cleaning/replacing props it flew fine afterwards and now I have the arming problem.

Any suggestions for troubleshooting or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Hey FliteTest peeps, I could use a little handholding here.

My quad has gone on strike and I'm not sure what to do. I've got a Rotor Riot Moxy with ELRS and a RadioMaster TX12 transmitter. A few days ago I flew it around like usual, no issues and hung it up. Today I went to get it out, plugged in the battery, went to arm it and... nothing. If I unplug it the radio does the usual "Telemetry Lost" and "Telemetry Recovered" when I plug it back in with its delightful British accent. The receiver shows a solid green light when it's hooked up. The main board shows a solid red LED and a ~1 Hz blue flashing LED. It doesn't want to hook up to BetaFlight either, but that may be more my fault than anything. I re-bound it via the plug in the battery 3 times method with the same results. Again... not entirely sure it was successful - fairly new at non Spektrum stuff - but the messages are still the same at least.

Possibly unrelated but interesting data at least - recently I went to fly it and held on/walked with it a bit longer than usual and it went full throttle on me and left my hands (taking a chunk out of a couple fingers on its way - healing well now) before spinning in the sky for 30 seconds or so and crashing. After cleaning/replacing props it flew fine afterwards and now I have the arming problem.

Any suggestions for troubleshooting or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Are there any OSD messages explaining why it can't arm? (If you had the message where it flashed "Low Battery" that's where it would say something if you are missing something.) Another idea that maybe there is a firmware glitch...Try holding down the "Boot" button while plugging it in and see if it hooks up them....You may need to reflash the firmware but if possible "dump" everything sdo you don't have to setup the whole quad after reflashing...It almost sounds like a Rx issue..Maybe try taking a look for loose wires on the FC.

 

[hollopeter]

No message or anything on the radio - it's acting normal and all the swtiches/gimbals show the correct changes when I look at the screen and move them. Wiring is all looking good. I'll see if I can find the boot button and let you know if that helps later today. Thanks for responding!

 

[LitterBug]

Make sure your trims are centered, and your throttle is low.

 

[Bricks]

Check your transmitter throttle range to make sure it is set lower then the arming threshold.

 

[LitterBug]

Check your transmitter throttle range to make sure it is set lower then the arming threshold.

This is particularly true on Spektrum setups. Did you set your travels to 125% for throttle, roll, pitch, and yaw also?

 

[Merv]

...A few days ago I flew it around like usual, no issues and hung it up...
...It went full throttle on me and left my hands (taking a chunk out of a couple fingers on its way...

I'm a bit confused, you say it flew like usual. But then you say it went full throttle & and bit you. Please explain.

Any software updates in this time period?
I've needed to recalibrate the sticks on my RMTx 16 after an update.

 

[hollopeter]

Ok! First... holding the button while plugging in seems to have done the trick. Props armed, took it for a quick flight and it's acting normally. So thank you for that suggestion!

Now, for the blow by blow soap opera timeline of the finger chewing incident for those that would like some info:

Quick flight check at home the day before while charging flight batteries and radio - all was well. Packed everything (quad, batteries, transmitter, and headed out bright and early the next morning. We were going to a race track a couple hours from here and I was going to do some chasing/recording. Which I've done before at the same place without incident.

Once we were there, I walked down close to where I normally stand, turned on my goggles, radio, and used a bit of a ledge to rest the quad on while I plugged in the battery. Got the usual tones (be be be... beeeeee beeeeee), checked the video feed, and then picked up the quad in my right hand holding it by the battery (highest point on it) parallel-ish to the ground, radio in my left hand (fingers away from any switches) and started walking to where I was going to put it down and fly. I went about 40-50 feet and zzzzzzzing! Away it went. It left my right hand in what was probably a couple tenths of a second at the most and smacking my index/middle finger on my right hand on the way out. Chewed me up pretty good so either it bent a prop or stalled a motor and as it went up was spinning which fortunately eventually brought it back down to the ground, crashing on the grass and only bending a prop blade and giving me some dirt to blow out later.

While it was flying (well, in the air flailing around..) I had enough brain function to try and do something (anything!) with it but the arm switch (which was still off, though I cycled it a few times trying to bring the quad down), mode switch, and sticks gave no response.

When it hit the ground, it spit the battery out and it disconnected itself.

Went back to my vehicle and patched myself up with a first aid kit I always carry in my battery/radio bag and a few bandaid changes later in the day went back home. And sheepishly explained to my lovely bride that my toy bit me.

That's about it... my only semi-sensible theory is we also use 2.4 GHz walkie talkie radios from the car to the pits and someone may have keyed the radio when it happened, but I think it's a shaky theory - I've done this a multiple times before with the same setups and no issues.

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Ok! First... holding the button while plugging in seems to have done the trick. Props armed, took it for a quick flight and it's acting normally. So thank you for that suggestion!

Yeah, sometimes a FC can get locked up and just holding down the boot button can unlock it.

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Ok! First... holding the button while plugging in seems to have done the trick. Props armed, took it for a quick flight and it's acting normally. So thank you for that suggestion!

Now, for the blow by blow soap opera timeline of the finger chewing incident for those that would like some info:

Quick flight check at home the day before while charging flight batteries and radio - all was well. Packed everything (quad, batteries, transmitter, and headed out bright and early the next morning. We were going to a race track a couple hours from here and I was going to do some chasing/recording. Which I've done before at the same place without incident.

Once we were there, I walked down close to where I normally stand, turned on my goggles, radio, and used a bit of a ledge to rest the quad on while I plugged in the battery. Got the usual tones (be be be... beeeeee beeeeee), checked the video feed, and then picked up the quad in my right hand holding it by the battery (highest point on it) parallel-ish to the ground, radio in my left hand (fingers away from any switches) and started walking to where I was going to put it down and fly. I went about 40-50 feet and zzzzzzzing! Away it went. It left my right hand in what was probably a couple tenths of a second at the most and smacking my index/middle finger on my right hand on the way out. Chewed me up pretty good so either it bent a prop or stalled a motor and as it went up was spinning which fortunately eventually brought it back down to the ground, crashing on the grass and only bending a prop blade and giving me some dirt to blow out later.

While it was flying (well, in the air flailing around..) I had enough brain function to try and do something (anything!) with it but the arm switch (which was still off, though I cycled it a few times trying to bring the quad down), mode switch, and sticks gave no response.

When it hit the ground, it spit the battery out and it disconnected itself.

Went back to my vehicle and patched myself up with a first aid kit I always carry in my battery/radio bag and a few bandaid changes later in the day went back home. And sheepishly explained to my lovely bride that my toy bit me.

That's about it... my only semi-sensible theory is we also use 2.4 GHz walkie talkie radios from the car to the pits and someone may have keyed the radio when it happened, but I think it's a shaky theory - I've done this a multiple times before with the same setups and no issues.

Yeah, I know my brother had a disconnect issue with his drone a while back...So when he would gun it it would disconnect from his transmitter for a second..But I diagnosed it to the capacitor..But that doesn't sound like what you are having....

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Ok! First... holding the button while plugging in seems to have done the trick. Props armed, took it for a quick flight and it's acting normally. So thank you for that suggestion!

Now, for the blow by blow soap opera timeline of the finger chewing incident for those that would like some info:

Quick flight check at home the day before while charging flight batteries and radio - all was well. Packed everything (quad, batteries, transmitter, and headed out bright and early the next morning. We were going to a race track a couple hours from here and I was going to do some chasing/recording. Which I've done before at the same place without incident.

Once we were there, I walked down close to where I normally stand, turned on my goggles, radio, and used a bit of a ledge to rest the quad on while I plugged in the battery. Got the usual tones (be be be... beeeeee beeeeee), checked the video feed, and then picked up the quad in my right hand holding it by the battery (highest point on it) parallel-ish to the ground, radio in my left hand (fingers away from any switches) and started walking to where I was going to put it down and fly. I went about 40-50 feet and zzzzzzzing! Away it went. It left my right hand in what was probably a couple tenths of a second at the most and smacking my index/middle finger on my right hand on the way out. Chewed me up pretty good so either it bent a prop or stalled a motor and as it went up was spinning which fortunately eventually brought it back down to the ground, crashing on the grass and only bending a prop blade and giving me some dirt to blow out later.

While it was flying (well, in the air flailing around..) I had enough brain function to try and do something (anything!) with it but the arm switch (which was still off, though I cycled it a few times trying to bring the quad down), mode switch, and sticks gave no response.

When it hit the ground, it spit the battery out and it disconnected itself.

Went back to my vehicle and patched myself up with a first aid kit I always carry in my battery/radio bag and a few bandaid changes later in the day went back home. And sheepishly explained to my lovely bride that my toy bit me.

That's about it... my only semi-sensible theory is we also use 2.4 GHz walkie talkie radios from the car to the pits and someone may have keyed the radio when it happened, but I think it's a shaky theory - I've done this a multiple times before with the same setups and no issues.

It does kinda sound like a glitchy firmware..Have you tried plugging it into Betaflight and seeing if there is a newer firmware available?

 

[Houndpup Rc]

It does kinda sound like a glitchy firmware..Have you tried plugging it into Betaflight and seeing if there is a newer firmware available?

I have had funny issues with my drones before and then I re flashed the firmware and they went away (Don't know if you know it or not, but re flashing the firmware will wipe out ALL the settings and you will have to reprogram it)